Author's Notes: Sorry to take so long to update. I'm not sure how to believably continue, but whatever gets the story moving, right?
Disclaimer: I do not own or make money off Bram Stoker's Dracula, Kohta Hirano's Hellsing, Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," or Disney's "The Little Mermaid."
Despite Seras' declaration that she would one day be part of the Count's world, she soon realized to her dismay that she did not know who he really was or where he truly lived. She had dropped him off on the first speck of land she had come across, but she had no idea if he remained there or not. The land was so vast and there was only so much she could see from the shore.
Many evenings and mornings she revisited the spot where she had left him. She saw the fruit in the garden ripen and come to harvest and she saw the snow on the high mountains melt away, but she did not see him. At first she remained hopeful that she might see the Count walking near the shore, or that she would overhear someone mention him. Quite often, she drifted close to the shore and covered her hair and shoulders with foam so that no one could see her little white face, and listened eagerly for any news. This always proved a fruitless effort though, as the church girls talked of trivial things.
One day, she came close to hearing something as she watched two girls walk along the white sand. One of them was the very maiden that had discovered the Count and who had led him by the hand into the church. She walked along with a book in her hand while her companion looked wistfully about.
"Oh, it has been ever so dull around here since the Count left."
"He was not here very long," the church girl said indifferently, turning a page in her book.
"Yes, but it was certainly very exciting while he was here," the girl giggled.
She looked to her companion for some reply, but the girl turned up her nose and kept reading.
"He fancied you, you know," the girl said.
Seras felt her gut clench. She remembered how the Count had smiled at the girl and dreaded to hear more.
"It was a fleeting fancy caused by the euphoric rush of joy from waking to discover he was alive," the girl said, "and I was the first girl that happened to be within sight. He only saw me for a short time and left soon after. It has been many months since he was away. I'm sure he has come to his senses and forgotten all about me."
Seras sighed with relief and then moved closer, hoping desperately that they would say more about who he was or where to find him.
The girl sighed, "Of course, it's easy for you to be so indifferent…"
"What do you mean?"
"If I was lucky enough to have a handsome gentleman like that swooning over me, I would not discard the honor as though it were nothing."
The church girl seemed taken aback, and lowered her book slightly, but said nothing.
Seras followed them for a quite a ways, hoping desperately to hear anything else about it.
Eventually, the two girls wandered over the crest of the hill, and Seras was forced to accept that they would say no more on the subject, and sank sadly back into the sea. Every visit proved just as useless, so each time she came home sadder than she had left.
Seras had always been quiet and wistful, and now she slowly became even more so. The royal sisters asked her what she had seen on her first visit up to the surface, but she would not tell them a thing. She told Harkonnen and the other stage hands basic details about the ship, storm and shipwreck, but did not describe much beyond that.
"You poor fish!" Harkonnen exclaimed, "It must have been so devastating to see so many sailors drowned like that!"
"Most of them escaped into little boats above water," Seras said slowly, "I'm sure they got out just fine."
"You're sure? You mean you didn't stay to find out?!" Harkonnen cried.
"Well… no," Seras said, averting her eyes. "I was a little preoccupied…"
"Preoccupied? Doing what?!" Harkonnen cried.
"Just… things," Seras squirmed.
"Just things? Didn't you stay to help them all?"
"I… look, Harkonnen…"
"Seras, this is not like you!"
Seras blushed and looked away. Schrödinger teased her so much about being a lovesick little guppy that she could not bear to tell Baron Harkonnen and have him also think of her as nothing but a silly little girl with a crush.
"I was helping a few sailors on my own, all right? So I didn't get to see the entire group!" and she swam away.
It was her one consolation that she could now explore the surface world. Now that she was a grown-up girl that could go wherever she wanted, she abandoned her job as a sea-dredger and explored the bright ocean above. On her way to the spot where she had left the ount, she often took new routes so that she could see more of the ocean, say hello to more sea creatures, and leave at different times of day to see as much of the surface world as possible. She delighted in the clouds of silver fish that swam around her, the playful dolphins that skipped about the surface the way flounders skipped about the sand of the ocean floor, and the large graceful whales that seemed so wise and ancient. She loved feeling the warm sunlight wash over her like a golden waterfall, adored the white fluffy clouds that made such wonderful shapes far above the water, and marveled at the thousands of stars that lit up the night sky like the Count's glorious fireworks.
