Chapter 15: The King of Atlantica

The interior of the brilliant castle was a foreign maze, one Melody would never have been able to navigate without Lily. To begin with, the concept of doors never existed in Atlantica. Windows and entrances were the same things, windows just made it clearer which floor of the palace you would be in if you swam through. A majority of the fortress didn't even have walls, the exception being the handful of towers and spires connected to the main structure. Everything else was supported by massive golden columns, spaced out to keep everything wide and open.

The floor of the palace was just the rocky seabed, the top of which had been smoothed and buffed out. The columns extended from this floor, up to the roof which Melody had to squint up to make out above her. This made the main structure a single massively tall floor, allowing you to enter the off-shooting spires at any level.

There were gilded roads constructed on top of the buffed-out floor, and they snaked throughout the main structure. They acted somewhat like halls, but they were more of a guide on how to get from one part of the castle to another.

The girls entered from the back, where servants were coming and going constantly. Lily led Melody along with one of these shimmering paths, eventually ending up in a bustling kitchen.

Before they entered, Lily covertly whispered in Melody's ear "You're too starry-eyed, keep your face forward. Act natural and follow my lead."

Melody did as she was told, keeping her eyes straight ahead and attempting to act like she saw the interior of this citadel every day. No one looked twice at them, but regardless she still felt completely out of place.

Without a word Lily casually swam over to a table full of prepared dishes, picking one up and following a group of servants out of the kitchen. Melody quickly followed, snatching up a sterling silver plate of richly green seaweed salad.

The group they followed chatted a bit as they followed one of the many shimmering metallic paths, eventually going towards the throne room. Melody noticed they each carried something, and as they approached their destination they fell deathly silent.

They entered the grand room at the back, the radiant golden clamshell throne facing away from them. In front of the sparkling throne was a silver and jewel-laden plateau, complete with an abalone carved table and connecting to another resplendent path that led to the front entrance of the room.

The servants glided towards the abalone table, laying a fine silk cloth over it and setting down their dishes one by one. After placing everything down half of the servants bowed towards the throne and left. Melody almost followed them but Lily's fin grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving.

Lily, Melody, and the remaining servants swam just a few feet away from the table. They hovered there just a few feet away, heads down and hands firmly folded in front of them.

"Now presenting, his Royal Highness, King Triton!" A tiny seahorse with a fancy collar and impossibly loud horn blasted from the front of the room. Melody lifted her head to look but Lily firmly pushed her head back down in an instant.

Melody only glimpsed the King at first, a blue-tailed merman with long white hair and beard. He slowly floated towards his throne, a large trident firmly in his right hand. He sighed deeply when he finally sat down, immediately settling in and placing his head in his right hand. He casually set the trident in a bejeweled display stand setting to the immediate left of his throne.

Melody stole another quick peek at the King and his stolen all-powerful magical trident. His face wasn't nearly as intimidating as she assumed it would be, in fact, he looked quite… sad.

Two beefy armored soldiers took their places immediately behind his throne, but the King didn't even notice them. Instead, he kept his gaze intently on the interior of a sea shell he held in his left hand. Melody never would have dreamed he was staring at a baby portrait of her that had been painted inside the shell nearly 20 years ago.

A small red crab approached the King, standing on the plateau and bowing deeply.

"Your highness, we have every available soldier out there." The crab had a surprisingly different accent than what Melody had ever heard before, but the way he spoke was almost musical.

The king's voice was deep and booming, "Well that's not good enough! I want every able-bodied mer in Atlantica out there! I want the soldiers out in the ice fields, and I want them there NOW!"

The king got up from his throne in an angry huff, swimming towards the table of food and slamming his fist down. Every single servant flinched, including Lily and Melody.

"What do you think you're doing waiting around here! That means all of you too, go out now and find her!"

Everyone but Melody responded immediately, "Yes Your Majesty"

With a quick bow, they all rushed out of the throne room through the back entrance. Lily and Melody followed them out, but instead of leaving they snuck behind the throne and hid. A plume of purple flowers at the back of the throne provided the perfect cover and allowed them to peek out at the events unfolding before them. Now they just waited for the perfect moment to grab the trident and get as far away as possible, which did not take long.

