When the sun starts to slip toward the horizon, Pathos slips away from his room and out into the open waters of the ocean. His favorite thing was the swim by the coral reefs near the cliffs and along the beach. There was always tons of colorful fish, and the light from the setting sun always illuminated everything in a golden-pink glow. It was his favorite thing to do, but wasn't technically allowed. 

He looked over his shoulder as he opened his window, making sure his roommate was still asleep. With a grin and a pump of his glistening tail, he swam out. The lights of the city were glowing beneath him as he swam higher and higher, toward the surface, although that wasn't exactly allowed either.

Pathos always felt a little guilty for breaking the rules, but he figured it could be justified if he wasn't hurting anyone, or breaking any of the major rules. Major rules like never be seen, never speak to humans, or never lead a stranger back to the kingdom. He'd never break those rules.

Those rules were there for good reasons. Those rules were there to make sure that the Kingdom of Ke Kai stayed hidden from possible threats, like humans. Humans were destroyers. They took millions of fish from the sea, they polluted the waters, they demolished the beauty of the ocean with their commercial businesses. If they found their kingdom, there was no telling what kind of destruction they would inflict upon them. 

He shook away the thoughts of the humans, swallowing as he swam closer to the cliffs. Pathos smiled as the schools of fish and the structures of beautiful coral came into view. A giggle escaped his lips as he twirled through the water happily. 

He swam toward the surface, breaking through it with a splash. A grin spread across his lips as he looked at the beautiful sunset that painted the sky. There was a series of chattering noises on his right, making him look toward it with wide eyes. He gasped happily as recognized the pod of dolphins that often swam around here. He ducked back under the water and swam toward them, imitating the chattering to get their attention. The dolphins turned toward him and chirped upon recognizing the young merman. 

"Hey guys!" he greeted as they swam around him with a giggle. One in particular swam up to him, kissing him on the nose. "Hey Oli! How have you been?"

The dolphin chattered and chirped as if to answer his question, making Pathos smile wide as he hugged it. The pod whistled and Oli joined them as they swam off, the merman waving after them as he swam closer toward the beach. 

He found himself laying on a rock close enough to the surface to feel the sun's warm, smiling as he relaxed and uncurled his tail. His eyes shot open a few moments later when he heard the swoosh of water on his left. Leaping from the rock, he looked for the source, worried someone had seen him sneak out and that he'd be in trouble. However, he recognized the merman when he swam by. 

"Virgil! What are you doing out here? It's almost nightfall!" Pathos called as he swam toward him. 

The merman flinched, eyes widening as he whipped around to face him. Relief washed over him as he recognized him, but he was worrying on his lip and fidgeting with his hands. "I was... just going for a swim. I couldn't sleep."

Something only two of them knew about Virgil was that he'd met a human being. Not only had he'd met a human, he was soulmates with that human. He'd only ever told Pathos about it because he knew that even if he didn't approve of breaking that rule, he wouldn't tell on him; besides, it was either interact with the human or suffocate on the beach. 

"You were going to see if he was out on the beach, weren't you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow with disapproval in his gaze. When no response followed, he knew he was right. "Virge, you know how dangerous that is-"

"I know, I know... I just..." he said, looking down. "I miss him, that's all. I don't know how to explain it. It's some soulmate thing I'm sure." 

Pathos sighed and let it go, shaking his head. When the other merman looked up at him, he gasped. "Pathos! Your... your markings!" he exclaimed, pointing at him wildly. He looked down at himself, seeing that his markings were in fact glowing. He squeaked and tried to swim away from them, despite that being futile. "Calm down, you're okay, that just means your soulmate is nearby."

"My s-soulmate?"

Virgil nodded as the glowing faded. "See? Now they're out of range for it to be in affect," he said, pointing again. "That's what happened to me when I met Roman."

The two of them shared looks and decided it was best to return home; it was almost nightfall after all. However, Pathos did look over his shoulder, uncertain of what it meant that his markings had started to glow so briefly with no other merfolk in sight. Was it possible that there had been someone watching them? Or had something else, closer to the beach, triggered the markings?