Ariel watched as the woman who should have welcomed her with open arms rummaged into her treasure sack. She’d take out things and say aha every so often. There was a big pile in her feet of things she deemed fit to be part of Ariel’s dowry. Ariel furrowed her brows and looked at Wu Zian who laughed nervously.

“Mother, don’t you think that the dowry is big enough?” He attempted to sound brave but when his mother leveled him with a glare, he shrunk in on himself.

“Big enough? You get your rich bride and then you want to keep all of her fortune for yourself! Cheap son! How are your poor parents going to live in their old age? Or do you want to see us beg for a copper so we can eat a steamed bun a day?” Crocodile tears begun to appear at Madam Wu’s eyes and her son rushed to console her. She placed the sack in his arms and the tears stopped. “You keep that open, you hear? I’ll leave you plenty to sell at that cheap trader’s shop.” Then she took out a pair of gold earrings and placed them in the tiny pile which she graciously allowed Ariel to keep. Ariel was fuming inside. Dowry? More like theft!

She stood up and stumbled. Wu Zian dropped the sack and went to her only to be stopped half way by the sound of his mother’s fake sob. He rushed back to his mother and Ariel stomped her feed and rushed out of the palace. She was wearing purple silk robes which at one point had belonged to Madam Wu. When she received them, Ariel had thanked her future mother-in-law for her graciousness, but then Madam Wu had begun to tell her the cost of a brand-new robe and begun to berate her about dirtying the robe she was borrowing. Borrowing? It should have been a gift!

She rushed to the litter and then stopped. Where was she going to go? The only people she knew here were the Emerald Emperor and his husband. It was Saturday morning. She looked at the sky. The sun hadn’t even risen yet. But she needed someone to talk to and the Emerald Emperor had done his fair share of petitions in his time. He’ll have an advice for her.

“To Nikola of Troy’s residence.” She said to the servants as she climbed the litter. They took off and she watched the surrounding forest envelop her. It was so strange to be here on dry land. Many of the sailors she had rescued had described it for her but she had never been in an actual forest before. It was so green, like the sea water when it was full of algae. And the mountains were in the distance, like columns reaching for the sky. And the birds! She had been in mangrove forests before so she had heard their songs but here in the forest, they sounded jollier. They were home. And she…wasn’t.

She had thought that she wouldn’t miss the open waters if she could only be with Wu Zian. But the fact that she spends hours in the pound in the palace proved otherwise. She missed the feeling of salt on her tail. Fish swimming happily pass her. Heck, she even missed her tail. These legs tired too easily in the water and she stumbled on them constantly. But the Emerald Emperor could help her with this as well. He knew of magic others could only dream of. Make her legs stronger. Grand her gills so that she could dive deep and explore the depths again. The litter stopped in front of a house and lowered. Ariel walked towards the door and hit the knocker three times.

She could feel magic on the door so the Emperor must have put an alarm so that the knock could be heard all over the house. Minutes passed and the door opened. Ariel giggled and put a hand over her mouth. The Emerald Emperor was in soft green silks that were crumbled and he looked half asleep. But his hair! It was a curly mess! A bird flew to the top of the man’s hair and nested in the mess. The Emerald Emperor was so sleepy he didn’t seem to notice.

“What?” Came the one-word question. If they were in the ocean Ariel would have splashed some water in the Emperor’s face to wake him. He looked so adorable!

“I need help. But I can wait until you are presentable once again.” She said and Nikola finally realized how he looked. The bird in his hair chooses this time to begin to sing. Nikola swatted at the yellow ball of feathers and it flew to perch on his shoulder instead. Ariel reached out a finger and petted it’s head. The bird pecked her finger in warning and she retreated it.

“What a mean little thing.” Said the mermaid, pouting. Nikola ran a hand through his hair and it got tangled into it.

“I need a bath. There is some leftover rice pudding from last night. I’ll show you where the dining area is and give you a bowl.”

