Author's Note: Welcome to the new story of the series. This one, as you can likely tell, is Eridan's story. This story, like others of the series, has its own quirk to it, which you should understand by the end of the chapter.

Also worth noting is that I'll be using some fantrolls for this story, and in the future, to help me populate the world. This chapter includes one of those trolls: Alaeza Cerasi belonging to Jormungandrising of Tumblr.

Fighting the Current – Chapter 1

There was a nervous sort of energy that filled the corridor which connected the private section of the imperial residency complex to the very public grandballblock. Part of it had to do with the mass of energy that came with nights like this. A larger part was the excitement of the youngest of those assembled in the hall, who were told that for the first time they would be allowed to stay up long enough to enjoy the full festivities that were offered. The smallest part was the cautious tension that came with any highly public display of the royals. The greatest part was from those old enough to understand why they had been asked to curtail tradition for the sake of doing what was proper.

For Eridan Ampora the tension came from something else entirely. It came from the way his guardian, the great Enforcer Generali Tethys Hydrus, was holding herself. There were few others who would be able to read the tension in her, who spent the better part of their lives working under her in the Enforcers that sought to read her who would never pick up on the details. He was in a unique position, though, and he could read it in the way that his guardian was resting her weight unequally on her feet, one knee locked, and her violet tinted shades pushed up to fully cover her eyes. They were little signs that some of the best fighters might pick up because of how wrong they were in the realm of fighting, but ones that Eridan understood on a deeper level. Tethys wasn't careless enough to let herself be so off on her fighting edge. More than that, as much as Tethys liked her shades, she never let them fully obscure her vision, preferring to glance over the tops of them when she was taking in the area around her, ever vigilant for signs of trouble.

In any other situation Eridan might have thought her thoughts were elsewhere, on some case or recruit or development with the whole hemohierarchist rumors, but that wasn't even possible. Tethys never allowed herself to be distracted when she wore the black and white Enforcer Imperial dress uniform. His guardian was talented at flipping off the switches of her concerns when she was being called to act as the formal guardian of the Empress, or really when anything important involved her royal moirail. In a way Eridan could understand, but he'd never been able to perfect the same compartmentalization when it came to his own regal moirail, but he didn't have her experience. Still, that didn't quite explain why his guardian was standing there, so off balance, occasionally turning her head just a bit to look back toward where the end of the procession line where the Heiress and Empress stood.

"Eridan," she finally said, her voice whisper low and pitched just for him.

"Ma'am?" he acknowledged, equally quiet, even going so far as to not meet her gaze. Sometimes he wondered how strange other trolls his age would think it was that almost half of his conversations with his guardian occurred when they weren't even looking at each other. The reason for it at the moment was clearly related to the giggling group of young, begowned fuchsias who were excitedly gossiping and shuffling around and causing their minders no amount of distress as they attempted to keep the girls in some semblance of order for the procession. Clearly whatever was bothering Tethys was something she didn't want to worry the girls with. Some of them had delicate sensibilities, and things Tethys worried about were never appropriate for such sensibilities.

"Antees," Tethys observed, seemingly too herself, "I don't fully remember assigning her to the Heiress for this event. I could have sworn that she was to be assigned to the podium before we began..."

She didn't need to say anything else, didn't bother to give him a direct order. All she had to do was comment and Eridan found himself pushing off of the wall to stride down the line and toward the Heiress and Empress. The minders of the younger fuchsias—especially Lady Reidra, the eldest of the Empress's younger sisters, who had given her life over to caring and education of the fuchsias over these sweeps—shot him a variety of sharp looks for stepping from the line and setting a poor example to the flock of girls. Of course there came a pretty substantial ability to ignore such looks when one wore the Enforcer uniform, and that ability only increased when one was the future Generali, trained from pupation to lead. Nor did it hurt to have it so widely known that he was the Heiress's moirail. It was that latter part that gave him the most wiggle room right now. A troll his age going to speak with his moirail in an environment as tense as this was quite understandable. After all, this was the first time that Eridan was joining the official procession of dignitaries since his official recognition as the Secondar of the Enforcers.

"Eridan!" Feferi bubbled as he arrived at her side and snapped a smart salute to her. "You don't need to do things pike that for me."

