Rok spent a few more minutes after being informed about his upcoming ‘visitor’ debating just what to do about her. It was no doubt that he needed to meet her somewhere more welcoming than a prison, but despite not wanting it to be the case, despite the obvious indications that she was a victim, he still had a level of professionalism to uphold. And this required him to view her as having the potential to be more than simply an innocent, victimized healer.

And so he was locked in an internal debate, weighing about how best to handle the no doubt distraught elf. The fact that she had been made deaf not even a day earlier likely wouldn’t help their upcoming conversation, and in the end he decided that his office really was the best place for the elf. He was just hoping she wouldn’t mind the waters too much.

No matter what happens, however, he was reasonably sure she wouldn’t be at the island for some time yet, though she’d actually make it there faster than his current prisoners if the guards weren’t lying about sending her to the island in a vessel, a luxury not afforded to the marine mercenaries.

With his decision made, he tossed the consumed communication crystal back into the bag, eyeing the remaining few with a scowl. It had been not even a week since he had gotten nearly a dozen, and he was almost unsurprised that this dungeon had forced him to use this many in such a short span of time. There was no doubt that his superiors wouldn’t be so casual about the whole affair, but he wasn’t overly worried about their thoughts on the matter, only that he was nearing a point where he’d need to request more.

That was a matter for another time, though, and he shook away the thought before turning to the next room on his agenda, another merman. He wasted no time upon entering the room, belting out a question before the merman had even fully registered his new gargantuan guest.

“So, how about you, have any information you can offer me?” He gave the man a quick review and then sat down before him.

“I, uh, no?” Came the unsure response, before he quickly revised his statement. “No sir? Unless I’m the first person you’ve… asked that today, I’m sure you’ve already heard it all from the rest of my team. I’m not the first person you’ve talked to, right?”

“That you are not, and I’ve certainly been told quite a bit by the others I’ve talked to. That said, why not tell me what you remember.” He made sure that this was less of a request than a statement.

And tell Rok the merman did, making sure to spare no detail of his misadventures to the crocodilian, though keeping his tone level and measured. In the end, the man wasn’t wrong, nothing he said hadn’t already been covered by the rest, and it wasn’t long after his story had concluded that Rok’s visit did the same.

He continued down the hall, having already made up his mind to try and speak with the remaining two before heading towards his office. The next room held the only mer-person that wasn’t part of that four man crew, though he only found that out after accidentally mentioning ‘the rest of his team’, only for the man to get violently angry, then break down at having witnessed his actual crew perish.

Rok couldn’t offer the man much beyond some condolences, as well as his own experiences, but it was obvious that the man needed more than just that to move on. And so, he simply left him to sort himself out, although being imprisoned certainly wasn’t helping the situation. The last prisoner was much more composed, thankfully, and actually a member of the mercenary group.

Less thankfully, they were just as unhelpful as the rest, and after learning precisely nothing new in the span of nearly forty five minutes, he found himself glad to be stepping outside of the small structure and into the late morning sun. Even better, any lingering grogginess was almost entirely washed away during his ten minute trek across the beach, from one end of the island to the other. It helped that his walk was deliberately slow, that way he could enjoy the sun for a little longer.

Of course, all good things must end, and after what felt like not nearly enough time, he was before the guilds’ hall, ducking his head to enter through the poorly designed ‘amphibian entrance’, since that was the only doorway not already backed up into the streets or flooding into the waters.

Thankfully he didn’t have much difficulty pushing past the throngs of people, giving a wave to his receptionists who were trying valiantly to process the people. It wasn’t long before he was at his office, slogging through the waters to his desk. Kelly was already waiting for him there, still somehow coming across as cheery and upbeat despite holding a stack of papers larger than his arms.

“Good morning, Rok!” spoke the siren, much less reserved than when Rok first met her. In fact, seeing as it was only the two of them she didn’t even bother trying to suppress her Charm, she’d come to learn that without quite a bit of effort on her part there just wasn’t much she could do to him.

He quirked his lips upwards, feeling little more than a slight tickle in the back of his mind from her statement, before returning the greeting and plopping down onto his chair. Without being prompted, his secretary placed the papers in front of him, and warned him.

“These have already been sorted for you, I’ve already tossed out the threats, demands, bribes, and ‘useless people letters’ like you’ve requested, and the rest should be civil, reasonable, or at least ‘bearable’.” There was a smirk playing at her lips as she recited this, it was how he’d told her to organize it early on, almost verbatim even, and she had done it well. It had taken hardly a few days for the mermaid Jacky to start working as a receptionist, and so he’d been left with the sunny siren to do all the work, and she was quite good at it.

