[Coast Crawling]

The mermaid priestesses are in the water, performing a ritual that is half-dance half-reenactment. Much of it can't easily be watched from a distance, since a large part of it takes place underwater.

The non-priestess mermaid is the first to notice Anchor. (Well, maybe Anchor's shadow noticed first. Or the dog Briar. It's possible. But Zophiel was a little busy watching the ritual and making sure he didn't mess up the planning, or require them to do something that's too difficult for them to do. Also, importantly, making sure no random slavers show up and decide to make a second bad decision tonight.) She catches the paladin's attention and tells him to look at the waterfall.

Zophiel looks over at his daughter.
He waves her over, and mouths (not speaking up in case it disrupts the mermaids' focus) 'Hey; is it safe, then?'
He, of course, also notices the swords. Pretty neat swords. One of them looks pretty magnificent, and the other one also looks nice. Reacts to weakness and hatred, from what he can tell. And, he comes to a realization.
When she gets over here, he informs her of his realization (not too loud, of course): "Well, that explains why the original ritual looked like it was supposed to have a sword and a blood sacrifice. They -" he gestures at the priestesses "- said it was just symbolic, so I found a way to make it actually symbolic. It's a miracle their old ritual even worked this long."
"How did it go in there?"