Kaito gulped and struggled to hide his growing fear. "What book?" he asked.

His father gave him a look of uncertainty. "The one you are holding."

His jaw set and he glanced down at the book. "Oh! This one! Silly me, I forgot I had this. I'll just go put it back now." He turned on his heels to go.

"Wait, Kaito." His father's voice sent a jolt down Kai's spine. Damn. "Why do you have that book?"

He faced his father slowly. Kai shrugged, feigning innocence. "Just a bit of light reading."

Torin rolled his eyes and said, "If it is not too bold, Governor, your son is the worst liar in the entirety of Port Royal."

His father shook his head, letting out a chuckle with no humor behind it escape his lips. "I have to agree with you there, Torin." His father held out his hand to Kai. "Please, give me the book, Kaito."

Sighing – quite dramatically, his father might say – Kai handed the book ti his father. Rikan read the title and eyed the book with concern. He constantly changed his line of sight from the book, to Kai, to the book, then Kai again. "What are you doing with a book about Lunars?"

Again, Kai tried and failed to avoid the truth. "I thought it would be an interesting subject to learn. Seeing as how you plan to marry me off to Levana to appease her."

The remark shocked Rikan and Torin, as both of them showed in on their faces. Kai had been hiding that he knew that for a couple of years now. She'd made the request years ago, but Rikan always turned her down when the subject rose from the depth. They had never told Kai, he'd over heard it by chance one day.

Torin was aghast, though he did not question the accusation. Rikan took a different stance. "I was planning of no such thing. Levana may have suggested it, but I do not intend to allow that ... that witch to marry you, Kaito. I would never let it come to that."

It still stung that Rikan never told Kai outright that it was something that could happen. That he'd overheard it on his Birthday of all days. But Kaito was twenty-years-old now. He was an adult, and could make choices of his own.

Now, he was making his own choice.

"Well, I think I found a way so it will never have to." Kai approached his father and turned the book back to the page with the information on the tattoos. "After I was kidnapped, I was taken to Cinder's Blacksmith shop. She rescued me and protected me from the pirate and-"

"I know what she did," his father interjected. "Why is that important?"

Kai continued, "Because she was arrested for being a Lunar." At the mention of it, Rikan rolled his eyes. Kai already pleaded with his father so many times to pardon Cinder and allow her to go free. It wasn't her fault that she was a Lunar. But now, it could be the reason why hundreds of lives are saved.

"Cinder's mark is not the one of a normal Lunar. Her's is one that signifies Royal heritage. Which is this one, here." He pointed to the Royal Lunar tattoo. "It's the same one Levana has. So she has to be the true heir to the Throne. That's why Levana wants to find her so badly. Because Cinder can make a claim to the throne and ruin Levana's empire!"

Intrigued, Rikan studied the drawing of the tattoo. "And you're sure that this is the tattoo Cinder has?"

Kai felt lighter at the sound of his father calling Cinder by her name, and not just "the Lunar" or "That girl who got arrested".

"Yes," he said. "I'm sure of it. She is the heir to the Throne. But .. there's just one, small problem."

Rikan and Torin gave Kai confused glances. "She has no idea that she's the heir."

Rikan seemed to think it absurd. "How can she not know of her own birthright?"

"Well, she didn't have any idea that she was Lunar, and I suppose no one told her that the flourishes around her mark mean she has Royal Blood. Levana's trying to keep it secret so word doesn't get out and she doesn't lose her hold on Luna. I doubt anyone she's around now would tell her, if they even knew that is." Kai's stomach turned again as he though of her .. with the pirate she'd escaped with.

When Kai looked at his father, he looked in horror at the same idea. "If she's still with that pirate, he might sell her off or use her if he finds out she's the heir."

"And if Levana gets to her first," Torin added, "Then the girl will surely be killed."

"Destroying our chances of replacing Levana as the ruler of Luna," Rikan finished. He looked to Kai, "We have to find that girl. She may be our last hope to making peace between Port Royal and Luna."