No longer was she trapped on the ocean floor, forced to look up at a world that seemed so vast and beautiful, without being able to explore or touch.
Seras still returned to the Sea Capital to see Harkonnen and watch royal concerts, but her heart constantly pulled her back toward land. It was as though she was being drawn toward the irresistible melody of a siren's song.
In fact, during one of Harkonnen's concerts, the youngest princess sang a song of her own invention.
When a mermaid comes of age, she begins a different kind of life
Childish games are left behind, and she prepares to become a bride
Her schooldays are in the past now, her heart becomes her new guide
It will portal the way to love eternal
Seras continued to search through sunken ships to find treasures with Schrödinger, though she declined to look through the ship the Count had nearly drowned in. It felt haunted somehow, and she shuddered to think of all the unhappy humans on board who might have been lost to sea. In fact, Seras felt a little disquiet looking through all the sunken ships, with their keels split wide open and their insides covered in sand and algae. She imagined what might have happened to all the poor souls that once boarded it and whatever watery deaths they might have met; but Schrödinger told her she was being too sensitive. They saw mariners survive the storm, he said, so would it not be the same for these other sailors?
Wisdom only comes with time
The road to love is paved with broken hearts
If I am to reach my goal, I must risk everything
In my true destiny, no matter what the price
During one of their last trips, before Seras stuck to her conviction of no longer wanting to visit such melancholic places, Seras and Schrödinger discovered a white marble statue that looked like a dashing prince. The figure seemed handsome and noble, tall and steadfast. He was dressed in noble clothes and held a mighty sword. While not an exact likeness to the Count, its smooth white face and noble brow reminded her of that of the Count, as she had brushed his dark hair from his cool temple. Likewise, she brushed her fingers against the brow of the statue, and then she wrapped her arms around it and fell into a melancholy that was almost luxurious. For many days and nights after, she wallowed in sorrow for the Count she missed so dearly.
Seras thought of the Count every day since the day she rescued him, and longed to see him so much it burned her heart and mind. Her soul ached to be near his again, but it had grown steadily easier over time as she occupied her mind with other things. But now, with a physical reminder of his handsome face to visit and embrace every day, it made her long to be with him all the more.
Soon, Seras found herself torn between seeing the place she had left the Count, the surface of the ocean that she so loved to explore, the sunken ship with the statue that reminded her of her beloved Count, and the Sea Capital where her friends and loved ones still resided. Seras no longer felt content where she was, but constantly felt compelled to move between the place she was and the next place she felt she should be. Over time, she grew very torn and very miserable indeed.
Far away I hear the call of the heart that sings a song like mine
Its melody draws near and suddenly we're in perfect harmony
I know it beckons to me from the land that's far above the sea
Yet I know I must follow wherever it leads me
"Can't you find the Count?"
"Sorry, no can do, mein Schatzi!"
"B-but why?" Seras cried, "You're 'everywhere und nowhere,' right? A living embodiment of Schrödinger's Cat, right?"
Seras had no idea what these things were, but Schrödinger said them often enough that she felt she could convince him.
"Sorry, mein Schatzi, it's not that simple."
"Why not?!"
"For one thing, I haf no idea where he ist-"
"But you're everywhere and nowhere! Surely you can be where he is if you're everywhere?"
"Und even if I was," Schrödinger continued as though she had not interrupted, "I am obviously a creature of the sea, while he ist a creature of the land. Do you want me to fry up there in the sun, or suffocate in the air?"
"You can breathe just as well as me!" Seras said peevishly, thinking how he could hang off her shoulders for so long when they looked in on the Count's ship together, but she realized it was no good asking him further.
She thought about it and realized that even if she could convince him, and even if he could magically teleport over to where the Count was, he would be a miserable little fish lying on the floor unable to move, and the humans might be frightened to see him anyway. It would do little good.
Wisdom only comes with time
The road to love is paved with broken hearts
If I am to reach my goal, I must stake everything
In my true destiny, no matter what the price
Finally Seras couldn't take it any longer. She told her secret to Harkonnen. He did not know anything about the Count. Immediately all the other stage hands heard about it. None of them knew about the Count either. No one else knew her secret, except a few more mermaids who told no one - except their most intimate friends. One of these friends knew who the Count was. She too had seen the celebration on the ship.
