Arthur's eyes went wide. He lowered his voice and blurted, "Holy shit! That voice, that obnoxious tone... That's Yongye, that bastard!"
Back on the beach, Arthur had buried his face in the sand and overheard everything that happened to Mera.
Arthur still remembered it vividly. He would never forget it for the rest of his life.
Realization struck Mera. Fury flared in her green eyes, and the water swirling around her rippled with violence. She gritted her teeth. "I knew it was him! That bastard's picking on another woman!"
Arthur shook his head repeatedly, then tilted it to listen more closely to the sounds inside the stone house. His expression grew complicated.
"No. It doesn't sound like he's forcing her. They're both into it!"
"That woman must be blind to fall for that bastard!"
"Besides, none of that matters."
"What matters is that he didn't come all the way to this godforsaken Inner Earth to sightsee. He's almost certainly after the legendary Ancient Trident!"
"What do we do?"
Mera's gaze hardened. Her grip on the water gathered in her hand tightened. "We can't let him get the trident! It's the supreme treasure of the ocean's royal line. It must never fall into that outsider's hands!"
Their original plan to ambush him or gather information was scrapped.
The new plan: get the Golden Trident first, without being seen.
Arthur and Mera crept along the rock wall downstream, their steps as light as two cats sneaking up on fish.
They skirted the vegetable patch, crossed a jumble of rocks covered in glowing moss, and headed deeper into the Inner Earth, toward the fissure known as the God-Burying Abyss.
According to the markings on Mera's waterproof parchment, First Aquaman's resting place lay at the very bottom of the God-Burying Abyss.
The Golden Trident