Kai agreed. Though he wanted to save Cinder because she was in danger. Not because of her heritage. His father had to be persuaded to aid Cinder somehow, and if this was it, Kai had to be grateful. Still, he couldn't help the building distaste at his father's disregard for Cinder's welfare.

Rikan and Torin left to make preparations for a search for Cinder and her associate, as they called him. Allowing Kaito to keep the book on Lunars and the solitude of his own room back. He sat on his bed with the book beside him.

Back in the days after he'd first heard about the ideas of a marriage alliance between himself and Levana, Kai had searched for every possible way out of such a marriage. The only thing he'd found was a story about a daughter of Queen Channary, named Selene. Kai thought she could be his ticket out of being chained to Levana for an eternity. After years of searching, he found nothing but a connection to the crown by a Gareth Linh. Which is why he found the Blacksmith shop, and met Cinder in the first place.

At that moment, it dawned on him that Cinder could actually be Selene, and just have no memory of it. She could have been taken as a baby and never told her real name or title.

That was the ignorance Levana was preying on as leverage. The upper hand the Evil Queen currently had over the true heir to the throne. No matter, Kai thought. Cinder will soon know the truth.

Soon, they would send a ship to find her. Kai would be on it, and be the first to tell Cinder of her true identity. He would take her away from the scummy pirates and blasted criminals. She could come back to Port Royal again.

................

Seeing the island Thorne was hiding his ship on, Cinder never wished to return to Port Royal again. Stars, the island was more fruitful and lush than any plot of land she had ever seen in her life. The trees brushed the bellies of the clouds, the water was clear as light, the shrubbery green as ... well, shrubbery.

The mountain towards the back of the island was calling to Cinder, daring her to climb it. The sand glistened with the suns rays, beaming up at her. The pools of fresh water in the mist of the forested area couldn't have tasted sweeter.

"It seems to me like you've never left Port Royal before," Thorne mused. "I wonder why."

Cinder rolled her eyes and took another sip of fresh water. She swiped the back of her hand over her lips. "I never got the chance. My stepmother never let me leave, and I didn't have enough money to buy passage off that port."

Bewildered, Thorne inquired, "Then why didn't you just stow away, or steal a ship?"

She couldn't help but smile. "Because there was a time when I wasn't a criminal, and would do anything to keep a spotless record."

"Ah," Thorne smiled back. "What's changed, then?"

"Getting arrested and sentenced to an appointment with the Gallows for being Lunar."

He humphed, "That'll do that to you."

The questions Cinder had about Thorne's past ebbed at her. She constantly wondered how someone Thorne cared for could have come by mermaid tears, or if that person was a mermaid themselves. It was possible, thought Cinder was curious as to how that relationship started. Was he drowning and they saved him? Had he cut them out of a net or trap of some sort? Had they just found one another and gotten inexplicably confused? Cinder knew she would have been enthralled with inquiries and uncertainty if she'd met a half-human, half-fish creature.

Cinder noted that referring to a mermaid as a half anything might set Thorne off in the worst way, so she reminded herself every second not to. But she had to be outright with her first question.

"Is the person who gave you the tears a mermaid?" she inquired, meeting his gaze. A gaze he instantly turned from, allowing a scowl to form where his smile had been moments ago.

"Does that matter?" he spat. He rubbed one of his rings with his thumb. He stared at the ground with dulled eyes. "Captain Wolf is fine now. That's all that matters."

Like that, the subject was dropped. Nothing more was to be mentioned about the mysterious significant other in Thorne's otherwise lonely life. Now, Cinder knew he had fallen in love with a mermaid, as he was so defiant to giving her an answer. Somehow, he'd captured the heart of a mermaid as one had stolen his.

What happened to the woman in question was unknown. Cinder felt like Thorne war taring himself apart trying to find them. Though how on Earth that would be possible was beyond her. All she wanted to find out was if this mermaid still cared enough for Thorne to heal his broken heart. Because the way he was acting of late, it seemed that there was nothing Thorne wouldn't do to get back to her. To be with her again. Cinder only prayed that it was for the right reasons. That she would not betray his trust.

That she would not have to leave him again.