As was so often the case Myra was clueless as to what was happening on her home world. She was not part of the political structure, nor really. She was a Princess, sure, though she hardly refereed to herself in such a way unless meeting with other royals or nobles were interactions went smoother because of it but she had been the last of the royal children hatch and there were 99 Princesses and Princes ahead of her for the crown and it was so distant that she would acquire this that she never thought of one day being Queen though. She supposed if their were some freak disaster or war with her being off planet most of the time Myra could ironically become Queen. But there were other royals from other spawnings too so she was well down the chain of command.

And since their occupations were selected on their birth order she became a priestess. Although Vodrani religion was central to the species it was an ironic trademark that one of the most important roles in their culture had been assigned to the last born. Ironic too that this position when vacated by death, retirement and the like was filled in reverse order. It was because it had given those at the end of the line something they could aspirate too.

In her 42 Vodrani years she had become the High Priestess and it was up to the High Priests and Priestesses to interact with other species and leave the planet to get over their xenophobia. Whereas other high priests and priestesses were still caught up with politics Myra was assigned the roll of collecting artifacts that was why she was here looking for Coral's bracelet said to have been worn by the Goddess herself.

That was what had brought her here. Oblivious to what was transpiring with her people as she swam about the sunken ruins of the city.

The Princess reads the electronic message again, submerged in the control room of her ship with the water-proof master computer.

Your Majesty,

It is with the gravest of tidings that I alert you that your brother, Lord Opoch and several dozen of his guards and staff has been captured by the Vodrani. It seems that an ill-advised diplomatic mission went awry when the Vodrani gave in to their xenophobia and got the better of him. In exchange for his release, the Vodrani have demanded concessions that would greatly weaken our nation, primarily access to various technologies that we are currently the only purveyors of on the galactic market.

Of course, such considerations can hardly be weighed against your brother's life, but as it happens we have options at our disposal. The Vodrani have not yet gotten the chance to recall the few of their race that are abroad, of primary note being the Priestess Myra V'al. I believe that if she were captured and offered in exchange for your brother, the Vodrani would relent.

Great Lady, I know that you do not normally involve yourself in politics. But for your brother's sake and the sake of our planet, I ask that you make an exception this time. It would take too long to send my own soldiers, and compared to your power, their chances of success would not be great.

I've enclosed a description and image of Myra V'al. She possesses water magic like your own, but can hardly be a match for our own royalty. I will contact you in twenty-four hours to give you a location where we can meet, so you can turn her over and let us take care of the exchange.

She's a little annoyed that her brother was foolish enough to get himself captured, and more so that her involvement was requested. Still, she was his big sister, and couldn't just leave him on his own.

She stills her ship above the planet's water, letting it hover in mid-air. She hadn't found anything that looked like Myra's ship and didn't know if her target was still on the planet. But she had a way of finding out. The ramp of her vessel opened, and along with water a great beast poured out into the planet's sea. It looked vaguely like a giant squid from earth, but it possessed over twenty long tentacles, thick chitinous plates, and dreadful looking spikes.

She types a command on her console and her ship shoots a beam of energy into the air, causing dark clouds to cover the sky with a turbulent storm. With the way the waves began seething, it would be difficult for anyone to control the water. "Go Isuku!" she cries. "Sniff me out Vodrani flesh." The Princess's monster bellows and dives into the water, and the Princess leaps in after it, following.

The water becomes choppy. A storm has settled into the region no doubt though she swims about without much fear of things like drowning or lightning strikes. She is simply too deep to be concerned though with the storm raging it is probably a good idea not going back to the surface until it passes. No sense risking a random lightning strike when she was in no rush.

Myra decides that the Vodrani temple she had just come from works as she swims back there. Well, an abandoned Vodrani temple as the ruins had been a failed colony at one stage. She wonders why no one came for the artifact before then remembers that the planet was a contested world, that was why the colony was lost after all but the artifact was hidden away all this time until now when no one found any more use in the world.

She takes the ruby encrusted bracelet from her bag and puts it on admiring the piece of beauty. But since she is in a building she does not feel the change in the currents that allows her to figure out that things are moving towards or away from her as thick stone walls block the flow of the current from ever reaching her.

