My remaining week at home went by far too quickly, Melly almost never leaving my side in that entire time. My two brothers also visited me frequently. On the day of my banishment, Melly almost never stopped crying, even as she insisted on brushing my short dark sapphire hair and helped me pack a small bag of clothes and weapons.Finally reaching the end of my patience, I turned to Melly and pinched her cheeks, hard.

“Ow! What was that for!?”

Melly stared reproachfully up at me, and I blew out a big bubble of air in a show of exasperation. I stared firmly at her and raised an eyebrow.

“Alright, I know I might be crying a bit too much, but who knows how long it’ll be before I see you again!”

I rolled my eyes slightly at her dramatics, but inside, I was just as worried as she was. The only clue I had to go on was the King of Serac, what if that bratty princess changed her mind and picked another target? It would take me forever to track her down….No, I’ll deal with that when the time comes, for now, I just need to concentrate on infiltrating the Serac castle. I gave Melly a big hug and pointed to the door. She nodded sadly.

“Time for the banishment ceremony.”

………….

I floated in the water in front of my father, the large throne room filled with mer, all whispering quietly, an action that was not as discrete as it would have been on land since it caused lots of bubbles. I simply focused on my father’s face, he seemed as wise and calm as every, and it gave me courage, but at the same time, I wished a little worry could have broken through his kingly persona. My father began to speak, in a booming voice that would reach every corner of the fast hall.

“Delta Aria Aquis, you have allowed your voice to be stolen from you, as in accordance to our laws, you are now banished from this kingdom until you either retrieve your voice, or die in the attempt. Do you accept this fate as truth and the markings that come with it?”

I nodded and held my arms out. My father began to sing a rich baritone, the melody of the binding song haunting. I watched my arms as intricate blue tribal style markings began to appear along my forearms. Despite what they meant for my fate, I couldn’t help but admire the delicate swirls and lines, these marking would ensure I was unable to return to the kingdom once I left it unless I had my voice, they would also ensure my body returned to the kingdom if I died. My father ended the song, and the marking glowed brightly for a moment, signifying the completion of the song spell. I bowed to my father, then turned and swam out of the hall.

Outside the palace, there was a line of people on my left and right, creating a path that stretched all the way to the edges of the kingdom. I knew many of the people that made up the line, and I nodded to them and smiled sadly as they quietly said their farewells as I passed them. I often found small bits of rounded sea glass pressed into my hands. a traditional charm for good luck.

When I finally left the boundaries of the kingdom, I was left to swim alone into the open ocean. I turned immediately towards the direction of Serac kingdom and began swimming. The miles flowed by as I considered how to get into the Serac palace. I would need to be able to move through the castle as I need, especially since that was where the princess would be staying. Hmmm, a maid could work, but while I’m decent at cleaning things, I usually try to avoid any of that kind of stuff…...If I could only find job I could do with my sword….but humans were usually weird about having their women fight for some reason. I let a flurry of bubbles out of my mouth in a gusty sigh. I didn’t really have the liberty to be that picky right now…. Something suddenly flickered at the edge of my sight and I twisted quickly around, looking at the surrounding ocean.

…….There was nothing there…..

I turned slowly back around, then began swimming once more. After a minute or so, I twisted around once more, as quickly as I could. I caught the sight of three shimmering tails vanishing behind a rock…...I swam quickly to the rock and glared at my two brothers and Melly, who were hiding behind it. The three of them smiled sheepishly up at me. I wasn’t buying it, I glared even more at them and fiercely pointed at Auquaria. No one was supposed to accompany a banished once they left the kingdom. All three of my siblings made faces that strongly reminded me of the baby land creature called a puppy, I put my truly scary face on, and my siblings bolted away. I sent a little human spell along after them to ensure they wouldn’t be following me anytime soon.

I turned back to my course, and was soon nearing the coastline…...when I caught another flash in the corner in my eye. I slowed to a halt, and turned to stare out at the seemingly empty ocean. A few long minutes stretched by, and my siblings heads finally popped up reluctantly from a bed of vibrant green seagrass. They swam over to me and each pressed large spheres of sea glass in my hands, then hugged my tightly, I relaxed slightly and hugged them back. After a long moment, they released me and swam away for what I knew was the last time. They hadn’t spoken a single word, but their actions still warmed my three hearts.