Food made from the Emerald Emperor himself? Ariel nearly squealed. It was said that the angel Penemue ate only his cooking. How good was this rice pudding going to be? She skipped after her host and soon she was eating a bowl of perfectly normal rice pudding. Perhaps it served as a tonic? Was it going to make her hair shinier? The Emperor’s hair, even after waking up, was reflecting the light perfectly. It must be because of his diet!

As Ariel was trying to figure out what was so special of the treat, she was eating, Nikola was lazing around in the bathing barrel. The bird was perched on it’s edges and was singing it’s little head off.

“I’ll give you grain if you shut up.” Tried to bargain Nikola, the bird kept on singing. It was a fine tune, but it was repetitive. It was almost like the raptor wanted him out of the barrel so it could perch on him again.

“I’ll build you a bird bath.” The bird stopped to regard Nikola as if it was considering it and Nikola raised an eyebrow. “You are not a normal bird, are you?” The bird begins to chirp quickly as if trying to tell him something and then it begun to fly over his head. He snatched it from the air and stared into it’s eyes. There was no trace of a human’s level of intelligence, so that ruled out someone transforming a human into a bird. Perhaps someone had tried to make this bird smarter instead?

“Ok, I’ll ask you questions and you will answer with chirps. One chirp for yes and two for no. Do you understand me?” The bird chirped once and Nikola let it go. It flew and nested in his hair which was still a mess of curls. “Did a demon send you?” Two chirps. “An angel then?” The thought that Penemue was sending him a gift from the Abyss warmed him inside. But then he heard two chirps again. “A spirit?” One chirp. Nikola was on edge then. There were good spirits, true, but they were few and far between. “A human’s spirit?” Two chirps.

Nikola groaned. Someone was stuck between worlds, someone close if their essence could still control the bird, and needed his help. It was always tricky speaking with spirits, mainly because those who got stuck usually should have gone to Hell. And this one wasn’t even a human one.

“Does your master have unfinished business?” One chirp. “With me?” If this was personal then he needed to prepare for a ghost with a grudge. Two chirps. “With someone in this house?” He asked, worried it might have something to do with his son. One chirp. “With Wei Caihong?” Two chirps. “With Basil…I mean Azazel?” Another two chirps. “Bjorn?” Two more chirps. “Chen Zhaohui?” He whispered the name and was relieved when he heard another two chirps. “With Ariel?” He said, as there simply wasn’t anyone else into the house. One chirp. Ok, he felt guilty for thinking this but it was better her than someone from his family. “Does your master wish to speak with her?” Two more chirps.

Nikola tried to think about everything he knew about Ariel. Her mother was dead, but that had happened centuries ago. There was no way that queen Lydia was still between the worlds. Or, was there?

“Is your master Queen Lydia of the merfolk?” One chirp. Nikola relaxed entirely into the water. Queen Lydia had been a kind woman. Stopping the raiding on ships in her waters. Her husband had been calmer with her around. It had been a great age of exploration for Atlantis during these peaceful times. It was before Nikola even thought to become a conqueror. Before the Aztek incident. “Can you speak with her highness?” Two chirps. So, the bird had it’s instructions and orders and had flown from the forest to meet him. He felt honored that the good Queen had even remembered him. “Do I need to tell Ariel of this?” Two chirps, which sounded nearly panicked. Nikola had figured as much. It would break Ariel’s heart to know that her mother hadn’t moved on. Even more so as Ariel herself was most likely the reason. “Are you hungry, little friend?” One chirp that sounded almost giddy. Nikola got out of the barrel and let warm winds dry him and comb through his hair. It now fell on soft waves pass his shoulders. He extended a finger and the bird perched on it.

It was a lovely creature. He hoped that the Queen would let him keep it after her business with him was done. Dressing up in grey cotton robes he exited. He made a beeline to the kitchen and grabbed some wheat grains for his new friend. He then placed them on the counter and watched as the bird landed next to them and begun to eat. From the soil he always kept in a pot he made a lovely ivory perch and a bird bath. The bird spared them a glance once they appeared, chirped three times, and then resumed eating.

