Snatch and Larya stood side by side on the ledge, Mylio floating in the water behind them.

Before them, in the middle of the deep Slick Trench itself, thirteen gorgeous mermaids watched them with eyes glowing of rose-pink and emerald-green glee. Their large breasts bounced lightly in a faint undersea current. They were smiling at their three targets, and their leader, a redhead with a long eel-like tail, had the biggest smile of all.

“You did very well,” she said, her voice as sweet and smooth as warm milk. “You defeated Chrysa and Nerka. Very well done!” Her solid green eyes glinted with amusement. “But this was always a trap. We were always waiting for you. We knew the merfolk would bring in humans to solve their little slime problem. They’re so ... predictably selfish.“

“You talk like you aren’t merfolk,” Larya said. The dark-haired druidess was still completely naked, and she felt painfully vulnerable—even more exposed than the mermaids, who at least didn’t have groins to place on full display before a sea of greedy eyes.

“Oh, we are.” The eel maid giggled. “And we aren’t! Isn’t that silly?” Her eyes glimmered, and Larya felt a curious sense of deja vu. Her mouth went a bit slack as she stared into those beautiful eyes. So green. So pure. “Aren’t you a silly, silly girl? Walking around with no clothes! You must be such a slut!”

“I ... yeah ...” Larya shook herself. She wasn’t that susceptible, not now, with fear-borne adrenaline coursing through her veins. “No, okay, you know what? Fuck you.” She grabbed Snatch’s arm in one hand, Mylio’s in the other. “Guys, let’s—“

The mermaids struck with terrifying suddenness, bolting towards them like predatory sharks.

A brunette bore Larya to the ground. She was laughing like mad, panting with unconcealed desire. Larya struggled for a moment to find purchase as she was knocked off her feet and away from solid ground, and the mermaid took this opportunity to pin her arms against the ground. “I’m gonna drink you,” she cooed, eyelashes fluttering, “and then you’re gonna drink me, and we’re gonna—“

Larya kicked the mermaid in the stomach. “Your hypnosis technique needs work!” The mermaid’s mouth opened in a silent wheeze as she fell back.

Larya somersaulted back onto her feet to face away from the battle. Before she could turn, though, something else impacted the hollows at the back of her knees, causing her legs to buckle in tandem. She fell backwards and found herself staring up at a haze of pink and green eyes. Intellectually, Larya recognized that one mermaid had pink eyes, the other green, but to her conscious mind at that pain-stunned moment, it was just four glimmering orbs watching her with ... promising interest. Clearly sensing her disorientation, the two mermaids smiled and leaned in, making it even harder to get a grip on a solid reality. “We all want you,” the green-eyed mermaid cooed.

“Don’t you want us?” asked the rose-eyed mermaid, her eyes seemingly pulsating as their lashes fluttered.

“I …”

Larya blinked rapidly. Their eyes were inescapable. Their technique was better, she dimly had to admit. She felt the one she’d kicked grab onto one of her legs, stroking her bare skin. “So smooth,” the unseen brunette whispered.

Without warning, a wooden shaft shot into view and clocked the green-eyed mermaid above Larya right in the head. She slumped back, and those emerald orbs winked out of Larya’s world. “Hey!” the pink-eyed mermaid protested, glaring up at the attacker.

This snapped Larya out of it. At least enough for her to lunge upward, headbutting the pink-eyed fey right between the eyes and again kicking the one holding her leg—this time in the face, she was pretty sure. Head spinning from her own blow, she rolled to the side, avoiding another diving mermaid, and sprang to her feet.

The ledge was too small to fight on. Out of the corner of her eye, Larya saw Snatch fending off three mermaids. A fourth lay to the side, the tip of her fish tail bloody from a spear wound. But he was surrounded.

The diving mermaid Larya had just dodged flicked back around to face her, and Larya realized she was about to be surrounded, too. A ring of fey was forming, slowly pinning Larya to the one spot. This particular mermaid was the green-eyed leader. Her shining scarlet hair swam around her like a red halo as she slowly advanced, eel tail swaying sensually to either side, drawing Larya’s eyes in like a lasso. “Silly girl...” she whispered.

“Uh-huh!” Fighting the urge to stop, to stare into those pretty eyes, to submit and be a good, silly, horny—fighting the urge to keep thinking thoughts like that, Larya turned and dove between two mermaids as they lunged to close ranks. She crawled, then sprang to her feet on the other side of the ring, ramming straight into Snatch.

The impact took them both clear over the ledge.

