“Just... just stop,” I told Donovan. I kicked my feet, swimming past him. “You’re being terribly rude.”
His emerald eyes flashed with fury. “It’s the sea witch,” he hissed. “She is a vicious monster.”
“Donovan!” I spun around in the water to face him. “That’s also very rude. You don’t know her personally, do you?”
“She’s a predator, Chosen! Of course I know all about her. The legend of the evil sea witch of the mer has reached every single corner of our Upper World.”
I pursed my lips. “I’ll take that as a no. Youdon’tknow her personally.”
“Everyone knows of her! Her dark magic powers are?—”
“Ah.” I nodded smugly. “Now I get it. That’s what all this is about, isn’t it? This is what this little episode is all about. I’ve never really let myself be comfortable being a powerful woman, have I?”
“Chosen…” Donovan shook his head, exasperated. “What are you talking about? She’s literally a monster, and she will kill us and eat us.”
“No, Donovan,” I said patiently. “She’s a woman with power, and you’re going to insult her and bring her down and call her a witch and a monster. Well, I’ve got news for you, buddy.” I wagged my finger at him. “You can’t silence us anymore. Gone are the days where you can take an intelligent, powerful woman and burn her at the stake. Powerful women arenotevil. We are not monsters.”
Cress twitched. “Donovan…”
His eyes flicked behind me and widened.
Now that I realized what this delusion was about, I was determined to not to be distracted. “Focus, please,” I said. “We’re having this little talk now, Donovan. A woman with power isn’t a witch. She’s not a hag, and she’s definitely not a monster,” I added, swishing my hands so I could turn around to see what he was staring at. “A powerful woman can still be soft; she can still be gentle. We can command respect. We don’t have to be unyielding or hard, or masculine-presenting to get ahead. For too long, the patriarchy?—”
The words died in my throat.
There, outside the sinister shining shell door, the silver-blue tentacles stretched out in all directions, thick and dexterous as boa constrictors. Right in the middle was the most terrifying-looking woman I’d ever seen in my life.
Huge, at least four times my size, and humanoid apart from her terrifying tentacles that branched out from her thick waist. She had a human-looking face, except for her mouth—too wide, stretching out from one ear to another. The huge maw dropped open in a big wide O, displaying a full circle of razor-sharp triangular teeth. Her enormous round eyes were coal-black, with no trace of whites on either side of her iris. Long, tangled stringy-green hair drifted around her head. To complete the picture, two huge bare breasts floated out from her chest, waving gently from side to side in the drift of the tide. Her skin shined silver-blue, with an odd preternatural luminescence that raised goosebumps all over my skin.
I swallowed roughly.
The sea witch closed her mouth, blinked, then opened it again. “Go on,” she finally said. “What were you saying about the patriarchy?”
I chewed on my lip for a second. This is me, facing my demons. “Uh, where was I? Oh right.” I took a deep breath and felt my gills tickle.Just go with it,Susan. “For too long, the patriarchy has been demonizing strong women, trying to bring them down, because they fear our power. We are not evil just because we are smart and strong and brave.”
The terrifying woman nodded slowly. “You’re right,” she mumbled. “I’m not evil. I’m just powerful.”
I nodded stiffly. “Exactly. You are a beautiful, magical creature.”
Her enormous mouth split open again in a horrifying grin. “You think I’m beautiful?”
I swallowed again. “Beauty is subjective, of course. But that’s beside the point. Even if you weren’t beautiful, that doesn’t mean you are evil.”
“That’s right. Well, maybe I can occasionally be a little evil. When there’s a ship to sink, or a bratty mermaid kid to curse to an endless, agonizing existence as a screaming sea-wraith,” she added, hitching her bony shoulders in a shrug. “But I can be soft. I can be gentle.”
“You can,” I told her. “You can be anything you want. You are a strong, powerful, beautiful woman, and it’s unfair to demonize you.”
She nodded to herself thoughtfully for a moment. “I crochet,” she said, raising her thin eyebrows. “Did you know? No, no one knows that. I make handbags out of kelp and decorate them with shells. They’re so pretty.” She pouted. “But no one ever says,oh, look, there’s that talented, wonderful sea witch who makes those pretty kelp handbags, do they? They just swim away screaming,oh shit, it’s the sea witch! Run away, she’s going to eat us!”
“I can commiserate,” I told her, trying not to look at her enormous tits as they bobbed along sideways in the current, then back again. “When people fear your power, they can be awfully mean, can’t they?”
Her chin wobbled. “Yes. And the other merpeople can be so mean to me.”
I kicked my feet, moving closer to her. Face your demon…
A hand grabbed my leg and yanked me back. “You are insane. She’s literally going to eat us,” he growled. “Get behind me, woman.”
I sighed heavily. “Look, Donovan, if she eats us, I dare say we deserve it. We’ve gone about this the wrong way. We should have knocked on her door and politely asked her to talk to us.”
