Summary:
"A fanfiction that follows the path of an Empress from when her fate and a landweller's converged until her death."
The curious Empress .
Far, far from the land and its litter, and its eccentric residents; where no ship could reach and the sea's color is that of a fragrant Spring Gentia, there, in that peaceful place lived the mertrolls, a sub-race of the troll species, remarkable for their rich blood and their garish jewelry; ruled over by a young Empress, named Feferi Peixes. Unlike her ancestry, she sought not to oppress or coerce those of lower blood caste than hers, nor regulate such hierarchical stratifications; instead she pursued equalitarianism even if it would come with the price of relinquishing her position as the Empress and leading a life like any other would. Her hive was made of pillar coral and oysters for domes, so richly ornamented that one would conjecture thoughtlessly that heaven took form of it, or that angels would blush and weep and wish they lived there. Of course, a person with as much caliber as an Empress wouldn't live alone; there lived as well the Empress' mentor, the penultimate on the hemospectrum and some of the Empress' retainers. Unlike the Empress, her mentor strove to expedite the legitimization of the hemospectrum policy and to persecute the lowbloods as a crucial stride towards welfare and prosperity. From within, however, the Empress' hive had more resplendence to show, besides being decked with the most fulgurous ornaments; there cavorted freely all kind of fishes which entered by the windows and left whenever they wished. One day, when the Empress was reflecting on the fate of her underwater empire, her mentor ─Eridan─ sneaked to the Empress' throne room, before bowing in a sly deference as he addressed her thus:
- "So, what did our lofty Empress, for whom everybody's in submission; say about our hierarchical policy in the land? " Upon hearing about this sore subject again, the Empress stood up from her throne in a slight irritation and swam some meters away from her mentor before casting a glance at him and said resolutely.
- "Didn't I tell you to stop goading me about this subject every now and then? The last time you said it to me, I told you to give me some time to reflect on it. Plus, is a mentor's job to counsel or to write down rules through pricking the Empress for her assent? Please, would that be the last time you talk me into this subject! "As the Empress finished and swam back to her throne, the mentor, with a cunning grin, rubbed his hands against each other and rejoined.
- "Sure it is, your majesty, everything you said is true. I must have overthought about it, probably, I just thought that you cared more about the Empire than about a knot of filthy garbage." Just as he finished, with a curved up lip as in disgust; the Empress rose again before answering.
- "Who are you to know what is good and what is bad for the Empire? Aren't you the one who spends most of his time on the land? If you really despised them that much, you should feel ashamed of yourself first." Eridan, dreading lest he would upset the Empress more, looked for the first time anxious. He let out a sigh, audible only to himself, as he answered.
- "I'm awfully sorry, thought I'd talk some sense into you. Anyway, since you didn't meditate upon the stratification of the troll race, you must have at least contemplated about our relationship." Though, he thought she would finally recover her composure, the Empress seemed more agitated before retorting in a firm tone.
- "Is that all you bore with you when you entered the throne room?" Eridan, however had anticipated her answer, for he looked relatively calm, instead he just answered back in a calm but convincing tone.
- "But, did the whole week of cogitation not suffice? "
Eridan had talked to the Empress a week ago, about the possibility of developing into a red relationship, but the Empress asked him to give her more time to think. The Empress, though agitated, could not deny, she just gave him an evasive answer and grabbed her gold comb as she swam away, as far as her fishtail permitted, before rising upward as the fishes flit around her in a spry and lively way. Once her head emerged above the sea surface she discerned within the close vicinity a sloping rock, and swam, wriggling her colorful fishtail before she climbed onto the rock and sat there, thinking to herself as if reciting a soliloquy while combing her satiny black hair with the gold comb which she fetched with her.
- "He just doesn't understand, there must be another way to bring welfare to our Empire, enslaving others is just unwise." As she finished her musing, she drew the comb from her hair and looked at it with disgust before throwing it away. "Gold! What a joke." As she threw her comb, it sunk down before settling on the mentor's head who went out to search for her. He took it and muttered to himself in a sly and acquisitive way. "Gold! " The Empress on the other hand, just sighed to herself and resumed her musing.
