Almost exactly 10 hours after Hank had entered his small hemisphere it disappeared leaving him in the fetal position on the floor of Merlisas entrance room. He rose up to his full height, gave a brief stretch and took Merlisa in. She was now wearing leather armor made from sharkskin, wore silver bracers on her wrist that had a strength enchantment on them, and a circlet with a large pearl at it’s center and a magical enchantment on it that improved her endurance. She also had a pack over her back and a sword in a scabbard on her waist. The sword was a nasty piece of work with two enchantments on it, one that let it ignore anything that wasn’t living, which would let the sword cut right through the water, and any armor her target was wearing and a second that would cause wounds inflicted with it to not clot as easily as normal. “You ready?” Merlisa asked skeptically.

“Yeah.”

“No gear? It will take over a day to get there.”

“I know, all I need is my magic.”

“No components?”

“Don’t need them.”

Merlisa had spoken to Yosta again the previous night after Hank had retired for the night. He voiced his concern about just how powerful this wizard was, he was either using spells that Yosta had never even heard of before or he had found some way to bypass the need for spell components, and chanting, which was a mainstay of magic with exceptions being few and far in-between. Every time she learned something more about this wizard something in the back of her head told her to run away that the risk wasn’t worth the reward. But she was growing to hate her trips to Hearport Harbor and every other surface city she visited on her trading trips so she ignored it. “If I die on this trip my ghost is going to haunt your family for a thousand generations.”

“That won’t be a problem I did guarantee your safety.”

“I’m still skeptical about one wizard fighting an entire colony of Sahuagin.”

“Only one colony, this should be easy then,” Hank said jovially. “Let’s get going.”

It was noontime before they made their way to the Sahuagin territory, and they managed to travel through it for two hours before Sahuagin approached them.

“What’s the plan?” Merlisa asked.

“There’s only twelve of them,” Hank said. “With my magic and your magic circlet it should be easy to out swim them, either that or we stand and fight them.”

“Sahuagin never give up a chase,” Merlisa said. “There is a kelp forest a head if we divert our course we can hide for a few days and lose them.”

“I don’t have time for that,” Hank said ceasing to swim and planting his feet on the sandy ocean bottom. “Hang tight I’ll handle this.”

Merlisa was dumbfounded, twelve on two was bad odds, she didn’t care how powerful a wizard he was. The Sahuagin wasted no time catching up to their now stationary prey and fanned out into a semi-circle surrounding them. The Sahuagin were humanoid creatures covered in scales with webbed feet and hands, they wore leather armor and were armed with an assortment of spears, swords and nets, not to mention their razor sharp teeth and claws on both their hands and feet, their leader was armed with a trident. “You trespass in Sahuagin waters,” their leader spoke. “Come quietly, you are to be sacrifices for our goddess.”

Hank paused for a moment, considering his options, after about a minute he spoke. “Well as I’m not a follower of your goddess it would be inappropriate to sacrifice me to her I think. No? Well we have no quarrel with you Sahuagin, let us through safely and we’ll be gone before you know it.”

At a signal from their leader two of the Sahuagin nearest to Hank dove forward spears in front of them. Using his magic enhanced agility and strength Hank deftly dodged the spears and grabbed the Sahuagins faces and brought his hands together sending their dark red blood and poorly utilized brains into the ocean. “Kill him!” Their leader screamed in rage. “Capture the woman alive!” The Sahuagin all moved forward towards Hank and Merlisa.

