The Lost Secret of the Silver Sea

Chapter 35: Benched

            “Come on.” Axel grits out as he lowers the net into the water, Kaelonne pants beside him, nails digging into the rope. They fall back into the water with sighs of relief as the net touches the platform gently, muscles burning from the exhaustion. The others move in with bandages and a plethora of other things.

            They were in a small pool of the tank Alister had. Most of the south side of building was near the cliffs and reach underwater. To all for situations like these, maybe not the whole finding an intelligent underwater species who just save your life and now is injured and you have to help him and the safest place to keep an eye on him would be in this open space line of thinking, but the whole having to take care of wild, large sea creatures. Cassian may not be a whale – he wouldn’t take that as an insult, he’s actually quite fond of the gentle creatures – but he would need space to test his fins when he was awake.

It was connected to an area bordered with nets out in the sea, allowing a large, natural, protected area. The entire piece was connected to the research centre. The top had a platform to take care of any inhabitants while there was a small tunnel beneath with ceiling-to-floor glass that allowed anyone standing there to get a good view of the inhabitant if they decided on swimming close.

            Kaelonne got to his feet to help them… only to slip as a sharp pain lances up his ankle. Axel hastily grabs him, sending both of them back in the water. “Sorry.”

            “Nah, not a problem.” Axel safely gets them to their feet this time, Hartley and Nora reaching over to help the pair. “Should really get that checked out though.”

            “We’ll take him. You guys handle here.” Nora leads them back onto dryer ground with a grin. Kaelonne sticks his tongue out at her, accepting the help as they limp and hop down the stairs.

            “We’re going to need a serious mop when we’re done.” Hartley laughs, pointing to the trail of water they’d left behind. Kaelonne shakes his head, trying to dislodge the strands of hair that clung to his face. Nora splutters with a growl as the water splashes on her.

            “Or we could just leave it and pretend that we never saw it.”

            “Not something I ever thought I would’ve heard from you.” Hartley nudges him in the ribs, yelping as the young royal pulls his arm down enough to poke him back.

            “What do you mean?”

            “Well, you’re always kind of the responsible one around here.” Nora shrugs, the trio yelping as they stumbled from the sudden shift in balance. “You dish out rules and follow Alister’s with ease, you and anywhere you work is always pretty neat. You know?”

            “Yea, and you have this way of pulling the attention of the entire room, like you’re used to it.”

            “I guess it’s because I am.” Kaelonne scrunches his nose uncomfortably. Now, with Cassian being a King and his Father’s right hand and now here, it was a fifty-fifty chance of his position as a prince being revealed. Working with them for so long, he was certain that they wouldn’t even think to treat him different but there was so many things to consider now. What he saw on the jetty had him shaken, what he saw in both himself and Hartley couldn’t be reveal just yet. So, he did what he needed to do, “I’m a researcher after all, one of the older workers so it’s usually my job to help out any of the newer ones.”

            “That makes sense.” They hop towards one of the benches Alister had set out around the entire centre, beside it would be a small storage room with cleaning supplies, and a first aid kit. The young royal hissed she prodded and rolled the ankle slightly, wrapping a layer of bandages over the offending limb.

            “Lucky for you, it’s just strained.” Nora tapped the leg, grinning as he hisses and glares at her, “Should take about a week at least before it’s back to normal.”

            “What do we do now?”

            “I guess we wait.” They didn’t have much of a choice to do anything else. With Cassian’s presence, it might be possible that they have new information of the Kingdom and at the very least, help.

            They weren’t able to settle for long as the sound of a pair of hurried footsteps echoed through the halls. Hartley jumps to his feet, not ready to give to hesitation after the exciting morning they had. Nora and Kaelonne keep a careful eye out, the Mermatian’s hand on the human’s shoulder in case he needed to be in action.

            Conan comes around the corner with a troubled look, his business shoes clacking loudly. He doesn’t notice them until he practically knocks shoulders with Hartley. The businessman startles in surprise, reaching out a hand to steady the scientist instinctively.

            “Where have you been?” He asks with wide eyes, not removing his hand from its grip on Hartley’s shoulder. His eyes take in the three ocean wet young adults and then the series of lopsided footsteps that came from deeper in the Research Centre.

            “We were dealing with something, how come you’re here so early?” Nora furrowed her eyebrows, Kaelonne was far too happy that someone else besides him didn’t trust the man.

            “I had some new designs that I wanted you to see before I go into work today.” At the uncomfortable tension building in the halls, he continues, “I originally went to check Alister’s office, but he wasn’t there, so I went by the place you all were staying.”

            “Yea… we forgot the doors open, didn’t we?” Hartley rubbed his neck with a not so apologetic look. He couldn’t believe that was almost two hours ago. They’d needed to move quickly, he didn’t feel regret for forgetting something like that, but it did make well for stretching out the conversation with the businessman.

            “Yes… what happened?” He gestured to Kaelonne’s foot and his rather odd lacking of shoes. Nora and Hartley glances at the Mermatian, clearly asking for permission. It was his story to tell after all. He shakes his head slightly and turns his full attention on the man in front of him. Conan’s face was in the perfect form of worried and confused and Kaelonne literally had no reason not to trust him, but a voice nagged at the back of his head and at the moment, he was willing to trust it more. If Conan were a good man, he would understand if they did decide to tell him later on.

            “Decided to go for a swim this morning, didn’t end well unfortunately.” The young royal plasters a fake look of embarrassment with a little of remorse. This was his element, sort of, built from years of dealing with Mermatians looking for reassurance and a brave face. It didn’t make him feel as guilty as he usually did, unsurprisingly. He watched carefully as Conan’s expression melted slightly into one of disbelief.

            “In that storm?” He gestured vaguely with his hand, taking a more relaxed stance.

            “Yea, crazy, I know. Alister practically blew my ear off about it.” Hartley shook his head rubbed the bridge of his nose, playing the part of disgruntled friend.

            “Where is Alister? If you don’t mind me asking.” Conan switches topics, clearly not eager to hear about their early morning antics. “Madeline and Axel for that matter as well.”

            “Alister got an early call about a killer whale they’re bringing in.” Nora takes over, her tone going all business like. “His tail was caught in one of the fishing ship’s nets so they’ll have him here until he’s strong enough. He need the extra hands, and since it’s so early and not much of the other workers are here, Madeline and Axel volunteered.”

            “And you three?”

            “Kaelonne took a strained ankle on the rocks this morning, so we offered to help him get it taped.” Hartley nods his head to the opened first aid kit on the side of the bench.

            “I see… I’ll be in the conference room. I’ll set everything up there, check it out when you have the chance.” With that, Conan fixed the already neat collar of his shirt, walking off until the clicking of his shoes faded. He was completely ignorant of the raised eyebrows the trio shot at his back.

            After a few seconds of complete silence, they broke off into snickers and chuckles. They had no particular reason to, but the entire situation was just awkward.

            “What do you reckon that was about?” Nora leaned her weight on Kaelonne, Hartley taking residence on his other side. They were still pretty soaked, and cold now in the presence of the air-conditioned halls, but it didn’t hamper their mood. 

            “I’m not entirely sure, but I feel kind of bad for laughing.” Kaelonne scrunched his nose, resting his injured foot carefully on top the other as he leaned back on the wall.

            “I don’t.” Hartley’s snickers lead to another bout of laughter. It might be the stressful situation catching up to them, or the entire morning really, too much salt from the water in their lungs causing this.

            But Kaelonne could feel a little knot of tension loosening in his chest finally. He knew he wasn’t alone, but he felt a little relief at the thought of having another Mermatian at his side. Hopefully, he could get some answers soon.