I turned my back on the retreating figures of my treasured siblings and swam forward. The ocean floor gradually grew closer and closer as I entered shallower water. Soon my tail was beginning to drag against the sand, and I smoothly shifted to human form. My legs were slightly shaky as usual after a change, but they soon steadied as I walked through the last bit of the surf, and onto powdery dry white sand. I took slow deep breaths as I shifted from gills to lungs, I glanced down at my stomach to see my gills slowly melt into my skin, the sign of a complete transformation.

I mentally urged my scales to melt around my legs like leggings, then opened my small bag and pulled out some black trousers and some broken in brown leather boots, which I quickly dried with a spell and pulled on over my new scaly leggings. Then I pulled out a short sleeved jacket, which ended just below my breasts and pulled it on, leaving it open to display my armoured bodice.

Pulling out a mirror, I watched as I used a hot air spell to dry my short dark blue hair. As it dried, the color of my hair changed until only the base of the hair near my head was the same dark blue, and the strands slowly lightened to a pale white at the tips. It also fluffed out in almost every direction in a rather spunky manner. My hair basically looked completely different when it was dry in comparison to when it was wet.The change was a good thing, because I’d have to make sure that the princess and Cedric weren’t able to recognise me.

Pulling a water-tight case out of my bag, I opened it, revealing a simple make-up bag. Selecting a stick of kohl, I carefully lined my eyes in black, making them look bigger, and causing my blue-green eyes to look greener. I considered my eyes for a long moment. Hmmmm, not different enough. I carefully crafted an illusion spell and laid it over my eyes. They were now a tawny-gold, still strange, but definitely not the kind of eyes a mermaid would have. I then grabbed a stick of lip-color and painted my slightly purple tinted lips a natural human shade of lush pink. Then I cast one more spell, one I had created myself, that made sure my makeup wouldn’t wear off, not matter what. I had made a pretty penny off of selling it to the court ladies.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Make-up finished, it was time for weaponry, I pulled out my two slim short swords, and the harness I used to strap them securely to my back. At the same time, I slid two knives into the concealed sheeves in my boots.

My transformation complete, I began to trudge up through the beach, parallel the towering peaks of the slightly distant Serac castle. The capital of Serac was located on the coast, just like my uncles was, and also just like my uncles, there was a huge wall surrounding the whole city, with only three gates to let people in. I was heading for a road deeper in land that lead straight to the South Gate. The beach slowly melted into a forest, the leaves of the trees a brilliant green. I took a deep breath, enjoying the fresh air pouring directly into my lungs, instead the slightly stale and fishy air that I had to breath filtered through my gills. It was another human quirk of mine, because mer generally prefer sea breathing to land air….

As I traveled farther into the forest, the trees grew closer together, and the underbrush was thicker, making it harder for me to move forward, but I continued. I was struggling through the forest when a beautiful birdsong suddenly broke through the air. I stopped mid-step, listening to the delicate song, and a strong desire to join it filled me, I opened my mouth to sing, before remembering that I didn’t have a voice to sing with. Still, the urge to somehow accompany the birds lovely song grew even greater, and I unconsciously began to dance moving smoothly forwards on my path, and slapping tree as I passed them to create a beat for the song. I lost myself in the song, a small tear of longing running down my cheek. The bird song suddenly ended it a pained shriek and I stumbled into a clearing…….that was filled with bandits! Luckily, they were all looking at the sky, so I dodged out of sight behind a bush, then peaked through the leaves to examine the bandits. A muscled bandit holding a crude bow, with a simple sling of arrows on his back suddenly crowed in delight, revealing horribly crooked and blackened teeth.

“KEKEKEKEKE, I finally got the twitterin birdie, now it won’t be disturbin our sleep any more, lads, let’s have a drink ter celerbate!!”

