Detrius woke them early the next morning with the smell of a fresh fish breakfast cooking.
While Detrius was cooking Abbie told Jake, Lizzie, and Ness about what had happened the night
before, that Detrius wanted to come with them. Of course, Jake was totally against the whole idea. Lizzie and Ness on the other hand, thought it would be good to have him on board.
"Why not bring Aqua man on board, Jake? You got something about not being the only guy anymore?" asked Lizzie jokingly, but she hit closer to the truth than she realized.
Before Jake had a chance to answer, Lizzie continued, "He's got powers dude! In case you haven't noticed!"
At this point Ness chimed, "I really don't want to die. I'm not saying we should go together like 0s and 1s, but we should at least bring him along as a bodyguard, ya know, since he asked."
"And what's wrong with being friends with him?" asked Abbie.
Lizzie nodded her agreement and Jake replied, "Because he's a merman! Does that not bother any of you? That's not possible!"
Abbie put her hand on her brother's shoulder and said, "I though you were smarter than that Jake." Turning away she ended the debate. He was coming.
After their conversation they took turns showering in the small bathroom in the cabin. Jake went
first so he would have time to give Detrius a piece of his mind. After he was again dressed in
the same clothes that he had worn since they left home he marched out to the fire pit where
Detrius was making breakfast.
"So I see you've managed to convince Abbie to let you come along. She did a hell of a job
convincing us." said Jake bitterly as he approached.
"That was up to her, I simply asked." said Detrius calmly in return.
"Well congrats, you made the team. Remember what I told you fish-man. Keep away from my
sister."
"It will be up to her whether she wants to like me or not."
Suddenly done with the conversation Jake marched back to the cabin to see if the girls were
ready. He knocked on the door and Lizzie and Abbie called out,
"Hold-up! We're almost ready! Ness is just getting out!"
About ten minutes later they were circled around the fire pit again in the same formation as the
day previous. They all scarfed down their breakfast eager to meet Poseidon. As soon as they
were finished Detrius explained to them how it would work. He would put them back in the
bubble and they would go down to Poseidon's palace, where they would meet with him, talk, and
have lunch. Then hopefully they would be able to go to the next world. Before they left for anywhere, Detrius also explained them some customs.
"When you enter a palace you have to say some things. It's pretty much just customary, but it's important. If you don't you could be attacked, so just do it."
"You're movin' too slow waterboy, get on with it." interupted Ness.
Detrius' face showed obvious annoyance at the new nickname, but he continued, "You have to say 'in pace nos venire'. Directly tanslated it means 'in peace we come'. You say it."
They each took turns practicing saying it then Detrius eplained the responses.
"The response will either be 'et pax in te sunt excepit' which means 'and in peace you are welcomed' or they will answer with war, which will be relatively obvious, but you don't have to worry about that with my father. "
"War?" asked Abbie.
Lizzie pointed out, "We're already at war Abbie, I don't think that's what we should be worried about."
Abbie and the others nodded and then Detrius stuck out his hand to Ness, asking for the backpack. It was much heavier than it had been initially because it was now stuffed with a few blankets and some canned tuna, which Detrius claimed was an offense to the sea.
 Easily Detrius made the backpack waterproof and they were off.
They walked down to the beach and before the touched the water they looked at Detrius.
"Just start walking in." he said in answer to their unspoken question.
They did as he said and walked into the water. The bubble started rising around them as they got deeper and eventually they were fully underwater with the bubble around them as the day before. As epected, the speed was the same as previous. 
They passed by several mermen, all who grasped spears that were half as long as they were.
For each merman there seemed to be at least 2 mermaids. Each had seaweed hair of varying
lengths and long, slim tails. They could see Poseidon's castle for miles! As they came upon it
they saw that it was made of living coral, different colors of coral for each part of the palace it seemed. It was the biggest structure as far as the eye could see.
