Amara sighed heavily as the question was asked by her guards, as there was a bit of sadness that tugged at her heart in a way. She knew that sometimes family and friends of those that came to the mer's world. That was something that happened from time to time and ended up in some of the reports that her kingdom, and likely others had similar reports, as the island where Nate and his friends came to the more magical world was stationary in that world, but the portal represented by the storm moved various islands around the mer's world and thus served as gateways for all the mer kingdoms to have some connection with Earth and everything else that related the connections between that. Amara had learned enough about that while she had been going through many of the lessons that had been taught to her while they'd been living with the expectation that Prince Cain... Nate... was dead and gone and she would have to inherit the throne from her father.
But her brother was found to be alive and with the latest group of people to "stumble" onto the mer's world and becoming a merman again. That made her happy and willing to even volunteer for a mission like this, as it was normally something handled by advisors and members of the court that were gifted in magic. It was strong in the Royal Family, but it wasn't something that was that powerful, and even members of the family had found that their magic often had limits. But she'd gotten family back and who she'd only heard stories about, and while her brother more often responded to Nate rather than Cain, Amara was still overjoyed to meet and know her brother. That was enough for her to volunteer for the present mission on carrying out the offer to bring others directly to the mer's world , as she wanted her brother to be happy, and from what she'd found that also included the friendships he'd made in the human world.
Thus making them happy would make her brother happy and Amara wanted to do that for him. At the same time she wanted to do it for Rose and the others as well. The fact that they were learning and going through many of the acclimation classes to being merpeople at the summer palace had given Amara time to meet and learn about her brother's friends. All had their good sides, and she seemed to like Rose, especially, and that made the mission one into not only doing something for her brother but for a new friend as well. That was what made her feel a bit uneasy in that Rose's friend Angelia didn't accept the offer and now she would have to tell that to Rose. These things happened and it was something that was normal, but that didn't mean that Amara wanted to make her new friend and her brother's fiancée unhappy, and Angelia rejecting that offer might not make Rose happy.
"I am afraid that we go home... for now," Princess Amara said slowly and closing her eyes and focusing on the other requests that had been approved. "There were a few other invitations to consider... but I get the sense that they are not near any body of water that could be used as a means of communication... not without great embarrassment for all parties."
The guards looked to Amara and said nothing, taking that with acceptance. That let Amara go through the standard gestures that would allow them to return to their world and specifically the summer palace where they came from. It brought a specialized room in the summer palace into view and Amara and her guards went through it and with Amara hoping that Rose would not be angry with whatever Angelia had said into the recording that had been made to deliver to Rose.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Meanwhile in the summer palace in the magical world, Nate and Rose were seated with Taylor, Sam, Stacy, Mike, Kenny, Kelly, Amanda, and even Emiko and Denji in a library that was on the same floor as the residences that they'd been given. It was relatively large, though smaller than most public libraries that Rose remembered being to. Just as on the submarine that had brought them from the island to here, there were plenty of books that were made to work underwater, and how that worked Rose wasn't sure, but they did. It made for effective work with the various things that had to be read regarding transferring what she'd learned about nursing in the human world in college and then nursing school. Of course it also made for more group conversation on what they would do and could do. They all had their fair share of studying to do, but for the moment the subject of conversation was more on other issues.
"You're certain this plan of yours will actually work?" Kenny asked to Rose, "this sneak a message within a message thing?"
"It's stuff we did before when trying to share secrets that we didn't want our parents to know about," Taylor spoke up, "if we can't send a direct message that says, "hey magic is real and we fell into it becoming merpeople in the process," then the least we can try is something that would give family and friends the assurance that we're fine."
"It's a rather vague assurance," Stacy commented, "concerned parents or friends might want more than just the vague promise that we're fine and with no other details."
"And it could be interpreted a million ways," Sam added, "there's no detail in it..."
"I know," Rose admitted looking down as she thought over the message she'd recorded for Angelia.
