Chapter 6:Third Visitor

Being imprisoned, all alone in a small cell for months had its effects. Orm was slowly learning the point of it, of course, there was still a trial yet to come in the meantime, however, this was the suitable punishment for a war criminal, worse than being decapitated in a warzone or... in a fair fight with a half-breed bastard brother.

And no matter how much he fought it, the former king couldn't get away from the thoughts and memories that slowly crawled back into his mind, reminding him and making him feel guilty. Before this, he rarely had time to himself to think about his emotions, let alone his past. Emotion, he thought sourly was a sign of a warrior's weakness. He believed that it would show the opponent a window to the soul of the emotionally afflicted. Then it would give them a chance to attack harder, to break and wound more efficiently. It was for this reason that he deliberately put on the façade of being an uncaring man with the emotional value of a statue.

And it had been difficult, at least at first. He started using this more often after he learned about his mother's execution and was brought back home by force, by then he only wanted to get away from his father's wrath and so what began as an act of survival, started to root in his heart to the point that it was hard to look anything other than a heartless man. And although it had its perks, there was always the hidden feeling of disgust and disappointment in Orm's heart that shouted at him poisonously that you have become the very thing you hated the most.

People didn't know, Orm made sure of that, that even Orvax's closest counselors would never realize how much the young prince despised his own father. He respected the king, did everything exactly the way he was told but deep inside, he couldn't help but resent the man that in a way, had murdered his mother. But this lack of knowledge in the future days, after Orvax's death and Orm's enthronement, started to show and affect his rule. They thought that the hatred Orm felt towards the surface was the result of his father's beliefs or because the young king blamed the surface for his mother's death but… none of them were true.

Orm ran a hand through his immaculate blond hair and started pacing the length of his cell. Recalling the last time and the only time he'd ever been to the surface. The worst thing about the memory was that the family he met on the surface were nothing but kind to him, tending to his wounds when he thought he was dying, feeding him, caring for him, even if it only lasted for a couple of days. He scoffed at that, suddenly glaring at his own reflection in the glass of a window that separated him from his home. He gazed at his own eyes, did these really belong to that boy from all those years ago? They were dark and angry but if he looked closely he could spy traces of sadness, disappointment and … exhaustion.

Arthur surely thought, Orm didn't have the slightest clue about the surface and its people, but he would never know how Orm once on the surface wanted so badly to find him and run away with him from his own father. He wasn't going to tell Arthur that though, things were different now from before, he wasn't the naïve boy he used to be, the boy that Mera and Vulko seemed to be so eager to have back again.

But that didn't mean he was Orvax either.

It was foolish to think that he would follow the mad king's footsteps blindly, in time however he slowly learned from the man and witnessed with his own eyes that how children of Atlantis were dying from the poisoned water that was caused by the surface-dwellers chemicals and their atomic garbage. And when he became king the weight of that responsibility burdened him gravely. He needed to do something to protect his people and at that time, war seemed to be the only logical answer.

Or thinking back to all the suppressed memories of his short time on the surface with Shaw family— perhaps years of acting as his father's obedient son had finally got into him, making him feel and think the same way as the man. Making him hate the half-brother and the surface altogether, blaming them for the pain that had befallen him and his kingdom.

His eyes left the reflection and wandered around the small room, or maybe it was only these walls, echoing the words of those traitors in his head and forcing him to admit to things he didn't truly believe were wrong.

" You're still awake and I can feel the tears dryin' on your skin," The humming sound from behind took him by surprise. Orm turned and watched his mother standing next to the door but unlike his other visitors, inside the cell, singing lovingly, "I touch your hands and kiss them up to make you feel I'm here/ just to hold you through the night."

The melody felt like a wrecking ball, destroying all the barriers he had built up ever so carefully to stop the rush of emotions that came with remembering his childhood memories. Atlanna had a strong and beautiful voice and she used to sing around the palace all the time and despite Orvax's harsh and brutal demeanor, she would never stop singing. She sang when she was happy, sad or just when she felt out of this world. Orm thought sorely, mostly out of their world.

"I remember this song. " He didn't want to sound so cold, especially not after he'd heard her sing like that in a long time. But he couldn't help it, his heart was conflicted with so many feelings that he couldn't even decipher.

