"Sofin?" came a hesitant voice. The prince slowly opened his eyes, watching the world spin for a moment as two as he slowly adjusted to the dizziness. But the whirlpool was gone: he and Oona had been sucked all the way down through the funnel, and he couldn't hear the roaring of the spinning water anymore. When Sofin's vision finally cleared, he found himself in a hallway, the walls and floors made of stone, with paths extending far on either side. He could only see in the enclosed hallway thanks to the bright green light which seemed to emanate from the walls and floor themselves. The Enchancian prince looked up, and saw the ceiling above was also made of gray stones which shone with that otherworldly green light. There was no sign of the passage above from which they had come.
"Sofin?" said Oona again. "I'm stuck." Sofin looked down, and realized with a start that his arms were still wrapped tightly around his mermaid friend, not having let go while they were in the whirlpool. Sofin unlinked his fingers and pulled his arms away, and Oona swam back a few feet. Her brown eyes were still wide open, and she trembled slightly.
"Where are we?" whispered Sofin fearfully. His voice was weak and hesitant. He shivered. Suddenly, the deep chill of the water felt a lot more real.
"I—I don't know," responded Oona. She swam to the ceiling of the hallway and ran a hesitant finger across the ceiling, tracing out the gaps between the stones. "Wherever we are, I think we're stuck," she said.
Sofin took a shaky breath. They were stuck in what looked like an abandoned passage, maybe hundreds of feet below the library. He was supposed to go back to Enchancia in an hour; instead, it seemed like they might be trapped forever. As far as he could tell, the entrance above was gone. It was all he could do to not fall apart right then and there.
To Sofin's relief, Oona didn't panic. "We need to find a way out," she said with determination. She extended her left hand out to Sofin.
Sofin could see the fear in his friend's eyes. He knew Oona was just as scared and afraid and lost as he was. But he knew the mermaid princess was keeping it together for him. Taking her outstretched hand in his own, Sofin forced a smile on his face. "Yeah," he said, trembling, "let's go."
Sofin didn't let go of Oona's hand as they swam down the corridor. Its warmth in his fingertips brought him a tiny sliver of comfort in this foreign place. Even though they could both see where to go thanks to the green light, he wouldn't let go. He couldn't let go. He desperately needed Oona, and from the way the mermaid's own fingers curled around his own, he knew Oona needed him, too.
The passageway was long and straight. It was wide enough for the two friends to swim side-by-side without either being too close to the walls. The light coming from the walls didn't brighten or dim. The entire hallway looked the same, no matter how far they swam.
"Atlantis," whispered Sofin quietly as they swam, answering his own question. Oona gave him a questioning look.
"We're in Atlantis, I think," explained Sofin. "We pulled a book, called The Hidden Kingdom of Atlantis, and then we got sucked through some sort of secret entrance, and now we're here. This must be Atlantis." He paused for a moment as a rather terrifying thought crossed his head. "I bet the thief is here, too," he said. He wasn't sure which was more terrifying: the thought that they might be a hidden kingdom called Atlantis, or the thought that they weren't the only ones down here.
"Then we should find a way out as fast as we can," said Oona quietly. Her enthusiasm and bravado for catching the thief had completely disappeared. In its place was a quiet resolve mixed with fear, as if she would rather avoid the thief than try to find her. She sounded really rattled from their fall from the library's storage room down to Atlantis. Sofin couldn't blame her. She had lived her whole life in Merroway Cove, never having gone somewhere new or different. This was the first time she'd suddenly been somewhere new. It must have been terrifying.
The pair fell into silence once again. As Sofin and Oona swam along the corridor, the only sound the prince could hear was the quiet swishing of their own tails. Sofin squeezed Oona's hand. It was still there. She was still there. He wasn't alone.
Before long, the corridor split into three. Left, right, or forward. They all looked the same. Sofin looked at Oona desperately. "Which way do we go?" he asked.
