Fuu agrees to investigate

“We will,” Fuu responded simply. A few of the company might have problems with that. By which, she mostly meant Liv and Emmaline might have problems with that. Even Kiera didn’t usually care so long as there was adequate pay. Any protests they raised could be settled later, and Fuu trusted her friends to have the common sense not to voice those complaints in front of their new employer.

“Excellent” Narissa all but purred. She settled forward so that her elbows rested on the wall of the bath in front of her, which left her breasts to squish up between the glass. “You will be compensated appropriately. I am a mermaid of no small means, of course, where money is involved. Or if you have other desires... those can be negotiated as well.”

“Of course,” Fuu said. “We can discuss that privately, once we have a better understanding of the scope of our task.”

“Very well,” Narissa said.

“Before we go,” Kellissendra piped up, “Would it be possible for us to ask a few preliminary questions? Just a handful of things to set our focus in the right direction.”

“Ask away.”

Fuu couldn’t quite tell if the short pause that followed was Kellissendra conceding the floor to her out of respect, or whether the dragoness hadn’t actually thought of any questions before asking. It hardly mattered, as the silence didn’t last long.

“You guys are really mermaids?!” Robin’s voice had all the unrestrained giddiness of a bursting balloon.

“... Yes we are,” Narissa answered after a moment. “I thought that much was obvious…”

“That’s amazing!” Robin continued, unperturbed. Of course Fuu had noticed the way the youngest Bravo’s face lit up the moment they entered Narissa’s ‘Throne Room,’ but she had been too focused on the conversation at hand to notice the way it simmered and built with each passing moment, until it simply had nothing to do but burst outward like an unwatched tea kettle. “I always knew there were real mermaids out there somewhere, but I never thought I’d really get to meet one,”

“Yes, well, our kind usually keeps to the seas. Our line has always been something of a proud exception. And now, with the seas growing less inviting by the day… I suspect more will begin to follow our example,” Narissa explained.

“Even more mermaids, then,” she repeated in a tone of utter awestruck wonder. “I just… wow! There’s so many things--do you have mermaid cities down there under the sea? What about mermaid horses--or merhorses! Oh you probably have the prettiest pearl necklaces and all kinds of amazing mermaid heroes who fought the most dangerous and powerful undersea beasts, and--!”

Though Fuu couldn’t actually hear her over Robin’s babbling, she could see Liv groan. Most of the rest of the Bravos seemed as taken off guard by Robin’s outburst as the mermaids were, though it was finally Emmaline who stepped up to place a hand on her shoulder and draw the girl back down into her seat.

“I think she meant questions about the investigation,” Emmaline said.

“Erm, right.” Robin responded, now blushing a bright cherry red. “Sorry, I guess I got a bit carried away. Mermaids are so cool, though!”

“They are,” Emmaline agreed.

“If you’d like,” Talia, the green-haired eldest daughter, spoke up from across the room. “Perhaps we could discuss these things later, once the investigation is underway. I am well versed in the stories of our ocean home, and most here on the surface seem less interested in our legends than in our bodies.”

“That would be very lovely,” Robin said. “Thank you so much!”

Fuu could feel the relief washing over Narissa. From the way their hostess lounged naked in her bath, and the utterly unabashed way she flaunted her bare chest, Fuu had expected it to take quite a bit to rattle her. Either she had been wrong in that assessment, or Robin’s giddy excitement had pricked at some social weakpoint the mermaid matriarch hadn’t been ready for.

“More to the point,” Kellissendra said. “You mentioned that there were only a few likely candidates as to your daughter’s… mate.”

“Yes,” Narissa said, pushing her hair behind her ears. “We maintain a meticulous list of the guests at our resort, and out of every human, elf, mermaid and otherwise within the Nereid, there are only three who fit the criteria.”

With each word she spoke, the room seemed to grow colder, and Fuu could see her three daughters twisting back into poses of stress and frustration. Alternately wrapped up in fury, defensive pride, and social terror.