For a moment, they drifted. Snatch stared at her with wide, panicked, infuriated eyes. Larya felt soft fingertips just graze her heel, about to grab on.

She connected herself to the World Base, ignoring the brief rush of pleasure, and called the waters to take them—not up, she realized, as a shadow fell over them. She looked up for a split-second and saw three mermaids slowly swimming toward them, breasts hanging down straight towards her, big smiles on those empty faces. They were taking their time. They were playing with their food. They knew there was no escape.

Down.

Down.

Down, she compelled, and let the waters take them.

* * *

Snatch felt the waters gather around them, and felt gravity suddenly ... shift. Suddenly, they were plummeting. Suddenly, the mermaids who had been about to grab them were ten feet away, then ten meters, then little blots up above. And then he couldn’t see them anymore.

“Hey!” he tried to shout, but no sound came out. The waters were rushing too quickly, he supposed. Another limitation of the spell. He looked at Larya, whose green irises were especially prominent as she concentrated on the druidic magic. She gave no sign of having heard him. “Hey!” he shouted, but again got no response.

He waited a few minutes, watching her in the gloomy light. She was very concentrated, and never looked his way. Her arm was hooked under his shoulder, keeping him close—probably so he wouldn’t drift away.

Or, he supposed, so he wouldn’t abandon her. Again.

“Larya,” he said, chewing on his cheek, “I shouldn’t have run.” The words were actually quite easy to say when he knew no one would hear them. “I got stupid. We were—I was waiting at the entrance, but I’m fucking done, Larya, we can’t go fucking dying for these assholes. I’m weaker than I’ve ever felt before. She drained me.” He rubbed his eyes. “I couldn’t really fight, you know I couldn’t fight, but I know I still should’ve stayed.”

Silence hung around his words. For once, Snatch felt uneasy with the silence. Usually, silence was a friend, one of his only friends. Now, it felt oppressive, even heavier than the hundreds of tons of water up above.

“I’m ... I’m sorry, alright?” These words didn’t come any easier, heard or no. Snatch supposed it was as hard to hear it himself as it was to let others hear it, too.

The waters grew darker and darker, and soon, the adventurer found, he couldn’t see Larya at all anymore. He was left alone in the darkness. Like the silence, darkness was an old, cheap friend that today seemed hostile.

A few minutes passed by. Shit, he thought, how deep are we even going?

At last, the descent seemed to slow, then halt. At least, it felt like it did. Snatch couldn’t see anything. Maybe there wasn’t enough light for even the spell to work with.

Larya let him go. For a moment, Snatch was totally alone, drifting in shadowy waters. Then came Larya’s voice. “We’re at the bottom,” she said. “The ... the very bottom. I think this might be the lowest point in the whole ocean. This is the Abyssal Zone.“

“Huh.” Snatch looked around. “Kinda dark.”

There was a pause. “Is it? I can see okay.”

“Oh.” Snatch blinked. “Wait, is my spell failing?”

“Probably.”

Snatch waited for her to follow up. For a few seconds, she didn’t. Snatch’s heart pounded with paranoid ideas of being abandoned, of being punished for his cowardice—

And then her fingers came to rest on his shoulder, and he felt the magic flow within him again. His vision gradually returned, and with a deep gulp of air, he realized just how little he’d been ... breathing.

They were in an expanse that was essentially empty—all he could see was dull gray-brown sand in all directions, surrounded by curtains of darkness. Larya was looking at him with a strange, sad look. Snatch wasn’t great at reading people. Was she still angry? “It failed in you early,” she said. “I wonder why. Maybe the jelly maid’s ... attentions have other effects. Maybe she fed off the magic on you.“

“Great,” Snatch muttered.

“Hey, but you seem to be feeling better.” She shrugged. “Not leaning on the spear anymore.”

“I can’t even feel the ground, Larya.” He looked down and realized that the ash-gray ground was mere inches below him. “But ... yeah. I think it’s starting to wear off.”

“I wonder why she did that,” Larya said. “Aside from the, uh, obvious reason.” She gave a nervous giggle. “Maybe they just wanted you weaker, but ... with all the talk about drinking ...oh, I don’t know.”

“We do,” hissed a voice from the shadows. “Would you like us to tell you?”

“Mm, yes,” hissed a second voice, “would you like us to show you?“

Snatch and Larya turned to the source of the voices, but saw only darkness. It couldn’t already be the mermaids, surely—though those were feminine voices.

“Who’s that?” Larya asked, her voice sounding clipped.

There was a pause. Then, two slim woman swept into view.