Merlisa had already drawn her sword and was ready to deal with the two Sahuagin that approached her. The one that would reach her first was armed with a spear, she dodged to the side at the last second and brought her sword down. The Sahuagin moved to parry the blow but the enchantment on her sword allowed it’s blade to go clean through the spear and cut his hand off. The Sahuagin roared in pain and anger and swiped at her with the claws on his remaining hand, she was ready for this and reached up, grabbed his wrist and with her strength enhancing bracers she pulled the Sahuagin to her side and whipped her sword back up across his chest cutting him clean in half. She barely had time to fling the top-half of her former opponent into the net that the second Sahuagin that came after her had thrown. The second Sahuagin was annoyed at losing his surprise, though he was still armed with a sword, the first Sahuagin had underestimated her and died for it, this one would not make that same mistake. Although Merlisa knew how to use a sword well enough, she was a merchant not a warrior, unlike this Sahuagin, a long battle would favor him heavily. Merlisa knew her weapon well, it’s enchantment would allow her to swing it more easily underwater, but it also made it so that she couldn’t parry a blow with it. Merlisa rose her sword up and swung directly for her enemies neck hoping that either he didn’t notice that it had passed right through his friends spear earlier or that instinct would kick in and he’d try to parry. Her gamble paid off her sword cleanly decapitated her foe, Sahuagin may not be smart but they still needed their heads to survive. Merlisa turned to the rest of the battle and was shocked by what she saw. Hank had one hand on the center blade of the leaders trident, and his other hand planted in the Sahuagin leaders chest then pulling his heart right out of it and then crushing the still-beating heart right in his hand. Two of the other Sahuagin had been reduced to blackened husks, two more were locked into a giant ice block their last moments of terror frozen on their faces, and two more were floating harmlessly with blood flowing out of several dozen holes in them.

“You OK?” Hank asked looking at her. “You get the three that went after you?”

“I’m fine,” Merlisa said surveying the carnage. “Only two came after me though.”

Hank looked over the battlefield and counted the bodies. “We’re missing one, there were twelve but only eleven corpses.” The sound of a Sahuagin blowing into a conch shell drew their attention, all the blood and gore floating in the water had hidden him from view. The sound was enough for Hank to zero in on his location and he threw the trident at it and the sound of the conch cut off suddenly. Hank swam over to the last Sahuagin to confirm that it was in fact dead.

When he didn’t leave the body immediately Merlisa grew anxious. “Is something wrong? Let’s get out of here before their reinforcements arrive.”

Hank turned to each of the other Sahuagin bodies, slowly one at a time, then turned to Merlisa. “Have you heard of any demons in these waters?”

“Not in several generations.” Merlisa said. “Why?”

“Five of these Sahuagin are infused with demon blood.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means they’re meaner, nastier and stronger than normal Sahuagin.” Hank explained. “That also means they’re serving a demon, demon blood isn’t given freely.”

“Well let’s head back to Ralthas.” Merlisa said. “We’ll be safe there and we can try again in a few days and take a longer route around to avoid them.”

“Not an option,” Hank said. “I’m in a hurry. I can cast a haste spell on you and…”

“No no no,” Merlisa interrupted. “Those spells prematurely age you. I’m not shaving a few months off of my life so that you can save a few days.”

“That is not how that magic works, those are false rumors spread by people who don’t understand how magic works.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Fine,” Hank said swimming over next to Merlisa and grabbing her around the waist. “Hold on tight.” He said as cast a spell on himself and took off like a arrow towards their destination.

Hank and Merlisa had made good time, well Hank did despite having to drag Merlisa with him. It was starting to get dark so Hank had stopped and let go of Merlisa. “Where is the shipwreck from here?”

Merlisa looked around, “well this is a different route from what I usually took, and it’s dark out.” Merlisa said unsure. “But I’m fairly certain it’s that way.”

“Fairly certain?”

“Well as certain as I can be given the alternate route and poor lighting currently. Let’s spend the night under that rock there and when the light is better I will have a better idea of where we are.” Merlisa said swimming towards a large rock on the ocean floor. When she arrived she started explaining what they would have to do. “First we’ll have to dig a tunnel under the rock.” She was cut off by everything going black. “What’s going on?!”

“Relax,” Hank said. “I’m just making a shelter for us.”

After a few seconds Merlisa found herself surrounded by blue stone walls. The room was perfectly square about ten feet on each side, with only a tiny square hole about two feet across on the ceiling. The room was bare except for a net strung across the walls at a corner and wrapped around itself, presumably for Merlisa to sleep in without floating around. “Where are we? What happened?”

“Do you remember that black dome I disappeared into last night?”

“Yes.”

“Welcome to the inside of it,” Hank said spreading his arms in a flourish. “I can customize the interior as I see fit. Usually I keep it dry but for you I kept the bottom half flooded. I’m going to summon my own food, do you need me to summon some for you too or did you bring your own?”

