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The container is suffocating. I yearn to return to stasis.
I cope by sleeping for as long as I can until I’m inevitably pulled from my dreams.
One day, the clear blue sky is in reach when I’m wrenched awake by a new sensation invading the aether. I’ve learned the shape of the mermaid’s fear, anger, and loneliness, but this is different.
This is excitement.
“I have a secret, but you can’t tell anyone,” the Mer-Princess says as I whirl around her, a stream of bubbles.
I’m fairly certain she’s taken me somewhere she’s not supposed to be. The pressure is heavy down here, and there’s no other marine life for as far as I can see.
There’s only Princess Cordelia and a statue of a mermaid transforming into a human, the marble stained with algae.
“That goes against the command your father gave me.” I sense her surprise as she hears me speak for the first time. “Are you trying to cost me my wings?”
“No, not at all.” Her hands move to the statue. “I know you’re being unfairly punished for helping your friends escape during the Queen’s War. That’s why I want to propose a deal—forget my father’s command and work with me instead. I have a plan to get us both out of this.”
“And just how do you think you’re going to accomplish that, princess?”
“Our bond is sealed by a very specific spell,” she answers. “It’s only binding while we’re subjects of my father’s rule.”
I’m not following. “There’s literally nowhere we can go that’s not under your father’s control. The last time I checked, he rules the ocean as a whole, and you’re a mermaid. ”
“But I can change that.” She swims past the statue’s raised arms, showing me spiraling rows of shelves filled with all sorts of objects that are forbidden beneath the sea. “No entity holds power over the Undine. They only answer to the Moon Goddess herself.”
“There haven’t been any Undine for over a century,” I hiss, annoyed that she’s brought me here. Now I’m going to be forced to report it.
“I know,” she says softly, her Ocean Voice laced with melancholy. “But I’m going to revive their magic and shed my fin to walk on land.”
This isn’t a spoiled princess looking for attention. She’s mad.
“I think you’re forgetting that your father destroyed all the records of the Full Moon ritual that allowed the Undine to shift between their mermaid and human forms. ”
“Not all of them. This temple is where the ritual was designed.” She barrel-rolls across the room of the sunken building, diving down to a shelf filled with jars of sea scrolls. Behind them, there are lines of ancient text etched into the walls. “I’ve been translating the Undine’s history for years, and now you can help me collect what I need for the ceremony.”
“Why would I do that?”
She carries on with tending to the shrine, moving from section to section of her collection. “Because if we succeed, we’ll both be free to live our lives as we please.”
“And if we don’t, your father will find an even worse punishment for me.”
“Yes.” She plucks a jar of hagstones from a shelf and gives it a shake. “Only you can determine if it’s worth the risk. I know I took one by bringing you here, but my work will go to waste anyway if I can’t trust you to keep my secret. Who knows when either of us will get another chance like this?”
It might be the only one I ever get. Merfolk have unusually long lifespans, and King Morrow won’t marry his daughter off unless he finds a perfect political match.
I could be stuck following her around for decades. After that, I could be assigned to an even worse duty.
“Even if I agreed, how could I possibly help you? Being stuck inside your necklace complicates things.”
“It does, but the spell that binds us states that your gifts can only be used to serve my needs,” she says, reorganizing the hagstones next to a jar of glowing pebbles. “And right now, I need you to locate these items for my altar: a moon-blessed comb, a vial of moon-cursed blood, and a teaspoon of anointing oil from one of the moon-based covens. I’ve had trouble finding them beneath the sea, but you could search on land for me.”
“Do you really think the spell will bend to your will because of a loophole in the wording?
She opens a bottle and flinches away from the tiny insect-like fish that swarm out, re-corking it quickly. “Why don’t you try, and we’ll see if it works?”
I knew I should’ve shut this conversation down before I got my hopes up. Feeling quite silly, I envision myself above the surface where I’ll be able to search for the items the Mer-Princess needs.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve made at least a hundred attempts to use my gift to manipulate myself through the physical distance between where I am and where I want to be.
