MagiStream

It tells me to wait as they haven't heard back from the mer folk but i've waited am i missing a step somewhere?

Is this the text you get?

“We haven’t heard back from the merfolk yet, Meros tells you. “Are you sure you have befriended a mermaid? Please come back in a few days.

If that's the text you get, then the problem is that you need to have a Mermaid ally in order to get into the Society of the Trident/Water shop, as well as the hatchlings the quest mentions. So you have to do the Mermaid quest first.

To get a Mermaid ally, you need to complete the quest called "Vasial's crush" which starts in the Keep location on the World map.

You keep the Mermaid as a friend, you don't lose her while doing the Society of Trident quest.

Thank you so much I had the same question!