Kazimir stared at him for a long, long time after he heard the words he couldn't believe he heard.

The same scars?

That couldn't be right, humans didn't have these scars, they weren't scars anyway, they were marks that were disguised to fool humans.

He surely just had strange scars that Cole took to look the same as his, out of confusion.

Humans were stupid.

They were unobservant.

They didn't think.

Cole was wrong, he had to be...

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

Kazimir, dazed, looked up. "What?" he said, confused.

"Your eyes; they look...the colour looks different... were they always that shade of blue?"

Kazimir looked blankly at him, thrown by the question that was completely irrelevant in that moment.

Eyes? Who cared about his eyes?

Moving away, he drifted to one of the chairs, slowly taking a seat, looking out over the ocean.

He needed to see the scars for himself.

It was ridiculous to believe anything Cole said just because he said it.

He had no idea what he was looking at.

He had no idea what the markings meant.

He was making speculations about things he had no knowledge of.

He was making assumptions, trying to find connections where there weren't any.

Dalton didn't belong to the sea.

Simple as that.

He belonged at land. He had never shown any interest in the sea.

Aeralie would have reached for him in an instant if he'd shown any inclination but he hadn't. He was made for the earth.

"What do they mean?"

Kazimir looked up to see Cole stood by his chair, hand on the back rest, looking down at him.

"Those scars; what do they mean?"

"They're just scars," Kazimir said.

"What caused them?"

"I've always had them."

"You know, it's odd... it feels like I only just remembered this and yet I don't see how I could forget such a thing. You're not the first person I've seen with them – excluding Dalton."

Kazimir looked up at him in shock as Cole moved and took a seat opposite, looking out at the ocean.

Others.

Cole had met others?

Other merfolk who could transform and move on land. They would bare the same marks. But he shouldn't have remembered them. He didn't remember them.

Until just now.

The enchantment they would have cast across him had just worn off.

How?!

How could this person – this human – shake off years of enchantment?

How could he break through Kazimir's power so that he could resist the pull of desire? Even if Kazimir's pride wasn't hurt by it, it simply didn't happen!

Cole looked at him and he blinked back into focus.

"Those strange marks, they look like scars in colour but they aren't carved by any weapon I've ever seen. I met a man once, across the world in a land of baking sun. His skin was as black as night and yet on his body were markings, just like those, in a searing white, I've never seen anything so striking on the skin. And I met a woman in a country they call the Land of The Rising Sun and her pale skin was covered with markings, again, just like yours. The patterns varied, I've seen... must be four people over the years and the markings varied... but they always had that."

He reached forwards and gently moved Kazimir's collar away from his neck, revealing the spot that hid the Heart.

"They always had that mark, in the same place. You have it as well. So does Dalton. On the rare occasions we could communicate, those people always said the same thing; scars, nothing more. But there has to be more to it. They're so distinct. Your scars are so like Dalton's, so close they could be identical."

"What does Dalton say about them?" Kazimir muttered.

Cole leant back. "That they're scars from birth."

"And you can't leave it at that?"

"You know, when you first arrived, I thought you reminded me of someone."

Kazimir looked at him. "Who? We've never met."

"No, we haven't but you still remind me of that merman Dalton caught a couple of months back. My memory is... for some reason foggy but I'm sure he had similar marks."

Kazimir looked at him. He slowly blinked.

Cole shouldn't remember that. The fog bank of enchantment in his mind created by Aeralie and Kazimir's enchanted forms should have lulled such detail from his memory.

... What was going on?

"Mermaids don't exist," he said, his voice quiet and blunt.

"This one did."

"A hoax."

"The ones in the sea did."

Kazimir closed his eyes. "Delusions. Sea faring folk are prone to problems of the mind. You saw a fish."

"They weren't fish."

"Well what does it have to do with anything?" Kazimir snapped, glaring at him, "What do you want me to say? That I'm half-tuna when the sun goes down? Semi-goldfish if I fall in the pond? Dalton and I share the same scars, I happens. It doesn't mean anything. You were fooled by an elaborate hoax. He probably got the idea to paint whatever markings you saw on the person – in a fish costume – from his own scars. What you saw at sea would be nothing but sharks and manatees. And these scars?"

He reached up and unbuttoned his shirt, pulling it aside to reveal the curling, beautiful markings that mere hours before had been glitter silver.

"These scars the remains of years of abuse," he said bluntly – hating to defile his marks with just painful imagery. But if it got the point across...

He looked up and glared at Cole.

"If you must know the truth, there's no magic or glamour there. You and I both know Dalton has suffered in his past. Maybe the reason he said they were from birth was because he didn't want to talk about it. Neither do I."

He yanked his shirt back into place and stood up.

"If you want, sure, I'll take a look. We can see what's so special about our scars, but you'll find no joy in the endeavour."

Cole looked up and opened his mouth only to stop as the door opened and a maid jumped at the sight of them.

"Sorry! Sir. Captain De Val," she said bowing quickly. "I didn't realise anyone was still here."

"What do you want?" Kazimir snapped.

"Lady Ruthfield left her fan," the maid squeaked.

Kazimir glared for a moment, then relaxed. "Of course," he said, "carry on. We were finished anyway."

"Kazimir," Cole hissed.

"Excuse me then," Kazimir said before sweeping out, racing down the stairs, leaving Cole to catch up.