They were incredibly pale, Snatch saw, even by the standards of this light. Their hair was lustrous and hung low, like blankets over their shoulders. Their eyes were wide and pale, gleaming with twin rosy lights. Their lips were bright red, but their mouths were just a little bit too large, their teeth just a little bit too sharp.

They were still beautiful, though, and their large breasts, barely concealed by slim gray dresses that hugged their bodies like paint, jiggled slightly as they swayed forward.

“That’s close enough,” Snatch said, raising his spear. His last one, he realized. More than ever, he missed his scythe.

The women stopped and smiled.

“But of course,” the first said, with a patronizing smile.

“We wouldn’t want to frighten you,” said the second, with an identical smirk.

As they said this, their lower bodies came into view. They had dark-scaled, almost emaciated-looking fish tails. They were mermaids. But ... not.

“Deep Merfolk,” Larya whispered, taking a step back.

“Of a sort,” the mermaids said in unison. Their voices overlapped almost perfectly. “And you wish to know more, don’t you?”

Their voices were sweet, but heavy, like molasses, or entangling tar. Snatch squinted. Was it getting brighter?

One of them turned and smiled at him. Their smiles weren’t that unsettling, actually. Very pretty. Very ... sensual.

Wasn’t it getting brighter? It seemed like it was getting brighter.

“You wish to know more?” they said together.

The light seemed to flash. But ... there was no light. Right? They were at the bottom of the ocean. He squinted, trying to make sure.

“Right,” Snatch said. He heard Larya say something at the exact same time, but he couldn’t quite catch it.

“Mm.” The one looking at him shook her head slightly. The brightness seemed to ... sway. Snatch felt his head lightly sway with it, and she giggled. “You wish to know me more?“

“Um ...” Wasn’t that the same thing she just said? “Right,” he repeated, trying to sound annoyed. But his voice sounded more sleepy than anything.

It was definitely getting brighter. There was a bright light above her head. Wasn’t there? When Snatch looked, he couldn’t see it.

“You can’t see it,” the two said, echoing his thoughts. “There is no light.”

“No light,” Snatch heard Larya murmur.

Were the mermaids getting closer?

Snatch heard the other mermaid talking to Larya, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying, because his mermaid was talking at the exact same time. “You came so far,” she whispered. “And you experienced so much. Wasn’t it nice?”

“No,” he said, scowling. Nice? What the hell did she think was nice—getting drained by a jelly maid? Getting dragged a mile down into deep ocean?

For a moment, the light seemed to flash again. But there was no light. Right? Snatch almost blinked, but didn’t. Something was off. What had he just been thinking about? He’d been annoyed, and then ...

“What did you feel?” the mermaid asked him. She was only a few meters away, and it was very, very bright. He could barely look at her, but something held his gaze there on her eyes, braving the blinding light that did not exist. It dazzled him, distracted him from her words.

He shivered. “Uh ...”

“Pleasure?”

The light flashed, and so did a memory. Chrysa’s wonderful mouth locked on his cock, drinking him. Him, lying back, immersed in ...

“... pleasure,” he said, barely aloud.

What were these mermaids doing? They were enemies, weren’t they? Why were they just asking them quest

The light flashed. Snatch almost blinked again, but it wasn’t as though he needed to blink underwater. He just needed to concentrate. Why was it so bri

The light flashed. Her rosy eyes swam around him, and he found himself turning away from Larya. He had to keep those eyes in his vision. Had to keep the enemy in his vision, he corrected. He had to keep his grip on his sp

The light flashed. But there was no light. He stared, mouth agape.

The mermaid giggled, clearly delighted with something. “Oh, and now you’re remembering the pleasure, aren’t you?” she hissed. “’Chrysa’, you called her.”

“I didn’t say th—” The light flashed, cutting him off. Snatch was confused. He hadn’t said it. Had he? Had he been speaking aloud?

Larya was mumbling something behind him, and he heard the other mermaid give the exact same giggle his mermaid had just given. He felt a brief twinge of annoyance with her. She was probably getting hypnotized. Now he would have to fight two mermaids alone.

“Don’t you remember?” the mermaid asked, and her voice was laced with a strange power to it. The light flashed. Snatch’s eyes nearly screwed shut as he suddenly felt—remembered—the sensation of Chrysa’s stinging tongues. They coursed over his cock, bathing it in poisonous pleasure.

He let out a moan.