"Today is a formal occasion, my Heiress. What more cod you expect from me?" he asked, keeping his head bowed at the exact angle that was appropriate when one was speaking to the Heiress.

"To act pike my moray-eel," she giggled even as she curled a delicate and almost astoundingly strong hand under his chin and forcing his head up so he was only looking down as much as was necessary to meet her eyes, which meant she wasn't moving his head too much. After all, he had quite a bit of height on her, which had only happened in the last sweep and a half. The difference wouldn't last forever if her bloodline was any indication, Eridan noted as he glanced as the Empress and her sister Alaeza, as the two older fuchsias almost rivaled some of the purplebloods Eridan knew.

"Well, if you infished," Eridan teased before starting to straighten out the tiara perched on Feferi's head. "What's Alaeza doing here?"

Normally the fuchsias of the Empress's pupation didn't act as members of the royal entourage, long since set within their own lives and tasks. Only Alaeza and Reidra remained living within the palace walls as their duties held them close to the imperial family. Reidra was responsible in full for the current pupation of fuchsias and would remain with the palace until all were settled with their lines of work before going back to the job she had held for sweeps. Alaeza, though, had lived in the palace for the whole of her life, moving straight from her youth into the role of the official keeper of the records of the Imperial Dynasty. Her tasks ranged from maintaining the Empress's schedule to archiving copies of all records that passed through the Empress's hands, to even acting as a secretary and keeper of the Empress's personal journals to be given over into the hands of the Heiress upon her ascension to the throne. The Imperial journals were said to be filled with observations, suggestions, and words of wisdom from previous Empresses to their successors. Alaeza existed almost within the shadows of Imperial life, observing but not observed. To have her here, now, was almost shocking to Eridan.

"They're debaiting the finner details of a meeting the Empress haddock last night," Feferi sighed, rolling her eyes at the pair behind her in the most obvious way possible. The older fuchsias quite pointedly ignored her. "Pike they codn't glub aboat it later."

"If my guardian's taught me anything, she's taught me that sometimes you've got to act like you won't have time to make sure you will. Shore, sometimes it feels like you're being overly cautious, but sometimes you really are making time that can't be found elsewhere," Eridan observed, shaking his head.

"Well, just because she taught you it doesn't mean it's right," Feferi countered, the cutest pout she could manage on her lips. "This is an important night and she's wasting it pike this!"

"It is hardly a waste," Gyliea announced, finally turning her attention to Eridan and Feferi. "Alaeza has been to the archives and performed some much needed research on historical encounters with the Mourning Empire, which provides new insight into yesterday's meeting."

"Oh," Feferi mumbled, and Eridan couldn't help but reach out and take her hand in his own. There were few things that demanded so greatly of the Empress and Heiress's time as the return of the Mourning Empire to the borders of Beforan space. Every troll learned early in their school feeding to fear their return. It was for that reason that Eridan had come to believe in acting as if time was something that would be hard to come by, even for a violet blood. If the Empress was concerned with the potential return of the Mourning, well, Eridan for one wasn't going to hold her lack of attention for even as important an event as tonight against her.

"Forgive me, Empress," Feferi continued, bowing her head as if she had been reprimanded. "If it pleases you, I would like to borrow Lady Alaeza's time to learn moray aboat this later."

"If Alaeza feels time came be made," Gyliea agreed, smiling kindly at Feferi before turning her head in an unspoken question to her sister.

"Of course, my lady," Alaeza said, bowing her head at precisely the right angle to show respect to superiors. Eridan could see the annoyance flash over both Feferi and Gyliea's faces, they didn't hold as closely to proper formal manners as Alaeza seemed to, and almost seemed offended when the woman acted so before them. "But if you will both please excuse my impropriety, it is growing late. I should leave you to the festivities. If I might beg my leave..."

"Of course, sister," Gyliea sighed, the briefest dismissive gesture punctuating her words. And, of course, Alaeza took the chance to all but scuttle away from the other fuchsias. "When I was younger I used to say she would develop a spinefish one night. Looks like I was wrong."

"But she's so sweet," Feferi countered, smiling up at the Empress.

Eridan just smiled and remained silent as the two most powerful trolls on the planet started to gossip between themselves. It was really the moment he had been waiting for, as with the two fuchsiabloods so focused on each other, Eridan could finally turn his attention to the reason he had come so far back in the procession line.

