A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

"If I discover that you two misled us, I'll hunt you down and show you no mercy. You'll be killed the moment that I see either of you, and my wife can validate my claim. Do you two understand?" Tarhuinn questioned as his eyes narrowed and a threatening aura dominated his being.

"We understand. We just wish to get out of here before they resurface. So, do we have a deal?" the man asked, his right foot tapping a bit in impatience. The woman kept glancing between them and the pool, clearly nervous about the other four spies. She had every right to be, though. There was no telling how long that they would be down there.

"Yes, tell us the short route," Tarhuinn responded, glancing to the male's tapping foot. It seemed like he would tackle the male if he continued, but he maintained his present position. It probably also helped that she now had her hands resting on his right upper arm.

"From here, you'll want to head to the far back of this space. There, you'll enter the next path, and there will only be a few torches to light your way. I doubt that you'll have trouble seeing, though. Afterwards, you'll be met with two paths. Take the right one and continue straight. There will be constant turns down that path but always go straight.

"At the end of the path, you'll be met with a large pool of water. On the other end, there will be another path. Don't go down that way. It leads directly to the spies' main sitting room. You'll both need to swim down to the bottom of the pool, but it isn't too deep. At the bottom, you'll both see a path to your left. Take it, and you'll find yourselves in a hallway overlooking their masters' main space.

"There will be two or three spies guarding that area. Two will be facing their masters' room, and one will be facing the pool. If you two have made it this far, you shouldn't have too much of a problem disposing of them before they sound an alarm."

"And, is there a way into their masters' main room directly without being seen by those two spies?" (f/n) asked since a problem could arise on the way to the lookout spot.

"Not that I'm aware of. The moment that you enter that space, someone will be alerted of your presence immediately."

"Then, you have saved us from a terrible outcome," Tarhuinn admitted, though; his tone hadn't softened. "Now, we'll fulfill our end of the bargain." He narrated to them the path that they had taken to reach the current space and explained that there was some movement on that path, so they would probably have to stop a few times and wait until it was clear for them to move ahead again.

When Tarhuinn finished his explanation, the four of them thanked the others for the information before they took off in their respective directions. As Tarhuinn and she left the space, the two humans were still walking along the narrow path. Turning their backs to the two humans, they started down the poorly lit way. (F/n) could see torchlight far down, but it barely illuminated the ground. She allowed Tarhuinn to guide her down until they drew closer to the light, but she did still hold onto his upper arm even when she could view her surroundings better.

With how severe their situation was, his arm was a sense of comfort for her, especially in the darker parts. She knew that he was there and that she shouldn't worry if she heard water splashes off in the distance. Even now, they could hear individuals up ahead. It sounded like there was at least five, and, from their encounter with the two humans, they were probably all kelremm.

It wasn't much of a surprise that they would keep their human partners locked up. Such a case would've applied to her had she not managed to convince Tarhuinn otherwise. The part that concerned her was that the humans here seemed to have no defense, and the spies took advantage of that. This coupled with what she had heard last night only produced more worry. If they were caught, she would probably be treated only as breeding stock if not tortured and then killed.

Her grip on him increased more. As for Tarhuinn, he would be given the treatment that the merfolk had planned for him if not worse. Things would become forever a nightmare until she died. Scared could barely describe the feelings that were bubbling up in her, yet she knew that she had to keep pressing on at this point. No matter what, she had to defeat this obstacle and gain her possibly extended life with Tarhuinn and their child.

Were it not for those facts, she would probably collapse where she stood and break down into tears. Her imagination could easily get the best of her. She turned her gaze up to him when they passed by another torch. Tarhuinn's expression was neutral, but there was hate and rage in his eyes. They gave off the image of dark blue waters alight with flame. (F/n) could only imagine what was going on through his mind, and if they were successful in their task, the authors would be the fearful ones.

His gaze eased her mind some and allowed her to look forward again. The movement ahead grew louder, but there were no voices. She only hoped that those individuals were going coming up the right to go down the left. If they were to come down the path that Tarhuinn and she were on, they would have to fight and make it swift.

Heartbeat quickening, she carried on. She hoped that they couldn't hear the light splashes of water that Tarhuinn made or her quiet footfalls. Both of them tried to become more silent in their steps, but they could only do so much. Neither of them were trained spies, which was part of the reason why she was shocked at how the spies walked about.

All of them moved so that they could clearly be heard. The amount of confidence that they had in their abilities must have grown to a harmful amount over the years since there most likely were few intruders in their masters' home. Still, she would've thought that the authors would've said something about how their spies carried themselves. In the end, though, it only proved a benefit to Tarhuinn and her. They knew where their opponents were, and they could change their plans if they needed to do so.

Before they reached the split in the ways, both of them halted. They remained in the shadows and watched five kelremm exit the left path and head down the right one. She cursed mentally. "We'll follow them at a distance, but we should still keep them in sight in case they're already aware of our presence. That way, we won't get caught off guard," he told her in a hushed voice.

Agreeing, they both waited a little more before trailing the five. They kept as quiet as they could, and the spies' loud splashes of water seemed to drown out Tarhuinn's and her movement. Regardless, neither of them dropped their guard. Both of them remained at their steady pace.

One of the spies branched off from the other four and took a left turn. The others continued on straight ahead. Finding this odd, they slowed down some more. Reaching the spot where the one had separated from the others, both of them cautiously paused and peered down that way. They could just see the spy's back facing them. That spy didn't look back but kept going forward.

At the end of the hallway, there was a wooden door. The spy opened it and revealed for a moment what was behind it. For a glimpse in time, she saw horrid looking tools. She couldn't help but gulp as blood drained from her face. Her hands squeezed Tarhuinn's arm, and he rested a hand reassuringly over hers. "We'll never have to go in there, (f/n)," he whispered while his gaze softened. "Let's keep moving and attain what we need."

"Rig-right," she simply answered, her voice somewhat shaky.

Gazing away from the closed wooden door, they proceeded straight down the main path. By now, the other spies were out of sight, but they could still hear them. Even though they wished for the spies to be in view, they didn't increase their speed. Doing so might alert the four spies of their presence.

Coming upon the room with the pool, they could see the four spies at the other end. All of them headed towards the spies' main sitting room, which left Tarhuinn and her ability to dive into the pool without trouble. Due to past times, she instinctively went to take off her boots.

Seeing and recalling that they weren't there, she looked over to Tarhuinn. They were no longer on his feet, and they weren't in his hands either. Confused, she glanced up to him. "Where did my boots go?"

"They're in my pack. I emptied the water and placed them in there during our time in that dimly lit hallway. I may just have to carry you all the way back home since they're quite ruined now."

"I don't think that I would mind that after everything that we've been through and will be through. I might have to wait on that offer, though, since we have to carry the authors back to the merfolk."

"Yes, unfortunately, they'll have to be carried before you. I'd rather let them rot here, but the merfolk wouldn't take kindly to a broken deal."

"I just hope that we have no more deals ahead of us."

"We won't, (f/n). The authors and the spies will get none. Unlike those two humans, I'll spare them no time to even propose one. Now, I want you to hold onto my hand. We're very close now."