“I brought my own food,” Merlisa said. “What happens if the Sahuagin find us?”

“The dome is up against the boulder, they’ll think it’s just a funky looking rock. Even if they figure out we’re in here they’ll never get through the barrier, and I’ll know as soon as they start attacking it anyway.” Hank swam over to the hole in the ceiling and pulled himself up.

Hank had finally gotten out of his wet clothes, set them on a rack to dry, eaten, crawled into bed and pulled the covers up. That mermaid was starting to get on his nerves, she was too distrustful of his magic for him to make this job as easy as he wanted. He should have spent a day underwater at most, now he was about to start day three. He was brought out of his reverie by a splash and a low grunt. He looked up to see Merlisa standing there, on human legs instead of her fish tail and wearing only a ring. Hank didn’t need to use magic to figure out her ring was what was giving her legs. Merlisa looked over at Hanks clothes. “Well it seems I’ve matched the dress code at least,” she said putting her hand on her hip with a giggle.

“Was there something wrong with your bed?” Hank asked after spending a moment to take in her naked form.

Merlisa let out another giggle. “Well us merfolk sleep vertically underwater, it’s much more comfortable.” Merlisa took a couple of steps toward the bed, then fell forward onto it.

“I can fix that you know,” Hank offered. He knew where this was going, she didn’t bring a magic ring to give herself legs if she wasn’t planning this from the start.

Merlisa got to her knees and playfully crawled up until she was in Hanks face. “Well there is something you can fix for me.” She said with a sly smile on her face. “I had heard tales of the sexual prowess of humans and the…” Merlisa hesitated searching for a word. “Sample, I received in a surface city did not meet expectations.”

“Well being asked to represent the entirety of my species in a sexual encounter is a big burden to place on one mans shoulders. Or penis as the case may be.” Hank said drawing another giggle from Merlisa. “But I will endeavor to provide sufficient samples for you to judge.”

“Ooo,” Merlisa cooed. “Multiple samples?”

“Of course, an informed decision of quality cannot be made with just one.”

Several hours later Hank opened his eyes and glanced over at Merlisa, still snoozing away, sleeping on her stomach face turned towards him. Hank wished he had time to lounge around and enjoy the sight, but it was light out and he was in a hurry. He brought his hand down and slapped her bare ass waking her up with a screech.

“What was that for?” She asked rolling over and rubbing the sore spot.

“To wake you up,” Hank said. “It’s light out and time to go, we have a shipwreck to find. We’ll have some breakfast and get on our way.”

“What’s for breakfast?” Merlisa asked. “It is proper form to feed somebody after they visit your bed.”

“Some would say that a performance that keeps you in bed until breakfast was payment enough for somebody visiting your bed?” Hank asked playfully, summoning up a massive tray with loads of food on it. “We call this breakfast in bed on the surface.” Merlisa looked over the food in amazement, most of the food she had never seen before. “Bacon. Scrambled eggs. Sausage. Orange Juice. Toast. Chocholate chip muffins.” Hank identified the foods one at a time as Merlisa asked what it was. “Don’t worry about wasting any,” Hank explained. “I summoned it up from nothing and it will return to such when I dismiss the shelter. Also sorry for the taste being a little off, conjured food just doesn’t compare to the original stuff.”

“This is supposed to taste better!” Merlisa asked between bites of bacon and scrambled egg.

After they finished their breakfast Hank got out of bed and made his way over to his clothes. “Let’s get dressed and head out.” After Hank had gotten mostly dressed he realized that Merlisa still hadn’t gotten out of bed. “Can’t lounge around all day Merlisa,” he said.

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“Oh I know,” she sighed. “As fun as that would be for both of us. I was just wondering if you could walk me over to the water?”

“Well I suppose your legs wouldn’t work too well after last night,” Hank said with a grin.

“If you remember,” Merlisa said. “I didn’t even make it from the water to the bed last night without falling, and with moving away from the bed I won’t have anything big and soft to break my fall.”

“You’re right moving away from the bed you’ll have two things big and soft to break your fall,” Hank joked.

