Nia tore the urchin spine free, but it was too late. The serum was coursing through her veins, doing what it was designed to do: to destroy her magic. Nia stared at Finn, in absolute horror. "What have you done?" She shrieked, looking at her fingertips, but the red bolts blinked out. The magic on Finn's belt broke as the serum spread through Nia's blood, freeing him from the wall. He shoved past Nia, rushing to Melody, where she was struggling to free her tail fins. Finn leaned all his weight on the boulder, and after a few excruciating seconds, Melody, with a grunt of pain, pulled out her tail fins.

"Are you okay?" Melody nodded with a wince; her tail fins, asides from feeling a little numb, were undamaged, and beginning to tingle as the feeling came back. But then, Nia's grunts and gasps made them look round. Something strange was happening to her; she began to shudder uncontrollably, as though having a violent fit. She sank to the sand, before her shudders intensified. She thrashed there, writhing on the sand, crying out in horror and rage, delirious of what was happening around her.

"What's happening to her?" Melody looked on fearfully.

"I don't know!" Finn insisted, clinging onto her hand.

Nia's eye whites were all that showed as the eyes rolled in their sockets. Her eyelids fluttered madly, her nails tearing at her skin as she helplessly tried to stop the serum spreading further. Her nails scraped, leaving traces of red as they broke the skin, but this pain was nothing compared to the pain she felt under the skin; it was agonizing, physically and mentally, to destroy the magic that was infused within her blood. Nia was like a mermaid possessed, mouth parted in a soundless shriek as she floundered on the sand like a dying fish gasping for water.

Suddenly, Nia's floundering ebbed away. She lay there, twitching like a rabbit, her clenched fists slowly uncurling as the pain died. Melody glanced nervously at Finn, who was looking carefully at the now-black urchin spine, ensuring that it was the right one; what if he'd taken a red one by mistake? Finn stiffened. Maybe he should have used a red one. It would have all been over with - the tyranny, the battle, everyone under the spell's influence and everyone who she had turned to stone... Why didn't I use a red one? Finn knew the red would have been the easier option, but he couldn't bring himself to kill her...

Then, Nia was shuddering. Her hands twitched to life, and she was beginning to mutter inaudible words. Her hands crawled across the sand, pushing her body up onto her hands and tail. From her frenzy on the sand, the red paint in Nia's decorative scars had smudged. It made it look almost as though blood was physically dripping from curling wounds in her face, upper torso and arms. Half of the layered braids had come out, and her weapon belt had unattached, lying a few feet away from its owner. Finn took the opportunity to pull one of the swords out, and he crouched beside Melody, waiting for Nia to come out of her delirious state. He needn't have waited long, for clarity had re-entered Nia's eyes. The daze faded, and then, Nia was trembling again, this time with fear.

She was holding her fingertips before her face, lost in concentration, but, no matter how desperately she tried, the red bolts would not appear. "You... you..." the tangled hair could not hide the icy glare, as her face turned toward Finn and Melody. Desperately, Nia tried to summon the sword in Finn's grasp. Nothing happened. She then tried to tighten Melody's locket around her neck, so to strangle her. But there was nothing at all. Nia's powers had been obliterated - it was just her, now. With no magic, Nia was just a mermaid with no magical talent.

It seemed to take a few moments for this to sink in, because for some time, she was utterly silent. But then Nia's temper exploded. "Traitor!" she snarled, at Finn. "What have you done? You lost me my powers!" suddenly, Melody realized that Nia was shouting at her - her poisonous eyes were fixated on her, a scarlet mist of rage descending over Nia's vision. She was blaming the human when she hadn't been the one to inject the spine. Slowly, Melody rose her hands.

"Nia, don't -" she began, but too late.

Nia leapt off the sand with outstretched, claw-like hands, diving for Melody's neck in a blind flash of rage. Finn intercepted, throwing all his weight against his aunt to stop her reaching Melody, who scooted away, cowering in terror. Nia fought against her nephew, blazing eyes filled with a terrifying madness. Finn pushed and shoved, trying to keep hold of her. "It's over, Nia! You -" but Nia was still powerful without her magic. She seized him, throwing him brutally, purposefully, toward the sand and rock wall. He was sent with such a force that he was unable to stop himself from crashing into it.

"Finn!" Melody cried. His voice silenced the moment his skull connected with a jagged stone. Finn fell, motionless, to the floor, a couple of stones clattering down around him as he did. He lay there on the sand, sprawled, eyes closed. Melody dived across the gap between them, crouching by his side. "Finn, talk to me!" she ran a hand through his dark brown hair, pushing it out of his face. His mouth hung open, and there was a cut on his head, a stream of red drifting up through the water. He was still breathing - but he was out cold.

