4 if by land and 6 if by sea
After not meeting with the mermen, word got back to Sumas's best friend the mermaid. Naturally she was worried. Sumas was constantly on the run and had been ever since they'd known each other. Not to mention that Sumas was also, last they spoke, teetering on the edge of extinction with some very real, very unstable health problems. The mermaid might have thought Sumas had just gone back to get treatment and plan their next escape if they hadn't been so adamant during their last conversation about not doing that.
Deeply and truly the mermaid knew her best friend was living on borrowed time, and while she was always trying to prepare herself for that inevitable moment, she was also always trying to do everything in her power to prevent it. Even though every day Sumas was alive she worried about them, at the same time she would rather worry for an eternity if it meant Sumas was there beside her.
They had met when they were both quite young, but still relatively close in age considering mermaids generally live much longer than humans but also develop more slowly. Sumas always regarded her like an older sister even though Sumas had never had any blood relatives.
They were always partners in shenanigans too. Just last week when the council of elder merfolk met, Sumas had collected herbs to draw in a squid-like species. When the herbs release pollen it attracts the squid-like species that are wanting to mate. The mating ritual is considered disgusting to merfolk because the squid-like creatures release a smelly, inky substance that they then swim through to fertilize each other. The water turns a dark grey and smells for weeks and all the movement only spreads the inky substance around. The mermaid chuckled just remembering it. But laughter gave way to grief and she decided she needed to start searching for her best friend.
The mermen had found Sumas's cloak, but not Sumas. Upon locating Womby, she had informed them that the last time she saw Sumas was in the geode with a human scientist. It wasn't normal for Sumas to not at least report back and tell their best friend what's going on, so with this information the mermaid decided to investigate with the aid of the mermen.
Merpeople had 2 forms. The first was their aquatic one which is probably the most familiar: a humanoid upper with a fish lower. Their second form was what they used on land and it looked mostly human. Much like lobsters, merfolk were capable of breathing under water and on land. Under water they breathed through gills and on land they used their lungs. However, being on land was limited as they could dry out after some time and needed to go back to the water.
Sumas's best friend left the water to enter the geode. As the water dripped off of her and she started to dry out, her scales shrank into skin cells and her tail split apart into legs. The mermen followed her.
Sumas was sleeping rather deeply in their spider silk bed still entangled with Suraci who was now awake, but didn't want to wake his partner considering he was at very least partly responsible for their exhaustion. Instead, he found himself deep in thought playing with their hair. The texture was so smooth and soft as the color shifted through the entire visible spectrum. It was the most relaxed he'd ever felt, so when an angry mermaid and 3 mermen burst into the room, he was caught off guard. He wasn't even familiar with the species, because Sumas had done everything in their power to make sure the mercreatures were never discovered by the scientists knowing that this would only lead to merfolk being trapped and tested on.
"What the ever living fuck, Sumas? Where the hell were you last night?" These were the words of the angry mermaid that Sumas woke up to. Well, sort of woke up, because after last night they were really hung over. Sumas's half conscious response was to mumble and curl into Suraci's chest. Suraci smiled impishly at his newfound audience.
The mermaid gestured to the mermen and they restrained Suraci. "You take him, I've got them." She picked up Sumas and stormed off back to the ocean.
The mermen began to argue about who was going to put Suraci's suit on him. "You do it." one said.
"No you do it." Another one said.
"I don't want to touch his weird human thing. I'm not doing it."
Suraci interrupted. "I can do it myself."
"That's not going to work either. We can't let you escape." One of them answered.
"I think I remember how these suits work. Sumas used to have one. There's a sensor here and you just.. there." The clothes, which had folded themselves into a neat little device after being removed, folded back out and snapped on to Suraci. "I'm guessing this is his badge on the table, and it looks like it's already been reprogrammed." The merman placed the badge on Suraci. Sumas, for their own protection, had taught them how to reprogram badges in case they encountered humans.
"Alright, let's go." The mermen carried Suraci off into the ocean.
Suraci decided to not fight back. He remembered Sumas saying something last night about the aphrodisiacs being for the mermen, so he decided to watch and see how this was going to play out first.