“Unless Iona has been having an *outrageous amount of sex,” Narissa continued. “There are only three candidates. The only three futa mermaids within the resort.”

“Mother…” Talia whispered, but Narissa proceeded, undismayed.

“The first would be Erato, my second eldest. Who, unfortunately, is not present at the current time,” Narissa said. Though each word seemed to strike her daughters like a hammer of shame, Narissa floated proud in her bath, jaw set and raised.

“The second would be my eldest, Talia--who I certainly do not suspect!” Narissa hurried before Talia could speak to her own defense. The words seemed to placate her for the moment. “Though, if I suspected any of the three, I would not have need of your assistance.”

Then Narissa paused. Her dark purple eyes drifted from Talia over the ranks of the Bravos before finally settling on Fuu. For a long moment, they held each other’s gase, Narissa’s vibrant violet irises shifting as though she was trying to work through the solution to a puzzle box.

“And the final candidate,” Narissa finally spoke, “Is me.”

“Mother!” Talia all but barked. Fuu watched as Maera twisted in her chair, squirming to face away from both the Bravos and her family, so that her pale white hair cast her face in shadow. The last glimpse Fuu got of her expression before it vanished was a twisting, utterly indelicate fury. “You can’t-- you’re not--”

“It would be dishonest of me not to provide our investigators with every bit of knowledge I possess. These are the facts as I know them,” Narissa said. “Do with them as you will, and please solve this case.”

“I promise we will do our very best,” Fuu offered.

“Is there a reason we don’t just… ask her? The pregnant one?” Liv asked.

“Iona,” Becky supplied.

“Sure. Iona.” Liv said with a shrug. “Why don’t we just have her tell us who knocked her up. Then, case closed, just like that.”

“You are welcome to try.”

Taking up her invitation, Fuu stood and turned toward Iona’s bath. She took a half step forward, then saw the way the teenage mermaid’s eyes widened and flickered around like a cornered animal. Her tail swished within her amber pool with a nervous tension, as though it might flick out and send her dashing off at any moment. Fuu raised her empty hands slowly, offered a reassuring smile, then took a single step forward.

By the will of the Goddess, space folded around her. Fuu took no more than a single step--a gentle tip toe in Iona’s direction, but by the time her foot hit the ground she was as close as she needed to be. And Iona’s wide eyes looked full of surprise and amazement just as much as fear.

“Iona,” Fuu said. “Would you please tell me who you slept with?”

The mermaid’s head was shaking even before Fuu finished her question. Her long curtains of pure black hair cascaded over her face in waves, obscuring pale skin in a dance of black and white that set her heavy breasts bouncing slowly back and forth beneath the water’s surface.

“I don’t know!”

“You don’t know?!” Liv called out. “What, did they run a train on you or something?”

“I don’t know!” Iona insisted again, louder this time.

“We’ll start easy, then,” Fuu said. “Was it only one partner or several?”

“I… I don’t know how many it was,” Iona said.

“You don’t know, or you don’t remember?” Kellissendra asked.

“I don’t know”

“Okay,” Fuu said. “Do you know when it might have happened? Where you were? Who you would have been with?”

Each question was answered with an urgent, frightened shake of the girl’s head.

“Whole lot of use she is,” Liv said.

“You can understand my difficulty,” Narissa said. “But you have means other than simply asking her, surely?”

“Of course,” Fuu said. “It shouldn’t be too much of an issue.”

“Excellent,” Narissa said. “I’m sure you have plenty of other questions for my daughters and myself, but… it is getting rather late. Perhaps you would like to retire for the evening, so that you might start fresh tomorrow morning?”

“I believe that would be wise,” Fuu said. “I’m not sure how complex this case will be, but we have a wide variety of skills at our disposal. I assure you, we will figure this out.”

With a nod from Narissa, the Bravos rose and left the matriarch’s throne room.