Author's Notes: So you can see this is a Gourry/Sylphiel fic. I'm writing this for my Gourry/Sylphiel shrine relm . bravepages . com And as such I'm posting it on the shrine before here. I'm going to delay it a week before I post it here. So if you like this story go to my shrine for the next part. Couplewise you can expect Gourry/Sylphiel for sure, maybe Zangulus/Martina, Amelia/Pokota, Valgaav/Naga and Xellos/Filia. Not sure how much of those couples will show up but probably a little bit. To all my fellow Lina/Zel fans I'm sorry I've kinda sabotaged that couple option. I could perhaps manage it but I don't want to have two wingling/merperson couples going on as it would detract from Gourry/Sylphiel. So I apologize.

Heavenly Tides

Chapter One, The Sea Below

By Relm

To want things you couldn't have was a universal thing. It didn't matter what race you were it was always the same thing.

Like if you lived in the ocean you'd want to up in the sky. If you lived in the sky you want to be in the ocean. And if you lived on land you would dream of both far off places.

Or at least that's what Sylphiel thought. She was a sea dwelling creature; a mermaid. The ocean was a wonderful place with such beauty but often Sylphiel found herself looking up. The sky was like a mirror to the sea. It would the most pristine blue or clouded with dark stormy fury. She wondered what it was like up there in the sky. To fly with the birds and sleep in the clouds. It seemed so magical and wonderful.

But alas Sylphiel was a mermaid. She would never get to know what it would be like to fly or be up in the sky.

What she could was go on land, but even that seemed like a tease. When you had a fishtail instead of legs you couldn't travel very far. And a mermaid could only stay out of the water for so long before they had to go back. So no matter what Sylphiel was stuck to stay near the water. And even though the land did have many fantastic things to see Sylphiel would still look up at the heavens above.

"Sylphiel there you go again with your head in the sea foam." A very disgusted female voice broke Sylphiel from her thoughts.

Sylphiel looked to the source of the voice. It was Lina a fellow mermaid who as usual had a scowl on her face. "Good morning Lina." Sylphiel greeted her friend.

"What the hell is so interesting up there that you constantly have to look? It's just white, blue and grey up there. So boring." Lina scoffed while brushing her long wavy red hair. Out of all the mermaids of Siaraag Cove Lina was regarded as one of the prettiest and that was because of her hair. Most mermaids tended to have hair that blended in with the sea, colours of blue, green, black and turquoise. Those with blond or red hair were very rare and were regarded as being very attractive. Lina knew everyone thought she was beautiful and she relished in that fact. Because Lina did love attention after all.

"Don't you dream Lina? Of what it would be like to live up there?" Sylphiel asked with her voice far off.

Lina rolled her eyes. "There's way more food here and a lot more colour. If I had to pick any place to live but the ocean I'd pick land. It's way more interesting. I had some land dweller food once, it was really good!"

Now it was Sylphiel's turn to roll her eyes. No matter what Lina always seemed to shift the focus of any conversation to food. "So is there a reason why the prettiest mermaid of Siaraag Cove has decided to grace me with her presence?"

"Your father sent me to get you. It seems he has something important to talk to you about." Lina explained while snacking on some seaweed.

Sylphiel let out a heavy sigh; she knew what that important conversation was going to be. "I guess I'd better go."

"I would, he seemed pretty serious about it. He even threatened me if I didn't get you right away."

"Okay I'm going." Sylphiel swam her way back to the undersea kingdom, her raven blue hair waving in the currents shimmering from the light that penetrated from the sky above.

Siaraag Cove was a kingdom home to many mermaids and mermen. It was one of the five largest coves of the eastern sea. And at the moment it was also the place of the great merpeople gathering.

Once a year all the leaders of the neighbouring coves all gathered in Siaraag to discuss political matters. Siaraag was chosen to be this venue because it was also home to Flagoon, the largest sea tree in all the oceans. Sea trees were considered very sacred and often merpeople from all around would gather to offer their prayers and seek the tree's blessings.

With all the kings and queens of the neighbouring coves Sylphiel knew exactly what her father wanted to talk to her about. Sylphiel was King Erik's daughter after all, and would eventually have to succeed her father in taking the throne. And with all the royal families gathered this was as good of a chance as any to set up relations for future marriages.