"Then how come I didn't see you?" Seras exclaimed.
The girl laughed. "If we are so good at hiding from mortals, then we must be good at hiding from each other, yes?"
Seras frowned.
"All right, I watched from a distance, but you wouldn't have seen me since you swam right up to the bulwarks!"
Seras grew uncomfortable. While merpeople were not forbidden from going near humans or the land per se, contact between the sea world and the human world was forbidden. Most merpeople did not wish to interact with humans anyway since they could not stand for humans to gaze upon them and know them for what they truly were, but laws were in place just the same. Seras heard that their natural aversion to humans had something to do with their Lord Poseidon, who grew tired of human "heroes" of old slaying his sea children and so did not wish for them to meet up again… Or perhaps he was fighting with his brother Zeus, lord of the overworld, and did not wish for his children to mix with theirchildren. Who could tell with their mysterious and temperamental Sea God?
"Anyway," the girl continued, "I don't know where the Count is from or where his fiefdom is…"
"His what?" Seras asked.
"Fiefdom. It's land that lesser lords own. Like a kingdom for a king, only smaller."
"Oh."
"Anyway, I don't know where it is, but I know someone who might..."
"R-really?!" Seras cried, relieved and excited at the same time.
"Yup, you can find her on the surface," the girl grinned.
"Oh!" Seras cried, looking longingly up.
Why did the surface always seem to hold all of life's joys?
"Come, little sister!" said the stagehand.
Arm in arm, they rose from the water in a long row, right in front of where her friend resided.
As they neared the surface, Seras heard distant music that was very pleasing to the ear. As they drew closer, it became louder and prettier. Seras was enchanted by the music, and the closer they got the more lost she felt to it. The melody was so lovely that she just wanted to submerge her mind to the music the way her body was submerged in the water of the sea.
As they broke through the surface, Seras realized it was a voice they were hearing even before they saw the singer. Standing atop a little brown rock that poked out of the water in the middle of the ocean, stood a bird woman with glossy black feathers. She had long black hair that hung down to her ankles, a pale and freckled woman's face, and black feathers that covered her entire body like a gentleman's suit. Long wing feathers hung off her arms (though she still had clawed hands), and large yellow bird's feet poked out from the feathers around her ankles.
As she sang, Seras longed to swim over to her and embrace her. However, the music swelled and the siren's song came to an abrupt stop.
Seras blinked, slowly came to her senses, and then gasped when she realized she had indeed half-crawled over the rock to reach for the bird woman's feet, most likely to grovel over them. It was an embarrassing position to find herself in.
Without looking down, the siren said in her sweet pretty voice, "Und so, I have acquired new admirers."
Seras slowly pushed herself backwards into the water, mortified by what she had done.
The siren then smiled brightly and lowered her head. "Ah, there ist no need to be embarrassed, little fish! Man or woman, fish or human, my voice affects all without distinction."
Seras blinked.
She then heard laughing, and turned to see her companion out in the water. At Seras' questioning glance, the stagehand pointed to the seaweed she had stuffed in her ears.
Seras swelled with indignation. "You knew?!"
The mergirl burst out laughing. "I'm so sorry Seras, I could not resist!"
"Wha-? Bu-! How could you-?!"
The siren was happy to see the other mermaid though. "I haf not see you in so long!"
Seras' companion smiled brightly and hailed. "Likewise! It's been so long, Rip van Winkle!"
"Indeed, mein Liebling! Tell me, where haf you been? Und what brings you up here on this fine day?"
The stagehand threw an arm around the little mermaid's shoulder. "Seras Victoria here wants to know about a human that came sailing through here a few seasons ago, and who I think you might know?"
"Perhaps I might. I see every ship that sails through here. Well, tell me quickly!"
They told her about the Count, the fireworks display, the storm, the shipwreck out at sea, and Seras' rescued. They told her of how Seras had brought him to land, but did not know where he lived on it.
"Ah, the Count? Ja, I know him. He lives just a few leagues yonder, on a castle by the sea."
"Really? Can you take me to him?" Seras cried, eyes wide with hope and joy.