Merlisa let out a brief giggle then went completely deadpan. “Seriously, help me over to the water.”

Hank and Merlisa were now back in the water, Hank was staring at the wall while Merlisa was getting ready. “You don’t have to look away you know?” Merlisa said adjusting the straps on her armor. “Or is this a cultural thing? I heard the surface world had some strange customs, can you not watch a woman get dressed?”

“Oh nothing like that,” Hank said. “I’m formulating a strategy.”

“I’m ninety nine percent certain I can find the shipwreck with proper lighting.” Merlisa said freeing her pack from the mostly unused bed Hank had prepared for her. “It may take us all day but we’ll find it.”

“Oh no not that,” Hank said. “I was trying to figure out a strategy for the Sahuagin that found us in the night.”

“What?” Merlisa asked panicking. “How many?”

“Quite a few,” Hank said.

“How many is quite a few? What are we going to do?”

“Well the first thing I’m going to do is to cast a protection spell on you,” Hank said turning around and putting his hands on her shoulders. A pale blue light enveloped Merlisa, she didn’t feel any different though. “The second thing I’m going to do is dismiss the shelter.”

“What? You idiot!” Merlisa quickly drew her sword from it’s scabbard and prepared to fight. All thoughts of hope vanished from her mind as the walls of the shelter disappeared. There were not dozens, nor even hundreds of Sahuagin surrounding them, there were were easily a thousand possibly even two thousand. She could barely see anything except Sahuagin. “You’ve gotten us both killed.”

“I haven’t gotten anybody killed yet,” Hank said turning to what was clearly the leader of the Sahuagin. The leader was twice the size of any of the other Sahuagin, wearing armor made of forged metal plates and magically enchanted. He wielded two vicious looking scimitars and was flanked by no less than two dozen honor guards. “Any chance you’ll just let us be on our way?”

The leader of the Sahuagin started laughing, and the rest of the Sahuagin soon followed suit. “Your carcases will serve as an example to those that defile our waters. Our glorious…” The Sahuagin leader had started saying something else but was interrupted by Hank firing a lightning bolt at him. The lightning channeled out of Hanks hands, one aimed at the leader another aimed at the Sahuagin directly above Hank. The lightning started slowly spreading to nearby Sahuagin but quickly picked up its pace as more and more Sahuagin were enveloped with lightning. Screams of agony echoed through the waters and Sahuagin started dying from Hanks attack, hearts stopping, heads exploding. By the time that Hank had canceled his spell the surrounding ocean was so filled with blood and gore you couldn’t see more than a foot or so.

Hank confidant that all the Sahuagin were dead turned to Merlisa. She was huddled in a ball, hands covering her ears, and eyes closed tight. “Are you OK?” Hank asked knowing full well she couldn’t hear him. After a moment of her not responding Hank reached down for her and as soon as he touched her, her breakfast joined the blood and gore floating around them.

He had taken Merlisa and had gotten away from the aftermath of the massacre he had inflicted upon the Sahuagin, she was now sitting on a rock recovering and he was just floating in place nearby.

“What are you?” Merlisa asked not looking at him.

“A very powerful wizard, I told you this when we met.”

“You are way beyond a mere wizard.”

“Correct, I’m a very powerful wizard.”

“What are you looking for on that shipwreck?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes it does matter. I’m not leading you to some dark artifact that will let you do all kinds of horrible stuff.”

“What part of anything you’ve seen me do leads you to believe I need a dark artifact to do horrible stuff? Also if it was an artifact of any kind it would be giving off enough magical energy so that I wouldn’t need you to lead me to it.”

“You just,” Merlisa said trying to find a word. “Exploded a thousand plus Sahuagin. How is that not horrible?”

“They were going to kill us.”

“You could have just killed their leader to scare them away.”

“Ninety nine times out of a hundred, with groups that big when you kill the leader all you get is a bunch of goons that think if they kill the guy that killed the old leader they get to be the new leader.”

“Tell me what you’re looking for on that shipwreck or I’ll try my luck getting home from here on my own,” Merlisa said staring right at him, trying to hide her fear.

“A music box.”