"Secondar Ampora," Visionar Antees Pithya greeted him before he could even open his mouth to address her. "My assignment to this location was unexpected."

"How did you know what I was going to ask?" Eridan mumbled under his breath as he tried not to stare at the eyepatch that covered what he knew to be a glowing golden eye.

"It's not difficult to presume the reasons for some behavior, even without my vision to guide me," she responded, voice as still and deadpan as he'd ever heard it from her. "Your surreptitious arrival under the pretense to speak with your moirail is wafer thin. The Generali clearly sent you, and the only reason to do so is to question my sudden reassignment to this position in the assemblage. All I know is that when I arrived this evening I was told that this was where I was to be, instead of by the podium. I have no answers for you, for none have been given to me."

"Well, at least it confirms something," Eridan sighed and shook his head at the information. "Keep an eye on them, okay?"

"I will spare both," Antees agreed, raising a hand to finger the patch that covered her eye. "Nothing remiss will occur on my watch."

"I'm sure of that," Eridan agreed, before turning his attention back to his moirail and Empress as if he had never stopped focusing on them. "Forgive the interruption, my Empress, but Lady Alaeza was correct. I should be getting back to my position."

"Of course," Gyliea sighed, waving him off with the same gesture she had given her sister. Eridan bowed deeply as he stepped back a few paces before at last turning and striding away from the royal duo. There was little he could do now but return to his guardian and commanding officer and wait.

"But I don' wanna..."

"I didn't ask you," his guardian snapped as she stopped to glare down at him.

Eridan couldn't help but cringe at the anger in her eyes, and were it not for the fact that her hand was almost painfully tight around his he would have pulled away and run off rather than let her be upset with him. It felt like she was always upset with him these nights. First thing when he woke up she fed him and then sent him away with some stranger to go to this big building filled with lots of other strangers and kids his age where the adults would talk at him for hours and hours and yell at him when he was wrong and some of the kids were mean and teased him when he didn't understand what the adults wanted of him at first. Then, when he got home, she would come back and seem angry at him for reasons he couldn't understand and would plop him down in his room in front of his television to watch shows that had more adults talking at him about things and asked questions even though they never listened when he answered them. After that she would sit him down on the floor of the officeblock and talk to him about what the adults had been telling him all night and asking him questions to make sure he was paying attention, and then she would tell him new things and expect him to listen and it was all too much so that he was almost crying when dinner came before he was sent off to bed. It wasn't quite like what it had been only a sweep ago, when his guardian had been there for him whenever he needed her.

One of the other kids at school said it was because his guardian didn't like him anymore and regretted taking him in. Sometimes he thought the other kid was right.

"Do you hate me?" Eridan found himself asking, even though he didn't mean to say it. His guardian was going to be so mad at him for asking, so very very mad. Adults didn't like it when you questioned them.

Instead of glaring his guardian's eyes went almost impossibly wide, her super pretty purplely-blue-red eyes so big like they were a cartoon. She didn't yell, didn't squeeze his hand, didn't shaker her head and just leave him behind. No, she went down on one knee so she was at his level and swept him up into her arms. Eridan almost wanted to cry because she hadn't hugged him like this in what felt like forever. She held him tight like happiness and cooed soft, mean nothing words into his ears, and swayed back and forth like she used to when he got hurt and she promised it would get better. Back then he believed it every time, and this time was no different. Okay, so maybe he didn't keep from crying. Maybe he buried his face in her coat and sobbed quietly after he'd wrapped his own arms around her neck. It felt good. It felt right.

"Oh Eridan," she said at last, still swaying him back and forth like she used to. "Of course I don't hate you. I love you very, very much. You're my perfect little boy. Why would I ever hate you?"

"You... you... just don... seem... ta like... me no more," he sobbed out, and as he did her arms tightened around him.

"Eridan, my sweet little moonbeam," she whispered, her own voice sounding so very sad. "My precious flounder. Did I make you think I didn't love you? Oh little one, that isn't it at all. I've just been so busy lately..."

"Is that why you make me go ta that place with the adults?"

"You mean the school? Eridan, you have to go to school to learn things. So you can grow up strong and smart."

"Like you?" he asked, finally looking up at her.

"Just like me."

"Why can't you teach me?" he insisted, his fins drooping with his sadness.