Nikola then went to the dining area where he had left Ariel only to see her holding her breath. Her face was red and Nikola rushed to help her, thinking she was chocking. As soon as his arms were around her abdomen she exhaled and begun to breathe normally. She then slapped his arm.

“You are married and I am to be married! What is the meaning of this?”

Nikola removed his hands and went opposite the mermaid.

“I thought you were chocking?” He tried as she glared at him.

“I was trying to make my gills appear!” She said and then pointed at the empty rice pudding bowl. “This is a great magical medicine, is it not?”

Nikola sighed and then begun to chuckle. It was a common misconception that all his food was actually disguised potions.

“No, it was just rice pudding. Cooked with magic but apart from that there is nothing special about it.”

“Oh.” Said Ariel, disappointed. “How silly of me…but it was tasty!” She finished as if not to offend Nikola. Nikola nodded at her.

“You wanted gills?” He asked. From all that he had heard of Ariel he would have thought that she would never want to return to the ocean. Guess he was wrong.

“It’s just that.” Then the girl become silent and mumbled something too fast for Nikola to understand.

“What was that?” He asked, not understanding what got the mermaid so bothered.

“My mother-in-law is a thief!” Yelled Ariel and then she placed her hands over her mouth at the outburst. Nikola himself still remembered the dragon lady the magistrate called wife. But Ariel had to understand that a dowry had to be given before the marriage.

“It’s within her right to demand gifts from you before the wedding, Ariel. It’s the custom of this land.”

Ariel removed her hands to begun rubbing her fingers together. Nikola wondered when she will begin to tug at her hair.

“She is taking everything.” Said the mermaid, indeed tugging at her hair. “And leaving me only what she doesn’t like. And she likes a lot of things. She will leave me with nothing! The robes I’m wearing are hers. She is too much of a miser to take me to have new ones made. With all the treasures she took from me she could have easily came up with the money!”

Well, was this the problem? That was easily fixed. “Does anyone but Wu Zian know that you gathered all of your treasures?” He asked and then Ariel pointed at him.

“Well, yes. You and your husband know.” Nikola stood up and opened a drawer and took out a pot full of soil. Then he took a cup full of water and put it and the pot next to Ariel.

“Then just tell everyone you have more than one cache. There are so many caves around the beach. Now, pour the water on the soil and repeat after me:

Minerals, salts and all in between.

Mother Gaia gives me all these and more.

Make me, dear Mother, a necklace of jade.

And I will, dear Mother, gift you a kiss.”

Ariel did as told and a jade necklace appeared at the inside of the pot. It had dragon motives and shone in the candle light. Ariel removed it and kissed the soil.

“Thank you, dear Mother.”

Nikola laughed at that. Ariel looked at him and then proudly presented him with the necklace.

“A dragon necklace for the draconic mother-in-law! Is that the only thing that this spell can make?” She asked and Nikola hummed.

“No, you change the third line to say whatever you need. And you don’t really need to kiss the soil afterwards. Gaia won’t find out even if you haven’t.” Ariel wiped some mud from her lips and then begun to recite the verses and make different things appear. Nikola watched as a pile of gold, silver and jade appeared on his table. Then a giant seashell. Ariel then picked up the pot and showed it to Nikola. It was empty.

“Was that special soil?” She asked and Nikola shook his head.

“No, you can also do this with sand. But you can’t make any food with it, or fabrics. Just minerals and salts and timber. And I suppose rocks too, but why would you need to do that?”

Ariel poured some more water and cleaned the pot of it’s last grains of soil. But before she could recite the verses Nikola stopped her.

“That’s just a very basic way to create ice, something you already know how to do. Did you come here only because of your dragon of a mother-in-law?” He asked as Ariel was playing with the pile of treasures. They were just like children when they had something shiny, these mermaids.

“No. I had hoped you can restore my tail to me. Only when I want it. And my gills!” Nikola sighed. That was not doable.

“I gave you a pair of legs by sacrificing a demoness. I restore your tail, even when you want it, and Baba Yaga is free to wreak havoc again.”