“A music box? All this trouble for a music box? I don’t believe you.”

“It’s what my teacher sent me to retrieve, it fell behind the desk in the captains quarters where it still lays.”

“So let me see if I understand this. Your teacher, presumably somebody more powerful than you, sent you to retrieve an item, that he apparently knows exactly where it is, without telling you where the shipwreck was?”

“That’s about the sum of it yes.”

“So why couldn’t your teacher just summon the music box to his hands if he knows right where it is? Or, here’s a crazy idea, buy a new one?”

“Going theory on that is that she secretly hates me. Now, are you going to help me find the shipwreck or swim back through Sahuagin waters alone?”

“You said you’d guarantee my safety, what happened to that?”

“Me guaranteeing your safety was part of the deal, but if you go back on your end I am under no obligation to uphold mine.”

Merlisa paused briefly to consider her options. “The shipwreck is in a trench. If we follow that one in the distance that way we should find it eventually.”

“Excellent,” he said offering a hand to Merlisa. “Are you good to keep going?”

Merlisa got up without even looking at his hand and took off towards the trench without a word.

It took them about 6 hours of following the trench, but finally they were looking down at their destination, the wreckage they were searching for. The Onphanion was a massive ship, with three masts and made out of the finest gurlanian oak to be found on the continent. It now laid in ruins at the bottom of the trench bathed in shadows. Hank conjured a bright ball of light that slowly fell towards the shipwreck illuminating it better. The ship was mostly intact, a giant hole on the side the only major damage to the boat.

“Something has been here,” Merlisa warned. “That hole wasn’t there when I was here last.” Something moved in the shadows of the trench and an object came out and destroyed the ball of light that Hank had cast into the trench. “What was that?” Merlisa asked. A massive figure moved up the side of the trench and rose above their heads. It was a deep dark blue in color, with massive glowing eyes and eight tentacled arms waving in the water.

“It’s a kraken!” Merlisa screamed. “We must flee for our lives.”

Hank stared directly into the eyes of the beast. “Worse than that,” he said. “It’s a demon-kraken.”

“Like that makes a difference,” Merlisa said. “We must flee.”

Hanks response was interrupted by the kraken sweeping one of it’s tentacles across the sea floor. Hank managed to avoid both the first tentacle and a second one that was ready for him to dodge, Merlisa who was only able to dodge the first one was ensnared by the second tentacle that grabbed her as she dodged the first one. Hank blasted the kraken in the its face with a massive fireball. The kraken was dazed, but did not relinquish its grip on Merlisa. Hank raised up his right hand and a small ball of light formed in it, he pointed it at the krakens face and it broke up into many smaller points of light and flew rapidly at the beast. The kraken seemed only irritated by it and started flailing its tentacles around wildly. Hank sent out a blast of cold that instantly froze all the water in an area, catching the mid parts of the tentacle that was holding Merlisa and two others in a thick chunk of ice. The kraken let go of Merlisa and started smashing the block of ice against the ocean floor trying to crush Hank. Hank deftly avoided the smashing slowly dodging closer to the krakens face. When he was close enough he raised both his hands up and materialized a massive fireball close to twice the size of the beasts body and blasted the kraken with it.

The heat from the fireball was enough to melt the ice block trapping the krakens tentacles, and it was momentarily stunned by the blast and floated up over the trench, Hank observed it as it slowly started getting its senses back. Hank cast another spell on the kraken, this one cause it to plummet down to the floor of the trench and flatten out against the sand. Struggle as it did the kraken could not move.

“What did you do?” Merlisa asked swimming up to Hank.

“Increased the effect of gravity on it a bunch. It will be staying put for awhile.”

“Good we can take this opportunity to get out of here,” Merlisa said. “They say that krakens can swim very fast so we should get as much of a head start as we can.”

“Naw I’m gonna kill it.” Hank said extending his hand and casting another spell. The water around the kraken disappeared in a sphere and the sphere grew ever larger until it got to be about twenty feet across, then it stopped.

“What is that?” Merlisa asked now having to swim upwards to avoid being pulled into the trench by a new current.

“And what’s with this current.”

