Syryn's memories were a closed-door that sometimes opened up to let out wisps of remembrance. But it happened less and less often these days. To jog more of his dormant memories, he was longing to meet another human or at least interact with someone who could tell him what the surface world was like.

The human's room remained closed off to everyone including Drevin. Once a day, he allowed his guard to push in a tray of food.

Without any explanations given, the mer prince was unwilling to stay locked out of Syryn's room. The human did not respond to the knocks of anyone else other than his guard who informed his visitors that Syryn wanted to be left alone. No time period was specified, no reasons were given.

Syryn was on his chair looking out over the trench when a silver-blue merman appeared floating beyond his glass wall. Enkansh pressed a hand to the glass and canted his head, making sad eyes at Syryn.

'Why?' He asked the mage. And then, 'are you okay?' Syryn read his lips more than hear him say the words.

The mage stood up and walked to the glass. He smiled and raised his palm to press it right where Drevin's palm was pressed to the glass.

The merman smiled back at him, happy that Syryn wasn't ignoring him like he had imagined.

"I'll meet you after a few days," he said to the mer prince.

'But why? Why not now? Today?'

Syryn shook his head at Drevin. The silver-blue mer blinked the silvery eyes that were looking into Syryn's violet ones.

"I don't feel well, Drevin. I think I'm coming down with something and I don't want to infect anyone else." His isolation wasn't effective if the sickness travelled through water, but if that was the case then everyone around him was already ill.

Drevin frowned. 'Did you visit the healer?'

"I did. She doesn't know what's happening."

'It's the bubbles you ate...'

Syryn cracked a smile at that. "Maybe."

'I'll visit every day,' Drevin told him. 'You'll get out of this successfully like you survived the snakes and the worms.'

Syryn smiled and pressed his forehead to the glass, leaning against it tiredly. Lately, it seemed like his body was using up more energy than it normally would. Self-isolation had also brought on a cloud of melancholy about his existence. Syryn suddenly thought he hated being alone like this.

Drevin was floating a few inches away from the glass. He longed to hug the human and wipe that sad smile off his face. Selfishly, he thought that he wanted to keep Syryn in Silisia forever. But he knew that wasn't possible. Syryn could not be caged. The surface world was where he belonged. The knowledge of it helped the mer prince put a wall up against unnecessary desires of the heart. Syryn was a human and he was a merman. And that was that.

'I'll come by again tomorrow, Syryn,' Drevin told the mage. When his sleek silver-blue figure went out of sight, Syryn returned to his chair and slumped over it feeling lonelier than he had since his self-isolation began.

___

Three more day cycles into his isolation, Syryn' spots had stopped itching. They were still present just under his skin, neither growing smaller nor larger.

He took the silk shirt out of his satchel and slipped it on. It was large on him but it didn't matter. Syryn felt the silk slide like the touch of a lover over his sensitive skin. Pairing it with his dark blue trousers, Syryn hid away the spots from prying eyes.

"Vaiu, take me to the healer."

____

"It's still the same size," he was told by the mermaid. "And nobody seems to have contracted it."

"What about Drevin? No complaints?"

"None," she replied. "I had him checked. The prince is discreet with his... Interactions so I doubt this is a mer disease."

"Wonderful," Syryn deadpanned. "I could be dying from a human sickness and we wouldn't even know about it."

The healer felt helpless like she always did when it came to Syryn.

"I think we need a human healer for you, Syryn."

"Fat chance of that happening."

"Syryn, you know what you are to Silisia. Your health is important. Keeping that in mind, I have to let the king know what's happening with you so that we can help you get better."

The healer spoke in calm and soothing tones. Syryn found it difficult to get upset at her when she was being reasonable about the matter that was causing him grief.

"Do what is best then," he informed her. "If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving."

____

Syryn threw caution to the wind and visited the prince. Even so, he stood far enough from the mer that Drevin had asked what was going on.

"I'm still sick and the healer doesn't know what's going on I think we should just stay as far away as we can," he had told the mer.

"But if the illness passes through water then it doesn't matter how far you stand away from me. As long as we're within hearing distance, I'll still catch what you have. You might as well get closer, Syryn."

The mage still stood at a distance from Drevin. He could see that the prince was harvesting jellyfish polyps for transfer to a feeding zone. Drevin had told him that jellyfish had a two-phase life cycle and these polyps were just immature jellyfish that fed on nutrients in the water.

"Drevin, if I leave the ocean and go back to the surface world, would you like to come with me?"

Drevin turned to Syryn.

"You're leaving?"

"No, I'm just asking," Syryn told the prince. Unless the mers kidnapped a human healer, Syryn wasn't expecting a human to voluntarily come down to Silisia. Tidbits of conversations with his guard had revealed to him that human mer relations were bad. Even he himself had landed here after getting kidnapped. Syryn had conveniently forgotten the kidnapping because the mers had given him the freedom to do as he wished.

"I'd be glad to accompany you," Drevin replied after a beat.