The plan had been that she would repeat the emphasis that they were all fine as much as they could and include what details they could. Some of it also required getting some help from Denji, who had seemed most interested and curious in the magic merpeople used. For the most part he was apprenticing with the court's "magicians" just to see on how merpeople's magic worked and/or whether or not he might gain that ability. They accepted the silver tailed Japanese male merman and he had agreed to keep quiet on the details of the plan, and Rose found that lucky given that it was unlikely Denji would be able to cast any magic on his own. The nursing books also included some emphasis that only those who were born as merpeople would be able to cast magic, but for the moment if Denji was willing to help, Rose and Nate were happy for it.
"But from what Denji says... that may be our only option with this," Rose said slowly, "and while I'd love to have Angelia here, personally, she has a good family and we might not want to actually give up her life on land just to be with us. Thus it'd make sense to at least try to get a message tour our families out."
"If they even believe it," Mike said slowly.
"Ms. Rose is right if you wanted to get a message out..." Denji spoke up weakly, "we don't have much room from which do try anything... and if the merpeople follow the protocols that they have for dealing with humans in the human world... they have and will likely use a spell that would make a person forget the details of the meeting... at least with regard to knowledge of this world or merpeople. The simple "everyone is fine" message might go through because it is vague... and that's about the best you can do."
The others sighed in response to that. Nate took Rose's hand when he got the sense that she was showing some signs of frustration and worry. Regardless of whether or not he wanted to go back to Earth or really had anyone to go back to, he couldn't just let Rose feel "defeated." She responded to the soft squeeze of her hand with a small smile and let things go from there. Rose gave him a small smile at that.
"And hopefully it works and the sincerity of the message provides the comfort for those family members that may be worried about us," Taylor commented, not knowing that her mother had accepted the invitation.
"If they are," Amanda said slowly, "though... if Kat accepted... then I wouldn't mind on what my parents think. Things may have been getting better for same sex couples on Earth in the past few years, but they're still having to deal with people like my parents. People who spend too much time reading the the Old Testament and whining about people not doing things the "traditional" way."
"The old ways died in the old days," Nate commented, "people can't keep looking back."
"And that makes this place better," Amanda managed a smile, "more forward thinking... I... I just hope Kat accepts the offer."
There were a few nods. Kelly was about to say something when the door opened and Amara came in, looking calm and collected, though Rose noted a bit of a nervous look on Nate's sister's face.
"You are all studying together..." Princess Amara commented.
"More like going over the day's events," Kelly commented, "sharing what we've learned and relaxing... before whenever mer-finals week starts."
"Ah..." Princess Amara gave a friendly smile, "well... I have some good news from my mission to offer your friends and family a chance to join you here."
This drew the eyes as all involved. There were looks of hope on Taylor and Amanda's faces, and it was them that Princes Amara turned to first.
"Your mother and girlfriend both agreed to join us," Princess Amara spoke and then turned to pull out a small disk-like device.
Rose recognized it, it was like the device that had been provided to her to send her message to Angelia and thus setting her plan in motion. It was something that gave her the sense that Angelia had rejected the offer, as was planned. The only thing that Rose could really hope for was that Denji's advice on how to word the code in her message so that Angelia wouldn't forget the message.
"I'm afraid though, Rose, that your friend Angelia refused the offer," Princess Amara said slowly and even sounding a bit nervous as she extended the disk to Rose, "she did record a message for you... likely saying as to why she rejected the offer."
"It's probably something related to her family," Taylor commented, "Angelia, Rose, and I have all been close... but like Rose, Angelia has a fairly decent sized family that she couldn't just abandon..."
"There was the hope that she might be interested," Rose agreed with Taylor as she took the disk, "but I wouldn't want to make her choose between Taylor and I and everything else she has. The big thing will be that Taylor will get her mom back and Amanda will get her girlfriend back."
"You're not mad?" Princess Amara asked.
"No... not mad, maybe a bit sad and I will miss Angelia," Rose answered, "but... not mad. And if Nate and I can keep in touch with our friends and see them succeed, then things will be alright. Hopefully Angelia will remember the good times we had and they will stay with her."
Princess Amara smiled at that. Things had gone a bit better with regard to letting Rose know on the mission, and she also noted the smiles on Taylor and Amanda's faces, so that was good news.