After passing over the objects he retrieved from the back of the giant crab, Sage waited patiently for Sir Thele to fulfill his end of the bargain. Finally, the fish man smiled and waved to one of the others that was still seated, “Get the merchandise sent over to…”

Sir Thele looked back to Sage, “Where did you say you were staying?”

Sage was about to answer, but Sir Thele just waved at him, “Alright, don’t worry about it. Just tell Mr. Coro about it later. Come, we have a show to watch.”

Sage was hurried away from the center of the room and followed Sir Thele to the seating area overlooking the arena. He was almost pushed into a chair by one of the others and a Gilogos waiter floated over him, lowering a tray full of strange foods for him to try. He waved it away and tried to get the attention of the one that was called Mr. Coro, but Mr. Coro was completely ignoring him and was instead fawning over Sir Thele. Sage even tried to call Sir Thele’s attention again, but the fish man sitting next to him shushed him.

After a few more attempts that were stifled he gave up and just went along for the ride. Down in the arena nothing seemed to be going on, yet they continued to hush him into silence while continuing to talk nonsense to Sir Thele. There was still no signs they were going to renege on their deal so he could only acquiesce to this waste of time. Finally, there was motion down below. From one of the side tunnels dozens of people with fish tails instead of legs swam out. He had no idea if this was a costume, a transformation technique of some kind, or if these were legitimately mermaids, but dozens of them swam out of the tunnel. The first few swam out carrying long streamer and conch shells, but those following behind were carrying out large objects. These large objects had poles coming out of their sides which the mermaids were using to lift them and while he was confused at the purpose of the first few, they kept getting more and more elaborately decorated and he realized they were the equivalent of parade floats.

They pulled the floats into a circular formation and set them down upon the ground. Then they reached between the decorations on the floats reaching between the shells, coral, and fish sculptures. Some of them pulled out bright green streamers which they swam upward with, making their way to the ceiling and attaching them somehow. Stretching from floor to ceiling these streamers looked like a forest of kelp. Down below the others pulled out various objects from the float and Sage couldn’t identify most of them, but he did pick out a few things that looked like they might be instruments. Some of them looked like they might be drums, and a few others seemed like they could make music from what looked to be a xylophone made out of beast bones.

As if eager to confirm his suspicions, the mermaids started to make music. When he was within the arena he couldn’t hear anything going on outside. Now that he was the one outside he could hear everything going on inside without a problem and he wondered if the performers were blind to the crowd’s cheering or if it merely required a special pass code, token, or qualification in order to bypass that audio and visual block for the participants within.

With the kelp forest built and their many instruments fetched, half of the mermaids touched the strings and striking surfaces of their strange instruments. Sage was intrigued by their design, wondering what changes they had to make in order to function under the water. While half of them struck their strange drums, others had stringed and percussion instruments. Those that had swam up to the ceiling with the streamers started to swim around in wide circles and began to sing. As the mermaid choir intensified Sage felt a form of energy infiltrating his mind, but it was captured within the maze-like halls of the Infinite Immaterial Seat. Looking over to Sir Thele and the other fish-people he saw their faces relaxing and a look he might describe as blissful coming over them. He was curious to experience first hand, but given that he was in a place where he didn’t feel completely secure he wasn’t wanting to put his mind at risk. This arena was located within a city in the Depths, but there were plenty of things that someone could do to him without actually requiring a fight. Most importantly, he still needed to stay aware in order to receive his payment and he would not risk that just to experience a show.

The mermaids put on a glorious spectacle of sound, motion, and color, but he was only half interested as he was careful to maintain his focus. Eventually, the show came to a close and Sage was not in the mood to be stifled any longer. He leaped out of his chair and walked over to where Mr. Coro was sitting. He snatched the fish-person out of their chair and stood them up in front of him. Mr. Coro was still out of it, affected by the power of the mermaid’s song, so Sage used a burst of Law power to shock him out of it. It still took a moment to be shocked out of it, and Sage glared at the man.

“We’ve got some business that needs to be handled.”

“Yes, yes. Tell me the address and I’ll get someone on it right away.”

“You are now that someone, and we will get on it right away. You’ll take me to it or have it sent here right now, understand?”

“Are you trying to go against Sir Thele? Do you think you can threaten Sir Thele in the Depths?”

“You aren’t Sir Thele. I have a feeling that you, Mr. Coro, don’t want to form an enmity with me over such a simple thing as offering prompt payment for services rendered. I feel you are the type of person that would rather receive an additional commission instead, am I right?”

Mr. Coro blinked a few times and then looked back to the others who were still somewhat locked in a trance. Then looked to Sage who was currently staring intensely. The fish-person made a quick decision and then pulled out a small object that looked like a pocket watch. A few dials were twisted and then Mr. Coro pulled out a moist hand towel and dabbed it upon his forehead, wetting his scaly skin, “You drive a hard bargain, but the work is done. It will arrive soon.”

That was it? You just had to operate a device? These people are really lucky they’re in the depths.

Sage put aside his thoughts of throttling these obnoxious fish and waited patiently. A few minutes later, the door opened and a Gilogos carrying a basketball sized ceramic bottle walked in. Sage didn’t let Mr. Coro leave his side, so they were forced to wait with him for this new arrival. The messenger lifted the bottle and uncorked the top. There was a flash of color and a large metal water tank appeared on the ground in front of them. Sage walked over and lifted the lid to take a peek inside. He saw silvery scales flashing by, the palm sized fish bodies each had darker blue scales on their backs. He looked for a while and then saw a glimmer of brilliant red.

Sage smiled and handed a Storage Bag to Mr. Coro and sent the metal tank directly to the Inner World. He walked straight to the door and left before the Gilogos messenger did, eager to get away from these inefficient fish folk.