The crab's voice spoke again, "Your Majesty, your daughter has returned from her search."

Another deep sigh, but softer now "Very well." And with that, the king glided out of his throne room to meet his daughter. His two guards followed closely, and the trident left carelessly behind.

The girls locked eyes and knew this was their chance. They darted towards the trident, and Melody never hesitated as she wrapped her hands around the handle. Lily gasped in horror as she watched Melody yank it up with all her strength. Which turned out to be quite unnecessary, the trident was light as a feather and slipped out of the pedestal like it was greased with oil.

Lily was in complete shock, "I-I thought that…. Only royals… h-how..?"

Melody grabbed Lily's fin, "Not now, we need to GO!"

Ariel and her father returned to the throne room over an hour later, and they didn't even notice the Trident was gone for another thirty minutes. Only realizing when the king went to reach for it, his hand grasping at nothing.

"Daddy… th-the trident!"

The king gasped, "but that's not possible…"

Sebastian spoke up in a panic, "Nobody can remove the trident from the stand except you, sire."

After a pained sigh, the king spoke, "Me, or one of my descendants."

Ariel nearly screamed, "Melody!"

Ariel had anticipated that the curse had come true, that Melody was in the ocean but a part of her never wanted to believe it. But that didn't matter at all now, Melody being in the ocean was one thing, but Morgana being involved was another. Morgana had to have made contact with Melody, there would be no other reason for her to take the trident. Melody was in the sea witch's hands, Ariel hadn't found her in time, she was too late. She had hidden everything about the ocean, everything she loved and knew Melody could never have, and it didn't matter anyway. Melody still ended up in the ocean, the curse had been unavoidable.

Triton saw his daughter's pain immediately, and it broke him more than his own.

"I want every single soldier sent to the ice fields immediately."

Hj everyone, thank you for reading my AU of The Little Mermaid 2, with Melody at 19 and not 12. I originally posted this FanFiction on Deviantart, and it is updated there every 1st and 15th of the month. We are official caught up to that one, so the next chapter will be on 1/15/21!

If you would like to check out my Disney fan edits here is my deviantart link:

mermaidmelodyedits

You can also check out my Disney fan edits on Instagram:

mermaid_melody_edits/

I'd super appreciate if you guys could leave me your thoughts in the comments! Critique, comments, discussion, etc. I want to hear it all! Feel free to also message me if you have any questions or want to chat!

Melody's ️ first impression of her grandfather was… not the best😕. Honestly I see him as a villian 😈in the original movie, and the prequel. While he has a lot of character development and learns to be better, in my version he has even more questionable behavior. I dint want to get ahead of myself, a LOT of that will be coming up in the next two chapters!

I got some questions ❓about why Lily is just fine with stealing the trident, and there are a few reasons. One is that Lily 🐠is so loyal that there isn't much Melody🐚 could ask her to do she would refuse, also she has a bit of a delinquent personality. She routinely sneaks into the castle 🏰 , knows most of Atlantica's hidden secrets and underground, and as we will soon learn, she isn't all that loyal to the monarchy. She is a teenager, and really does not care or know a ton about "boring" topics like Atlantica history, politics, the royal family etc. if anything she has a counter culture attitude, and a distaste for authority like the royal family represents. Not to mention she is breaking many laws just hanging out, talking, and being Melody's friend. She has no issues with breaking rules!

💡Side note, she still isn't sure Melody is Atlantica royalty, she is half using this as a test to see if her suspicions are true without a doubt before talking to her friend about it. If Melody couldn't steal the trident Lily would know for sure her friend wasn't the lost princess, 👑 Lily is actually expecting Melody to not be able to steal it. She is sort of in denial her best friend is the princess, it would mean Melody's whole life she was lied to and Lily doesn't want it to be true. Hence why she acts pretty shocked Melody yanked it out no problem.

Her dad Flounder 🐠was the same way when he was younger, going to illegal music 🎶shows, going to human stuff with Ariel… he was just a big coward about it most of the time and much more worried about possible repercussions.

Let me know in the reviews or with a message if you guys have any other questions! I really like answering them and they help me flesh out the world more.