He found Aeralie and Dalton in one the tea rooms, enjoying themselves – a strangely relaxed atmosphere around them that Kazimir would have taken to be the result of Aeralie giving up and thus actually enjoying Dalton's company rather than continually craving it, if he had been paying any attention to that of course.

"You look harassed, what's he done this time?" Dalton asked, taking a sip of his tea and having the nerve to look amused.

"He was telling me about your scars," Kazimir shot back and that wiped the smile of his face.

"Why would he mention that?" Dalton said darkly, straightening up.

Aeralie raised an eyebrow at Kazimir, then looked at Dalton.

"He was commenting on them because I have some extreme scarring on my torso, he was just talking about the similarities."

Dalton snorted though his glare remained. "There aren't scars similar to mine," he said.

"No?"

Dalton glanced around them to see who was paying attention, then turned his back on the room and quickly opened his waistcoat, undid the top few buttons of his shirt and pulled the collar down so they had a clear, shocking view of the scars that spanned from his under his collarbone and vanishing down below his shirt, the other two leaning forwards to see.

"You're right, there aren't scars like yours," Kazimir said as Dalton quickly redressed himself and swept his hair back from his face, settling back in his seat like nothing had changed.

Aeralie suddenly held up a hand.

"Yes, Your Highness?" Kazimir said automatically.

She made a hand signal and Kazimir nodded.

"Of course. We'll be right back, Princess Aeralie wishes to collect a shawl from her room."

"Of course," Dalton said, picking up his tea again, not really paying the any attention.

Aeralie linked her arm through Kazimir's and they glided out of the tearoom, smiling to Jazz and Cynthia as they passed the couple discussing their plans to leave with one of their own personal servants and making their way back up to Aeralie's rooms, Aeralie sweeping in and heading for a chest of draws.

Kazimir's gently closed the door behind him with a soft click before they whirled towards each other, staring, eyes wide, mouths open, Aeralie pointing at the door.

"He's a merman!" she snarled, "He has markings just like us!"

"We don't know that for sure," Kazimir shot back, "They could be real scars."

"Oh what are the chances?!" Aeralie scoffed, "Did you not see where his Heart would be hidden? And what scars look like that? What could make those intricate patterns?"

"Burning oil?"

"What sort of tortious lifestyle do you think he's led?!"

"It hasn't been great."

"It wasn't burning oil or water or tar or any other awful torture you can come up with. Those are markings of merfolk, just like us!"

"But he's never been part of the sea!" Kazimir snapped, "He's always been on land. He's always been human. He didn't show any sign of... of... of being one of us when he caught me! It was like he was proving something! He was proving to The Queen that merfolk existed. If he were a merman, he could just transform."

"And his mother, who hates him anyway, does what? Sticks him straight in a cage?"

Kazimir had already dismissed the idea the moment he said it of course. The queen thought Dalton insane as it was, she thought him a freak. If he suddenly grew a tail and gills, she'd have every reason to just get rid of him.

"What if he doesn't know?"

Kazimir blinked and looked up as Aeralie took a seat at her vanity table.

"Doesn't know?" he copied.

She nodded. "What if he really doesn't know?"

"That's impossible. How could he possibly not know? How could the sea not have told him?"

"If he's been on land his entire life, he might not know who to talk to the sea."

"No, he and the sea have been as close as you can get, when he was a child. Don't you remember what started this whole mess? He fell in the sea in a storm and you insisted on saving him. The sea didn't try and help him then. It tried to drown him like the rest of the crew."

Aeralie suddenly looked up. "No it didn't," she said, eyes wide, remembering, "No, he confused the sea. It didn't know what to do with him. That's not the same thing. Of course the sea would be confused if Dalton had somehow grown up on land and never been acquainted with the ocean."

Kazimir ran a hand through his hair, frustrated by the turn of events.

"I still don't understand how he couldn't know," he said, "He would surely want to change. His human form can't be comfortable."

"What if he can't?"

"How do you mean?"

"What if The Heart we stole from the queen is his? I don't know what happens if you lose your Heart but I know it's bad," Aeralie explained but Kazimir was already shaking his head.

"No, no, remember, my mother said the owner of that heart was dead long ago," he said.

Aeralie pursed her lips, thinking.

"My mother is meeting us tonight, let's tell her then," Kazimir said.

Aeralie was quiet for a moment, then nodded. "Alright, let's do that. But we should go down now; we were only supposed to collect a shawl."

The got up quickly, heading for the door, then Aeralie remembered she hadn't actually collected a shawl, rushed back to the draws, pulled one out and they hurried back in time to talk to Cynthia and Jazz and hear they were leaving that afternoon. 

~~~~

Next up: Thursday 

Art By: Re

Ok! Get ready! Next chapter is gonna... suck. No easier way to put it, it's awful. Not in writing style, in content... you'll see - it'll hurt... well it'd better hurt. It wont surprise you... just hurt lol

Also!

I'm messing around doing a BATB trailer after watching @Pennywithaney trailer for her Cinderella retelling (do watch it if you haven't, it's a great trailer for a great book) but i figured, since i'm going back to making videos, let's do a fanart vid! it's been AAAAGGGGGES!!!!!

If anyone is interested, PM me if you don't have my email to send it over and we'll do a vid. Let's chat, we haven't chatted in so long. Anything anyone wants to chat about?