"My job means I have to spend a lot of time working and not much with you. I'm sorry about that, but my job is really important."

"What is it?"

His guardian, Tethys, chuckled far back in her throat, making her chest rumble in a wonderful way that Eridan always loved to feel against his cheek. "I keep people safe. That's my job."

"People like who?"

"Well, would you like to meet someone I keep safe?" she asked, smiling down at him.

"Yes!" he cheered, grinning back at her.

"Well we're going to see them right now."

"Them?"

"The Empress and her Heiress."

Eridan's eyes went wide, unbelieving. He was going to meet the Empress and Heiress? His guardian knew them? No one at school was ever going to believe him about this.

"So what do you say, Eridan? Do you want to go now?"

He nodded, and that was all his guardian needed to smile at him widely, a look full of pride. Eridan loved it when she looked at him like that. It made his whole body tingle with happiness.

"Yes!"

"Wonderful. Now, if you promise to behave like a little gentleman and walk on your own, I'll even ask the Empress if you can go play with Feferi while we talk. I hear she's got some awesome building toys."

"Really!"

"Yep. All sorts of colors."

By the time they made it to the seaskimmer his feet hurt in his new shoes. When the skimmer reached the underwater entrance to the palace his new coat was all sorts of itchy. Before they made it far enough in to the palace for his guardian to hush him and hurry him along for their meeting he found the air too dry in the palace and his fins felt all crinkly. In the end though he made it, all the way, on his own two feet, and his guardian whispered her praises to him before knocking on a pinkish door that was so huge that it was like three whole seaskimmers could swim through it, one on top of another on top of another. It was so big that Eridan was pretty sure that even the really big adult with the purpley eyes at school who was almost as big as a hive could fit through easily.

For how big it was, though, it opened like a normal door, and soon the pretty thing was creaking open and Eridan was left staring up at a really tall, really pretty adult with eyes as pink as the door and thick black hair gathered up in the biggest braid he'd ever seen before. Without a word she tilted her head kindly to his guardian, before following the line of Tethys' arm down to where her hand gripped his reassuringly. Her eyes went wide like the moons and she smiled and crouched down to look at him.

"Who is this little gentleman?" the woman asked, her voice low and breathy like the rush of air into the airlock at their hive. Her face was pretty, like a seashell in shape, all big and rounded at the top and coming to a pretty point at the bottom. She had put some kind of finger paint around her eyes and on her lips as well, long stripes that made him think about the pretty colors on shells.

"This is Eridan, my ward. Eridan, say hello to Lady Reidra. She is the minder of the Heiress, and sister to the Empress."

"Hello Lady Reidra," Eridan parroted carefully at his guardian's prompting.

"How old is your little one?" Reidra asked, returning her attention to his guardian.

"Nearly two and a half sweeps," Tethys provided, smiling proudly at Reidra. "He started his schoolfeeding recently."

"Well, guardianship looks good on you," Reidra commented, taking a step back to clear the doorway for them. "Gyliea is waiting for you in the sittingblock. Would you like me to..."

"I promised Eridan he could meet the Empress if he behaved himself," his guardian said. "And he held up his part of the deal."

The pride in his guardian's voice made Eridan so happy that he stood up as tall as he could and tried to look like he was nearly three already. It was nice when his guardian was proud of him. It meant he had done something to make her happy, and there was nothing better than when his guardian smiled at him.

"Of course. I'm sure she'd be happy to see him," Reidra answered as she closed the door after them upon entering the block. "Right this way..."

Eridan's eyes darted around the block as his guardian led him after Reidra, taking in everything he could see until at last his eyes came to rest on the most interesting thing around. He stopped in his tracks and stared at the little troll girl who was playing with a set of colorful toy fishes and not even paying attention to anyone else around her.

"Eridan," Tethys insisted, tugging at his hand to get his attention. "Eridan, what are you looking at?"

"She's pretty," Eridan responded, still staring at the girl. "Can I..."

His guardian just chuckled and shook her head. "Okay. But you have to come meet the Empress later. Now play nice and remember that she's smaller than you and not as strong as you yet. You could hurt her and that would be bad..."

"I won't hurt her," Eridan promised as his guardian released his hand. "I won't let anything hurt her!"

It was a promise in the heat of the moment that he didn't know he would strive to keep for the rest of his life.