Scene two

The woman is in bed, propped up on pillows with blanket wrapped around her. The prince comes in with food and drink. She is awake now and not sobbing but tears are still running down her face. He asks her what has distressed her.


She tells him about the Danish whale hunt that happens every year in a nearby fjord. The whales are rounded up, herded into a cove and then killed until the sea is red. The cry and scream as they panic and try to escape or help each other. She managed to save a few but most died. In her exhaustion and grief she was washed ashore.


The prince looks at her in disbelief. How, he asks, could you have helped? She looks into his eyes and tells him that that he has captured a mermaid, a guardian of the sea. She looks deeper into his eyes and he feels his true self revealed to her. Mermaids can see the truth, and their eyes act as a truth potion. Any human who looks into a mermaid's eyes will have to tell  the truth

She asks if he hunts whales. He tells her that he has banned the practice from his small princedom. While he has done this for years, until now he did not feel the pain that the whales and dolphins must experience as their pod it being destroyed.


The prince tells the mermaid to sleep and heal. He tucks the blankets around her and whispers that she is safe, as she falls into an exhausted sleep.