The water flowed coolly past me as I rapidly flicked my tail in order to move speedily through the water. Where had Melly swam off to? I had checked all the usual hiding spots of my crybaby sister, but she wasn't in a single one of them. I was starting to get worried, this was the most upset I had ever seen Melly get, though she did have a considerable reason to be upset. My dear baby sister was simply too sweet and kind for her own good.
My worry mounted even higher the farther I swam away from our home, Aquaria, it wasn't safe to be out in such open waters, especially for my sixteen year old sister. Suddenly, a familiar stream of bubbles caught the edge of my sight, bubbling up from the mouth of a small cave. I sighed in relief and darted into it. A sobbing girl with long aquamarine hair drifting around her was curled tightly in the back of the cave, her blue-silver tail glowing slightly to illuminate the cave. Every single one of her sobs created a large bubble of air that floated up to the top of the cave and then slowly floated out of it.
I sighed in exasperation and placed my hands on my hips.
“Melody Alondra Aquis, future queen of Auquaria, what are you doing sobbing in a dark, dank sea cave mere hours after the Sea selected you as the rightful queen for her people!”
Melly lifted her face, large aquamarine eyes a shade darker than her hair red from crying. Her face crumpled even more at the sight of me, and she gasped out between huge sobbing breaths.
“I…...it…..sh-should have…….been y-you, not…….meeeeeeeeeeee”
I felt my worried heart soften, my anger at her reckless actions slipping away, I had been afraid of this. I drifted to Melly and hugged her softly, my sapphire and green tail draping lovingly over hers.
“Melly dear, you knew the Sea would never chose my, or my two older brothers, our mother was human, not a mermaid like yours, and so we were never entitled to the right in the first place...”
Melly buried here face into my shoulder, her voice muffled.
“But everyone said it should have been you, you're the best at fighting, leading, and sea singing. I not good at any of those things, and I never wanted to be queen in the first place! If not you, it should have been big brother Theron, who is a full mer, at least he Wants the crown.”
I stroked my sisters hair comfortingly, smiling sadly at her naive youth.
“Your brother is a power-hungry fool, the kingdom would come to ruin under his reign, besides, you have something far more important for a ruler to have than skills or singing.”
Melly lifted her tear-swollen face to look at me doubtfully.
“I do?”
I smiled at her.
“You have more kindness and compassion than any other mer I have ever met, and simply for theses two qualities, your people will love you.”
Melly looked a bit more hopeful.
“You really think so? But I still don't have the appropriate skills that a leader should have…..”
I tapped her playfully on the nose.
“You silly fish, you still have a hundred years left to learn everything you need to learn before Papa retires from the throne, you'll be fine so long as you don't listen to that shark of a mother of yours.
Melly smiled brightly and threw her arms around me.
“Thank you big sis Delta, I know your my half-sister, but you've always been more of a mother to me than that old sea witch ever has been.”
She released her happy hug, and I slapped a hand to my first heart, just below the right gill at the bottom of where my rib cage ended, we mermaids had three heart, one for each of our two gills and one at the base of our throats.
“Oh, you wound me dear, you call me your mother, yet I look naught beyond twenty-two years of age!”
Melly giggled and slapped my arm for my theatrics.
“Silly sister, you know as well as I that once we long-lived mermaids reach maturity, we stop aging for the rest of our lives. Even as a half human, you age extremely slowly. You're fifty-eight, and my mother married Papa when she was twenty, and she is the same age as you, so it definitely is possible!”
I wrinkled my nose of that, I had severely disapproved of the match at the time, but political marriages often result in age gaps, very large age gaps in the case of my step-mother and father. My father hadn't been much thrilled at the prospect either, but at that time, my dear mother, the love of his life, had been dead for ten years, a fishing accident, and the nobles were demanding that he produce several prospective heirs with full mer blood. The only reason they had allowed my mother and father to marry in the first place was because humans had much shorter lifespans than us and my father had promised to marry soon after my mothers death so the kingdom would have several possible rulers for the Sea to choose from. The only problem was that he had thought my mother would die of age, not an accident, Death stealing her away from him far sooner than he had expected. Tens years time was a short period for my people, but that was as long as my father could put off their demands for him to marry once again.
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And thus, Thantia entered my families lives, a haughty woman who was the daughter of one of the major nobles of our ocean kingdom. She bore two healthy children for my father, first, a strong son named Theron who she immediately doted on, firm in the belief that he would be king. She bore Melly two years later and promptly ignored her. At the age of 32, I took Melly under my fin and raised almost as if she really was my own daughter, the death of my mother when I was twenty having caused me to become far more mature at my age than I should have been. Melly seemed to sense my thoughts and she hugged me tightly.
“You're the best half-sister I could have wished for, and will likely be the most loyal captain of my royal guard that I could have ever wished for.”
As I knew I would never become the ruler of Auquaria, from a young age, I had focused on polishing any skills I would need to support the future king or queen as the captain of their guard and as an advisor in times of need. As Thantos grew up spoiled by his mother, I was certain that Melly would become queen, and so I when I had taken care of her, I took her all over the kingdom so that she would know how every inch of it ran and so that the people would get to know her. They had come to love my dear half-sister over the past years, and inadvertently, me as well. I sighed slightly, that was probably why Melly had been insecure in the first place, the people of our kingdom were of a much less rigid opinion about the inheritance selection than the nobles were, and they had often said to me privately that I would make an excellent queen for them, I had always refuted their statements but, Melly must have overheard them when they said it.
I looked towards the entrance of the cave, the water seemed a touch darker than before. Worried, I gently pulled Melly away and swam slightly out of the cave so that I could look up at the surface, a long distance away from us. The currents near the top of the ocean were slightly unsettled, and seemed a bit rougher than usual. I turned to Melly and held out a arm to her.
“It looks like a storm is brewing, we had better get home quickly.”
Melly, her face slightly pale from worry, nodded and grabbed my hand. While this deep in the ocean, the raging winds and waves of of the storm wouldn't bother us, there was still a great danger in the sinking of human ships, that created large whirlpool as they sank that could snatch a mer and smash her into a pulp against the sinking ship. Even the cave would offer little safety from the sucking force of a whirlpool. Only our kingdom was safe, enchanted with a huge barrier that protected it from such things.
We swam as quickly through the water as we both could, both of us glancing up worriedly ever so often to check for sinking ships. The water above continued to darken, the storm growing closer and closer. By a rare chance, I felt a little fish brush against my fin and when I looked down on reflex to see it, I caught a glimpse of our shadows on the sandy ocean floor. A pattern of crisscrossing lines surrounded Melly and my shadows. My eyes widened and I quickly let out a loud soprano trill, directing at Melly. Water gathered around my sister and sped her rapidly away, getting her out of reach of the net just in time. I didn't try to dodge, my energy depleted from casting a fast water movement spell without using a proper song. The net wrapped around me, completely ensnaring me in its heavy ropes. It also filled the water with the strong taste of foul magic.
I screamed desperately at my sister, who had finally come to a halt because my spell ran out of power, “Flee!”
If humans were using magic nets to delve deep into the water, there was a chance that there was another net that could catch my sister as it had me. I watched her float frozen to the spot, her eyes wide with horror as the net began to rapidly pull be towards the surface. Stupid girl! She needed to swim away before she got caught as well! But as I watched my little sister's form slowly shrink, I noted with relief that there was no sign of any other nets.
At least she will be safe...