“I have a demon inside me?” Ariel was pale, her hand resting on the pile of treasure. “I don’t want it! Get it out!”

“Dear Ariel, calm yourself.” Said Nikola. As if he would lock a demon inside someone willingly. He had learned his lesson with Lilith. “Only her power is inside you. Her being is in a coma somewhere in the Abyss.” The shock of having your soul locked into someone else did that to most beings. But Lilith had fought even then. Nikola shuddered at the memory of the first woman forcing him to make ritual pentagrams in his sleep. Never again would he be so foolish. He had sent Baba Yaga’s mind straight into the Abyss, separating her from her power. He had heard her scream in his head and then grow silent. She was no longer a threat. Ariel placed a hand over her legs, then she took them off, as if expecting them to bite her.

“So, I will never be able to swim freely into the depths?” Nikola smiled. Even he could do that. There was precious little that couldn’t be done with magic.

“I can teach you a couple of spells. But they are all time based. You will have to be careful how deep you swim. The longest a spell can go is an hour. And there is nothing to be done about the pressure of the depths. Of course.”

“Of course.” Ariel repeated numbly. She couldn’t swim that far deep even as a mermaid after all. Then a thought struck her. “What of my immortality?” Nikola was quick to answer that too.

“Mermaids aren’t immortal, Ariel. Just long lived. How old are you?” Ariel begun to calculate in her mind.

“Five hundred years old.” She said and Nikola nodded.

“Well, Ursula is a thousand and four hundred something years old. You have plenty of time to live yet. I only gave you a pair of legs, I didn’t touch your soul. But tell me, what will you do once Wu Zian dies.”

“I will share my soul with him.” Said the woman with determination blazing in her eyes. “Just like Penemue did with you.” This would have been a good plan, Nikola thought to himself, if it wasn’t for the main glaring flaw.

“Penemue is an angel, Ariel. His soul is far stronger than yours and I doubt that yours can regenerate like his can.” Then he remembered what Penemue had told him about the true nature of his immortality and he spoke. “You will have more luck feeding him phoenix ashes. But there is still a big chance he will die even then.”

“What of your husband?” Said Ariel and Nikola could see she was grasping at straws. “He is immortal, yes? How?” Nikola wondered what would happen if Wei Caihong’s curse spread. But Wu Zian was a good kid, from the little he had seen of him. And Ariel would surely feed him.

“He is under a curse. I am not proud to say that I was the one who cursed him. He…well, in the beginning he could only drink blood and go outside during the night. But the two of us underwent a ritual and he created a spell and that is how he is normal now. More or less, he still needs to drink blood or he complains of hunger and thirst and his emotions spiral out of control.”

“He’s a Lamia!” Said the mermaid, looking horrified. “You couldn’t have married someone more human, could you? First an angel now a…thing.”

“Vampire.” Came from the door and the two of them turned to look at Wei Caihong who was fully dressed. “Not a thing. I’m still more human than you, little girl.”

“I’m not a little girl!” She said, although she looked like she was fifteen. Wei Caihong snorted at her and looked around the table.

“What’s for breakfast?” Nikola knew he had forgotten something. He apologized to Ariel for leaving her and then went into the kitchen to start making some pancakes. Wei Caihong took his husband’s vacated seat and stared the mermaid down.

“Your kind has killed mine for eons. What makes you different? Have you eaten human flesh?”

Ariel made a gagging sound at that and pointed a finger at Wei Caihong.

“I am walking into the footsteps of my mother, the merfolk Queen Lydia! She never ate human flesh and neither have I. It leads to madness, mother always said so. And it’s cannibalism!”

“I’ve eaten human flesh.” Said Wei Caihong and he watched as the red-head leaned away from him. As far as her cushion was allowing her. “A heart, for a ritual. If you want to study with Nikola then somewhere along the line you will need to do something similar.”

“That is dark magic! I won’t learn it!” Wei Caihong reached out a hand and gripped Ariel by the arm and tugged her closer to himself.