Atlanna didn't seem to be bothered by the blunt tone in his voice, because she swam closer, clasping her hands together in front of her silver gown and smiled, "I used to sing to you every night when you wouldn't stop crying." Her blue eyes glowing intensely as she spoke with passion," It always soothed you, made you sleep in an instant, which was a miracle to me since you weren't exactly the quietest baby in the whole kingdom."

Orm could see how his mother's face lit up with delight at recalling that fragment of memory. But he couldn't feel any of that joy. It only sounded like one of those fictional stories his mother seemed to always love so much. His reality was much darker than her fantasies and he was too bitter to share a sweet moment with her. "Why are you here, Mother?"

Atlanna didn't seem to expect it as her eyes slightly widened in shock but it soon wore off, she was still a queen, after all, practiced in the same way as all the other royalties, she too had learned how to conceal her emotions when it was deemed necessary.

"I came to see you of course." She said firmly.

"What's here to behold?" Orm's taunting tone wiped the fading smile off her face, her brow creased as the young man started smiling wryly," You must have mistaken the room, the son you're yearning to see is the one on the throne," he raised his eyebrows exaggeratedly,"— the one who holds the Dead King's golden trident, not me."

He watched Atlanna's face carefully, how her expression suddenly morphed into a painful grimace like, she had just been hurt physically. Her long delicate fingers clutched at her gown as she swallowed a knot in her throat. Her voice utterly in contrast with what she had been trying to manifest seconds before.

"You're being very cruel to your mother, Orm. "

Perhaps the words were chosen harshly, Orm thought. He had always been careful of the way he spoke because as a king that was yet another duty he had to uphold but what of now? He was nothing. Also, the hot flames of anger within his soul didn't seem to want to wait any longer to burn and devour everything and everyone on their way.

"I am not cruel just stating the fact." His eyes were sharp and unforgiving as he said blandly," I haven't exactly made you proud now, have I?"

Atlanna raised her hand to calm his son like she used when he was only a babe. "You were only misguided—"

"Stop saying that like I'm a child!" snarled Orm at the water that was blocking his lungs, in a loud coarse voice, that did shatter the dense atmosphere around them but along with his breath too. But he was desperate, couldn't she see? " I was very well aware of my actions…and I do not regret any of them."

Regret was a strong word. Followed by guilt, fear…loneliness. Orm stared at her like she had been the reason for all the misery in his life. Little did she knew, people tend to hurt those they loved the most, more.

"Is that true?" Atlanna went stiff in her position. Eyes that had been indignant a moment before turned expressionless. When she spoke her voice expressionless too, very slow and plain. "The boy I have left behind never would have said such a thing; he believed that any peace would be much more beneficial to our nation than the continuance of war. "

"It was you who believed in such a thing and I was only naïve." He said with a surge of emotions, suddenly feeling the lump in his throat grew big and intolerable. " Mother you have been gone for far too long."

"Twenty years…" She trailed off, words hanging in the air as Orm grasped at them carelessly.

"Twenty years is a lifetime," He completed her sentence unfairly, shaking his head like he wanted to shake off a bad thought or a distasteful imagination, " I am not that boy you used to know anymore."

But Atlanna had other plans, her eyes distant and filled with unshed tears. She blinked and they floated in the water, gone with it without a trace. "Twenty years of living with that man… "

"This has nothing to do with my father!" Orm managed to choke. His voice held a frustration she was perfectly familiar with.

"Orvax was many things but a father." She replied, fingers now digging into the fine fabric of her dress," He was a fierce warrior and a brave commander who trained soldiers but… never… never was he a good husband or a father—" Orm knew very well, her mother with all her flaws was a still strong woman, strongest in the whole Atlantis, yet her voice was shaking with so much hatred and bitterness towards that man. "He did not know how to raise a child. I should have known better than to leave you alone with him. "

"Then why did you do it?" his voice cracked and he hated himself for that," Why did you leave?"

It took her moment to reply. Of course, they both knew the reason very well still though Atlanna nodded, her eyes showing factual torture. "He forced me to. "

"But you could have fought. You could have fought for me. " He paused and blue eye locked with each other as the young former king of Atlantis clenched his jaw, a flash of something dark passing through his face, " Or were you only thinking about your infidelity and that mongrel—"

Orm's gasp escaped him loudly as Atlanna's hand flew across her son's face, slapping it with an abrasion— that seemed to be coming straight from her heart— and anger so powerful it was scarcely recognizable as a slap. It was much more than that.