I froze at his words, he had shot the bird that was singing that lovely song? Anger began to rise up in my hearts. Waiting for a few minutes as they started drinking, I then quietly drew my two swords and crept stealthily towards the nearest stinking bandit. I slit his throat, and caught the body, lowering it slowly to the ground so that the twenty or so now drunk bandits didn’t notice they were now one number lower. I had finished off five more bandits the same way when I was finally noticed.

“Hey, that ther good-lookin woman ish killing people!”

Finally realising they were in peril, the bandits struggled to there feet and drew their weapons. I snorted in contempt, even completely sober, these untrained fools likely had no chance in defeating me. I moved smoothly through the ranks of bandits, killing them all with a single slash across the throat. Finally, the only one that was standing was the man who said he had killed the bird, I guessed he was the bandit leader. I held a blade across his throat, then raised my other blade in the air, pointing it at the sky, and raised my eyebrow at him questioningly. I wanted to have an idea where the bird landed so I could at least give it a proper burial. The bandit’s face was pale, and he stammered as he spoke.

“P-please don’t kill me, uh, you’re pointing at the sky, d-does that mean that bird was your pet, I-I’m really sorry, it fell somewhere over t-there, p-please just don’t kill-URK!”

Obtaining the knowledge of where the bird fell, I slashed the man’s throat open. Over my fifty years, I had learned to not show enemies mercy. I strode out of the clearing in the direction the bandit had pointed. I was walking slowly, looking around carefully for the bird, when I suddenly heard a pained chirp. I froze, my hearts pounding, could the bird be alive? I looked frantically around for the source of the chirp, and finally caught sight of a bright spot of blood on the leaf of a nearby bush. I hurried to the bush and carefully moved the leaves aside to find the the crumpled form of a bright red bird with one of it’s wings clearly broken from it’s fall, and an arrow sticking through it’s other wing. I stretched my hand slowly, moving to touch the bird, but it suddenly moved and snapped it’s beak at me. I let out a hiss of air and snatched my hand back, one of my fingers now in possession of a long slice that was oozing blood. I didn’t blame the bird for it’s actions, it was a wild animal that was just shot by humans, and I look exactly like a human right now, but how could I help it if it wouldn’t let me near it? An idea occurred to me, and I stepped slightly away from the bird, recalling it’s song in my mind. I began to dance, beating out the rhythm with my toe. After a few moment, the bird began to chirp weakly, not a fully fledged song, but it still used the right notes. I slowly stopped dancing and moved back to the bird, holding out my hand just above it, but making no move to touch it. The bird considered me with it’s golden-brown eyes for a long moment, and then slowly lift it’s head to touch the tip of it’s beak to my hovering palm.

Permission granted, I gently scooped the bird from the ground, wincing when the bird gave a shrill shriek as I jostled it’s injured wings. Laying it down on more open ground, I broke off the arrow head and then quickly pulled the shaft out, trying not to prolong any of the beautiful bird’s pain. It still glared balefully at me for my actions, but made no move to attack me.

With the arrow gone, I could now cast a healing spell on the large hole in the bird’s wing, but I would have to splint the broken wing and allow it to heal properly, as healing bones required a very high level of healing magic that I did not posses. Looking around, I soon found several suitable sticks for the splint and used a spare shirt from my bag to bind the wing. It was important to splint the wing before casting the healing spell because there might be some torn ligaments that if healed while the wing was not in it’s proper place, could cause some complications. The bird’s glare was even fiercer now, and I was silently apologizing while a cold sweat ran down my forehead. Land creatures can be quite scary…..

With the wing set, I pulled mana from the air and wove a healing spell over the bird. I watched the the hole in the bird’s wings slowly shrink until it was gone, leaving only a bare patch of thin skin. The bird would have to grow the missing feathers back on it’s own. I wrapped the remains of the shirt I had torn for bandaging around the bird and carefully stood up with it cradled in my arms. The bird chirped quietly, then drifted into a deep sleep, one of the aftereffects of a healing spell.

I smiled down at it, it seems I’ve gained a new companion for a while…..