Oona shook her head. "I don't know," she answered. "The whirlpool messed with my sense of direction: I don't even know which way we're going, now." She glanced at Sofin, whose eyes were filled with fear. "We can go left," she said. "I…maybe that'll be our way out."
Sofin just nodded mutely and followed Oona down the left path. It was the same as the corridor they had just been in. A wide hallway. Walls and floors of stone. Strange green light. Nothing else. No exit. No escape. Nothing had changed. They were still trapped, they were still stuck and they would be forever
"Let's play a game!" shouted Sofin desperately. Something, anything to get his mind off that horrifying truth. Something to break the eerie silence between them. Something to make him feel like something was changing, that they wouldn't be stuck forever.
Oona, for her part, didn't comment on the outburst. "Okay," she agreed. "What should we play?"
"Uh…" Sofin didn't know very many games they could play, just swimming together. "We can play 'I Spy'! You just find something you can see, and then you say what color it is, and the other person has to guess what you saw. I can go first!"
Sofin looked around, at the green walls, the green floor, the green stones, the green light which was everywhere, stuck eternally into his vision. "I spy, with my little eye…" something green something green something green something green "...something blue!" he announced, triumphantly.
"Hmmm," said Oona, thinking. She looked around them, then at Sofin for a moment, and finally at herself. "Is it my bracelet?" she asked, holding up her right hand.
"Yep!" said Sofin. "Now you try!"
Oona thought for a moment, looking at herself, then Sofin. "I spy, with my little eye, something purple."
Sofin looked down at himself. "Is it…my tail?" he guessed.
"Nope!" said Oona.
He looked down again. "Is it my amulet?" he guessed again.
"You guessed it!" said Oona. "Now, it's your turn."
But something else had caught Sofin's attention. He moved his free hand to grasp his amulet, pulling it away from his chest so that he could get a better look at it. He peered at it closely. It was tough to tell with so much light around, but it looked like it was softly glowing around the edges.
"Wait. Is my amulet…glowing?" asked Sofin.
Oona swam close to him to look for herself. She looked at his amulet closely, then agreed, "I think it is! There's a faint purple light coming off it."
But at this angle, Sofin could see something else was also shining. "Your comb is glowing, too! There's a blue light coming off of it," he said to Oona.
The mermaid twisted her eyes up and gasped. "You're right!" she said. "But why?"
Sofin shook his head. "I don't know. My amulet normally glows when I get a new power, or when it summons a princess, but that's always a bright glow. This glow is really dim. So I don't think it's either of those."
Oona sighed. "I've never seen my comb glow, but I don't even know how it works. I guess we don't know what's happening," she said. She squinted towards the end of the corridor they were swimming through. "Hey!" she said, "I think there's something at the end of this hall!"
Sofin squinted, and could just make out the outline of a doorway in the far distance. "Yeah!" he said, feeling much more excited now that they had found something. "Let's see what it is!" He let go of his amulet, and with renewed energy, the royals put on a burst of speed, approaching the end of the long corridor.
At the end of the hallway was a tall stone door fitted with a golden doorknob. Sofin and Oona swam to it, and the prince rested a hand on the doorknob, turning it. He sighed. "What do you think is beyond this door?" he asked, with a little bit of apprehension. It could be an exit, it could be something great hiding just beyond that door—or it could be a thief, lying in wait for the two royals. Or maybe there was nothing beyond that door at all, only a dead end, and maybe all the other corridors led to dead ends too, and there was really nothing at all waiting for them in this abandoned, empty kingdom of Atlantis.
"Only one way to find out," responded Oona, and placing her hand over Sofin's, she pushed open the stone door. It creaked as it swung open, revealing a huge circular room. With trepidation, Sofin followed Oona into the room, equal parts excited and worried about what might lay beyond.
