Orren was on his way down to the beach, it was dark which allowed to him to focus on where he was putting his feet rather than what might be going on back home.
The walk usually took him close to an hour and it was maybe a little longer at night. That got him to a headland looking out to sea. He needed to be on the beach for this, so it took almost as long again to work his way down to beach level and walk out on a relatively wide stretch of it.
There was some driftwood strewn about. Not a lot, but enough. He collected it via magic as it was too heavy to lift. By the time he had a pile of it the sun was rising from across the sea. It was ocean here but part of a large bay so directly across from him there was land barely visible as a dark smudge in the distance. Off to his left was nothing but water.
He sat and sorted through the artifacts Dar had been carrying. None of the magic seemed useful to him, so he put it in with the driftwood. The parchments however were more interesting. He slipped those back into his pack. With all that done he took the quickfire ball and placed it gently in the pile. He stepped well back from it. There was nothing else around on the beach.
Reluctantly, he summoned the fragment of magic necessary to set it off and flicked it across the beach. The effect was instantaneous. A huge roar of flame shot high into the air. Orren stepped back further, aware that this could probably be seen far out at sea. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Slowly, the fire settled back down into the shape he had prepared for it. The normally difficult to burn driftwood had taken light like it was kindling. The heat was intense. He was not going to be willing to leave this alone though. He sat down in the sand and pulled out the papers Dar had carried.
The first was a list of the estates, scrawled in bad writing and crossed through. There were seven left on the list including his with a question mark following his name. He balled that up and sent it on a fluttering trajectory into the bonfire.
The next pages included a legal permission to do what they had been doing, more or less. It was signed by the Lord Mayor and more interestingly, by the mayor's mistress -- Sherra. This disturbed Orren. He genuinely tried to avoid any conflict with the locals and he definitely did not want to be on Sherra's bad side. Of the entire town, the sorceress would be the most dangerous enemy to have. The rest of them were barely worth noticing. She had to be the one who had been creating the quickfire spells and handing them out.
The fire was slowing down a little bit. It was fully light out now as well and without looking up from the paper, he became aware he was being watched. He crumpled up the other papers and sent them floating across the beach into the fire like he had the first one. He made certain they went in and were burned. There was no one above him on the cliff that he could see.
The ocean then. He pivoted quickly, unexpectedly towards the water. It turned out to be
unnecessary as she didn't bother to hide herself. A little ways out was a woman's head. She had wet blonde hair plastered against her head and she was staring at him.
He couldn't tell exactly what she was. A mermaid? Something more dangerous? Not that mermaids weren't dangerous. If there was one here though there were likely many.
He didn't see any other movement in the water but surely they were talented at hiding if they so desired.
He walked closer to her, to the edge of the surf. It was shallow here. There was no danger from her, yet.
"Why would you light quickfire?" She asked him. Her voice was soft and lilting.
So he had attracted unwanted attention. Well, that was his own fault. "I'm sorry, I had to destroy it. This seemed like a safe place."
She moved a little closer. There was just a flash of white-grey tail. A mermaid then.
"It is a dangerous thing. You could ignite the water if you are not careful."
"I took precautions."
"You are always reading."
This took him aback.
"Always?"
"I have seen you reading. Up there." A slender arm came out of the water and pointed up to the cliff top.
"Studying normally, yes. Today was a little different." Why was he telling her this? What did she even want?
"Studying..." she repeated thoughtfully. Then, "Who lives here?"
"I do."
"Who else?"
"No one. No humans anyway."
"Others?"
"An alraune. A dryad. A gnome."
She tilted her head to one side, bobbing up and down with the waves. "You are a druid?"
"Yes." Other answers came to mind. He kept it simple.
"So this coast is mostly empty."
"Of people, yes. May I ask why you're asking?"
"I am thinking of living here. I have been living here."
"Here?"
"A large part of this bay, yes."
"How many are you?"
She looked confused. "I am only myself."
"You're alone?"
"Yes. The same as you."
"I just thought the mer were seldom solitary."
She swam much closer now but angled away from the fire which she was still wary of. He could see more of her pearl-colored tail now.
"You're not wrong. I am solitary for now though. I've chosen to be apart." She said it boldly, daring him to challenge her. He did not.
"I have done much the same thing."
"Is my presence here acceptable to you?"
"You don't need my permission to live in the ocean. It is your habitat."
"Still, I don't desire conflict."
It started to dawn on him that a solitary mermaid living on his coast could be exactly what he wanted.
"I would be quite honored to have you here."
"How so?"
"I worry about the sea approach to this land. Your presence would be reassuring."
"What are you asking of me?"
"Nothing. Nothing yet. I don't know. It's just something that bothers me for no rational reason."
"Are you expecting trouble from the sea?"
"No. My kind mostly leaves me alone." He knew that wasn't enough information to appease her. "I've had some traumatic events in my life. I have left that behind but I am still... paranoid. Do you know that word?"
"Of course. I have studied many languages. I have texts of your written language in my cave here."
"Texts?"
"Yes, I brought many with me here."
Orren was intrigued by this.
"Are you a scholar?"
She thought about that. "You could say that yes."
He decided to trust her, or at least to put that trust to the test now. He slipped off his boots and rolled up the pants he was wearing. He waded out towards her. It was a bit rougher and deeper than he expected and he ended up waist-deep, more committed than he had intended. She was only a few feet away now and he could see her dark blue eyes clearly. Her shoulders were out of the water, the swell of her breasts were visible. Just under the water she wore some sort of dark colored fabric band around her chest.
"I am Orren" he said as formally as he could manage while fighting the surf for balance. "I am honored to share conversation with you."
She smiled revealing brilliant white teeth that were also quite sharp. It made her look much more dangerous.
"You know our ways? I am Antonella, the honor is mine druid."
"I have studied your ways but you are the first of your kind I have ever met." In truth, Orren had rarely been close to the ocean before moving here.
"It is deeper down the beach. If you wish to walk down there I will be able to talk to you from nearby and you will not have to stand in the water."
He nodded. "Yes, that might be a good idea." He checked the fire, it was dwindling and seemed safe enough. They went down the beach but not quite around the corner so that he could still keep an eye on the bonfire.