"Of course, you silly fish!" Rip van Winkle grinned, her hands on her knees.
Seras nearly cried for joy as she followed the siren and the stagehand to the Count's castle. At first she hopped over the water like a dolphin hopping on the side of a ship, and then she swam in a straight line under water because it was faster and easier. She gazed up at the siren that flew over the water though, and followed her like a black star in the heavens.
Seras followed them for many leagues until they brought her right in front of where they knew the Count's castle stood.
It was built of grey stone with great marble staircases, one of which led down to the sea. Magnificent Gothic domes rose above the roof, and between the pillars all around the building were marble statues that looked most lifelike. Through the open lofty windows one could see into the splendid halls, with their costly silk hangings and wine-rich tapestries, and walls covered with paintings that were delightful to behold. In the center of the main hall a large fountain played its columns of spray up to the Gothic-domed roof, through which the sun shone down through the stained glass windows and the water and upon the lovely plants that grew in big basins.
Seras swam up with caution. It was looked dark and foreboding, even in daylight, yet strangely alluring as the man she had fallen for.
Seras placed her hands upon the cold marble staircase that led into the sea and sighed contentedly, and the siren and stage hand knew they had brought her peace.
Now that Seras knew where Count Dracula lived, many an evening and many a night she spent there in the sea. She swam much closer to shore than any mermaids would dare venture, and she even went far up a narrow stream, under the splendid marble balcony that cast its long shadow over the water. Here she used to sit and watch the Count when he thought himself quite alone in the bright moonlight.
"What a beautiful night," he would murmur, gazing up at the full moon. "Nights like these make me want a bit to drink. Yes… such a nice, quiet night."
Seras would swoon over the baritone of his lovely voice, and long to join him so that they might admire the night together.
Many a night she would lean her cheek against her arm and look up at him fondly, with the moon and stars shining in her eyes, and watch him sip deep red wine as he too looked up at the night sky. He never looked quite as glorious as when he was bathed in silver white moonlight, and he seemed to believe there was no lovelier sight in the world. Seras soon grew to love the full moon and stars because he loved them so.
Schrödinger often tagged along and had choice words.
"I thought you liked the sunlight more than anything," Schrödinger said.
"Well, now I like the moon too!" Seras snapped.
On many evenings she saw him look out from his balcony or sail out in his fine boat, with music playing and flags a-flutter. She would peep out through the green rushes, and if the wind blew her long golden hair, which she was beginning to grow out because she wanted to look her best for the Count (even if he could not see her), anyone who saw it thought it a strange sight.
She nearly got caught only once, and it was when the strange one-eyed human was walking by. He was out for a morning hunt with one of his dogs, and when it caught her scent it ran over to her. Seras was afraid of dogs and so hid deeper into the bushes. The one-eyed human, thinking the dog had found some quarry, had approached the bush with what the siren called a gun, and pulled back the branches. Seras then splashed him in the face and kicked up such a torrent that neither the human nor the dog could see as she plowed through the roots and delved deep in the heart of the river. By the time the human managed to wipe the water from his one good eye, she was crouched at the river floor and waited eagerly for him to leave.
On many nights she saw the one-eyed human come out to sea with his crew of fishermen. They talked of many things, though mostly about women, drink, paychecks, and the bosses that gave it. She learned that they had lost their ship out on the night of the storm and could not afford to buy a new one, and so made due working in the service of the Count. With his money they rented a ship that they used to sail him about and catch fish for his meals, and worked as guards in his castle the rest of the time. She often heard them tell about the Count, and each time they had their complaints, but ultimately agreed on how fair he was. This made her proud to think that it was she who had saved his life when he was buffeted about, half dead among the waves. And she thought of how softly his head had rested on her breast, and how tenderly she had kissed him, though he knew nothing of all this nor could he even dream of it.
Increasingly she grew to like human beings, however scruffy and hang-dog those that worked near the sea were, and more and more she longed to live among them. Their world seemed so much vaster and brighter than hers. They could skim over the sea in ships, and mount up into the lofty peaks high over the clouds, and their lands stretched out in woods and fields farther than the eye could. All within reach of the sun's light. All within sight of the moon and stars. There was so much she wanted to know. The royal sisters could not answer all her questions, so she asked the siren who knew about the "upper world," which was what she said was the right name for the countries above the sea.