The room beyond the door was shaped like a huge, tall cylinder, perhaps forty feet across and sixty feet tall, the walls made of the same green-light-emitting stone that filled the halls. The back wall, however, wasn't curved: it was flat, and covered with a strange and smooth metallic surface. Nearby Oona and Sofin, the walls were sloped away from the back wall, and filled with chairs, seats attached to the front wall, all facing towards the strange mirror-like wall. There must have been hundreds of these seats, all facing the same direction, just like a theater. But unlike a theater, the place where the stage and actors would be was instead filled with that shiny metallic surface, which shone green in the reflected light.
But what Sofin noticed most once he entered the room was not the chairs, nor the strange mirror-like sheet of metal. It was the pressure that hung in the air, like a tension which seemed to hang on Sofin from all sides. It didn't feel like a physical pressure or a squeezing: rather, something else, something heavy which hung heavy in the air. It felt like the weight of something not-quite-there, like some strange spiritual force which weighed upon Sofin's shoulders. He knew at once that he couldn't fully describe this feeling, and yet he knew somewhere deep within that this was an important place, not some ordinary theater or underwater cavern. He didn't know how, but he could somehow feel that this was a place of great significance.
He saw Oona's expression—the surprise and confusion in her eyes, the way her body trembled in the water—and knew at once that his mermaid friend was feeling it too. Oona shook, her whole body moving as she took a deep breath in and out, and then she spoke.
"Sofin," she said, "I don't even know where we are…but I feel like this is somewhere I'm supposed to be. Like this is a place I should know, even though I've never been here. It's like…" She struggled to find the words for a moment. "Like this is my destiny."
Sofin couldn't speak, not with the heavy sense of pressure pervading through the air, not with the feeling of something greater-than-physical surrounding him. He could only nod.
"It's…it's calling out to me," whispered Oona. Her voice shook. "Should I answer it?"
Sofin thought for a moment, about the strange feeling weighing upon him, about the screen before him, about the strange maze of hallways that they had found themselves in, about the mysterious green light coming from every wall and every passage. And he realized that he needed to know, that there was some deep dark secret hidden within Atlantis and that he desperately needed to know what it was. Even if he could leave at that very moment, he wouldn't be able to go without knowing the truth about what had happened to this strange place, hidden deep below the mermaid kingdom. And so it was with resolute determination that Sofin responded, "answer it."
Oona swam up to the center of the room. She laid her arms out in front of her, pleading to some higher entity. "Why do I feel like I need to be here?" she called loudly, her voice filled with raw emotion. Tears began to form at the corners of her eyes. "Show me!" she cried. "Show me what happened to Atlantis!" And the room answered.
The walls shone brilliantly with green light, brighter and more vibrant than they had just a moment before. The mirror-like wall in front of them warped and rippled, and eventually settled to display a scene of many mermaids, digging and moving rocks. It seemed like they were building Atlantis, the place where Sofin and Oona now stood. But the scene was just a vision: a memory of a long-ago past. The seats behind them filled with blinding green light, so vivid that Sofin could barely stand to look at them. And then, all at once, a great song rose up from the seats, an angelic chorus, the meshing of a hundred voices from long-gone mermaids. These mermaids sang, their melodious voices telling a tale of the distant past. Their hauntingly beautiful songs filled the air, and Sofin and Oona listened.
"Many years and trials ago,
Darkened days we did not know,
And beneath the vibrant sea,
Built our home, our legacy,
The scene on the wall changed to show the mermaids dancing around a heart-shaped gemstone, which shone brightly with green light.
For the heart of Atlantis,
Brought us freedom, brought us bliss,
Gave us life and energy,
So we made technology,
We created new machines,
Moving walls and movie screens,
And Atlantis grew to be,
Such a joyous sight to see,
The scene on the wall shifted again, to show a mermaid sitting alone in an enclosed room. His eyes were open and filled with white light. White runes formed floating bands, rotating in the air around him.
