The mermaid stared at Shiloh, eyes bewildered as a taunting voice pierced her mind, one that had a backing to it all to. With the sway of her arm, the binds the water forced upon Shiloh were lifted and the assault stopped, though it did not stop her from replying, "Betray our trust, ad I will just force the water down every pipe, land-dweller!" before leaping away from one tank to another, discarding the jewelry that decorated their heads and robbed them of thought, which only added more reinforcements and control to their side while the ones not trained for battle stayed low, taking the removed circlets and discarding them onto the stage floor.

As the bellows and screeches drew the attention of the outer guards, down towards the storage room the decorated man stepped forth. "The hell is going on. Hey Jackel, I thought you said you had those bitches under con–" but when he looked, the man was knocked out and the one who caused it kept taking out the men who were managing the uncontrolled ones. A beast, this woman was now, with fur lining her arms and a muzzle nearing taking over her face. A Lycan? No, not with how much control she had on her form. No, she was more than likely a Shifter, and a strong one at that. Still, no matter, She was too distracted with the others, and with adrenaline flowing through her veins, she would be easy prey to sneak up on and catch.

Taking a random circlet that rested on the floor, the man pounced on Eden from behind, resting on her back. She flailed quite hard, but the moment the circlet was rested, it was as if a shock hit her mind and her eyes glassed over. "Good girl," he chuckled as he got up. "Now attack those causing the commotion upstairs!"

… Thunk… Thunk… Thunk…

The hell?! All of a sudden, the beastkin, once a ferocious tiger, was now flopping around like a fish out of water! "I said get up, you stupid bitch!" he screamed, kicking Eden's side, but all it really did was roll her over a bit before she started flopping again.

Now that she could breathe again, Shiloh quickly got herself to her feet and went to check if there were any stragglers. The merfolk would keep the auction attendees in line, and she wasn't going to let anyone slip through the cracks. There were plenty other slaves here as well who needed to be freed. Going back to where she had pushed the tanks out from, she heard a man's voice shouting. While he was too busy trying to get the attention of a…beastkin woman flopping on the floor like a fish out of water, his back was conveniently turned to her. Spying a few of those circlets on the floor, she sank into the shadows to hide. Then she slowly emerged partway, pulling the nearest one to her hand with her force gauntlets. It would appear they rendered the wearers with the minds of goldfish. Had it been the mind of a salmon, there would be a lot more jumping before flopping back on the ground. With silent steps, she stealthily snuck up behind the brute of a man before quickly shoving the circlet down on his head as hard as she could. She had to make sure he was down, or else he'd alert any of the other people who she may have missed in her attempts to sweep the area. 

With her hands she tried to cover his mouth to prevent him from screaming in case the circlet didn't work. Fortunately her hands were protected by her gauntlets, should he try to bite her fingers as a last act of defiance. Keeping an eye on the sounds coming from the auction room, she heard the sound of something being smashed open and shouts of Arriese. They finally found the center of it all, and now she could turn her full focus towards cleaning up. If any of the people in the town tried to run out, they found themselves suddenly back inside, in front of the building where the auction was held. There would be no escape unless someone was able to make a portal, but by then they wouldn't have known that running was futile. It was at this time where Shiloh recognized the familiar-looking beastwoman currently believing she was a fish. The tiger patterns in her fur and life signature could only mean one person if her memory was correct: Eden. 

It had been years since they last saw each other, and it was a relief to know someone she had met from way back then was alive and kicking. But first, she had to wrap up a 'package' for a direct delivery. The man definitely put up a struggle as he felt something get shoved into his head, her interference bought the precious few seconds needed for the accessory's magic to finally do its work. The man went glassy-eyed as his body slackened and slumped to the floor, his body rolling about in the floor in the same fashion as Eden. As amusing it was to see a slaver trader have a taste of his own medicine, it wasn't nearly half as satisfying knowing he wasn't mentally present to be aware of his situation. There was no point in loitering around, so Shiloh went over to Eden and eased the circlet off. She focused magic into her hand, causing the enchanted metal to warp and melt like softened toffee. Dropping the unusable piece of metal onto the ground, it cooled down with a hiss. Once it wasn't too hot to handle Shiloh quickly combed the area for any evidence that could dig these sorry saps deeper into the pitfall of their own making. 

The Arriese patrols would certainly appreciate having him in the roster of those slated for judgment. And with ample evidence of how they carried out their schemes, the best the slavers could hope for was a quick and bloody execution by the White Court. Dropping her disguise as Hassan at last, the deity left the clothes she had 'borrowed' from him behind. It was time to see the progress of the patrols' herding.

