Mer Tales 01 - Everblue

Tomorrow the lake is going to be swarming with boats and divers. I can’t wait to see what they say on the evening news.”
    “ Colin, you little—” I lunged for him, but Azor held me back.
    “ That’s enough, Finley. Unfortunately, you’ll need to be sanctioned. This is serious. A trial will be set after we assess the damage. You’ll need to come with me to a holding cell.”
    “ What? And Colin mind-wiping an entire group of people isn’t grounds for sanctioning, too? What about the gate? And even now, who’s guarding it?” I glanced over at Tatiana’s anxious eyes and then towards Mom. She wouldn’t look at me. I threw my hands into the air. “This is insane!”
    Azor ignored me. “Alaster, I’m hoping you and Colin will be able to contain any rumors. And keep a better eye on the gate.”
    “ Of course, Captain.” Alaster bowed his head.
    Out of the corner of my eye, Colin moved to snatch up the only known evidence of my infraction off the table; I countered to stop him. What was on the camera anyway? I didn’t surface the water until I reached Ashlyn’s body. No one was around.
    Tatch caught the nonverbal exchange.
    “ Don’t you want the camera, Azor?” she asked with a silkened voice. “For evidence?”
    “ We should return it as quickly as we can to its owner,” Alaster shot back. “Before his subconscious forces him to remember what really happened when he can’t find it.”
    Azor glanced towards Alaster, then at the clear box in Colin’s hand with disgust, apparently undecided on what to do. His naïveté had to have left him unsure how to work the foreign gadget. As a rule, human technology was looked at as being something useless to the mers and thus to be avoided. Azor strictly followed those guidelines.
    “ Azor,” my sister purred as she slithered closer to Colin and plucked the box right out of his hand. “Let’s look at the pictures first.” The case opened with a hiss.
    She clicked the buttons with a stoic disposition, then her shoulders softened.
    “ Maybe you should look, Azor?”
    She got up and perched herself on the arm of the chair Azor sat in. She demonstrated the gadget with one hand and wrapped her other hand around his shoulder. “See? There’s no fuss.”
    Azor tightened his eyes for a fraction of a second as each picture flashed on the screen. “Yes, I see what you mean.” He ran his hand through his hair again. “Still, Alaster is right. The camera should be returned. Colin?”
    Tatiana held out the contraption with a coquettish smile. Colin took the camera and threw it into the box, unconcerned with damaging the device. Azor, unaware, gazed headily into Tatiana’s eyes.
    I gasped. “So there’s no damaging pictures?”
    Alaster coughed and grabbed his son by the arm. “Come, Colin. We have a gate to guard and rumors to squelch.”
    They left through the porthole before I could raise a larger stink.
    Azor snapped out of Tatiana’s bewitching stare and looked angrily at me. “Yes, the pictures seem to have discounted Colin’s claim you were seen as a merman by humans, but your unauthorized exit must be discussed. You better hope they don’t find any other evidence against you.”
    “ Wait. Let me get this straight. I leave unauthorized through an unguarded gate, and I alone get in trouble?”
    “ You didn’t have permission to leave, Finley. As far as your uncle’s post is concerned, that’s my business.”
    “ I was getting rocks!” I yelled. “Because it’s my job to make the elder mers happy. I only left for a minute!”
    Azor turned and scowled. “You just can’t leave and get rocks.”
    “ This is utterly ridiculous!” I pounded my fist on the chair, breaking off a piece.
    Tatiana batted her eyelashes at Azor. “Aren’t you overreacting?”
    “ No, Tatiana. Finley has broken the law,” he said plainly, then turned to me. “Be prepared to answer when the Council asks what you were doing. How you managed to create a wake while retrieving rocks is beyond me, but a solid explanation might reduce the time of your punishment.”
    Unlikely. “You’d better stop rumors here in Natatoria too. Once it gets around the gate’s unguarded, other mers might stop by for a visit,” I said with a sneer.
    Azor glared. “Don’t test me, Finley. The other mers respect our rules and you need to be reminded why we don’t break them.” Azor motioned for me to get to my feet. “We must go.”
    Mom kept eyeing me with worry. “When