The pair of security goons returned before Dr. Emerson and the promised meal. They unceremoniously dragged another mermaid out and dumped her in the corner of the pool about fifteen feet away from us. She seemed to be wearing metal bracers like ours, but there was a thick chain connected to the rings over her wrists, effectively handcuffing her. Another chain, no more than ten feet long connected to that chain was secured to a large metal ring at the corner of the pool with a padlock, restricting her range of movement.

I felt bad for her since there wasn’t enough length in the chain to reach the bottom of the pool, she would just sort of be held up by her arms like the denizen of some medieval dungeon without being able to rest properly. As soon as she was secured, the pair of jerks left the pool room by what seemed to be the main exit, locking it behind them. Once they were gone the three of us swam to the corner to check on the other mermaid and get a closer look at her.

She looked to be close to the same age as Kara and me. She had lightly tanned skin and her hair and the scales on her tail were both a striking mix of orange and gold, with pale, translucent, and ruffled orange fins that were identical to mine and Kara’s in size, shape, and location in relation to our bodies. The tail ended in the now-familiar clover-shaped trio and the four large ones at her hips were currently wrapped around her protectively as she slept, almost like a skirt. I wondered if that was the default for adult mermaids and if Jenny just didn’t have them yet because she was still a kid.

She was unconscious from whatever tranquilizer that they had hit her with and she had many cuts and bruises that were healing practically before our eyes. A couple of spots had large waterproof bandages applied. If her wounds were healing that fast, then I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know how bad they’d been before Dr. Emerson had gotten to her.

I wondered whether she was a real mermaid or if she used to be human like us. What little I’d overheard while I was still supposed to be unconscious indicated that Pierce thought her to be savage, which was probably why they thought that we were all little more than animals. I was pretty sure that Pierce was an arrogant dick though and that our former merman probably deserved what she did to him. I was willing to give this new arrival the benefit of the doubt since she was in the same boat as us but, to be safe, I felt that we should probably keep our distance at first.

That was when Jenny swam awkwardly toward the sunset-hued mermaid before I could voice a warning, a confused expression on her face. “Jenny…” Kara said in warning, reaching out to grab her sister by the shoulder.

“I… she’s hurt… I can’t… I need to…” the younger sibling said, almost in a daze as she shook free of her sister’s gentle grip and placed her hands on one of the new arrival’s many visible cuts, which were now little more than scratches. It was about then that I noticed that Jenny’s hands were glowing bright gold and that glow spread from her hands to cover the other mermaid when Jenny made contact with her skin.

I let out a gasp of surprise, bubbles escaping from between my lips. I had thought that ‘subject alpha’ was healing quickly before, but it was nothing compared to how quickly she healed while encased in that golden glow. The visible cuts and bruises healed almost instantly but it was a moment before the glow finally faded and Jenny removed her hands from the older mermaid with a look of shock and confusion on her face. “Wh-what did I just do?”

~ You used your aetral, child. You have my thanks, for healing my wounds and removing that foul substance from my body. I am Kieshala. ~ The golden and orange mermaid had her eyes open and locked on the three of us, and despite hearing an unfamiliar voice, I couldn’t see her lips moving or any telltale bubbles as she spoke.

I was so confused that I just sort of gaped at her as Kara asked, “Aetral? Is that some kind of mermaid magic?”

“Not mermaid!” Kieshala hissed audibly, baring her fangs in anger before seeming to realize what she was doing and making an effort to calm herself. Then in a calmer tone and again without moving her lips, ~ I apologize. Please, do not call us that. That is a human word and humans have taken everything from me, from all four of us. We are Naethari; people created by the Natrir and bound to the primal magic of our world long before humans walked the earth. The aetral is an expression of our souls and of our bond to that primal magic, and every Naethari has one. They are a Healer. ~ The last was said as she pointed toward Jenny with one of her manacled hands.

“I hate to break it to you but we are humans, or at least we were,” I told her carefully in my musical voice.

~ Oh! A Soulsinger, how wonderful! ~ she said with a smile that lit up her face. After a moment though she seemed to realize what I had just said and gave us all a sympathetic look. ~ I am afraid that you must put your human lives behind you, there is no going back now that you have fed on my flesh. You are all fortunate that you had a spark of magic within you and did not fight the process or you would be dead. ~

“Fed on your…” I started to ask before I remembered the strange sushi that had been my last meal as a human. I had eaten a person or at least pieces of one. “I think I’m gonna be sick.” Kara and Jenny didn’t look much better than I felt, both were looking a little green around the gills, if you’ll pardon the expression.

~ Be glad that you were not on my end, ~ the gold and orange Naethari retorted. ~ You are Naethari now, you must learn our ways and we must escape this place. ~

“We’re working on that. We’ll need to be patient and pretend to be the dumb animals that they think we are so they underestimate us, while I find a way to contact some friends on the outside to help us,” I told her absently. I was still trying to figure out what was bothering me so much about how she was talking to us, other than the fact that she seemed to be in our heads.

It was like she was speaking directly into our minds and even though I was pretty damn sure it wasn’t English or Chinese, I could understand her perfectly. “That’s… not English. How can I understand you?” Kara asked uncertainly, seeming to come to the same conclusion.