“It’s an anti moisture spell,” Hank explained. “It’s destroying all the water in the area, including the water inside the krakens body and drying it out. Don’t suppose you know how long it takes to kill a kraken this way do you?”

“I’ve never even heard of a kraken dying,” Merlisa said. “Just fleeing, packing up an entire city and leaving if necessary. Why how long can you keep the spell up?”

“Oh I’m not worried about not being able to maintain the spell long enough. I’m worried about adversely affecting sea-levels worldwide before this thing dies.”

Merlisa had no words she just stared at Hank mouth agape.

“Ah got it,” Hank said. He used his magic to create an invisible wall of force in the trench from top to bottom and wall to wall. He repeated the process again further up the trench, and when that wall was done he connected them both with another wall of force that covered the entire top of the trench creating an air pocket that the kraken and the wreckage of the Onphanion were inside. “There we go, now we just need to wait for the kraken to die and then we go loot the wreckage.”

It took a few hours, but once Hank was satisfied that the kraken was dead and with Merlisa and himself a safe distance away he dismissed the walls of force. As he did so millions of gallons of water poured back into the trench washing the now dead body of the kraken away and destroying what remained of the Onphanion. Spreading wooden planks and dried out kraken eggs across the floor of the trench.

“Oh it was a female,” Merlisa said. “Do you think your magic destroyed all of her eggs too?” Merlisa looked over to Hank who had his hands covering his face and looked like he wanted to scream.

Hank had littered the trench walls with balls of light, the whole trench was now illuminated as bright as an open plain at noontime. He had made a dome of magic force around the now scattered wreckage of the Onphanion to keep the wreckage from spreading further, only when Hank or Merlisa put the pieces of wreckage out of the dome themselves would they leave it, never to return.

“One part of me wants this whole fiasco to actually be about a music box.” Merlisa said throwing the busted remains of a chair. “Another part of me doesn’t want to believe that anyone would go through this much trouble for a music box.”

“I have spent the last three days of my life underwater.” Hank said tossing a ruined baby crib. “Which even with magic to allow me to move around better and breathe down here, I’m still fighting the little voice inside my head that keeps telling me ‘hey dude you’re drowning you should try and do something about that.’ So with the exception of our little romp last night, this entire experience has sucked.”

“Well I’m glad to provide the highlight for your adventure,” Merlisa said with a smirk.

“That wasn’t the highlight it was just the only part that didn’t suck, well you did suck a little bit, but in a good way,” Hank said grinning and dodging a piece of wood half heartedly thrown towards him. “But the highlight is definitely killing that demon kraken, haven’t done that before. If I had a scrapbook that would definitely be going into it. That may be the new most powerful thing I’ve killed too.”

“I find your lackadaisical attitude towards things quite concerning,” Merlisa said. “That kraken could have killed us, as could those Sahuagin.”

“I’m only lackadaisical about things that don’t concern me,” Hank said. “I was never in any danger, the only danger was to you. While I would have preferred to keep my promise of getting you home unharmed, and it would have been tragic if I had failed in that, I was never in any danger.”

“Well I’m glad YOU were never in any danger!”

“Oh you say that like I don’t care about you, I care. I mean we had sex, and I’ve never been with a mermaid before so that was special for me.”

“Well I’m glad I could be another conquest for you!”

“Oh don’t be like that,” Hank said realizing he said the wrong thing. He gazed down at the seafloor trying to figure out what to say to salvage the situation when a glint caught his eye. Hank reached into the sand and pulled up the music box he had been looking for. It fit nicely in his two palms, made of mithril infused silver Dwarven carvings covered the bottom part and a crest pressed into the lid. “I found it!”

“Oh please tell me you’re serious, I can’t wait to get home.” Merlisa said swimming over to Hank. “All this hassle for that?”

“She sent me after a music box here, I found a music box here. If it’s not the correct one she can come and get the correct one herself.”

“There’s a guy in Hearport Harbor that makes music boxes,” Merlisa said. “He does good work he could have made you one as nice as this for much less than the one thousand gold coins you’re paying me. Less hassle too.”

“I’m no expert on Dwarven heraldry but I’m fairly certain that this,” Hank explained pointing at the crest on the lid.