- "And what he told me about our relationship was just insupportable, I have been taking his advances all along, I'm the Empress of an Empire of mertrolls, I should be more uncompromising, but…" She sighed as she rested her head onto her palm in resignation, before resuming in a dispirited way. "He must have seized my weaknesses to get closer to me. " Just as she finished, her ears discerned a noise of footsteps close at hand. The Empress hastened to jump into the water, dreading lest she would be discovered and watched the staggering foreigner totter before slumping heavily onto the rocks of the shore nearby. Frightened under the sight of the foreigner, covered in brownish yellow blood, lying languid on the shore rocks, the Empress, by the impulse of her own tender inner, swam to the rocky shore before climbing on a rock to touch the foreigner with her slender fingers and run her cluster of fingers through his soft hair. The foreigner was drenched in blood; his skin was pale enough to worry the Empress, and his eyes seeped blood. She looked disquieted; her cheeks flushed a fuchsia color at the motionless foreigner before her as she remained silent. She, then, came up with something. She pulled the foreigner into the water, oblivious to the fact that the land dwellers cannot breathe underwater, as she drove him to the sea bottom, holding him close to her as she wriggled her fishtail. As she placed him on a rock, a herd of colorful fishes and cuttlefishes congregated around them, curiously peeking at the foreigner. The young Empress, on the other hand, seemed more apprehensive; she folded her hands under her breast and watched the outsider get more pallid. In a moment of extreme distress, the Empress brought her winning face closer to the outsider's and kissed him on his tremulous lips, hopefully wishing to wake him up, but what the Swayer of the underwater did not know, was that a simple kiss on the lip could do more than just wake the outsider up. Her lips fell on the foreigner's lips as delicate dew on a wilted flower. As though he had never been unconscious, the outlander rose like a blooming flower after it was definitely going to perish, and looked around him cautiously before rubbing the back of his head, worriedly. The Swayer hid herself under the rock, as her fishtail remained plainly visible to the yellow blooded outlander. He addressed her in low tones.
- "You don't have to hide, come out, I can clearly see your fishtail." With that said, the Empress had no reason to hide; she drew herself from under the rock, looking away when the foreigner's eyes met hers.
- "What happened," he inquired "I can breathe!" The Empress looked nonplussed, yet dreading lest he would ask her for the reason behind her amazement she strove to hide it; still, instead of camouflaging her perplexity, what surfaced on her sweet face, was transcending all descriptions, something more than what she thought would conceal her bemusement; it was a rosy glow on her cheeks which though accidental, was yet emanating from her hearth, from the part of her heart which she couldn't dissemble. Incognizant of the rosy glow on her cheeks, the Empress noticed the change in the outlander's features, only then, did she come to feel her own timidity. She then, struggled to change the subject.
- "Tell me; what happened to you before you came tottering on the shore?" Though, she thought changing the subject would be a good idea, the foreigner's countenances gloomed as he looked away in embarrassment. The swayer, on the other hand, didn't bother questioning, for she knew prying into it would only tear open more wounds. She dropped the subject as she said.
- "You don't have to answer me for the moment; I should take you somewhere safer and tend your wounds first. Do you have ones to begin with?" the other shook his head in negation, wordlessly as the Empress resumed "Better! Let's go, my hive, is close at hand, the retainers will take care of you."
