Aquatic Nightmare

It is unknown what causes the transmogrified to be so much more aggressive than their natural-born counterparts. The thesis made by Jacobs is completely idiotic, and he deserves to be fireballed for his blight of a thesis on our fine community. If he can't tell the difference between causation and correlation, I will personally transmogrify his mother into a hamster while casting the verdant smell spell on his father. Then we will see who is right!
-Average debate on theory between mages

POV The mad princess Esstrey

Today was going to be a grand day.

After having thoroughly ravaged merchant vessels and even a patrol which was sunk with the help of my new allies. Splitting the rewards of our hard-earned work it didn't take long for land to be in sight, and our raiding parties split. I directed my caravan to a nice looking hole in the ocean floor which would cover us from prying eyes that could dive from above. I did run into a minor speed bump here when I quickly figured out that I don't know shit about civil management. Even with my basic Russian education giving me an edge here.

Good thing I classify as royalty and that somehow makes all mermaids automatically listen to me. I would be annoyed by this if it wasn't so useful in assigning jobs to the various refugees. Currently, the military while experienced was outnumbered and outgunned as we lacked weapons and manpower. Our civilian arm on the other hand had plenty of people and would no doubt quickly get our base set up. The combat mermaids were not very happy with my announcement to approach Quintillius Landing alone. Especially when they found out I have never learned water magic. I just told them to stay put and protect the one place that eventually needs to be worth returning to. That got them to allow me to go on the condition I meet up with a scout twice a day while at the pirate town.

Getting closer, I quickly noticed ships of all irreputable kinds moving out and about. Many more than would normally be seen at one of these ports, as I realize that while this world isn't the most technologically advanced, they can make up for it with magical production. While moving just below the water, I begin my search for someone desperate enough to work for a mermaid. I spot a target, and prepare to make contact.

"Hey kid, wanna make some money?" I surface near an underfed kid who was sneaking near some crates.

The kid flinches at the noise clearly directed at him and looks around in a panic.

"In the water, kid." I give a toothless grin while holding some gold coins.

The kid looks to the water and sees a mermaid looking right at him. While at first he looks like he wants to run, his gaze quickly falls on the coins in my hand.

"Two coins as advance payment, and three more if you can lead me to an information broker." The kid goes from fear to confusion and quickly to determination as he steels himself. He vigorously nods at his chance at his chance of food.

My smile brightens and shows my teeth as I leap out of the water and land next to the kid. He flinched again at my leap, but I ease his fears by shoving two coins in his hands, and he starts leading the way through the alleyways. I don a large cloak we looted off the ships to cover myself from prying eyes. It quickly backfires as four men come from the sides of the alleyway with crude clubs.

"Well looky 'ere, we finally track down the brat which had been sneakin' 'round our fine goods lookin' for a steal, but not only do we find the little thief but also the one fundin' him!" The kid, clearly putting on an act, pretends to be scared while grabbing and hiding behind my cloak. I can smell his fear and feel his trembling hands as he is reminded I'm not human.

"Well now, I don't suppose you fine gentlemen happen to know the way to a good information broker?" I ask more to buy myself time as the men approach, they all have terribly made swords hanging on their belt, but the fact that they are carrying around clubs means they don't intend to kill anyone. Big mistake.

"What a beautiful voice you have ma'lady, of course we can lead ya to a fine man who can handle such things. A'm afraid tha' me and ma boys will have to search ya. It be standard security measures for such oddly dressed individuals as yerself ya see." The men give some disgusting smiles as they clearly forgot about the child and have their eyes focused on me now.

"Go ahead, I'm sure you won't find me carrying any hidden weapons." The men look like they have just won the lottery and start approaching. The kid has backed off and hidden nearby, clearly not intending to get involved here. The first man reaches his hand forward.

And I promptly pull him closer and bit his entire shoulder off. The man screams and drops to the ground as his fellows are still behind on the uptake. I drop my cloak and show off my fishy glory. Their eyes widen in realization, but before they can run off, I have already leaped forward with my tail, instantly knocking one out and flooring the other. The fourth man yet untouched tries to run, but instead finds himself hamstrung as a nearby barrel cut him into the back of his knee, and he drops to the ground as well.

I start thinking whether I should finish the men here or let them go before my choice is made for me as the kid starts slitting the throats of the men one by one. The kid looks at me with a blank look until I realize I still have a man's arm in my mouth. My chewing slows before I gesture for the kid to keep leading the way and I don my cloak again.