Rok turned his attention towards the papers she’d placed in front of him, the broken wax seals or neatly torn paper envelopes telling him that she’d been thorough and checked each letter beforehand, and he quickly set to work reading through whatever it is that the nobles find urgent that day. Of course, most none of them warranted a response, it was one of the few things he liked about this job; he wasn’t obligated to respond to everyone, or even a large portion, and they couldn’t do anything in response thanks to the backing of the guilds. It certainly saved him both time and the headaches of dealing with the entitled.

Of course, he still took the time to seriously review what had been deemed important, and while most of them were simply demands being written with flowery words or vague promises, there were some that required his attention, and got it. It certainly helped that he’d already cut out the messages sent to him that would dampen his otherwise mediocre mood, and before long he’d found himself in a simple rhythm; read, set aside to respond or ignore, repeat.

He hadn’t even known his secretary had left the room until she knocked on the door, then cracked it open.

“Um, Rok, there’s apparently an elf here to see you?” He slammed his parchment and pen onto his desk, jerking his head upwards to look at Kelly. Admittedly an overreaction, but the interruption, sudden recollection, and slight Charm was definitely startling to the immersed man.

“I forgot, let me go get her. Get out some chalk and a board if you can, I’ll be right back.” He got up and briskly walked to the main hall. Thankfully, it was much less crowded than earlier, and he could immediately see a rather downtrodden elf woman standing beside a dungeon guard. Both looked a bit haggard, though for obviously different reasons, and Rok found himself feeling much more for the elf’s plight than for the guards, considering the former was still covered in hastily healed bruises, with matted and disheveled hair, and even what he recognized as mana-leeching armor relics still plastered to her body. Thankfully they had since been deactivated, but it was clear that a large portion of her mana pool had been forcefully stolen once she had made it somewhere with less mana to drain. Despite not being obviously crippled or even severely injured, it was incredibly difficult to feel anything but pity for the poor girl.

He signaled to the tired guard, and he nodded back after a moment delay, then tapped the dazed elf and pointed his way. She understood, thankfully, and began wobbling his way, still unsteady on her feet from the damage to her ears, and he had to rush forward and catch her when she stumbled and started falling forward.

He lifted her back to her feet, allowing her to lean on him instead of walk unassisted, and he waved off the lamia which had escorted her in. Slowly, they made their way back to his office, making sure not to drag her forward through the water. Eventually they made it to his office, where the door was already open, with the diligent Kelly waiting within. Rok could be sure that she’d had at least some bad experience with sirens in the past, the way her eyes widened in fear, or at least shock ever so slightly upon seeing the vibrant yellow hair and brilliant orange and black striped tail that could only belong to a siren made it clear.

It wasn’t overly difficult to tell a siren apart from a mermaid when one is around them enough, the former finds it almost impossible to blend in within a crowd, everything from their Charm, natural beauty, and flamboyant color palettes made this abundantly clear. Meanwhile, mermaids suffered from the opposite. Almost anywhere there was civilized life in the waters, mermaids would usually be a big part of it. Add to that their already dull color palettes and more reasonable looks, one wouldn’t be too hard pressed to pick out the differences.

Regardless, she didn’t seem overly uncomfortable with Kelly in the room, though he took the board and stone that she brought and wrote a simple question to be sure.

‘Siren ok?’ He looked at her expectantly, and after straining her eyes for a moment to read it she nodded weakly at him. He held the board out for her to take after her answer, though there wasn’t any action on her part, at least nothing beyond her staring at the offered board in a daze. Eventually Rok took back the board, wiped off a portion and jotted something else down.

‘You ok?’

This time she stared at it even longer, before clenching her jaw and shaking her head sadly. He nodded his own head in understanding, it wasn’t too unlikely that she was in no state to talk. Mana stealing as bad as she seemed to have gotten and a head injury, much less coming off the effects of being totally Charmed was enough to put even him in a daze for a good while, and it was plain to see she wasn’t nearly as hardy as he, so he thought a moment before readying the board again.

‘Sleep, talk later.’

She didn’t need much prompting to do as told, after Rok had practically carried her to one of the chairs at his desk, she almost immediately fell back asleep. He pursed his lips at this, and looked over to Kelly, only for her to give him a slight shrug and a helpless look. It certainly wasn’t what either of them were expecting, though Rok wasn’t overly surprised after thinking about what may have happened. He could only walk back to his desk, making sure not to be too heavy footed and wake her up, though he wasn’t overly concerned considering how heavily she seemed to be sleeping, combined with her lack of hearing. He wanted for her to wake up at least a little more refreshed, though, so he turned to his secretary.

“Kelly, can you keep healing her of anything they might have missed, and focus on any injuries to her head. Take off those relics, too.” Kelly simply nodded and set to work.