“And if you need to make everyone forget what you are? Like for example when your fiancé dies and you remain young? If you want to become invisible and run you will need a liver. And to make rain and an earthquake you will need to gauge out someone’s eye. You will be a warrior and Nikola won’t even point you towards a quest. All the blood you will have splashed at you will be on you alone. Will you come here asking for him to fix this problem for you too?”

“You’ve been listening in!” Said Ariel outraged. She was attempting to get her arm out of Wei Caihong’s grip but he wasn’t letting her go.

“You want that poor kid to be like me?” He asked and then he showed her his teeth, his fangs extending. She stopped resisting to stare at him. “The only reason I haven’t beheaded myself is because of Nikola. Thanks to him I don’t have to hunt. Azazel told me that as long as I drink from his blood I can walk into the sun. That kid won’t have the same luxury. He will be a creature of the night. A thing, as you put it.”

“But he’ll live.” She said and Wei Caihong barked a laugh then. It was a cruel sound. He let dark waves of magic wash over him. His veins became prominent and black. His eyes turned red.

“I can hear your heartbeat as if it was a war drum. I haven’t fed yet so I can also sense your blood’s movements in your veins. You are a snack, nothing more. My feast is making me breakfast right now. Do you know that if someone ingests certain herbs their blood become tastier? Nikola does this for me willingly. Would you be able to do the same for your Wu Zian? To agree to be prepared like a salad?”

“That doesn’t sound so bad…”

“Tell me girl, when your meals are tasty do you not force yourself to finish them? It will be you needing the phoenix ashes by the end of this tale. I drink enough from Nikola that had he been anyone else I would have killed him. If I force you over the table, I can drink you dry in minutes.”

Ariel screamed and they heard a pair of footsteps coming from the kitchen. Ariel was breathing heavily.

“Why are you telling me this?” She asked. “I have done nothing to you.”

“Because you are an indecisive little girl who gets on my nerves.” Said Wei Caihong. He had refused to get up from the bed when the alarm had gone off. But he had gotten up long enough to hear the entire conversation Nikola had with this slip of a girl. He offered her everything Wei Caihong himself needed. Free of charge, for a debt that was already paid. And this wretch was demanding more. There was no cure for vampirism. Azazel had told him so. The angel had even looked guilty when he explained to him that he had expected to have to wait a couple of hundred years before Wei Caihong figured how to use magic and get him out of the Abyss. He hadn’t bothered to see into Wei Caihong’s future because he had wanted to mold it himself. And now Wei Caihong was utterly dependent on his soulmate and he felt like a beggar and he needed blood so that he could get himself under control again.

When Nikola entered the room, looking around frantically for any danger, Wei Caihong stood up and grabbed him and latched himself to his husband’s neck without any explanation. Blood ran pass his lips and he relaxed his grip when Nikola didn’t fight him back. Arms wrapped around Wei Caihong and he felt calmer, safe and loved all at once. From the corner of his eyes, he could see that little girl. She had both her hands over her mouth and she was crying, repeating no, no, I can’t over and over again. Good, he had no intention on spreading his curse.

“Do you see now?” He asked after he released his husband from the bite. There was a slight growl to his voice. The girl nodded and stood up, leaving her trinkets on the table. “Don’t leave your trash behind!” He snapped at her and watched with more than a little envy as she snapped her fingers and a sack appeared and all the trinkets were gone. She then rushed out of the room and Wei Caihong could hear her heartbeat join others.

“Did you have to be so hard on her?” Asked Nikola and Wei Caihong turned to him to stare. There was a little blood on the bitten place. He leaned in and begun licking it clean.

“She needed to learn her lesson.” He said as he begun to kiss the spot now that it was clean of blood. He gave it a good suck and then distanced his head from it to watch his work. It looked like a normal love bite, apart from the two puncture marks. It was lovely. Nikola’s neck was getting a lovely shade of rosy and Wei Caihong looked up to see that his love was blushing.

