Anahita saw her prince every morning by the cliffs.

By the rocks, the sun bled yellow into the clear water. He would kick off his boots and dip his feet into the sea, a little more cautious of it now than he had been before the storm. The morning breeze was soft and salty, and it carried with it the voices of gulls and far-away waves. White flies blew in the warm air like breadcrumbs.

Anahita would swim to the spot where the sun speckled the sea. Chamber stayed in the shade.

"Tell me about ballrooms," she would say. Or, "Tell me about horses." Or, "Tell me about shoes."

Chamber would talk for hours while the sun burned the back of his neck, and the ocean winds tangled his pale hair. His skin turned bronze on his arms and below the knee, which was as high as he rolled his trouser legs. The more they spoke, the more Anahita noticed about him. His hands were huge. These were the hands of a sailor, calloused from the ropes. She noticed how when his hair caught the light, it shone like the sun on the waves, and how his eyes creased with laughter when she said something that amused him. She spent all day collecting things to tell him.

In return, he brought food.

"This is a lemon cake," he prattled, handling it how farmers hold newly hatched chicks. He had taken a little piece and wrapped it in a handkerchief to take down to the cliffs for Anahita.

She swam a little closer to the rocks. The sun was hot on her wet skin. "It smells," she noted, carefully unwrapping it.

"Try some."

The took a bite, and it fell apart in her mouth. Her eyes widened; she had never tried something so rich before. "This is amazing!" she cried, and a few crumbs fell out of her mouth. She wiped them off her chin with her forearm. "I love butter!"

"You know what you would love," said Chamber, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Shell cakes. They're these little almond-cakes shaped like shells – I don't know why I didn't think of that before."

The next day he hurried to the rocks carrying shell cakes, and the next day a venison pie, and the next day a fruity summer wine. They poured two glasses and they sat beneath the sun, drinking and laughing.

Anahita had noticed something about Chamber's laughter. Once she had conjured it, she wanted to do it again and again and again. Each new one was a victory.

"What do they eat under the sea?" Chamber asked her.

Anahita shrugged. "Tell me more about smoked fish! Those sound tasty."

"Is that not cannibalism?"

"Does that not apply to mammals too? Is it cannibalism when men eat pigs?"

"Sometimes," he joked.

The next day he brought her smoked mackerel, baked into a buttery pastry. This was her favourite food so far. He brought her berries, and biscuits, and small green cakes made with pistachio nuts. She devoured each one, and with them his stories.

"Yes," he laughed as they lay on their backs on the hot rocks. "It was mortifying. I had to fight him off with nothing but a wet boot!"

"But where were the rest of your clothes?"

"His horrible little son had stolen them while I was in the river!"

"Oh my god," she groaned, her shoulders shaking with laughter. She covered her face with her hands as she cackled, trying not to imagine the story too vividly. "Men are idiots!"

"I was fifteen!"

"Boys are idiots," she amended. "Human males are idiots."

He hummed. "Fair analysis." He turned to look at her. "You do not have a very high opinion of 'human males', do you?"

She shrugged, not meeting his gaze. She stared instead at the gulls squawking up above them, weaving through the clouds. "Fishers," she said. "Or soldiers in warships. All men seem to do is kill things. What a hobby!"

Chamber looked as though he were about to counter her point, but instead he said, "You know, they're looking for you up on the shore." He grinned.

Anahita sat up. "Me?"

"Yes! They're looking for the maiden who rescued the Prince of Cragen!"

She drummed her fingertips on the wet rock. "The appreciation is nice," she admitted. "But what do they want to do? Give me a medal?"

"Well," he said, looking back up at the gulls, and at the sun that powdered the clouds gold. "I think they want me to marry you."

Anahita allowed herself to slip slowly back into the sea.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Chamber laughed, scrambling up to stop her. "It wasn't my idea! It's for morale."

"Whose?" she asked, floating just low enough that the ocean's surface skimmed the bridge of her nose.

"Well," he shrugged, "our people. It makes a lovely story – the crown prince and his fleet being rescued by a local girl. A commoner becoming royalty. All of that."

Anahita scowled below the water. "I am not a commoner. I am a physician."

"You are also a mermaid," he pointed out. "My men saw me being rescued by a swimming maiden, not a fish. I do not think that our courts allow the holy union between Man and Fish."

"Why would a maiden be lounging about in the middle of the ocean? It just isn't realistic."

"I don't know," he mused. "Waiting to rescue unfortunate sailors such as I?"

"I'm sure maidens have better things to do."

He conceded, "Yes, probably. But it was my step-mothers idea. For morale, as I may have mentioned."

"Oh, you have a step-mother," said Anahita, recalling the human tales she knew. The majority featured step-mothers quite heavily. "Is she wicked?"

"She is very beautiful," said Chamber, meaning 'yes'.

"What's wrong with your morale anyway? Are you disappointed that your boat broke?"

"It's not my morale," he explained, reaching into his bag and pulling out some fruit-bread. He broke it between his hands and offered some out to the sea.

With reluctance, Anahita swam a little closer and snatched her half. "Thanks." She instantly regretted being so easily won by dessert, and made a note not to make a habit of it.

"Cragen is weary," he explained, getting comfortable. "The war has been going on for decades now. It's older than I am. People have lost their parents, their spouses, their friends, and as the war goes on they're losing their children too."

She wrinkled her nose. "War?"

"You don't know?"

"I see your ships sometimes," she said with a wave of her hand. They were instantly distinguishable from the boats of merchants and whalers. The warships were as big as the cliffs, flying the blue-and-gold flags of Cragen, leaving the ports with a hundred men, or returning with forty.

He nodded, a strange jumble of expressions passing over his face. "Sometimes little things can help a lot. It's hard to live in a state of fear, with no end in sight. I would beg the Wishsmith every night for an end to the war, the killings, the violence, the widows, the refugees..." Chamber jolted, suddenly aware he was loading quite a lot onto Anahita. He took a deep breath. "Would you like some more bread?"

She folded her arms, leaning them against the rocks by his lap, and she rested her head. She said, "I am sorry."

He nodded again. "We all are."

"Do you have more butter?"

"No," he said, "but there is to be a ball tonight. I plan to save you some cherry tarts."

Anahita tried to imagine a ball. She knew that there would be dancing and music, and she knew that humans wore special clothes for them and ate all sorts of pastries. "I want to go to a ball," she said.

"Interestingly enough, it's your ball," he told her, breaking more bread to keep his hands busy. Its crust was salty from his fingers. "They're inviting all the dockside girls – daughters of fishermen, whalers, and all that – to the palace so that I can try and find the maiden who rescued me."

She hummed, scratching the rock with index finger, catching moss under her nail. "Why don't you just tell them it was me?"

"Because if they know you're a mermaid they'll just marry me off to some Duke's daughter or something," he sighed. "It's better to buy myself some time."

Anahita rolled her eyes and dove back under the waves. She did a few laps around the rocks, as she did not feel like entertaining him with a response. When she resurfaced at last, she said, "I am going to your ball."

Chamber laughed. "You are?"

"I am. It's my ball."

"Unfortunately, the castle is land-locked."

"How boring for you," she said. "Don't bring cherry tarts tomorrow as I plan to have some at my ball. You can bring me more pistachio cakes if you like, though."

He looked at her, amused. "Done!"

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[A/N: Thanks for reading so far! Let me know what you guys think of the prince, and what Anahita ought to do next! I'm excited to upload the next chapter, once I've smoothed some things out. Also, if you liked this chapter, please do press the star thingie to let me know! It's more helpful than I used to give it credit for haha]