Chapter Ten - Hope Is Our Four-Letter Word

Alright, let's get back to our wonderful Counting Stars, shall we? Generally when I do this I listen to the song, so I just go on youtube and pick a video that plays it for ten hours, so I don't have to constantly go and make it repeat. cx Hehe, yup. Ten hours of it. Good thing it doesn't take that long to write! X3

Evx : Uh, I think mine is stronger. :p But whatever you think...As for Jared, well, we'll just have to see, won't we? Hopefully Teague doesn't believe him about this 'you can have Mina' business.

so in her own head : Yes, yes, it was a short chapter. ;-; I'm glad I got chocolate though! :D And I agree, Jared probably does get his own side.

booknerd00 : Hm, hm, yes. That isn't the plan, but it definitely would work! As for it being his castle, well, it's technically still the Fates. Teague didn't take over in this story. ^^ And hehe, glad someone remembers Grimore, or as some people know her, J. c:

heywassuphelloo : Haha, I'm not surprised. I'm questioning everybody's sanity in this story at this point. I may actually write that as a story at some point, just because Mina being in The Princess Bride would be very interesting...Although that may be more of a Jarina story...Hm...

Guest 1 : Good point. He does jump to whoever can help him the most at the time. cx

The Book Worm : I'm glad this is exciting to you! Hopefully I don't disappoint!

That makes him pause. "What?"

"Plus, if my suspicions are correct seeing as you were the one that saved Mina's life, your connection to her is stronger, and so you hurting yourself by banging your wrists against the iron is probably hurting her."

He glares at me. "I don't think I believe you, but let's pretend I do, for the sake of having a civil conversation that will blow up if you don't leave."

"Fine." I nod, complying to that. "Just give me a small chance here. I want Mina to be safe as much as you do, but the Grimorie is stronger than you would suspect. She's playing games, Teague, and we have to tread carefully."

"You just want Mina to yourself, actually."

"No. I want her to be happy. If that's with you, then so be it." Hey, I can lie, can't I? "Look, what I'm saying is, I have a plan. And I need you to listen."

Mina's POV

I don't know how long it takes me to register the fact that Coral and her abaia aren't ahead of me anymore. I've been so focused on getting to this Siren City that I kind of tuned out her attempts at starting a conversation, and she just stopped trying. But now I can't see her. I begin to panic. What's going on?

As if it can sense my confusion and the fact that I don't know where I'm going anymore, the abaia begins to shriek and wriggle about underneath me, as if trying to knock me off. I do the instinctive thing, and scream. Which just succeeds in unsettling it even more and making my ears ring. I'm going to die out here! This was a trick! Coral was trying to trick me! Tide obviously hates Sirens. Maybe all mermaids do. This was just a trap to get me killed. Maybe the Kraken or the Loch Ness Monster or another hydra is here and she's going to have it kill me!

"Mina! Calm down!" I grip on even tighter as Coral - very fast - manages to get in my sights. "How did you get so far ahead?"

"Tide said that this abaia was trained to follow older ones!"

"Wha-What?" Coral frowns, looking very confused. "No abaia does that."

"What?" Now I'm confused. "You mean partner abaias don't exist?"

"Exactly..." Realization lights up on her face. "Oh my gosh, he tried to kill you!"

My eyes widen. "What?"

"Well, perhaps kill is a bit strong of a word. But he wanted the abaia to get out of control by making you think it would follow. Obviously, it caught onto your Fae, water creature side and in that way you subconsciously willed it to go where you wanted. When you were no longer focused on getting to one spot, it panicked along with you. Which, I would expect you to know if you were a Siren that was raised here. Obviously you aren't though, like you said before. But just wait till I get my hands on that boy! He'll be sorry he even got up tod-"

"Coral!" I break in, needing her to end her rant. "The abaia goes where I direct it to?"

"Well, ya." She looks at me like I'm stupid, but then the look fades away. "Right, right, you weren't raised Siren. I keep forgetting."

Wow. Sometimes she seems brilliant. Other times? She seems very scatter-brained.

"Let's just...Well, let's just go. I'll do my best to remain focused." I respond.

"You'll only have to for about five minutes tops."

"Why?" Her comment takes me by surprise, and I feel it's necessary to ask.

"Because we're almost there." Again, she gives me a 'duh' look.

"How do you know that?" Again, I'm confused by her logic. Er, more confused, I guess, since I was already confused. That's how it works, right? Being confused and then becoming even more confused as the conversation goes on. Maybe? I don't know.

"Because of the landmarks."

"Landmarks...Wait, Landmarks?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Just a phrase I picked up from the humans. They're pretty stupid creatures, aren't they?"

Okay, so she's just assuming that I knew I was Fae and just didn't know what type I was, I guess? Or she forgot that I didn't know I was a siren? I don't know, but at the moment I really don't care. I'll just roll with it, even though I'm a little mad about her comment.

It takes about three minutes for us to see it, and an additional two minutes to reach it. But seriously, merely seeing it takes my breathe away. And I thought the descriptions of Atlantis were amazing, but this makes Atlantis - or what I always imagined Atlantis looking like, which is probably quite exaggerated in description - look like dirt that's being compared to a silver platter. It's obvious that the silver platter - er, the city of the sirens - wins.

Firstly, the thing literally glimmers, because the city seems to be made of treasure. Gold, silver, rare gems, all of it is there. Of course, there's some normal materials too. The entire thing seems to be encased in glass and the glass goes underwater, so I guess the top was added recently. Which - of course - only begs the question as to what the other levels look like, because when I make a comment, Coral talks about the top not being very impressive. This is what the sirens have been doing all this time? Living in a castle city? I'm stunned. Why on earth did I never know about this place, or my heritage, for that matter?

The rest of the going is kind of a blur as Coral guides us past some guards and inside. The abaia are put in stalls in a water chamber after we get off in a pool of sorts. Once inside, I find that they use quite a bit of Fae magic to have some water inside but keep most of it out. It's honestly fascinating, and I could spend hours just staring at it all. Of course, I don't really have the time for that if I want to live. The twinging in my heart reminds me of that quite often if I'm not trying to block it out, and even then it doesn't work very well.

And then - finally - we manage to get an audience with the king and queen. I honestly was not expecting Coral to pull something like that on me.

"Coral!" I squeak from alarm as the guy slips through a door. He actually seemed like a nice guy. I believe he said his name was Kino? "What are you thinking?! An audience with the king and queen?!"

"Hey, they'll help you with the whole Siren thing."

I'm horrified. Absolutely horrified. I thought we were going here to get some help! Not to talk to the King and Queen themselves and find out why I never knew I was siren, and why it never showed!

Oh gosh. I'm so dead. That's the main thought in my head whenever Kino reappears. "This way, ladies." He gives us a grin. "Your audience is accepted."

Hm...Does anyone else realize a slight kink in this plan? Mina is wanting to go to the castle...But from what it seems, Jared and Teague might be leaving the castle? Not good at all. Let's hope it works out, or we're going to be in a big amount of trouble!

Also, sorry I keep splitting these chapters, but I don't want to flood in too much information, as too much information will make your brain choke! If anyone understood that reference, have a cookie.

Hehe, anyways, can we get three reviews so that I can get to work on the next chapter? Sorry for the lack of updates recently, school has been eating up my time! Most likely, weekends will be the main time I update now. :c Hopefully I can update some during the week though too!

Also, thank you guys so much for the support you guys give on all of my stories! It means so much to me. c:

~ Dagger