The trial began. One by one, the prisoners were brought forward. Their names were not asked. Simply their crimes were stated, and Marina Del Rey made a show out of questioning them. The King sat in silence, and allowed his new right-hand mermaid to decide their punishments, which were hefty. Unaware that his wife was watching him with eyes wide with horror, he nodded in agreement as she sent one turtle to lifelong banishment in the wilderness, and a small seahorse to jail for fifty years. He was fuming inwardly – not only had these traitors flaunted the law, they had torn his own family to pieces. He had been up late the preceding evening, moping around the garden, and he had come into the palace to find Ariel slipping out of the bedroom she shared with her sisters. When he had cornered her, she had admitted openly that she had been trying to run away and that she no longer wished to call Atlantica her home. He had roared at her, forced her back in the bedroom, and locked the palace wing where his daughters were, and stationed a veritable army outside their window to prevent her from attempting any more escapes.

Another prisoner was called forward. Athena recoiled in pain as she realized that it was a merboy who could not be more than twelve years of age.

"We found this one humming on his way to school," the guards explained.

"Humming!" Marina shrieked. "How dare he!" She leaned forward and glared at the prisoner.

"Please!" the poor merboy squeaked. "I didn't even realize that I was making music until they stopped me! I would never hum on purpose!"

"Excuses, excuses!" the chief-of-staff yelled. "There is no excuse for breaking the law!"

"Yes, madam," the merboy said, hanging his head.

Athena stared at her husband, desperately waiting for him to stop this madness. But he did not even glance in the young merman's direction.

"You are to be sentenced to twenty-five years of hard labor!" Marina proudly declared.

Athena's own heart stopped. Twenty-five years? The poor thing would be almost forty by the time he was free! His youth would be gone. He would never complete his schooling. He would barely have time to start a family.

She gazed once more up at Triton. He looked at Marina and the guards, not the prisoner, and nodded in agreement. The merboy was removed from the royal presence, taken to begin his quarter-century of servitude.

Fury and disappointment were too weak words to describe what Athena felt at that moment. With Triton's nod, every bit of her own passion for life was crushed within her. She had fought so long to stay alive, hoped so hard that she would return home one day – and for what? Her husband no longer existed – he had been replaced by a cruel King who cared not for his subjects' welfare. If her daughters had been raised by him and the crazed mermaid at his side, they could scarcely have turned out well. Everything she had loved was gone, crushed into smithereens.

It was at that moment that she was pushed forward by the guards.

"And this one – we found her singing out loud on the main street of the city."

As expected, Triton did not look at her. He rested his hand on his hand, stared off into the distance, and allowed Marina to proceed.

That did it. Athena decided that she would not even attempt to draw his attention to herself. He could not love her if he hated music. If she could be before him and he would be too busy brooding to even spare her a glance, he would likely reject her even if he did notice her. She would spare herself that grief. She would deal with Marina as that personage deserved, and then she would go quietly to whatever punishment the new chief-of-staff handed out.

She stood straight in front of the throne and looked Marina full in the face.

Marina Del Rey sensed that this accused, unlike all the others, was not afraid of her. And she did not appreciate the fact that this mermaid was not trembling before her.

"What are you looking at?" she barked. "Bow down and beg for mercy!"

"No," Athena said in a soft, but firm voice. "I will not."

She heard the other prisoners gasp at her defiance.

"What did you say?" the chief-of-staff screamed, swimming forward threateningly and stopping a mere six inches from Athena's face

"I will not apologize for loving music and for singing. You may do whatever you like with me," Athena said spiritlessly. "It does not matter to me."

"What do you mean?" Marina snarled. "It will mean something to you when I lock you up for the rest of your life."

"I am used to bars and chains," Athena said quietly. "But I am not used to this Atlantica I see. When I was captured by pirates, the only thing which stopped me from sinking into despair was to picture the Atlantica I knew – one with a fair, kind King, one where young mermaids were brought up by people who loved them, one where music played all the time. In the last day, it has been made clear to me that for the past ten years, such an Atlantica has only existed in my memories. If you were to throw me into the deepest dungeon in the ocean and starve me to death, you could not possibly take more from me than what I have lost by observing the ongoings in this throne room today. Therefore, do with me as you wish."

"Treason! You have insulted His Majesty!" Marina squealed with delight, overjoyed that she had an excuse to give the harshest of sentences to the mermaid who refused to defer to her authority. "I sentence you to OBLIVION! Away with her -"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" came a completely unexpected bellow.