She sighed sadly as she looked down at the water. The prince was married, sleeping peacefully after consummating his marriage with his bride, his love. And now she looked out with a broken heart over the waters that would soon hold her mortal soul.
"Sister!" a voice called out. She looked down, her heart leaping. There, flipping their tails to keep themselves above the waves, swam her sisters. Only now their hair hung in short locks, having been shorn close to the base of their heads.
"Take this," the eldest called, tossing a long knife towards her. "Pierce the prince's heart, and his heart's blood will cause your legs to grow back together, into a strong tale. Return to us, little sister, for grandmother looses her hair in sorrow, and father no longer speaks. Return, little sister, so that our family might be whole again." And with one last good-bye, they were gone.
She stood there until she was sure they had swum far away, and then turned, holding the knife.
And there stood the prince, facing her.
"You are one of them," he accused, his eyes cold. "Your friendship, your kindness, it was all an act, was it not?"
She backed, mouthing words she could not speak. Tears came to her eyes as she tried to protest, to tell him that it was false, that she loved him, that she was the one who had saved him.
"No more," he hissed, grabbing her arm and taking the knife. "I will protect my bride and myself from your and your kind." And then she gasped as the sharp blade was thrust into her chest. She did not even feel the coldness of the water as she fell in. Then pain in her legs, as they returned to their true form, added to that in her chest, but then it dulled. Her eyes slowly slipped shut, and she raised her arm in a final farewell to the man she could not help but love.
Her fingers and tail tips became foam, running down along her body until the foam bubbles met in the middle. A small sphere of light struggled to escape the ravaging bubbles, running here and there until it was finally caught, and it too was forced to become foam and rise to the wave tops.
And then the waves swirled, rising to violent heights, crashing upon one another. This night, it was they who influenced the winds, and not the winds them. The ship rocked crazily, until finally the mast snapped and the hull was pierced. Then a huge wave crashed over it and forced the vessel down into the depths.
The prince wiggled free of the wreckage that was dragging him down and began to swim to the surface. But he found himself surrounded by wicked spears, held by stony faced mer. He spun around, looking for a way out.
A great mer, larger and more striking than all the rest, grabbed his chin with strong, webbed fingers. He pushed the prince's head back as far as it could go, and then spoke.
"One of them," he whispered. "That is what you said, was it not? Well, now you are one of them. As is, or more properly, was, she." And he jerked the prince's head around to show him the still figure of his bride slowly sinking in death.
The prince's head was snapped back, and this time he found himself looking directly into the cold eyes of the great mer.
"See the power of the Sea King, little human, and despair that you killed his daughter!"