Exactly as they had yesterday, the came to a sudden stop directly in front of a wall. The stop
threw them to their knees, but they quickly recovered. They slowly drifted down parallel to the
coral palace until they came to large double doors. The doors were not doors, but curtains of
anemone that vibrated with electricity, small lightning like bolts jumped from one strand to the next, guarding the entrance like an electric fence. Detrius went through first, and then he pulled the teens through. The air bubble kept them safe from the majority of the shock, but they still got a small jolt of electricity to wake them up. Once they passed through the curtain of seaweed, their jaws dropped. The room was immense! Without stalling, Detrius steered them straight into the hallway to their left. About three doors down, they turned into the conference room. It was an oval area and the walls were made live coral reef. Several different species of fish and the eels gave the room a colorful appearance. Poseidon was sitting at the head of the table waiting for them. When he saw them he smiled warmly at the four of them, excluding Detrius, and they said as they were told, "In pace nos vinere."
Poseidon boomed in return without his smile faltering, "Et pax in te sunt excepit! Welcome friends! I trust you have enjoyed your stay thus far?"
They all nodded at the large blue merman, twice the size of any they had seen and said their 'thank you's before he spoke again.
"I apologize for leaving you so abruptly yesterday without formally introducing myself, as you
probably have figured out, I am Poseidon, god of the oceans. Who might you be?"
They all introduced themselves and stated their age.
Jake managed to insert, "We're not from round here and we need your help."
While Lizzie excitedly asked, "So you've got some pretty powers right? Does your trident really shoot lightning?"
The answer to Lizzies question was a chuckle and small lightning bolts forming between the prongs of Poseidons trident.
When they were all done Poseidon said, "I can help you if that's what you came for, but first lets
have lunch." he paused for a moment, considering something, then stated, "No, no. That will not
work. Children, would you be more comfortable if you were able to breathe underwater so you
could come out of that bubble?"
"Heck yeah!!" said Lizzie immediately.
The others followed with enthusiastic agreements and Poseidon chuckled. He stretched his
over-sized hand toward the children and said, "Touch my hand and you will be able to breathe as
I do."
His finger, which was about the size of  one of their forearms, breached the bubble but no water came in. The four of them stretched their small hands out to meet his and the instant that all of their hands were on his, the bubble around them dissipated into the water. They were left standing on the
sand that acted as Poseidon's floor. Each of them felt exhilarated as they took their first deep
breath, they could feel the microscopic bubbles of oxygen in the water around them make their way into their lungs.
Smiles and giddiness fell upon the room.
They moved on eventually and they ate another seafood meal. Over lunch Poseidon spoke
about many things, but he started with "Children, may I ask why you hold a treasure belonging to my sister in law?"
All four of them gaped at the realization of their relations, but Poseidon remained patiently waiting for their answer, so Abbie replied quite scared about what Poseidon would think of their means of possesion.
"Umm, we've been told to keep it from her."
Then Lizzie filled in, "Seven said something about avoiding a severe 'war of the worlds' type thing."
Jake and Ness nodded and Poseidon replied regretfully, "My brother's wife was once a gentle and kind soul, but all those years in the underworld, I believe spoiled her. Although I do not believe her capable of the violence of war, I do not think she should be in possesion of such a powerful device. Thank you children for taking this weight upon your shoulders." he paused and sighed, then  continued, "Come now, let's speak of more joyous things."
At this point Jake asked, "Can you breathe on land?"
Poseidon smiled once again and answered, "My kin can, why do you think I cannot?"
Jake sheepishly mumbled something about 'just being curious' and Poseidon laughed. The conversation carried on and Poseidon explained more about his world. When he got to the point of adressing his world's population Ness asked, "I've seen videos on the internet of mermaids, do they actually exist where we come from or just here?"
"On occation, my mermaids like to wander. Unlike most creatures of any world, with the exception of dryads, they can travel through worlds via their environment, in my case oceans. So you might have seen videos of my wandering clan before, but now you've seen them in life and that is better right?"
"Absolutely!"
They continued to talk as they ate, and they ate quite a lot. The lobsters and varieties of fish were deliciously made, and continuously served by mermiads whose tails were yellow and their hair the color of the sun. After they finished lunch, Poseidon asked for the sphere. When Ness was hesitant to hand it over, he assured that he could be trusted and was able to fix it. He announced his actions as he made them.

TO BE CONTINUED

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