“That’s right!” she said, again sounding delighted. “Oh, you’re easy. But the jelly maids do that to people. You’re already ‘drunk’. Mm, I could finish you now.“

“What?” he snapped. This had gone on long enough. She was ... it was too bright, and she seemed to be insulting him in some way he couldn’t under

The light flashed. The second the light diminished again, her eyes were back inside him, her words again creeping over his body, and he couldn’t get the memory of the tongues to leave his head. “You can’t think about fighting. You don’t want to think about fighting.”

“But—” The light flashed.

“You’re just so horny,” she murmured, and he felt his cock rising to full erectness within its confines. “Isn’t it hard to think? Ooh, your mind is just being stung into submission all over again, huh?” As she emphasized the word, one of the tongues on his cock gave it a little pleasurable jolt. Snatched trembled.

“It’s not real,” he protested. His voice sounded strangely strained. Feeble. Then the tongues danced over his glans—or he thought they did, anyways—and his eyes widened. He heard Larya mewling behind him.

The mermaid laughed. “Doesn’t it feel real? You can’t think about anything else. Can’t concentrate on thinking, on questioning, on resisting. Whenever you try, the light just ...“

The light flashed, and the tongues swarmed over him. Now he felt Chrysa’s tentacles tickling over his arms and stomach, and he started giggling uncontrollably, unable to control his own body. He clutched at his belly, but couldn’t stop the phantom touches. “Ah—no—”

“Mm.” She winked, his rose world momentarily halving in scope. “So hard to resist. So hard to think.”

“Hard …” He struggled to remember what he was fighting. There was something … something hard … oh, fuck, that felt good ...

“I know, baby.” She snapped her fingers. The light flashed again at the same time, and the twin shock sent Snatch’s conscious mind scattering like leaves in river rapids. “But you can make it easier to think. Easier to do everything you want to do.” She gave him a slow, condescending smile. “You just have to submit to me! I’ll show you how."”

That struck a nerve. Snatch felt his willpower rally, thrashing like a half-tethered beast. “Nng—no—” The light flashed, but the resistance remained this time. He slowly raised his spear, snarling. “You—” The light flashed. His thoughts cracked, but remained intact. “You won’t—can’t—”

“Ooh, do I need to slow down?” She beamed at him. The light flashed again. “Okay! That’s more fun, anyways. Nevermind what I just said. In fact, you should forget it.” The light flashed again.

He blinked. She wasn’t telling him to … she’d stopped telling him whatever she’d just, er, said that he hadn’t liked. Or something. Why had he been so angry? She had such pretty eyes. It was so bright. The tongues felt so good, and his cock was starting to twitch with a newfound desperation.

“Let’s see...” She put a finger to her lips. “Oh, I know. Let’s talk about using those nasty wittle weapons.”

“...huh?”

The light flashed again as the mermaid shook her head, smiling sadly. “You don’t really know how to use them, do you?“

“...no...”

The light flashed.

* * *

Larya felt rather proud of herself.

After the mermaid had explained that she couldn’t possibly stop thinking of sucking the mermaid’s breasts—and it was true, she certainly couldn’t—and of course could never even try to think about resisting as long as those breasts remained unsucked—obviously true, as cute little slave sluts could never resist without getting all horny and needy—it had taken only a few minutes—or had it been seconds?—for her to understand that she was probably meant to suckle breasts all along. The mermaid was really very persuasive.

“You’re so smart!” the mermaid cooed, as the light flashed to reinforce it.

“No I’m not!” Larya said, giggling. “I’m just your cute little slave slut!”

“Oh, yes you are.” The mermaid drew nearer and cupped Larya’s chin in her hand. “Druids,” she hissed. “Stupid. Horny. Every one of them. Ooh, it’s been so long since I’ve claimed a druid ...”

Larya felt her face pointed directly at something incredibly bright and warm, which, she knew, was impossible. There was no light. She was just being silly again. But the mermaid had taught her to help her train Larya by letting her know when that happened, so she said, giggling, “There’s a light up above!”

“No there isn’t,” the Deep Mermaid said, slowly, stroking her cheek with one smooth hand. “There is no light.”

The light flashed.

“No light,” Larya repeated. It felt so good and warm to agree. There was no light.

“And it’s definitely not hypnotizing you,” the Deep Mermaid said.

“Not hypnotizing me.” It felt so good to say what the mermaid told her to say. So good and warm. And wet.

“And even if it was, you would want it to, because you’re a little landwhore.”

“Landwhore.” It felt so, so good, so warm and wet and sticky and right, to let her new mistress call her that.