"It's just you and me, now." Nia's cold voice sounded from behind. Melody filled with fury. This barbaric woman had caused Finn and countless more so much pain. She had orphaned him, scarred him for life. She had imprisoned Triton, hurt Bay and placed Zafrina under that terrible spell. For the first time in her life Melody felt truly angry.

"I may not have my magic, but I have skills." Nia swept up the sword from her discarded weapons belt, extending it toward Melody. Melody's hands found the sword which Finn had miraculously kept hold of, despite being thrown against the wall. She spun around, the sword held uncertainly as Nia advanced, a mermaid who actually knew how to wield a sword; just holding the heavy weapon alone pained Melody's arms. I'm facing a seawitch again, who's also one of the most barbaric warriors in all the ocean. And all I'm armed with is a weapon which I don't know how to use.

"At least it's a fairer fight."

"Fairer fight?" Nia narrowed her eyes. "Look at you, foolish girl. A human, at the bottom of the sea where you don't belong! Scrawny with hardly any strength, holding that sword like it's a stick!" Melody looked at the sword, feeling incredibly stupid holding it. "How can you possibly hope to defeat me? Do you honestly think it's even worth trying?" Melody knew that Nia was right. She couldn't use the sword properly, and she had barely any fighting experience; she was against a mermaid who had probably fought more times than Melody had gone swimming in her lifetime. I'm doomed... am I?

"This is where it really ends." Nia moved closer, hatred burning in her eyes. Melody narrowed her own, and held the sword with both hands.

"Bring it!" Melody then launched herself forwards, the sword brought over her head, bringing it down onto the blade of Nia's sword.

Meanwhile

"Grandfather?"

Zafrina looked, in horror, at her grandfather's frozen face. There was a look of pain, rage, and misery on his expression, his stone eyes fixated on the last thing he had seen before being turned to stone. He was crouched, curled up in fear, looking almost nothing like the great merman she knew him as. Tears sprung to her eyes, hot and brought on by devastation and anger. She was barely aware of Bay's hand, no matter how hot it was, on hers. "I'll kill Nia. I'll flay her." She vowed.

Bay wanted to reply, but pain stopped him. He was ever-weakening, vision blurring. He tried to focus on Triton, but the sea king seemed to have three eyes and two noses. He slowly shook his head, but the mist didn't clear. Zafrina noticed this, and realized that they were wasting time. With one final glance at Triton, she went to the doors. Doors? That's mostly a human thing... guess she doesn't want anyone in here.

Supporting Bay, Zafrina managed to open the doors, and enter the room. She put Bay on a nearby rock, where he slumped, his head in his hands, unable to deal with the pain. She crouched beside him, lifting his face with a tender hand. She pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Sit here. I'll look around." Bay nodded slowly, and Zafrina winced at the festering wound on his tail, which had reopened from the travel. She turned, and began to scan the room, trying to be as fast as she could.

It was like the stereotypical seawitch's lair; dark and gloomy, with shelves bristling with bottles, filled with colourful liquids, powders, strange plants and repulsive, slime-covered creatures. Each one was labelled. Curious, Zafrina moved up to the shelves, reading the labels. Whale bile. Shark saliva. Barracuda bone marrow...

"What does she need all these for?" Zafrina asked.

"My question is how she got them... " Bay half heartedly tried to inject humour.

The other bottles consisted of various types of sea creature blood, octopus and kraken inks, sea serpent venom, and there was one jar filled with sting ray barbs and the teeth of an animal she didn't recognize.

She had been reading the labels in hope that there was something that could heal Bay's tail, but it didn't look that way. Turning away from the shelves, Zafrina noticed a large bowl in the middle of the room, looking as though it were filled with a sheet of misty glass. She approached it carefully, initially reaching toward the glass-like sheet, but then thought better of it, retracting her hand. There was an open box made of dead coral sitting on the floor, filled with named vials which contained small amounts of watery blood, locks of hair, and tail scales. Zafrina picked up the box, throwing Bay a quizzical look.

"She uses that to look in on merpeople from far away." Bay muttered. Zafrina heard this, and began reading them. She stiffened; Andrina's name was one of them, as was Triton, and Melody, who's was empty. She continued to read, but then she found some more interesting names. King Earendil, King Jorah, Queen Laguna! They're all leaders of other kingdoms...