It wasn't the first time Orm had received such treatment from a parent. Orvax surely had his ways with him, at times even creative with his physical punishments. But this… as far as he could remember, this was the first time—the first time ever his mother had slapped him.

"Don't you dare, Orm." She whispered in a low voice, that was shaking hard with a wound so painful Orm could feel it radiating. " I raised you better than this!"

His face was still thrown in the direction of his left shoulder as his eyes turned to stare at her, the cold, emotionless façade once again slipping back on his features. "But it's true, isn't it? You never really cared about us. You hated Orvax, never really wanted to marry him in the first place. "

Atlanna stared at him for a long time, evidently hurt but as she finally spoke up, she sounded more confident than ever, "Of course I didn't but things changed when I had you."

"I was the product of duty—" His eyes hardened as he finally managed to stand straight, shoulders pushed back, as he raised his chin, " please enlighten me mother, how can you love such a thing."

"You are not a thing, you're my son." Her face softened as she stumbled closer to hold his hands but Orm took a step back out of her reach and she stopped trying, she paused then let out a deep sigh, "I love you no matter who your father is. I wanted you and Arthur to meet. So you two wouldn't feel so alone. I never wanted this for any of you." She paused, closing her eyes, " He's your brother Orm and he's in talks with other kingdoms as of now, to prevent another execution in our family. "

Silence fell. It plunged down on them in a greatly intense heaviness that Atlanna never expected. But the heaviness drew a pain, a pain that stung more than the slap on Orm's face and the unkind words from earlier that had pierced Atlanna's heart.

"I don't want it." He said, at last, his voice hoarse and tired as he looked up this time wearing a different look. Atlanna gazed in wonder as she saw her little boy in front of herself, lost in the world of cruel men. " I followed you too mother. When I heard the news about your exile, I came to the Trench." Her breath hitched and a small sob escaped her mouth as Orm continued. "I came to save you. But I was weak. I couldn't. And now Arthur had saved you. He brought you back and I am forever grateful of him for that." his voice trembled so much he had to stop and stare at the empty space for a moment, clearing his throat but when his eyes were pulled back to Atlanna's once more, they were hard and determined, " But I don't want his pitty anymore. "

Atlanna shook her head disapprovingly, not believing what she had just heard. "Don't say that. Arthur's your brother and he won't stop fighting for you. The trial is in a few days; Arthur will meet you before that. If only the Fisherman princess agrees to our propositions, we believe there still will be hope."

"I wish it wasn't like this. " Orm turned his eyes down, he couldn't bear to meet his mother's hopeful eyes anymore. It was all too much, he wasn't ready for this, to have her back, not like this at least.

Atlanna was quick to cup his face with both hands, making him look into her eyes, letting him know that everything was going to be okay. She had always been wishful like that. "It could be different, we can be a family again."

And it was in that moment that Orm suddenly realized…

He realized, with tribulation, what he wanted right now, when someone who could actually feel his pain was right there, with him.

He wanted to fall into his mother's embrace, and maybe just her arms tightening around him, and he would feel the warmth he was dying to feel. And then he wanted to shriek and scream, cry like a child. He wanted to jet out the misery blocked in him, and his blood and his veins pounding aloud with the weight of pain of it all. And he wanted so dreadfully wanted to tell her how sorry he really was.

"I missed you," the next words came out weaker than he intended to, he didn't have the chance to tell her earlier, he was too shocked, too angry, too tired to see how it was true. Her concern was the only thing that augmented the fantasy of going back to a childhood he missed so dearly. " I'm sorry mother, I'm sorry for everything." He finally closed the space between them and hugged her tightly, reluctant to let go," This time I make sure to farewell you properly." He whispered, hiding his face in her long blond hair, breathing into her familiar scent.

"No Orm, you're not going to die! I won't let that—"

"Please…" He interrupted her, pulling away after a full minute to grasp her slim arms firmly, "On the day of trial, accept whatever they decide and be sure that I'm not scared. I'm only glad that I have you back again, even if it's short-lived."

She didn't say anything after that and he was thankful for both her silence and the salty water around them, it hid his tears not allowing his mother to notice how frightened he really was, how small he felt not because he was about to stare in the face of death for the thousandth time in his life but for losing her again so soon.