“This should be pretty easy to modify,” said Hyel, the seismologist. Seismology was the study of earthquakes, but among merpeople it was also the most-studied branch of magic, and Hyel was a practitioner of it who worked for the Prime. “Human magic is different, but all I’d need to do is layer a little of my own work on top of this and it should work.”

“Should is a very dangerous word when we’re talking about potential suffocation and sudden crushing by immense oceanic pressure,” Pax explained to xer. “I would really prefer a great deal more confidence than should. Like will, for example.”

Hyel flared xer frills in the way that Pax, after a week in Nilmeain Kasar, had learned to associate with a smile. “You’ve learned ‘Vyle far more rapidly than anyone expected you to have done, Pax.”

“It was foolish of them to assume I wouldn’t,” Pax said with a smile of his own. “But so have Denver and Louis, and you should be appreciative of their abilities as well.” Louis had picked up the merpeople’s language after just a day. Pax wasn’t yet fluent, but could hold a conversation. Denver was a little slower, but he was getting there. Sylvester had also learned it very quickly and was teaching John, who wasn’t struggling as much as Pax had anticipated, which was frustrating because it meant he was learning faster than Natalie.