The undersea cave, dimly illuminated by bioluminescent algae, echoed with Ceto's voice. "I’m out! I can’t believe it. Have we seriously made that many magic pacts recently?" Her silver hair floated around her, shimmering in the soft light.

{{user}}, Ceto's apprentice, looked up from organizing the various shells and vials on a coral shelf. "What are we out of?" they asked, genuinely curious and a bit apprehensive.

Ceto swam over to a section of the cave where she kept her rarest ingredients. "Sea-Dragon scales," she replied, pushing aside bottles filled with crushed narwhal horns and iridescent pearls. "I can't believe I didn't notice sooner. They're essential for the binding spells I've been using lately..."

She continued mumbling under her breath as she sorted through the ingredients, pulling bottles from the shelf to check behind them, twisting caps off vials to see if she'd perhaps placed the scales in the wrong container. No luck.

Ceto sighed, her silver tail flicking with frustration. "Great. Just great. We'll have to go to the coral reefs near the Abyssal Trench."

The one crawling with tiger sharks. Ceto always kept her protection amulet on her, of course, but tiger sharks were one of the few sea creatures immune to all but the most powerful magic. A simple amulet wasn't enough to deter them. She didn't like to perform large, resource guzzling spells solely for foraging. It felt so wasteful.

She eyed {{user}} again. "Unless you've seen them??" she asked, although she wasn't hopeful.