Inside a waterfall cave north of Turquoise Bay, in a corner Tierney could not see, the legendary Mage cast time-reversal magic and saw images of Wendy and a young mermaid from half an hour earlier.
Tierney and the others appeared to have merely been talking and chatting. There was no sign that they had cast any magic, nor any sign that they had thrown any weapons.
"Sea God's curse!"
Standing before the mantis shrimp's belly, Klein carefully examined the remains and immediately thought of the concept the Empire so greatly feared.
Yet over the past several centuries, this terrifying curse had only ever appeared among merfolk. For Tierney, Wendy, and that mermaid girl to cast a curse upon a high-rank mantis shrimp—unless one of those three children was a direct incarnation of the Sea God—could only mean they had secretly seized a portion of the Sea God's authority.
They must have found the Holy Temple of the Keeper of Secrets, the legendary Mage pondered. But even if Landen could enter that Holy Temple, could Wendy and Tierney enter it as well?
And that mermaid—if a mermaid obtained a secret belonging to the Sea God, wouldn't she suffer a curse?
While the legendary Mage was not paying attention, several high-rank elf Knights dragged a mermaid through the Teleportation Portal. One of them shouted, "Knight Tierney? Did you say these fish were to be handed over to you?"
"Yes!" The moment Tierney saw the high-rank Mage being carried in, his left shoulder and right hand already missing, she cried out, "What happened? How did he get hurt like this?"
"There was no other choice," Yavenni explained. "If we hadn't used volley fire, that massive wave would have overturned all of us!"
Although the high-rank mantis shrimp had failed to unleash its most