As soon as the ring lost contact with her skull, the echos in her mind silence and her eyes shined with color, finding Eden gasping for breath as she snapped back to reality, eyes darting around confused as her fur started to shrink down, muzzle turning back to a normal jaw and paws soon becoming hands and fingers once again. It seemed like everything had quieted down with Shiloh in the area doing some final bits of research an investigation while the unlinked mermaid stayed cautiously in the back. She worked herself back to her feet, though balanced seemed to have been a bit of an issue, as if she had forgotten how to walk all of a sudden, though it did not take her long to find her footing and returned to where she let the collar rest, latching it once more around her scar-laced neck, the snapping shaking off part of the dirt and mud that more Drae's emblem.

As for what items Shiloh had found, the collection of rings from all the merfolk certainly grew to quite a size of gold and gems, showing the group certainly either had an impressive income or had other ways of collecting such precious materials. After that, and probably the most important, would have been under the busted enchanting table, as that was where the unconscious enchanter and his book of notes rested, and that was where things got interesting. It detailed almost perfectly the enchanting process, though some of the segments were written down in a cant to prevent onlookers from being able to easily mimic. From there, it described how they organized the folk by what gems they used in their circlets and what command orders came from them.  The Warriors had some more specific commands such as Assault and Defend while the more passive ones had more undersea foraging commands at their disposal. However, with all of them, one command was universal to all: Feast, with a description that spoke of how they would present themselves before taking their own lives for the commander to consume their flesh, following the folk tale of merfolk immortality. At the back of the book would probably be the most ill against them: notes on how to apply the same time to a mermaid queen and gain authority over the oceans and its people, a process still in development but damning all the same.

Up on the staging area, where the police where working on rounding up the slavers, buyers, and victims into different groups, there was a bit of a strange scene: a small fairy dragon and a rat running around on stage, collecting what rings the merfolk tossed out of their tanks and placing it into another pile.

If there was evidence that screamed 'incriminating', this was it. Carefully stowing the notes away, she considered taking the enchanting table with her only to decide that wouldn't be necessary. Quickly opening a portal that led into the streets, one of her many small pseudowyverns perched on her shoulder and gave her a telepathic relay of the progress so far. Thanking it for it's hard work, she gave one last order for the day: to watch over the room where the merfolk circlets were made until she or one of the Arriese patrols arrived. Now out of her disguise, she hailed one of the Rosenites as she handed them the strongest piece of evidence that would condemn all who were arrested. "I found this in hidden room not to far from the auction stage. There's an enchanter's table there along with whatever they were using to make the controlling circlets. Seems like these folks were convinced eating mermaids would make them live forever, crazy as it is. And there's more–a written, detailed plan on how to enslave a queen. Can you imagine what would happen if they had succeeded? The slavers would have a literal kingdom at their disposal, an aquatic army at their beck and call. If this fell into the wrong hands, all maritime trade and travel could be monopolized if they chose to use the merfolk to destroy their competition. I feel these are criminal acts on an international scale, wouldn't you agree?" 

There was no doubt that however was backing these slaver trades would be considered an international threat. And regardless what their nationality was, Shiloh doubted any of the world's political powers would want to be seen as a co-conspirator with such a heinous operation. The merchant elite of Egjora and the queen of Adeluna never let the perpetrators go quietly, as would the queens of Arri. Vilpamolan would at least be smart enough not to draw the ire of its surrounding nation-states into a united front. An attempt to control a merfolk queen was the equivalent of taking control of the seas themselves. While she was sure these people wouldn't be able to tame the more ancient entities of the oceans, they would at least create a stranglehold on those who made their living off the seas. 

Shiloh showed the patrols where the scene of the crime had been, relieved that the broken enchanting table was still there. The little pseudowyvern had ensured nobody tried to steal any evidence, in case they had missed any stragglers in their roundup of the suspects. Once she told the Rosenites everything she knew, she left the town to them. Her work here was done. It had been a concentrated effort, but her weeks of lying in wait had paid off. Had it been perfect? No, not by a long shot. But bad luck and unexpected changes were what you were used to, you learned to take whatever you could get. Leaving the town, she removed the wards she had set up that forcibly teleported people back in. The sun was high in the sky, and she could use a nap inside a nice, dark room back home. With a flicker, a portal was opened and the deity vanished without a trace.