The siren answered all of her questions admirably, and even added many details that Seras never would have thought to ask.
"If men aren't drowned," the little mermaid asked, "do they live on forever? Don't they die, as we do down here in the sea?"
"Of course," the siren said, "all living beings must die, though human lifetimes are even shorter than yours."
"How much shorter?"
"You can live to be three hundred years old, but when you perish you turn into foam on the waves, and don't even make graves to mark your dear ones."
Seras thought briefly of her parents, and how they had disappeared in blood and darkness, and how she had nothing to remember them by except the memory in her heart.
"From the sea you are drawn, and to the sea you return." The siren said, "It is quite the same with human beings on the earth. 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,' as the humans say. From the earth they are drawn, and to the earth they return."
"How strange. Is that why their lives are shorter?"
"Perhaps. Who can say? Their lives are certainly much harder. Once their lives are spent, after only a few decades, they have a soul which lives forever, long after their bodies have turned to dust. It rises through thin air, up to the shining stars. Just as you rise through the water to see fathoms below, and I over the water to see the lands on earth, so men rise up to beautiful places unknown, which we shall never see."
"Why weren't we given immortal souls?" the little mermaid asked sadly.
"Oh, we are. You need not worry about that," the siren smirked. "All living beings with goodness in their hearts possess a soul. I can guarantee you that."
"But you said humans rise above the world when they die."
"They do. It is their lot."
"But then why don't we…?"
"Oh, because you are not a child of the earth, you are a daughter of the sea. The place you go after you leave this world is quite is different from those on land. Same with me and other daughters of the air. Same with all from different lots in life."
"Then I will go a different place than the Count when I die?" the little mermaid asked sadly, her heart breaking.
"You will die many hundreds of years after him, so I think where you go after should be the least of your worries."
"Well, I would gladly give up my three hundred years if I could be a human being only for a day, and later share in that heavenly realm with the Count."
"You must not think about that," said the siren. "You fare much more happily and are much better off than the folk up there."
"Says you!" the little mermaid cried. "I've always hated it down there at the bottom of the sea!"
"Bite your tongue, you don't know what's in store for you on land!" the siren said peevishly.
"Then I must also die alone and float as foam upon the dark sea, just as my dear mother and father after they met their end…" Seras felt as though her skin were about to crawl, and brushed the sea foam off her arms, "not hearing the music of the birds, nor seeing the beautiful flowers or the golden sun!"
"Now, let's not be dramatic," the siren said, "You will see many wonderful things after you die, and I and the Count and all others once the world has come to a rest and the sea has dried up and the mountains turned to dust in the wind. There's a lot to rejoice over, so you need not burden yourself with such unhappy thoughts."
"But is there any way I could go where the Count goes, and be with him forever?"
"Nein!" the siren grinned, "Not unless he loved you so much that you meant more to him than his own life. If his every thought and his whole heart cleaved to you so that he would let a priest join his right hand to yours and would promise to be faithful here and throughout all eternity, then his soul would pour into yours, and you would share in mankind's afterlife."
Seras smiled on hearing this.
"But that can never come to pass!" Schrödinger piped in, "The very thing that is your greatest beauty here in the sea would be considered ugly on land."
"Really? What?" Seras cried in surprise.
"Take a guess!" Schrödinger smirked.
"My hair?" She thought of the long tresses being a mermaid's pride and joy.
"No, kummkompf! Your tail!"
"O-oh! Of course!" Seras blushed.
"They have such poor taste that to be thought beautiful there you have to have two awkward props which they call 'legs.'"
The little mermaid sighed and looked wryly at her fish tail.
"Come, let us be gay!" the siren exclaimed happily, and twirled around with her feathers a glimmer. "Let us leap und bound und sing throughout the years that we have to live! Surely that is time to spare, und you with three hundred, and afterwards you shall be glad enough to rest in your graves."
"She's right, you know," Schrödinger said. "The human world? It's a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they have up there!"
"But I still don't think…" Seras began.
"The seaweed is always greener…" Schrödinger began.
Seras knocked him on the head. "Don't you start!"
The siren stood and stretched her long bird legs. "Well, you two haf fun! I shall go sing to a ship passing by!"