"You are a scary lady." The kid says his first words, and it's easy to tell why he doesn't speak often. His voice is raspy and weak, all signs pointing towards dehydration and starvation.

"Let them hate you, as long as they fear you. That way, they will at least think twice before trying something like this."

The kid gets lost in thought some more before speaking up. "Can you help me?"

"I am helping you kid, you will have to specify."

"Some of my friends were caught by the local gang. I want to free them."

"That sounds like a tall order, I'm guessing your friends were caught stealing. I won't help out with something like that, I have plenty of enemies as is." The kid sags a bit and continues on disappointed, I see him squeezing his hand and build up the courage to say something.

"They have my sister and are gonna sell her off to a brothel if I don't gather enough money." That was quite a bit of information for free, this place does quite a few things like grooming, extortion, prostitution and....

"Indentured servitude? Where are they now?" The kid brightens up at my interest.

"They are at their base right now." I gesture for him to lead the way as it's getting clear his throat won't handle much more talking.

It doesn't take long to find the base of the gang, as a bunch of stereotypical goons guard a slightly bigger house than the rest. The kid points me in their direction and I observe their base.

Two bandits on the roof with crossbows playing cards, three men of the same faction are harassing some people further down the street and two men guard the door looking tired. A plan soon forms. It may be a simple plan, but everything that is genius is simple.

I pull my hood back enough to hide my ears but not my face as I shuffle my way to the main entrance. The guards notice me approaching and quickly try to look serious as they see a pretty face.

"I have an appointment."

"I will have to know with who, ma'am"

I look around warily, both as act and as precursor, the harassing men are moving to a new target and the crossbowmen above are still playing cards. I gesture for the door guard to get closer, as if to whisper something in his ear. He obliges and gets closer to hear this no doubt juicy secret.

I bite his throat and rip out enough for the man to instantly fall to the ground silently. Before his friend can sound the alarm, I jam my saber right through the center of his throat in a dash. I quickly head inside and find men and women gambling all around. I approach the stairs to a basement, which are guarded.

"You there, escort me to the big boss man." The man looks around himself to see if I mean someone else, and then points at himself in question.

"Yes you, and hurry up, I have urgent news that has been waiting long enough." He looks at his fellow guard before shrugging and unlocking the door behind him. As we get to the stairs, I come across an issue. Stair climbing is difficult, so I do the only logical thing in this situation.

The moment the guard closes the door behind us, I slam his head into the wall to shut him up, and he falls to the ground. Dead or unconscious, it doesn't matter as long as he's quiet. I make my way down the stairs carefully and try to avoid slipping but mess up at the last bit and tumble down.

"Who's there?" A huge man towers before me as I get up and survey the room.

A low table with a map over it, multiple advisors around the map while the huge man angrily approaches.

"I'm your new boss." I proclaim as I stare the man directly in the eyes.

"Yeah sure very funny, now who are ya?" The man has a big grin on his face as he says that.

Right until I drop the cloak hiding my features. "I said I'm your new boss, submit or die."

The room explodes into panic and the huge man goes to grab me. I leap upward and let him grab my tail which is too slippery for him to hold unto allowing me to crawl toward his back and bite him in the back of his neck before he can act. As he falls to the floor the advisors wince and back off.

"I said I'm your boss now, send someone to the docks to get in contact with my enclave. Try to work together as much as possible, and remember to play nice. You are all my people now, and my people help each other." The assembled men and women shoot another look at the dead titan of a man and the mermaid standing next to his corpse before one of the smaller men speaks up.

"And how would we contact them?" That is a good question.

"Mermaids should find you around dusk and dawn if you swim while bleeding. They don't know yet, so do remember to explain the situation properly. Now who is going to help me up the stairs? I have some matters to attend to." The advisors look at each other in uncertainty and fear.

"Quit delaying and stop looking so damn depressed. You guys are basically in charge now because I certainly don't care too much what you guys do as long as it isn't slavery or its lesser siblings." Everyone perks up at that, while one of the women moves to help me up the stairs.

Not much later, the streets are filled with people staring in awe. They saw a woman break into the Serpents Tail headquarters and out came a mermaid with indentured servants, while the men of Serpents Tail gave small respectful bows as she passed. I move towards a certain kid that was watching the whole thing, who gives his sister a hug.

"Well you little punk. You still have to escort me to a good information broker." The kid lets out a genuine smile at that and our small entourage moves forward again. With one less cloak.