But one day we looked too far,
Saw the future in the stars,
And it spoke of war, of fear,
Of disaster drawing near,
Said our heart, our cherished light,
Would be taken one dark night,
By a thief whose wicked ways,
Marked the end of happy days,
If her plan is brought to life,
There'd be bloodshed, violence, strife,
For two worlds would soon collide,
Bringing war between the sides,
The scene on the wall changed again, to show the shadow of a young child, whose features could not be seen in the dark.
Only one could face this foe,
A young princess, our hero,
And the future did foretell,
That the evil she'd repel,
The wall rippled and displayed a group of mermaids piling sand atop Atlantis, to bury it deep under the sea.
But until that fateful day,
We would seal our heart away,
So its power would still shine,
Safe from thieves and those malign,
And Atlantis, once our pride,
Would be hidden, cast aside,
And the great technologies,
Would be left beneath the seas.
The scene on the wall changed once more, now showing thousands of mermaids with their eyes closed, crying.
Even as our people weep,
This dark secret we all keep,
So when years have come and gone,
Merroway shall still live on,
And the light from our deep heart,
Shall provide us a new start,
So brave hero, hear our plight,
Save us all from endless night!
With your power, please defend,
The bright heart of magic's end.
With that final word, the voices of the chorus died down. The screen in front of them darkened until it was just as empty as the moment they came in. The bright green light filling the seats faded. The pressure weighing upon Sofin vanished in an instant. There was nothing except a long silence as Sofin thought about what he had just heard. He turned to look at Oona, who was similarly silent. Oona turned to return his gaze. The two friends just floated there in silence for a few moments.
Oona was the one to break the silence. "The princess in the prophecy—that's me, right?"
Sofin couldn't think of anything else. She was a young princess, called here by some sort of destiny, to hear this story. Aside from Cora, she was the only mermaid princess who could even go to Atlantis. "I think so," he answered.
Oona looked back at the screen where they had seen the green heart-shaped gemstone. "And the thief who might steal the heart, that's the thief who stole the book on magical artifacts? She's here?"
Sofin nodded his head. "It makes sense. The heart of Atlantis, that must be a magical artifact if it gives that green light to the whole city. She must be after it. 'Two worlds collide' sounds like she wants to bring the human world and the mermaid world together. If I had to guess, removing the heart of Altantis will remove the green light that lights up the mermaid kingdom at night, and the mermaids will have to move to the surface, and that'll bring war."
"Why?" asked Oona. "Your king has already met the mermaids, and he's friendly. Why would he declare war on us?"
Sofin shook his head. "King Roland is just the king of Enchancia. There are lots of other kingdoms around here, and some of them might not not be happy at the idea of a new kingdom springing up. I don't really get how war will happen…but if the prophecy says so, it must be true."
Oona's voice shook. "And I'm—and I'm the one who has to stop that from happening. I have to be a hero."
Sofin stayed silent. He wasn't sure what to say. Instead, he squeezed Oona's hand in his own, hoping to provide whatever comfort he could.
A lone tear fell from one of Oona's eyes. She closed her eyes, and her body shook. The mermaid princess took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes again, they were hard as steel, and full of determination.
"Okay," said Oona, her voice steady. "Then, I will protect the heart of Atlantis. I'll make sure the Atlanteans' sacrifice wasn't in vain."
Sofin gave a heartfelt smile. "And I'll be there with you." He had been worried, for a moment there, that Oona would collapse and fall apart, because if Oona had broken down, he didn't know what he would do. Her bravery and confidence was the only thing keeping him swimming forwards. But now they had a purpose, a plan. They needed to find the heart of Atlantis and protect it from the thief. That was more important than finding a way out of Atlantis.
Sofin gripped Oona's hand tightly in his own. He was thankful for its warm presence. "Come on," he said, swimming back down towards the entrance of the room. "It's time to stop that thief."
Oona followed beside him, matching his pace. "And then we'll face her," she said. "Together."
Sofin nodded. "Together."