“Silly girl.” The mermaid laughed. “And you don’t even know how to use your magic, do you?”

“No, I...” Larya’s brain sparkled. She frowned. “Wait, yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t.” The mermaid reached down and began petting Larya’s breasts.

Larya moaned at the sensation, but she still shook her head. She giggled at the very thought. “I do so!”

For the first time, the mermaid frowned. “No. You don’t.”

“Uh-huuh.” Larya beamed at her and leaned closer, planting a kiss on the startled mermaid’s lips. “And you know what I can do with that magic?“

“Um.” The mermaid was looking flustered.

“I know you aren’t hypnotizing me,” Larya went on, “but if you had been, you would have made a big mistake just now.” She leaned in and kissed the mermaid again, this time connecting to the World Base as she did so. She felt the powerful fey presence of the mermaid and placed her power against it—gently, but firmly. Then she started to stroke.

The mermaid let out a little moan into the kiss. Larya felt hands entwine themselves in her hair.

“Mm.” Larya wrapped her arms about the mermaid, finally letting her eyes close. “Because—mm—the World Base—mm, yes—it’s not something you can break me away from.” She broke off the kiss and smiled brightly at the mermaid, rubbing the mermaid’s round, perky breasts, feeling the familiar joy of bringing fey pleasure. “I wanna show you something. Is that okay, Mistress?”

The mermaid stared at her dazedly. She had a funny look on her face, Larya thought. She looked like she was vaguely recognizing that she had made some sort of horrible mistake and was only half able to regret it.

Then Larya pressed her fingers into the small of the mermaid’s back and began to draw a fey spiral. Just one, but a powerful one—only the best for Mistress! The slave slut winked at the mermaid, eager to show off what she could do. The mermaid blinked, trembling slightly. “Wait. D—”

Larya completed the spiral, and the mermaid let out a scream of pure joy as Larya’s druidic power surged through her erotic being like a waterfall of pleasure. The fey woman spasmed and shook and fell to the ocean floor, but Larya wrapped her arms around her mistress, cooing sweet nothings of devotion, not allowing her to escape.

Her surroundings were getting darker, but this was unimportant to Larya. She kissed all over the mermaid’s face, eagerly bathing her in her own lust. She straddled the mermaid’s waist and began to rub herself on the mermaid, heightening the sensation, drinking in the mermaid’s cries and whines.

The mermaid had ceased to protest, ceased to command, and now just begged for more, squealed her bliss into the shadowy seas. Her surprisingly light, fragile body trembled with each orgasm, and her grip on Larya was almost kittenlike. This only strengthened Larya’s need to protect, need to nurture, need to fuck her mistress’s beautiful brains out.

Midway through the mermaid’s orgasm, though, Larya realized that the light had gone out.

There had been a light.

Three-quarters of the way through the mermaid’s orgasm, two minutes later, Larya realized what was going on.

She sprang off the still-orgasming mermaid and performed a somersault, slightly less graceful than the one she’d managed earlier, scrabbling awkwardly to her feet. She whirled around, seeing a light off in the distance. She saw a stocky humanoid figure walking away from her, perhaps a quarter-mile off, led by a bright, undulating glow.

Larya had been hypnotized. She’d been lured away. She’d left Snatch alone. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.

She heard the mermaid starting to rise, and noticed that the brightness was starting to return, but flickering, weaker. She turned and beheld the deep mermaid. There was an additional component to this creature that neither she nor Snatch had seen—been capable of seeing, probably. A tendril rose from the back of her neck, climbing up above and ending in a large, luminescent orb.

Angler maids. One of the most dangerous deep merfolk varieties in existence—powerful, sinister hypnotists who could break even the most strong-willed minds in mere minutes. As far as Larya knew, there was literally no form of mind control more powerful than an angler maid in darkness. Larya had been ridiculously lucky that this one somehow didn’t know how closely-linked an attuned druid was to the World Base. Actually, that was nothing short of bizarre, considering this was itself a fey.

Larya bit her lip, not looking forward to what she now had to do. It’s too dangerous, she told herself. There’s no time. For either of us.

She raised her hand to cast the spell to kill the wicked thing.

Then the mermaid looked up at her, and her eyes were pale white, not pink. She stared at Larya, open-mouthed, still spasming in orgasm. But her eyes were not pink. They were white. Empty. Larya peered at the creature, momentarily caught off-guard. What was—

“Oh, my cute little slave slut!” sang a voice in Larya’s ear. “You didn’t think it was that easy, did you?“

Larya felt something cool and slimy brush by her inner thigh.