The Princess clutches the head of the demon squid Isuku, which can swim through the stormy waters without any difficulty. It takes time and several false starts, but eventually the beast tastes the trail Myra has left through the water, and picks up speed so fast that the Princess can do little but cling on.

When they arrive at an underwater temple with signs of Vodrani architecture, the Princess feels that her quarry must be inside. She looks over the ruins for a moment, realizing that it's quite a dump that the Vodrani is holed up in, and would probably collapse in a fight. She considers ordering Isuku to level it immediately in order to draw Myra out, but that was too risky, it could injure the person that she'd rather capture unharmed, or create an opening for Myra to escape in the confusion. No, she'd have to do this the hard way.

She briefly wonders what Myra is doing here and hopes it won't interfere with her own objective.

Isuki is ordered to stay back so he can grab Myra if she slips by the Princess.

Entering the ruins, the Princess prepares to meet Myra, her lower form shimmering to replace her fish tail with a nest of eight blue-black tentacles. The tail could certainly be handy, it was thick and powerful and allowed for faster and longer swims, not to mention the option to deliver a mighty wallop in battle. In the end though, having eight extra arms was just much more valuable if a battle did break out. Her human form didn't even enter consideration, in a fight it was completely useless.

It isn't long before she finds who she's looking for.

The storm rages onward and Myra stays put for the time being rather than getting snared up in the stormy watery. Tempest having another mood swing no doubt. She did her best to pass the time reading the faded etchings in the walls, some of the religious scriptures.

At first she has her back to the entrance but soon feels the shift in the water which causes her to turn quickly. It is something largish but she was in no way expecting what she saw.

Her hands tighten on her trident in alarm as she sees the creature there before her with it's plethora of tentacles which makes it tough for her to identify at first. She has been educated in other cultures though by her own hand and remembers the books she's read as a little girl.

“Princess Tidal?” She is unsure though her trident points down slightly as not to be leveled at her but one she can bring up in a flash if necessary. She is topless, her clothes back at her ship.

"Princess Myra," she replies politely, staying well out of reach of the trident. "I'm glad introductions are unnecessary." She stays in front of the exit to the room, speaking clearly and maintaining an air of confidence and control.

"I wish we could have met under better circumstances," she begins, "But unfortunately I have bad news. Your people have wrongfully captured my brother. The best way to free him would naturally be a prisoner transfer, and it just so happens you're the coin with which we can pay. Since I don't want anything to happen to him, I've come to take you into custody. If you lay down arms and submit, then I promise to do everything in my power to ensure your safety. I can't make any such guarantees if you resist however." She holds up a hand and shrugs. "So it's up to you I guess."

Honesty isn't usually her tactic here, but though she values the advantage of surprise, she understands it to be a temporary benefit, and much less valuable than the possibility, however slim, of avoiding a fight altogether.

Myra could be insightful at times. She sees one opponent but for this it is less likely that they would risk a princesses life while already having lost a prince so it was pretty certain that the princess had back up with her.

Now the Vodrani were slow to anger but if she were mistreated then the situation was likely to explode. She cosiders this and the fact that the water is a bit stormy though while in her she could control the flow of water far easier it was the fact that her swimming speed that would be cut down and it would take more or an effort on her part to control the whether.

Her weapon does not come up but she does not cast it aside aside either. Instead she seems to be thinking. “Which brother?” She asks as she considers all the logical options at her disposal and begins ponder some of the illogical ones.

The Princess eyes her foe warily. "I can hardly see how that matters at this point. If you want to submit then I'm willing to discuss the situation with you all you like, and answer your questions. Consider it, it would be the best way to end this difficulty without bloodshed, and provide a stepping stone to where the relations between our people might eventually be normalized."

She doesn't want to delay any longer, not knowing if Myra has backup on the way. She's rather annoyed at having to get her hands dirtied like this, especially since despite what the message said she's not overly qualified for it. Then again, this priestess was particularly attractive. She might get some entertainment out of the whole ordeal after all. With that in mind, she can't quite stop her eyes from roaming over Myra's breasts and stomach, as well as admiring that shapely pink tail.