They swam together, hand-in-hand to the Empress' hive. There, the Empress' retainers took care of the land dweller and gave him everything he wished. He was given a room to sleep in, and received his repasts punctually, moreover, everyone in the hive was contented with the lowbloods' presence but the mentor, for he execrated him, mainly for the color of his blood after he had discovered about it. Ever since, driven by the animosity and by the yearning to avenge the Empress after the foreigner had presumably stolen her heart, and because of the developing kismesis between the two, Eridan started plotting his vengeance, his scheme to murder the lowblood, be it with the cost of killing the Empress or being shamefully defeated. As the days pilled up, the relationship between the Empress and the lowblood strengthened, while the mentor slyly contrived to murder the outlander. As though he were a tick which found its mischievous opportunity to bite, or a sly leech after a foreign feet plod near it, the mentor started putting his machinations into effect after the Empress and the lowblood were absent. For three days, after he fetched his deadly wand, the mentor slaughtered all of the hive's retainers, and threw their corpses and carrions out of the hive, waiting for the lowblood and the Empress to come back and then, bring their jolly lives to a halt. Just as planned, it took him only a night of waiting before the Empress and the ochreblood returned, oblivious to the fact that each meter they swam together, hand in hand, did only expedite their doom. As they swam together, the Empress was the first to notice the heap of corpses and rotting carrions, but only when they approached them did she come to make out the faces of her servants. Appalled under the sight of the lifeless corpses, the Empress could no longer restrain her anger; she reddened in furry as she stepped forth to push the door open, but before she could vent her spleen and therefore meet her own doom, the appeasing voice of the ochreblood reached her ears.
- "I'll go first, venting your spleen shall profit those dead corpses nothing, if we were to avenge them, then, shall we, at least, avenge them wisely," Encumbered with sapience, and sweet as honey were the lowblood's words; they allayed the Empress' anger almost forthwith, as showed the color of her face.
- "Cap...tor!?" He pushed the door open, and stepped forth into the hive, determined to avenge, those ill-fated sacrifices. They searched everywhere, not a single room nor a dim hallway they missed but called the mentor's name unavailingly. Until their own fate led them to the Empress' throne room, which they suspected the least. The outlander stepped first into the throne room, followed by the Empress, where the mentor was lurking, and more precisely where their fate chose the battle to take place. With a sly mischief, he addressed them thus.
- "It stinks in here; one could say it smells of decomposing corpses! Is it Captor's blood that reeks that much? "
- "It's probably the corpses you threw out there!" The lowblood answered, with as much guile as the mentor, yet with as cold a face as ice.
- "Ah! Those! Seems that I wasn't wrong when I said you reeked as much as they did, since you will shortly meet the same fate as them."
- "So, that was your plan all along, you weren't satisfied with my presence in here, and ever since, you plotted your mischievous scheme to fight me. You could have simply asked for it, though!"
- "I don't have time to waste with a yellowblooded misbegotten bastard! Empress! Would you leave us to settle this score?" As soon as her name was called out, she stepped forth and shielded the lowblood's body. With as solemn a resolve as a boulder, she answered.
- "There is no way I can let this battle pass. You Ampora! Shall stop immediately." As if discovering about the solemn determination in her eyes, the mentor raised his deadly wand and conjured an immense power, swooping towards the Empress. Unperceivable to the lowblood's eyes, the tongues of the white magic pierced through the Empress' frame, as she felt a brief pang of pain then fell motionless on the ground. With the last bits of energy remaining within her, she struggled to cobble words to the ochreblood who stood immobile.
- "Y-You promised to av-enge my servants…good luc...k!" Said she, as her soul slowly and forcibly, departed her slender frame. She, as well as those poor souls of her servant, may now thrive in heaven while waiting to witness the mentor carted off to hell.
Encumbered with the promises he made, and fueled by the Empress' and her servants death, the dearth of hopes in his heart bolstered up and the strength in his frame heightened. As if all poor souls of the servants and the Empress fought with him, the lowblood killed the mentor, and left him to decompose before the tides of the sea abandoned him on the sea shore while the lowblood lifted the corpses of the Empress and the slaughtered retainers and buried them somewhere between the white lilies and jasmine flowers.
End Notes:
There is myriad of things that actually motivated me to embark on writing this fanfiction. Firstly, the amazing relationships I blended within this fanfiction, secondly this gif: . , and finally, The Mermaid Tears by Jeff Victor; I strongly request listening to it before reading this fanfiction.