The five great coves were Siaraag, Sailune, Zoanna, Atlas and Tarforashia. And the royal families of these kingdoms had gathered in Siaraag no doubt to discuss the subject of royal matching. If the children were to become kings and queens they would have to marry princes and princesses. And here in lies the problem.

Sylphiel was an only child. Her mother died in childbirth having Sylphiel. And though King Erik should have remarried he couldn't. He just couldn't get other the death of his dear Mia to ever love again. So Sylphiel had no siblings to rely on to take the throne in her place. It was very important that she got the affections of one of the princes of the neighbouring coves.

Sailune was the closest cove to Siaraag and the closest allied. This cove would have made the most sense for a matchup however like Siaraag, Sailune bore no male heir. Prince Philonel chose to marry a commoner thus making him still a prince, and had two girls of his own. Granted Sylphiel or another princess could marry Philonel and become a queen but Philonel was still very much happily married to his wife Princess (by marriage) Sarisa.

Zoanna was another problem, their cove only had one heir to the throne and it was also a girl. King Ryther of Zoanna had tried to have other children but after he and his wife Queen Arlina tried many times it was apparent that their little Martina would be the only child they could have.

The only hopes were both Atlas and Tarforashia. Between the two cove kingdoms they had three princes. Prince Zangulus of Atlas, and Princes Valgaav and Pokota of Tarforashia. Prince Valgaav and Prince Pokota were not brothers, but in fact cousins. Their mothers had been both sisters (the crown princesses of Tarforashia) so it was a tossup as to who was to inherit the throne. Prince Pokota's mother had been the older sister but Prince Valgaav's mother had married first. By that definition Prince Valgaav's mother should have been queen of Tarforashia. But she chose to marry a commoner making her keep the title of Princess till the day she died. Prince Pokota's mother was also deceased as the two sisters both suffered from the same congenital heart condition. That left Prince Pokota's father to be King. It was a sticky situation that could be easily solved if one of the two princes went to marry one of the Princesses from a cove with no male heir.

With three princes to four princesses it meant at best one of the princesses would not get the chance to become a queen.

King Erik didn't want his daughter to rule Siaraag alone so he was quite insistent that Sylphiel end up with one of those three princes. But he wasn't the only one.

Both Prince Philonel and King Ryther were also trying to get their daughters to snag the attentions of the three princes.

This whole ordeal was quite bothersome which is why Sylphiel wandered off to go sky watching in the first place. She had no interest in trying to secure her 'future' as a queen. She didn't want to get married just yet especially if she had to choose her suitor so soon.

Of the three princes Prince Pokota was considered the most handsome. His hair was purple, not a common shade amongst mermaids and mermen. And Pokota was kind and fair, a perfect choice for a king. But he was also the youngest, much younger than Sylphiel.

Prince Zangulus though didn't have Pokota's beautiful hue of hair; he had the darkest skin of all the princes. This quality made him quite attractive as most mermaids and mermen had such fair skin. But Zangulus was just as reluctant as Sylphiel in settling down at such a young age.

Lastly there was Prince Valgaav. He was the most common looking of the mermen princes. His skin was fair and his hair a bright aqua blue. But out of the princes he was the only one that was serious about getting married. That was of course because Valgaav wanted power, he wanted to be King. To him it mattered little who he married. Just as long as he married a princess.

Sylphiel wasn't particularly impressed by the choice of princes. If she had to pick one of them, she would have picked Prince Pokota as he would make the best king. But it was hard for Sylphiel get over the fact that she was almost five years older than the prince. Prince Zangulus was nice enough but was more focused on his spear training than becoming a king. And Prince Valgaav...

She didn't like him. He was rude, arrogant and bossy. Even if it was just a matter of dating and not marrying Sylphiel still would have preferred someone else.

As Sylphiel swam her way to the kingdom she passed many mermen and mermaids who flashed her smiles of support. Since Sylphiel was kind and sweet to all those around her, her subjects adored her. They just wanted her to be happy. Many of them prayed to Flagoon that one of the princes would choose her.

Sylphiel was grateful for the support but she really didn't want to get married just yet.

Inside the great hall all the royal families had gathered. Right away Sylphiel spotted her father and swam to be by his side.

