Wjae’s life always had a routine. As one of the prince’s personal guard, most of that routine was decided for him - and had been for some time. His months alternated sequentially between heavy duty and light duty; heavy duty consisted of guarding Obal for five days a week with two to himself, while light duty only had him guarding Obal three days. Though, as friends, he often spent time with the prince on his off-days as well. 

He had started his surveillance of Derra during a light duty month - and continued to spend most of his off duty time with the human prince practicing sign language. In that time, he began to learn other things about Derra as well. 

Firstly, like Obal, Derra had more than one personal guard. However, unlike the dozen or so Obal had, Derra only had three - Peyn, Lenyer, and Yashol. 

Lenyer was a lanky tan-skinned man with dark yellow hair and dark spots all over him. Wjae hadn’t even realized humans had skin patterns, but he also supposed the spotting was only visible from close up. 

It was after two weeks that Wjae first met him - he supposed it took that long for Peyn to trust another guard around Derra. That, or he was tired after near constant surveillance. Both ideas had equal merit in the shark mer’s mind. 

Lenyer, however, had not impressed Wjae when he screamed in surprise at Wjae surging onto the dock and tipped his chair into the water. 

“Sorry,” Derra chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, “We told him you do this, but…”

Wjae shook his head, debating whether or not he should help the man back onto the dock. He didn’t particularly want to, but he supposed it would be polite. It could also scare him worse to be in the water with a shark mer at the same time. 

Lenyer ultimately swam to a nearby boat to pull himself out of the water - the tide had gone out and so the dock was too high for him to reach on his own. The man sputtered and wiped at the water on his face, pushing his hair back as he stomped back down the dock. 

Wjae obligingly slid back to give the guard room to put himself between the shark mer and Derra. 

“D-don’t… ugh,” Lenyer sighed, sliding along the far edge of the dock all the same. He sat cross-legged where the chair had been, and said, “Uh, he… hello. I’m Lenyer.”

“His sister is one of my ladies-in-waiting,” Derra added, holding his sketchbook up to hide his smile at his guard’s discomfort. 

“What does that have to do with anything…?” Lenyer asked, futilely wringing water out of his hair. 

Wjae pulled himself back up the dock, and noted how Lenyer reached for his waist - it was empty of human weapons, but the habit was unmistakable. The shark mer only wondered if it had been Derra or Peyn who made sure the twitchy man was unarmed. 

Ignoring the gesture, he tilted his head at Derra and made the sign for ‘question.’

Derra opened his mouth, then paused and considered before asking, “Do you not know what a lady-in-waiting is, or why I have one?”

Wjae held up one finger to indicate the first - though he supposed both would be the more accurate reply. 

The prince nodded, “Ladies-in-waiting are… well they’re… they’re my attendants and companions - does that make sense?”

Wjae nodded - yes, he knew what attendants were. Obal had his own, of course, including Alja. Which made Lenyer’s nerves make sense - if he were only appointed as a point of favoritism for a friend, his clear inexperience as a guard despite being assigned to a prince was… not excusable, but understandable. 

The shark mer did not know why he should be confused that Derra had attendants, though - and as he lacked the vocabulary to ask and the human prince chose not to elaborate, he supposed it was a question for another day. 

As usual, they spent most of their time going over hand signs - mostly by Derra talking about his life and signing along. 

That was how Wjae had learned Derra was the oldest of six siblings, and that humans did, in fact, have a king and queen. They lived on a large archipelago to the east, with most of Derra’s siblings - Derra had grown up with his grandfather on the atoll to keep the old man company away from court. 

Wjae felt there were parts of this story that didn’t make sense - as the oldest sibling, would Derra not have been in training to take the throne, rather than staying with his grandfather? 

These were things he placed in the back of his mind for when he had the fluency to ask. 

Yashol, an older woman with weathered sepia brown skin and graying black hair that grew in short cropped tight coils, was there the next time Wjae came to visit. She didn’t even stir when the mer came up onto the dock, appearing for all the world asleep in her chair. 

“I got a letter from my brother today,” Derra opened with, “Coran, the crown prince? He wrote saying he thought he saw a mer off the coast of his villa.”

<<Who?>> Wjae signed - it was the closest he could come to ‘what kind of mer’, though he already had his suspicions. 

“He said he only saw a flash of red and white scales,” Derra replied, continuing to sign along with his words - even with his chuckle, “I don’t suppose you’d know of anyone that far out, though?”

Humans, Wjae knew, did not range as far as mer did - they and their ship were much slower. And the archipelago where Derra’s siblings resided was far from here, especially in human terms. 

Wjae considered how to say he had a suspicion that the mer his brother had seen was Obal, but didn’t know for sure - so settled with signing both yes and no. 

Derra frowned, mouthing words without speaking them until he perked up in realization, “Maybe? You might know who it is?”

Wjae nodded, copying the sign for ‘maybe’ a few times to help commit it to memory. 

“Should I tell him he has nothing to worry about, then?” Derra asked, “He said he doesn’t plan to tell anyone else but me, but he’s still… wary.”

Wjae’s gills flared briefly in indignation, but he schooled himself - if it were Obal, and likely it was, then Obal was sneaking near a human territory. If humans approached Obal’s territory the same way, he would also be… wary. 

<<Safe,>> he signed in answer, planning to speak to Obal about it as soon as he returned. 

“I’ll let him know,” Derra smiled in reply, “He might go down to the shore, so if that mer wants to meet him…”

“Don’t encourage a mer to swim that close to a royal villa,” Yashol said suddenly, peeking one amber brown eye open, “Prince Coran and Jasha are fine, but if any guards spot a mer, they’ll react first and ask question later.”

Wjae flinched in surprise, having almost forgotten the woman was present - though he certainly approved of the sentiment. Jasha, he knew, was Coran’s mate - or wife, as the humans put it. 

“Not at Coran’s private beach, they won’t - not if he tells them not to,” Derra replied, then sighed, “But I suppose it might be harder to get to…”

Wjae didn’t want to encourage the meeting either - but he knew he couldn’t not stop Obal, or Aljae if it was ae that had made an appearance instead, so if there were ways to make their contact with humans safer, he should leverage them. 

He carefully reached over and picked up Derra’s drawing tablet, gently turning the page to a blank one. He tapped it, and looked up at Derra. 

“… I… don’t think I understand…?” the human prince chuckled nervously. 

“A map,” Yashol said closing her eye again, “He wants you to draw a map.”

Wjae nodded in agreement.

“Oh!” Derra smiled, “Well, my cartography isn’t very good, but I could have one with me next time you come to visit?” 

Wjae nodded again - he was sure he could at least convince whichever of his lionfish friends that were attempting contact to wait for a plan. And the clandescant air of meeting in a private area would appeal to both of their senses of adventure. 

He spent another few hours listening to Derra speak and practicing signs, hearing more stories about the human prince’s family. Yashol barely stirred, but Wjae suspected she was highly attentive - just more relaxed about it than Peyn. 

Wjae’s mother was the same way - her experience allowed her to have a sense for people and situations. She could be completely relaxed from a lack of hostility and still react fast as an eel snapping up prey to a sudden threat - so the shark mer treated Yashol with the same kind of respect in his mind.