"Don't drown anyone!" Seras called after her.
Later that night, down in their little grotto, Seras was lying against a rock and looking at a small silver fork. As she looked at it, she could not help but think how much prettier silver would look on the Count than gold.
"You've changed, Seras," Schrödinger said.
"Have I?"
"Yes, you used to be fun. Now all you care about is that stupid Count."
"For the better, I hope," Seras said, and placed the fork on the candle holder.
"You aren't even listening to me!" Schrödinger exclaimed.
"Why should I? All you ever do is make fun of me!"
"That's because you're so fun to make fun of!"
"Good bye, Schrödinger," Seras said firmly, and swam out of the grotto.
On her way out, she bumped into the youngest princess, who was coming in with yet more treasures she had uncovered from sunken ships. Several months ago, the youngest princess had happened upon Seras' grotto and begged to keep her stuff in there. Evidently she loved the surface as much as Seras, but had long run out of room to keep her "collection" in her royal bedchamber, and so wanted to keep all of her things in Seras' spacious underwater cave. Seras had hesitantly agreed, and by nightfall her home was full to bursting with the youngest princess's collection. Now the youngest princess was there so often and made herself so at home, one would think the grotto were hers and not Seras' home.
Seras was more melancholic than ever, and eventually drifted back to the surface.
"What would you like to know now?" the siren asked when Seras returned.
"I suppose I'll just keep learning more about the human world," Seras said.
"Ooh, would you like to hear of marriage ceremonies between humans? It really is quite charming!"
Seras' eyes lit up and she smiled brightly. "All right."
The siren told her proudly of the commitment humans made to each other when they pledged their hearts and souls to each other. As she told of the charming ceremony when a priest had the man and woman pledge their right hands together, Seras soon realized that the way she had talked about for humans to bind their souls together.
"Do you think I could marry the Count, and be able to join him in the afterlife?" Seras cried.
"I don't see why not!" the siren grinned, "If you too could live together as husband und wife, there's no reason you can't live together after death."
"Live together…"
All at once, Seras' prior melancholy had returned. Schrödinger often liked to taunt her by saying: "A fish may love a bird, but where would they live?"
"In the balcony that connects to the river, perhaps…" Seras thought, but even she knew it was not likely. She could not stand for humans to look at her, so how could she live with him like a proper husband and wife?
These thoughts continued to plague Seras even after she returned to visit Harkonnen.
"Seras, you seem so down lately!" he said.
"Really? I don't mean to…"
"It's all because of that cursed count! You were so bright and lively before you saw him!"
"Please don't say that about him, Harkonnen. I really am much happier now than I was before."
"And you were always a terrible liar!" Harkonnen cried, with his forked tongue sticking out.
Seras made a wry face, but said nothing.
"Now Seras, cheer up! Now is not the time to be making unhappy faces! Great joy draws our way!"
Seras perked her head up.
"Their royal majesties, the Sea King und Dowager Queen, are holding a court ball this evening."
"O-oh…" Seras said sadly.
She still remembered how she had been fired as a chamber maid, and forbidden from performing at royal functions of any kind, and felt all the sadder.
"What are you frowning about? The doors are open to all that will come, including you!"
Seras' eyes widened, and then she smiled. "Oh—all right!"
"You simply must come, for tonight I shall conduct music for the grandest ball ever held on the sea floor! Tonight will be the most glorious music of my distinguished career."
Seras chuckled and shook her head. Harkonnen always said that, but she agreed to go just the same.
The party was thought to be a much more glorious affair than is ever to be seen on earth. The walls and ceiling of the great ballroom were of chrystal glass. Many hundreds of huge rose-red and grass-green shells stood on each side in rows, with purple and blue lights illuminating the whole room and shining so clearly it was quite bright in the sea outside. You could see countless fish, great and small, swimming toward the glass walls. Their scales gleamed every color of the rainbow, though many were of purplish-red, others of silver and gold.
All the fish were quivering with excitement over, and all the merpeople were chattering happily as they fixed their hair before their vanities.
While the mermaids prepared for the ball and Seras swam toward the Sea Capital, Schrödinger whispered that he had a surprise for her and he pulled her instead toward their secret hideaway. After pulling back the heavy stone door, he led Seras eagerly through the stone passage.
