My name is Riktys, mage and alchemist. I am holder of the five rings of magic and learned in all four schools of wizardry. I have yet to see my fiftieth year in age and I am a half-elf. With just this I think you can guess I am hated by many other wizards and elves. It has been a few years since someone has come calling with a challenge-dual. As last I hear from one of my few friends the Heraldic Council doesn't speak about me any longer. It would stand to reason that if they ignore me, they can still hold their air of superiority.
As an acolyte studying magic, the instructors took it upon themselves to bury me in studies to force me to quit. As I write this I grin for their efforts only made me smarter, at twenty I held three of the five rings, thou holding all five at that time would not have been difficult. Study had taught me more than just how to wield the winds of magic, I gained an understanding of culture and economics far beyond most seasoned journeyman. I speak six languages thou I will only openly admit to four of them. Someone of elven half blood speaking in a Dwarf tongue could be a death sentence. From Dwarves and Elves alike.
At the age of thirty I was hired onto a trade ship as an appraiser. On the third morning of the journey members of the crew at the captain's orders bound me in chains and threw me over board. I was no fool and had been casting water breathing spells on myself every night since setting foot on the ship. My worries lay in where we were. If we still crossed over Sea-devil waters, being able to breath would make no difference to my survival.
As I hit the water my mind raced in a hundred directions a once. Most of the magic I had command of were for air breathing foes. Fireball isn't a useful spell in the water, Lightning was equally useless in that it would kill me as well as any foe within 10 feet of me. Her hands were there, then her lips on mine. A mermaid was bestowing me with the kiss. It wasn't apparent to her that I was not struggling to breath. The smile that she gave me when she thought she had saved my life was heart melting. Bound as I was I could do nothing but return her smile.
She tugged at the chains to no avail. She lacked the knowledge to unravel them. She swam off leaving me sitting on a sandy plain thirty feet below the surface. I worked at freeing my hands but the crew had known of my magic and coiled them tightly to thwart my attempts at the use there of. It felt like hours had passed when the mermaid came swimming back into view. My relief at seeing her was short lived.
Three other mermaids swam with her, beautiful and deadly. The one that had given the kiss to me stopped a few yards from me and let the others examine me. The clicking of the communication rattled in my head because the nest thing I knew I was lying in a shallow wading pool at the base of a sheer cliff.
"You are wake now?" asked a distinct female voice.
"Yes I am awake now. Where are we?"
Her eyes questioned not fully understanding what I had asked. "Metal" She said pointing towards the edge of the wading pool.
Looking down at my legs I understood what she meant. The mermaids not able to remove the chains from my legs, brought me to shore where there were other other metal things of the air-breathers world that I could use to free myself. They had freed my hands as well as cutting the bindings on my trousers. As I moved close to the pile of 'metal' she had pointed out, my pants worked there way down.
Modesty was the furthest thing from my mind.
She eyed me from a deeper part of the pool. I looked over the discarded items for a pry bar or hammer and chisel. A happened upon a rust ring of keys, one of which was anything but rusty. It shined like new in the afternoon sun. Pulling it from the ring I held it to the chains and will it's magic to life. The locks sprang open and the chains loosened their hold on me.
"Yes!" I shouted, squirming out of the chains.
"Now you do for me. I save and free. You make for me now?" the mermaid said timidly.
"I will make for you. What is it you want?"
"Yes, want, want this." she said a little more confidently while reaching out to caress my manhood.
I froze, "To keep?"
"You make me, want this, in me." she said lifting herself out of the water enough for me to see she no longer had an tail but legs.
"You want me to mate with you." I said nodding and holding my hand out for her.
