Ruby hesitated and swam up a few feet and twisted so she could see Nerice.

  {“Let me ask it this way. What do they have that would make you kill an entire colony? You cuddle baby blue fish, but frog people that don’t have a chance in hell of catching you…you completely eradicate.”}

  Pcing her hands on Ruby’s face, Nerice took a few moments to rex and feel her lover’s cheeks with her thumbs.

  {“I mentioned that they had mages…the kyanite fuels their spells.”}

  Ruby felt Nerice jolt and then smile as the surface thoughts Nerice had passed through Ruby’s mind. Seconds ter Ruby rested her forehead on Nerice’s and kissed her nose.

  {“Nerice my lovely and diabolical mermaid…You killed that other colony for that mineral…and since you saw that wall of it in that makeshift tower thing, you haven’t wanted to leave…It was all ‘Tanya, we need to leave…its a kraken’...What do you need the mineral for, I have seen your conjurations and control without it…I caught you…miss little liar…a sweet and innocent pirate…do the other sisters know?”}

  Swimming in small circles, Ruby was internally ughing at the situation as it unfolded.

  {“I never said I was innocent, and no the others don’t have a clue…I have been blue since they have known me.”}

  Nerice slipped away from Ruby and clicked until she found her lover’s hands, then swam in quiet circles with Ruby.

  {“I do use it, but in a different way. On nd they use it to cast spells, though I don’t know how…the frogs use a konch-based method that I have tried to understand for a while. I turn the mineral into a potion of sorts and it not only keeps me blue, but it fuels what I can do…”}

  Nerice’s thoughts trailed away as she darted back to Ruby’s arms and sucked in the water closest to Ruby and wiggled her ears with excitement as she felt her lover’s light essence pass through her gills.

  {“...for a very long time…that volume of kyanite I could sell for an insane amount of nd users gold, or use it for another lifetime of my own, or even trade it to the others that reside down here with us…”}

  {“So…you kill for treasure, you take what you want when you want it, you hunt down things you want and you lie to the other sisters, which includes myself…when were you going to tell me all this, humm?”}

  {“Tanya, my loving dymate…one who knows me better than anything in the world, I did not lie to you…and…I have tried to tell you…but your sexual appetite is unbelievably unstoppable…look at me?...I am within an inch of you…trying to get more from you…No one told me that having a dymate was akin to an addiction that you want.”}

  {“Oh no you don’t. You don’t get to use sex as the reason for lying to me, Nerice.”}

  {“I didn’t lie to you Tanya, I just kept forgetting to mention things to you. You are quite the catch you know.”}

  {“Yes, I know. Worth an absolute fortune…okay…now that I know, let’s get you that mineral and see what else we can scavenge.”}

  {“Tanya, if I have enough time…I might be able to reverse the spell on the kraken. Since I don’t see anyone trying to control it.”}

  {“I wonder if there is a way to use that beast for our own means, Nerice.”}

  {“Tanya, how is it that you are okay with all of this? Shouldn’t you be shouting that I am evil or something? Furthermore, if that thing caused what I see down there…I think it's a bad idea to try and use this kraken for anything.”}

  Crawling up Ruby’s arm and onto her dymate’s back, Nerice id her head down.

  Ruby stopped moving and just let herself float as she enjoyed Nerice’s body pressed against her own.

  {“Nerice, sweetheart. I think you have noticed that I have a certain moral flexibility, you’ve watched me for years. Perhaps it is me that turned you into the blue monster that is on my back. You can’t honestly believe that I would take off and hide from you.”}

  Drifting slowly in the soft current of the Atntic, Nerice finally admitted to herself that all of the things she had heard and wished about a dyad were true. Logically she had seen it through the other sister’s eyes, but never gave her complete acceptance until a few minutes ago when she admitted her more sinister side. With Ruby’s essence slipping through her gills as they simply held each other, Nerice let the rest of her guard down and knew as she began to talk that there’d never be another secret between them.

  {“No, I knew you wouldn’t take off. We are bound too tightly for that to happen…There was the possibility that you wouldn’t want to truly be with me any longer. Tanya, I didn’t mean to hide anything from you. Just know that all over, I have hunted for, murdered creatures and then stolen as much kyanite as they had among them. I’ve used lithium to burn their homes while sharks trapped them in the structures.”}

  Nerice flicked her tail and the couple headed back towards the city below. Once along the current that pushed them down instead of away, Nerice finished her confession.

  {“I discovered the multi-colored pearl from where the sharks fed. They discarded the rge beads and kept eating the others…while following you, I found that they are quite valuable up there…I think that’s all.”}

  {“Ner-Ner.”}

  Swimming in small tight circles around Nerice, Ruby used her long bck mane and tracked it over her lover’s blue and shapely body.

  {“Nerice…I don’t care what you’ve done or will do. This is the life we chose before I picked you. We are both bck-hearted pirates for the world, rosy-hearted dymates to each other. That is all we need to know right now. The rest will come from…being with one another…I look forward to the day that you no longer have to ask for my dagger, and I just know you need it. Until then, We keep going…Right now we have to get on a crew. A crew can’t get to that harbor town with that kraken out there and these frogs have summoned it. We know the mission, Nerice. Let’s load up on pearls, kyanite…let the dagger have its fill of blood and get wanted both above and below the water.”}