The question somewhat mattered to Myra but she considered her options here then drops the trident and swims away from it. Often she had a dagger with her on a harness but did not bring it today … there was a rather complicated reason behind that.

“A request, Princess. My ship is not to far from here but I would need someone to mind Rieko while I am gone. I trust that this will be an extended matter.”

She considers her pet briefly. Most Vodrani were easy going and she was no exception being slow to anger. If the situation were reverse and she needed a captive then she would do the same thing so there had been no reason to fault her for this so she had not even been annoyed by this.

"I understand. I can't let you enter your ship, but lead the way to it and we can find a solution to your pet." She backs away from the entrance, nodding for Myra to go ahead as she seeks to collect the trident. It looks like a nice weapon, her captive will probably want it returned eventually.

"And thank you. I appreciate your decision and I know it can't have been an easy one to make."

She's speaking much more formally than she usually does, figuring this Vodrani is one that's best tread lightly around. Besides, she'd rather stay on her good side when the situation could still so easily spiral out of her control. If she's in the mood to get naughty later well... better to do it when her captive is restrained and they're both in deep space.

“On the contrary it was an easy choice to make under the circumstances. I doubt that you are alone and I have no back up. The water is a bit choppy due to the storm requiring a little more effort to use my water magic and even move. I may have made a good showing in an escape attempt but in the end it may not have mattered.”

She leads the way though with the current flowing as it is she picks up on something large that blocks the currents. That was not unusual as their were things like sunken buildings, mountains and other things tough having been down here before she realizes it must be the Princess back up.

Sure enough the thing shadows them as she swims back to an inland when she hits the shallows she shifts forms gaining legs in place of a tail.

Her ship isn't to far from her, She points it out. “Were shall I wait? Here? With your pet?” The Vodrani seems to accept these matters as mundane thus far and has no reason to cause any problems for her captor.

She pauses though and thinks about something. “What is to happen with my ship?”

The Princess frowns, swimming around the ship and examining. "Thought I'd just leave it here where it can be retrieved. As long as your security systems are up to date, I would think the location is remote enough that it isn't likely to be molested."

She glances at Myra. "What kind of pet do you have anyway?"

Myra nods. “Yes, the security is up to date. It is not much of a ship and here it is fairly isolated so discovery is not much of an issue. In truth I am less concerned about the ship and more so on the things I have there. My personal equipment and the like, Reko.”

When Princess Tidal asks about her pet Myra shows no hesitation. “I do not know what your people would refer it as, I'm fairly sure that he is native to Vodran but I suppose he is the equivalent to an octopi.

“He is about five feet in diameter. There are two pools on the ship, a smaller and larger one. He is into larger. Like an octopi he is good at escaping his enclosure and the door does not open from that side when closed. I set it up so my voice print opens it should I ever get stuck in there though you might just want to leave the door opened while you are in there.”

The Princess hesitates as she stares at Myra's ship. If the priestess intends to turn the tables, this would probably be the time when she could lose control of this precarious situation. Treating her captive well seemed like it was going to be too much trouble, but she decides to play along for now.

"Alright, so what do you want me to do? Take it with us? Or do you have an automatic feeder I can activate? Maybe just set it free and let it live off the land until you can come back for it?"

Myra considers for a moment. She has no automatic feeder and find Rieko again on the planet could be too difficult. However, Rieko is smart …

“I suppose it depends on how long I am to be your guess. If over two weeks then it is best to release him, the provisions won't last,” she really didn't want to loose her childhood pet and the decision showed on her face though it was preferred to letting Rieko just die.

“If under he will survive, just open the door to his tank so he can get out. He's already shown he can open doors and can get into things. The main door leading into the ship is voice activated too so he will be contained on the ship at least.”

And hopeful doesn’t brake anything, that was a big worry too considering … but the love of a pet often overshadowed reason. It might have been best if she just released Rieko but with no sure way at her disposal in finding him again she could be searching the ocean for years, years that she id not have.