~ It is the language of our people of course. Obviously, you have all passed the age of your first metamorphosis. Two of you have passed your second metamorphosis, so of course, you can understand me, ~ Kieshala said as if that explained everything. Seeing that we were all still confused though she sighed and offered, ~ Do not speak aloud, just direct your thoughts to who you are speaking with. Our minds were created for this and the Naethari language is what you might call a racial memory, it comes instinctively once we have passed our first metamorphosis. ~

~ What is the first metamorphosis? ~ Jenny asked, seemingly following the older Naethari’s instructions. It was probably a good idea for us to get used to that since it would give us a way to silently communicate.

~ I will explain later, one of the humans comes, ~ Kieshala said as we could hear the doors being worked.

~ It’s probably Dr. Emerson with our dinner. We should all go up and be social. Maybe if you can convince her that you’re friendly with us and won’t hurt anyone, then you won’t be put in that room alone again. ~ I suggested as we all made our way to the surface in the corner of the pool.

When we surfaced, Dr. Emerson was rolling a cart with five large metal buckets on it toward the pool. As she got closer she seemed to realize that we weren’t where she had left us, and the moment that she saw us clustered around Kieshala her scent became tangier and sharper somehow. She approached cautiously, calling out. “I have food for you, girls. You really shouldn’t get too close to her, I’ve been told that she’s feral. Oh, she’s awake.”

~ She keeps her calm well, for someone who stinks of fear, ~ Kieshala commented casually as Dr. Emerson seemed to brace herself and continued her approach holding her hand out in front of her. ~ What is she saying? I have been learning the language of these humans but it is slow, I still do not understand much of it. ~

~ She doesn’t call us ‘it’ either, ~ Kara remarked. ~She’s worried about us; I think that asshole Pierce told her that you’re feral. I don’t think she sees us as stupid, probably something close to dolphins, intelligent but not quite human. And the way she’s talked to us so far, it’s almost like how some pet owners talk to their fur babies. ~

~ We are not pets to be owned, ~ Kieshala hissed.

~ Let’s keep the act up though, she seems nicer than the other people here but I’m not sure if we can trust her with how smart we really are yet. We can’t just stay quiet though, we have to look like we’re actually communicating with one another. Kieshala, you should probably make a show of getting her scent at least. I know it’s probably going to be hard being friendly with a human, with the way most of them treat us, but can you at least try not to be outright hostile until we can escape? ~ I suggested as the elder Naethari had placed herself between us and Dr. Emerson, giving a warning hiss and baring her fangs.

The elder Naethari made an obvious display of taking a deep breath to get Dr. Emerson’s scent and calmed down as she turned to us and emitted a series of clicks and whistles. ~ I will teach you all to speak porpoise, it is an easy enough language to learn, and I will attempt to control my anger unless we are directly threatened. Are you certain that your ‘friends’ will help us? ~

~ If I can convince them of who I am and of what’s happening here, yeah. It’s the only plan we have at the moment, ~ I replied as Dr. Emerson seemed to lose some of her fear. She was mumbling excitedly about language and dolphins as she began to bring the buckets off the cart close enough for us to inspect.

All of us except Kieshala looked dubiously at the buckets. One was practically overflowing with seaweed while the others contained raw shrimp, clams, and whitefish in ice water to keep them fresh. A final bucket contained some oranges. ~ It’s raw, ~ Jenny stated with obvious disgust. I don’t think any of us were happy about the idea of eating raw fish so soon after being told that our last meal had been mermaid sushi.

~Of course it is, it would be better if it were something that we caught ourselves though. Eat, you will need your energy, ~ Kieshala told us, following with a series of whistles and clicks from her mouth. None of us were too happy about it but she was right. We were all hungry and practicing our swimming had used up a lot of energy. So we followed the elder Naethari’s lead and ate.

Kieshala showed us how to properly pry open the clams with our claws and suck down the meat inside and made sure that we all ate a bit of everything, whistling and clicking her instructions even as she spoke them mentally. The clams and fish weren’t bad but I found the shrimp especially tasty. The kelp had an odd taste and was a bit salty but the oranges were pure heaven, even if Kieshala insisted that we eat them with the peels intact when I tried to use a claw to cut one open. It made sense, I guess, since we were playing dumb animals and I heard once that the peels have even more vitamin C and fiber than the inner fruit.

Dr. Emerson backed off a bit while we ate and watched us in interest. After a while, she produced a cell phone from her back pocket. That was really tempting but I needed to wait until we had her trust and the others could distract her for long enough for me to slip it away somehow and make use of the opportunity. The moment that she said, “Hello, Mr. Pierce,” I became very interested in eavesdropping with my amazing hearing while we ate.

Pierce was not happy that his breeding stud was dead but she pointed out that ‘subject alpha’ was injured and that they knew nothing about the social behavior or mating practices of ‘mermaids’. She might not have even been ‘in season’. He became very interested though when he found out that Kieshala not only hadn’t attacked Dr. Emerson or any of us but also seemed to be trying to teach us.

It was pretty obvious that they didn’t think of us in the same way. She mostly gushed about how fascinating we were, how she was starting to develop a relationship of trust with us, and how eager she was to learn more about our social behavior. He, on the other hand, was hoping that the growing bond between us and Kieshala could be used to finally tame her and train us all properly.

Finally, the call ended with Pierce deciding that he wanted to see this behavior firsthand. He would come the next afternoon before dinner to observe us and assess the situation. If he found that Dr. Emerson could indeed handle us as well as she claimed, he would allow Kieshala to stay in the same pool as us and remove her chains. Any of us who attacked anyone would be separated from the others though until the behavior could be ‘corrected’. Great, now we just needed to put on a show and hope that we could all keep our cool enough to not try to kill the motherfucker on sight.