Marinus and Luca remained for three days at the rock. During that time, the deal with the chief mermaid of the village was ironed out. The mermaids had made Marinus prove that he could do dual enchantments by himself, and he did so. As he waited, he enchanted some things in exchange for information.

As it happens, Alba had not just run off. She was seen heavily wounded with tar clinging to her skin. The last spot they had seen her at was not far from the village, in fact.

Marinus left Luca at the rock and with a mermaid escort swam towards where the sea witch was last seen. The water was dark with magic around them. What they found was a corpse of a white woman with stingray fins. Marinus searched on her but couldn’t find any rings, much less the life-extending rings.

“The dungeon must have stolen them from her, and she must have tried to retrieve them.” Said Marinus to the mermaids.

“She needs a proper burial.” Said one of the mermaid huntresses. Her companion nodded, and they took the corpse with them back to the village. There, a ceremony for Alba was held. She was well liked, if not well known, by the mermaids. Her body was placed in an underwater cave and coral spores were sprinkled on top of it.

“May this flesh feed the coral, may fish hide in this coral, may we eat the fish and remember Alba the sea witch with good.” Said the chief mermaid. Already, bait fish were swimming towards the corpse.

“You said she made a deal with you, Marinus?” Asked the chief when everyone began to swim away.

“Her freedom in exchange for life-extending rings.” Said Marinus. They still had Luca’s ring, but it would have been better if they had access to Alba’s too.

“And the dungeon of stingrays is destroyed, you say?” Asked the chief.

“It is, wise woman. But it is full of tar and poisonous gasses. The new core was greedy and wanted to create a death trap for our kind.” Said Marinus. That got the chief mermaid thinking.

“The new core? What happened to the old one?” She was looking at Marinus with suspicion. That dungeon was responsible for more than one huntress disappearing. If Marinus knew something, then he needed to come clean.

“Luca, my friend, was the old core. But he preferred not to hurt anyone. He simply wanted to protect himself.”

“So, he killed and stole!” The outrage of the chief mermaid was evident in her voice. Marinus gulped. This could go south pretty quickly.

“All dungeons do so. But he tried to bar his entrance. The price he asks for entry is too step, wise woman. A good detergent to prevent just about anyone from entering.” Said Marinus. The woman was not pacified, however.

“He will stand trial.” She said firmly. “Claris, bring the boy Luca here.” Said the chief mermaid, and Marinus thought fast. He swam up and to the rock where he left Luca.

“Luca, we need to go. The mermaids want to put you on trial for being a dungeon core.” That got Luca changing his legs to a tail quickly and jumping in the water.

“Why did you tell them?” Asked Luca as he swam as quickly as he could. A precious few knew of the rock, and those mermaids would probably take pity on two children. But eventually, even they will give them away. One good thing about the situation is that unlike on land, they couldn’t leave any traces of themselves in the water.

“We found Alba. She is dead. We found her covered in tar without the rings. The chief and I spoke during the funeral.”

“Never tell anyone what I was, or I won’t give you my ring!” Said Luca. They could see land nearby. Was it an island? If it was, then it was too big. As soon as they reach it, they would be safe. A horn blew behind them, and the two children swam faster, not daring to look back.

An orca mini whale, the preferred hunting dogs of the mermaids, swam by them and tried to attack Luca. The boy took out a fire enchanted rod and trust it at the orca. It swam to the side just in the last minute, but the bubbles that rose from the seawater made it back away and dive deep.

“It is going to get the mermaids here.” Said Marinus. There was only one course of action. “You swim to the shore. I will swim left. Once you reach the shore, search for a village or a town and send a missive to Esmer von Kleindorf. Tell her that I might be captured or worse. Go, Luca.”

With that, the two children separated. Luca swam in a straight line towards the shore, and Marinus dived deep and swam to the left and then in zigzag to cheat the noses of the orca minis that there were two people swimming in his direction.

While orca mini whales did go after Marinus, the one from before had seen Luca and had followed from the deep. It didn’t make a sound as Luca was becoming more and more tired. Just as the boy stopped to take a rest, it struck from the deep and bit into Luca’s tail.

The boy screamed as the orca mini whale trashed its head from left to right. The whale might have the title of mini, but it was as big as half of Luca’s tail. Fighting through the pain, Luca used the enchanted rod and pressed it to the mini whale’s air hole. He jammed it inside and pumped enough magic in to keep it burning for at least ten minutes.

The orca mini let go of Luca’s tail and began to trash wildly, screaming in pain and unable to breathe. Burned as it was, Luca could smell the stench of burning fat. But he couldn’t wait and see the whale sinking to the bottom. He needed to get to the shore. With a pained heave, Luca proceeded to swim. A trail of blood following him.