“Is a family crest. Lady Schalamia probably intends to present this as a gift to somebody.”

“Can we head back to Ralthas now?” Merlisa asked. “I am really eager to get home.”

“Yeah sure,” Hank said extending his hand towards her. “Grab my hand I can teleport us.”

“What?” Merlisa asked.

“Teleport,” Hank said. “Go from point A to point B instantly without going through anything that’s in-between.”

“How do we not end up in a rock or something? I’ve heard stories.”

“Easy I don’t aim at the inside of a rock,” Hank said shaking his hand impatiently. “Come on grab my hand. Do you really want to spend another 2 days out here?”

“Fine,” Merlisa said gingerly taking Hanks hand. “But if I wind up in a rock I’m going to be pissed.”

Hank pulled Merlisa in close to himself. “You also may want to close your eyes, high likelihood of vomiting after teleporting with your eyes open if you’re not used to it.”

“This just keeps getting better and better.”

“OK you can open your eyes now,” Hank said after teleporting them to a section of the ocean over and about a quarter mile away from Ralthas.

Merlisa opened her eyes and looked around. “I don’t believe it,” she said. “We’re here. Instantly, how far can you teleport anyway?”

“Across planar boundaries,” Hank said.

Merlisa had somehow forgotten that he was a planar traveler. “Oh it seems our arrival has not gone unnoticed.”

Jerondo and a few other guards were swimming towards where Hank and Merlisa had appeared.

“Well with the town guards approaching do you hold this as good enough to qualify as ‘safely brought home’ or do I need to escort you to your door?”

“No this will be good enough. You now owe me 1000 gold and a spell to make my hair grow faster.”

“I do,” Hank said materializing two silver plates into his hand. “I’ll carve the specifics of the spell into these plates for ease of reading, a book or scroll wouldn’t do well underwater.” Hank put the plates between his hands and closed his eyes. The plates started to glow after a minute or so the glowing subsided and the plates were now covered it arcane writing. “This should be everything Yosta needs to cast the spell in whatever form you need. I’ll make contact in a month or so to make sure everything turned out OK.” Hank passed the plates to Merlisa and she took them carefully. “And this,” Hank said materializing a small pouch in his hand and passing it to Merlisa. “Is the one thousand gold coins in a purse that’s bigger on the inside than the outside, which you can keep. Would you like to count it?”

“Do I need to?”

“No,” Hanks said turning to the now arriving Jerondo. “Hail Jerondo.”

“Hail landwalker,” he responded to Hank then turned to Merlisa. “I see you have returned safely.”

“We did,” Hank interjected before they could start ignoring him. “We tangled with some demon tainted Sahuagin, killed most of them. You should probably think about organizing something to head over to their village or whatever and wipe them out before they get any stupid ideas.”

“You landwalkers are always so quick to go to war,” Jerondo scolded. “The oceans are vast and plentiful there is little need to go to war over something as trivial as territory.”

“Maybe you missed the demon tainted part?” Hank said. “Demon taint, not known for calming things down. Also I killed the demon kraken that I’m pretty sure they were worshiping as some kind of god, so that might have pissed them off a bit.”

“You killed a kraken?” Jerondo asked in disbelief.

“A demon kraken,” Hank corrected.

“He killed a kraken?” Jerondo asked again turning to Merlisa. “How?”

“He did,” Merlisa confirmed. “I saw it with my own eyes, he,” Merlisa paused looking for a word. “Erased the ocean.”

“I did not erase the ocean,” Hank said cutting off gasps of disbelief from the guards. “I dried it out in a localized area.”

The guards still floated in place, mouths gapped open in disbelief.

“Maybe it would be best to take your leave before poor Jerondo dies of shock?” Merlisa asked trying her best to diffuse a tense situation.

“Yeah I gotta dry out anyway,” Hank said turning to Merlisa. “I’d say let’s do this again sometime but I hope to never spend this much time underwater again. No offense to you Merfolk it’s just not to my liking.” Hanks drifted slightly away from the others, gave a slight bow of his head and vanished from where he was, leaving an outline of his body for the ocean to quickly rush into and fill back up.