"Sylphiel! Good Lina found you! I need to talk to you for a moment." King Erik excused himself and Sylphiel and the two of them went into a secluded room of the palace.

"Yes father what is it that you wished to discuss?" Sylphiel asked once the two of them were alone.

"You know the other families have gathered." King Erik started off.

Sylphiel sighed. "I know. And you want me to get engaged to one of the princes." Her voice held a strong tone of gloominess to it.

"Sylphiel you needn't sound like I'm asking you be imprisoned! You are the princess of Siaraag!"

"I know and it's important for the strength of the cove that I marry a prince and become a queen." Sylphiel finished off.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but I won't live forever my dear. And the last thing I want is for you to be stuck ruling this cove alone when I die."

"Please don't talk like that father! You're going to live a long life still!" Sylphiel frowned. She hated when her father talked about death.

"No one lives forever my dear. The loss of your mother solidified that fact for me. It's been hard doing this without her and if you hadn't turned out to be such a wonderful, lovely lady it might have been harder still. I don't want to you to go through what I did."

"Father that's not going to happen!" Sylphiel protested. "You aren't going to die for a very long time."

"I would rather know you had someone ready in the wings for you in the event that my death does occur. I only care for your happiness my dear." King Erik reminded her.

"But father I don't want to marry any of those men." Sylphiel admitted.

"Why what is wrong with Prince Pokota? He'd make a fine king and he's extremely nice."

Sylphiel frowned once more. "I'm five year older than him father."

"I know but what does age matter? It's love that matters most."

"I don't love him either."

"You could, if you gave him a chance. And who's to say that Prince Zangulus or Prince Valgaav wouldn't make fine choices?"

"I suppose." Sylphiel let out another sigh. "I just don't like being pressured into making these decisions so early on."

"It's a duty of a princess I'm afraid. Now you need to go impress one of them. Show them how wonderful you are and I'm sure they won't be able to refuse you." King Erik ushered Sylphiel back out into the hall. The king then called for all the parents to come with him leaving only the princesses and princes in the hall to talk.

A table had been set up with several things to snack on. Right away Sylphiel swam over to it grabbing an urchin to nibble on. She wasn't particularly hungry, but at least she had something in her hands to distract her from the obvious match making session going on. She did a quick scan of the room looking at her 'targets' and her 'competition'.

The first one of the three princesses Sylphiel had as competition was Princess Martina of Zoanna. There wasn't anything particularly that made Martina stand out in her appearance. She was quite fair skinned like most mermaids and her hair was a bright aqua not at all unlike Prince Valgaav's hair. What made Martina stand out was her personality. She was extremely eager to get married and fell 'in love' with each pretty man she met. But her enthusiasm made her irritating and most princes ignored her.

The second and third princesses were the two crown princesses of Sailune. The elder princess was Princess Naga. Her name was actually Gracia but for whatever reason she chose to rename herself Naga. As far as appearances go Naga was extremely tall and busty. So even with her boring dark hair Naga was still attractive. However Naga seemed more interested in getting drunk then trying to get married.

Princess Amelia was the younger princess of Sailune. She was petite and sported dark hair just like her sister. Of the three princesses Amelia would certainly make the best queen. She was extremely fair and caring to those around her. She was adored by her people and the people of neighbouring coves for all the good works and charity she did. But Amelia was quite young and if a princess from Sailune were to be picked to wed her older sister would have made more sense. Amelia didn't seem to be old enough in both age and mentality to be a queen just yet. She was a bit too trusting and tended be a little gullible.

At present Princess Martina seemed to be trying to get the attention of both the Princes of Tarforashia who were both ignoring her, Princess Naga was getting drunk, Princess Amelia was working on some new justice papers, and Prince Zangulus was working on his spear training.

"Princess Sylphiel I must say I'm enjoying this trip to Siaraag even if it's just a shadow of the greatness of Tarforashia." Prince Valgaav commented swimming over to Sylphiel while completely brushing off Princess Martina.

Princess Martina scrunched her face into a frown at this snubbing and went back to harassing Prince Pokota.

"That's nice Prince Valgaav." Sylphiel commented through gritted teeth. She smiled at him though it was a strained one.

"You know why all our parents gathered here right?"