"Schrödinger!" Seras called happily, "Why can't you tell me what this about?"
"You'll see!" he cried, covering her eyes and pushing her forward. "It's a surprise!"
Thus saying, he released her eyes and allowed her to see the white marble statue that looked so much like the Count. It stood in the center of the cave, with most of their human treasures arranged decoratively around it.
Seras gasped.
"You like it?" Schrödinger smirked.
"You did this?" she breathed.
"Ja! When you can be everywhere und nowhere like me, moving a statue like this is easy!"
"You mean… it's here…?"
"Ja! Everything you love ist here, everyone you love ist there," he pointed behind him, where they both knew the Sea Capitol stood just outside their grotto, "und everything you want ist up there. You won't haf to swim around so much anymore, as everything you want ist in your home, your friends are just outside your home, und you can go to the surface with all you want securely in place."
"Oh…! Schrödinger, you're the best!" Seras exclaimed, and she hugged him and spun him around.
"I knew you'd like it!" he said.
"It looks just like him! It even has his eyes!"
"Ja, dead und hollow."
"Schrödinger!"
"What? I got this for you, didn't I?"
"Well, I don't care, I'll just run away with him," Seras grinned.
"You haf no legs."
"Well, that won't last long, will it, my love?" Seras giggled, addressing the statue.
"Und now you've lost it," Schrödinger said.
"Why, Count Dracula, come to live with you? I don't know, this is all… so sudden."
Seras giggled and spun around, happier than she had been in many months.
When she noticed someone hovering near her entrance, she stopped and gasped.
"Your Majesty?!"
The Sea King was indeed hovering in the shadows. He was glaring menacingly, and the entire cave seemed instantly colder for it.
"Gutten Tag, mein Sea King. What brings you to our humble grotto?" Schrödinger grinned.
"Save it, Sea Devil," he growled.
Before Seras could speak, she noticed the youngest sea princess behind him.
"What did you do?!" she cried.
The Sea King then spoke in a voice that was all daggers.
"I consider myself a reasonable monarch." He then swam closer. "I set certain rules. And I expect those rules to be obeyed."
"Your Majesty, I…"
"Is it true you rescued a human from drowning?"
She bit her lip. "Your Majesty, I had to…"
"And is it true you set him down on a crowded beach?"
"Your Majesty, I didn't realize…"
"And is it true, you have returned to the land every day since that day?"
"Your Majesty, if you would just let me explain…"
"AND IS IT TRUE you swam up to the shore, up the river, into the brush by the river's edge, onto a human lord's balcony, while humans are in sight, every day for the last year?!"
"Your daughters do it all the time!" Seras cried.
She had heard so many countless stories from the royal daughters, telling of how close they had swum to ships and houses, how they saw children play and dogs bark, that she assumed this was just fine.
"You foolish little urchin," the Sea King shouted in a voice like thunder, "Contact between the human world and the merworld is strictly forbidden. Seras Victoria, you know that! Everyone knows that!"
"I've been careful not to be seen!" Seras cried.
"And now as a result of your careless behavior, humans now talk of seeing a mermaid near the human lord's palace!"
Seras felt the blood drain from her face. She searched her memory for any way that could be so and but couldn't—the one-eyed human. The one that almost always seemed to catch her.
"Can you account for this oversight?" the Sea King demanded.
Seras winced and felt her tail grow weak, and slowly sank.
"I've been so careful," she said weakly.
"And now, because of your foolishness," the Sea King continued, "Humans are beginning to know of our existence for the first time in centuries! My daughters now think it acceptable to swim up to human abodes..."
"What?!" Seras cried indignantly. "They did that long before me!"
"HOW DARE YOU lie to your royal majesty…"
"Why don't you ask them!" Seras snapped.
"ASK THEM? I don't need to ask them! I know my daughters perfectly well! They are good girls. Well-behaved, well-bred, well-mannered. Not violent, temperamental, uncivilized, uncouth little urchins, incapable of even the barest…"
"Your Majesty, that's enough!" Seras screamed.
The Sea King was stunned. "You dare speak to me that way…"
"Your Majesty, I have done everything I was supposed to and more…"
"You used your position as a royal chamber maid to impersonate royalty!"