“You are too intense…” A buzzing sound was heard from the kitchen, interrupting whatever Nikola wanted to say next. He was running back inside. The pancake ended up a lost cause. But Nikola cooled it and ate it anyway. He blanched at the slight charred taste on his tongue as he poured more pancake mix into the pan.

“Nikola, I want to be your apprentice.” Said Wei Caihong. He was not going to get outshone by a little girl who wasn’t even human. Just like you, a small part in his mind supplied for him. But he squashed it mercilessly.

“And what are you going to do with the knowledge?” Asked Nikola as he watched bubbles raise on the pancake. Wei Caihong asked himself the same question. He was going to live for a very long time. Perhaps not forever, for he doubted that even Nikola could pull it off, but he had centuries ahead of him. He wanted to be able to cause rain during droughts. To prevent landslides. To make the winters mild enough that those who lived on the streets didn’t die but cold enough so that the soil got it’s warm blanket during the winter and was ready for planting come spring. He wanted to protect this village for the twenty years he was going to live in it.

“I want to help others. I want to leave behind a legacy.” Wei Caihong could feel magic wrapping around him. He welcomed it.

“If you are to become my apprentice then that would restrict your learning. You won’t be making any new spells for at least three centuries. Just like I wasn’t allowed.”

“And I’ll listen to you.” Assured him Wei Caihong. “And respect your judgement and learn only what you want to teach me. Grand me this wish. Please, my Emerald.”

Nikola flipped the pancake and embraced his husband. “I expected you to propose a deal. I wouldn’t have granted your wish if you had. We are not demons, you and I. To have to trick one another.”

“Then?” Wei Caihong didn’t dare to hope. But then his emerald poked him in the chest.

“You chased away my prospective apprentice. You will have my undivided attention. What did you tell her, anyway?”

Wei Caihong chuckled darkly and just as he was about to respond the annoying buzzing sounded again. Nikola got out of his arms quickly and then summoned a pair of mittens and took the milk off the stove.

“I told her it will be gory and not worth it.” He said as he got the now ready pancake out of the pan and put more mix inside. Nikola turned to him with wonder in his eyes.

“You realize it and yet you still want to go though with it?” He was in the process of dumping half a jar of honey into the milk. Pilfered from Bjorn who had in turn gotten it, and about two hundred more jars in total, in exchange for a saber smithed by Azazel. What he had done in return was something Wei Caihong could easily imagine. These two were very loud. So much so that they had taken to making Chen Zhaohui’s room sound isolated, with a little alarm to tell them if he was distressed, of course.

“I’m in too deep.” Said Wei Caihong. “I want to be your equal and for that to happen I need to learn more magic. Do you think Azazel will teach me how to fight with some of the weapons he makes? Some are unfamiliar to me. He had already agreed to teach Master Wang.”

Nikola raised an eyebrow and pointed at himself. “I am his prized student, remember? I can teach you. I go through drills in the dead of night as you sleep to keep myself in shape. You should do the same.”

He had? But Nikola was always by his side in the morning. “I’d love that.” He said and Nikola approached him and placed his hand over his. It was delicate. How could it be the product of nightly training?

“We can find you phoenix ashes. Cure you.” Said Nikola and Wei Caihong sucked in a breath.

“Phoenixes live in volcanos. There are no near the village.”

“There is one in Atlantis. The phoenix must have submerged himself into the lava. Do you know that phoenix ashes can’t be washed away by water?”

Wei Caihong hadn’t known this. He expected Nikola to snap his fingers but nothing happened.

“I have spoiled you. But if I make the ashes appear here with magic then you will end up with a pile of mud, useless and sapped of all it’s magic.”

“Why dangle this in front of me, then?” Wei Caihong knew that Nikola wouldn’t just give him false hope.

“Because it is high time I spoke with Ursula. She can get us the ashes, in a couple of months. And all she will ask for return is to be reconciled with her sister-in-law, the Queen Lydia. I can get her a pardon and get her back into the line of succession. And she will bring you your cure.”