Sylphiel feigned ignorance. "Besides the usual political talk? No, I didn't think there was any other reasons."

"Well there is. You see most of us are getting to that age when we need to be thinking about marriage. Our parents are trying to set us up. So they've got us all here hoping we'll set ourselves up with each other. Which is pretty considerate when you think about it." Prince Valgaav explained.

"How is forcing children to make decisions on who they want to be marrying at such a young age considerate?" Sylphiel scoffed.

"In the old days the members of the royal family didn't have a choice in the matter of who they wanted to marry. The princes and princess were engaged without even meeting their future spouse. The arranged engagements were always based on strategic moves. So it is nice that we are all given the chance to pick who we wish to marry." By the look on Valgaav's face you could tell he was insinuating that the two of them together would be a good matching.

It made Sylphiel want to cringe but she chose not to show it. "I suppose when you look at it that way that does make sense. Princess Martina sure has shown an interest in you. Why she's given me some ugly looks right now because you're talking to me rather than her." Sylphiel spoke in a low voice hoping to deflect Valgaav's attention onto someone else. She wasn't lying; Martina really was really glaring at Sylphiel. It was clear that the Zoanna princess was jealous.

Prince Valgaav rolled his eyes at Sylphiel's suggestion. "I don't have much interest in her. She's rather plain looking and somewhat annoying. She seems rather full of herself wouldn't you say?"

That statement was so ironic that Sylphiel almost laughed out loud. Martina and Valgaav did seem like the two of them could be twins in both their appearance and personality. "I'm sure she has some unique charms that would make her a wonderful wife and queen."

"Maybe, but I think there are better choices in this room rather than her." His gaze was purely on Sylphiel at that moment and it was an intense one.

Sylphiel wanted to hide under a rock at that moment. Valgaav was being far too forward with her that she just wanted to get away.

"Princess Sylphiel!" Lina came busting into the hall looking frantic.

"Lina what's wrong?"

"You have to come there's something wrong with Draco!" Lina exclaimed.

Sylphiel's eyes went wide with fear. Draco was her pet sea monster and he was loveable creature whom Sylphiel had since he was very little. "Take me to him!"

Lina grabbed Sylphiel's hand and pulled her with her as she swam out of the palace.

"Lina what's wrong with Draco?" Sylphiel asked very worried as they got to the underwater cavern that Draco slept in.

"He's suffering a terrible condition!" Lina explained cryptically as she led Sylphiel inside.

"What? What is it?"

"The same thing I am, boredom!" Lina burst into giggles as Draco emerged happy to see company.

"Lina that's terrible!" Sylphiel exclaimed. "How could you make me think there was something wrong with my little Draco?" Sylphiel pet her 'little' sea monster on the head.

"Little? He's almost the size of a whale!" Lina scoffed.

"Still why did you do that?"

Lina rolled her eyes. "Oh come on you can't tell me that you're disappointed that I stole you away from Prince Full of Himself?"

"Still couldn't you have gone with another story? You almost gave me a heart attack! And what are we going to say when my father finds out? He'd be furious if he found out I skipped out on that gathering." Sylphiel slumped herself down against the wall of the cavern.

"If he asks I'll tell him that Draco was looking sick and wasn't eating. But once you came he started to feel better. You know your dad can't stay mad at you for very long. And what's the deal with the prince and princess gathering anyway?" Lina sat down next to her.

"My father and the other royal family members of the neighbouring coves are trying to match up their children." Sylphiel let out a sigh.

"And your choices are those three?"

"It's more like they get to choose who they want, as there are more princesses to princes." Sylphiel corrected Lina.

"You should just marry a commoner. It would be a lot easier."

"I'm a princess, Lina. I have my duties. Whether I like it or not I have to think about Siaraag Cove first before myself."

"You'll make a good queen one day Sylphiel." Lina put her around Sylphiel's shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"I hope so."

(Author's Notes: As you may have noticed I took liberties with the names of characters in this story. Reason being is because despite my research I don't know the names of Martina's Dad and Mom, Amelia's Mom or Sylphiel's Mom. I chose the names Mia and Sarisa because I've used those names for Amelia and Sylphiel's mothers before. I know these names aren't correct, but if anyone can tell me what they are supposed to be I would very much appreciate it.)