"Queen Costia!" she exclaimed, in shock and outrage. Bay glanced up, blinking at the furious look on Zafrina's face. "Costia's the name of the queen of my father's home kingdom! She's been spying on the monarchs of other kingdoms? How did she even get these stupid samples?" She angrily threw the box to the floor, and there was the loud crash of smashing glass vials and the coral box breaking to pieces. "Don't tell me she'd dream of conquering my dad's kingdom? It's miles away, and too bright and cheerful for her!"

Zafrina stalked away from the box, angered further. She began throwing open cupboards and looking around boulders, but to her confusion and frustration, the trident was no where in sight. How hard was it, to find a large, golden, three-pronged weapon almost as tall as a mermaid in this little room? She'd give Nia one thing; she did a marvellous job of hiding things.

"Zafrina..."

"I know it hurts, I won't be long -"

"No..." Bay said, weakly, and Zafrina turned around. Bay was pointing at a swathe of green seaweed, hanging innocently from the wall. The seaweed had been arranged in such a way that it looked as though it grew there naturally, although it was clear, upon a longer look, that it had been fixed in place by some heavy stones sitting on the seaweed 'roots'. The seaweed was longer than herself, some strands made up of several pieces of seaweed to appear longer. The strands drifted in the current, and they couldn't hide the glint of gold within the dark space the seaweed concealed. Zafrina blinked, and swam up to the seaweed curtain, pushing it aside. The dark space was a rough, freshly carved hole in the rock wall; and stuffed carelessly within it, was the trident, golden and glistening, just waiting for the right person to find it. A bubble of relief and joy rose.

"Found it." said Zafrina, with a grin. She reached into the gap, wrapping a hand around the trident and puling it free of it's hiding place. There was a brief moment of silence and awe from both Zafrina and Bay, before their thoughts returned to the trident's owner, outside. "Come on, Bay. We're getting out of here!" With the trident in one hand, Zafrina used her other hand to pull Bay's arm over her shoulder once more. He grunted in pain, but he didn't seem as tense as before; they were leaving the palace now, and freeing Triton. It was almost over now.

They swam, with difficulty, back outside, swimming along the line of rock statues until they reached Triton. But as they did, it occurred to Zafrina that she had no idea as to how to free Triton from his stone prison. "I'm seeing the little flaw in this plan." she commented, in frustration. She glanced at the trident; was it so simple as to command it to free Triton? To melt the stone away, and bring him back? "Alrighty." Zafrina looked at the trident, wondering how she should word it in her mind. "I think -"

"Think what?" snarled a voice, down the corridor. Zafrina almost dropped the trident in her shock, at the feeling of the acid in her stomach turning to icy water. Bay began to shake in terror, and they slowly turned their heads, toward the voice. Otan melted out of the shadows, with his fish hook gripped tightly in hand. Zafrina's heart plunged. It was him! He ordered me to stop anyone getting past! He basically ordered me to - to - kill Melody and Finn! How on earth could I forget him?

Otan was a sickening state. Half of his scraggly hair was gone, replaced by infected wounds - burns - and mottled with scars. The eye on that side seemed to be cloudy, almost, and half of his lips were shrivelled from scarring. Half of his head was red raw, the burns weeping and barely healed. The few patches of healed skin were horribly wrinkly and shiny. Zafrina remembered aiming the trident at his head, and as she did, she had thought of every horrible thing Otan had said to her, the feeling of his brutal hands on her neck, his vile laugh. Perhaps these thoughts had caused the trident to do more damage than she had intended, because now Otan was as hideous as his cruel nature. "Finally." Otan snarled, the fish hook glistening with the same menace as his pale, cold eyes. "I get to kill you both! Nia's spell can't protect you now!"

Zafrina felt Bay pull her away, and the trident floundered dangerously. She shot a beam at Otan, but he dodged it, his rage firing his agility. With a cry, she aimed the trident at Triton. Free my grandfather from his stone prison, if you can! She thought, desperately, and the beam struck Triton; the beam exploded into a shower of sparks, falling onto the sea king's stone skin. Zafrina initially thought that there was no effect, and despair tore through her. But Bay's screeches and Otan's taunting voice forced her to flee.

In the frenzy she lost her grasp, and the trident flew from her hand, falling to the ground before Triton. She tried to retrieve it, but then Otan swarmed toward her, and she spun round. She seized Bay and raced down the tunnel, with Otan in pursuit, the fish hook swinging above his scarred head. In the corridor, the trident lay before Triton. The greyness of the stone was changing, and under the screams of Zafrina and Bay, there was a whisper of breath.