"Your Majesty, I had to…"
"Daddy…"
"You stay out of this!" he thundered.
"I was just trying to save the show…" Seras said.
"So help me, Seras Victoria, you have been nothing but trouble since day one. I should have thrown you out of the palace after your first outburst, and if this is the way you repay my kindness…"
"What kindness?!" Seras finally shouted. "You worked me like a slave and then blamed me for all of your daughters' misconduct?! Every meal they didn't show up, every show they missed, you always blamed me and said I…"
"THAT IS ENOUGH!" the Sea King thundered so loudly the entire grotto shook.
Seras continued to glare defiantly, but also flicked her eyes around apprehensively.
"Seras Victoria, you are banished from the Sea Capitol. I never want to see you within those waters again. And if I ever catch you trying to consort with my daughters or Harkonnen again…"
"There's nothing you can do to stop me!" Seras screamed before she could stop herself.
"Seras!" the youngest princess cried.
The Sea King's eyes widened.
"Did I hear you correctly?" the Sea King said in a voice like death.
However, Seras set her face in the same determined scowl she wore in her childhood. "He's my friend," she said.
"Have you lost your senses completely? I am your king! You are my subject!"
"I'm aware." Seras glared.
"So help me Seras Victoria," the Sea King said in his most terrifying voice; so much that even Seras' resolve melted and she hid behind her statue, "I am going to get through to you! You will stay away from the royal palace, and you will stay away from Harkonnen. You will stay away from the surface, and you will stay away from humans. You will no longer corrupt my daughters with your insolence. And if you disobey…" His trident glowed a deep red. "So be it."
So saying, he took his trident and aimed it at her treasures. What happened next was a nightmare Seras had not experienced since the night her parents were destroyed.
"Your Majesty…!" she cried, as the first blast destroyed treasures on her wall.
"Daddy, no!"
Water, dark and red. The deep red of the trident mixed with the shadows of the cave.
"Your Majesty, please!"
Pointed fangs, destroying everything she loved.
"Your Majesty, stop!"
The power of the trident blasting her treasures just as teeth tore apart her mother's flesh.
"YOUR MAJESTY, STOP IT!"
Her home, her love, her treasures. Everything she loved destroyed before her very eyes. The ocean taking everything she loved, torn apart in water dark and red.
She saw the Sea King aiming his trident at the statue of the man she loved.
"Your Majesty, NO!"
The statue filled with glowing cracks, and then exploded into dust.
Seras was overcome with rage and grief that she had long thought behind her. She covered her face with her hands and broke down in violent sobs.
After a respectful pause, the Sea King murmured "I expect you out of here before nightfall," and swam away.
After a long bout of sobbing, Seras realized the youngest princess was still there. Rage bubbled over her sadness. "You-! Get out of here!" She screamed with rage and thrashed the princess with a rock.
She didn't notice or care how the princess reacted. She just knew her home was destroyed. Her treasures destroyed. Everything she loved was gone—and for what? What did she do? Why did the ocean do this to her? Why did it tear apart what she loved? Her dad, her mum, her home, her stuff, her…
"I HATE THE OCEAN!" Seras screeched, and started tearing into a rage. "I HATE IT! Why does it—why does it do this to me…?"
She broke down sobbing again.
In the midst of her sorrow, she heard the vague hissing of eels. Seras looked up to find the same kind of eels that found her after her parents died. The same kind that comforted her and led her to her new home after it seemed like everything was lost. Suddenly, she felt like a child again, crying alone and feeling soft eels brushing their slippery flesh against her arms to comfort her. She slowly ceased her sobbing, just like when she was a little girl, and settled into a weak bout of whimpering.
"Poor child…" they hissed.
"Poor sweet child…"
"She has a very serious problem…"
"As long as she lives under the Sea King's rule…"
"She will always be under his unfair rules…"
"If only there was something we could do."
"But there is something…"
"…W-what?" she whispered.
"Zorin Blitz has great power…"
"The Sea Witch?!"
Seras had heard of her. A horrible sea monster that lived in a palace of bones from ship wrecks and—
"No! Get out of here! Leave me alone!" Seras cried.
"Suit yourself," they said, "We only thought you might want to see your love again."
However, on their way out, they flicked the face of the statue over to her. It looked nothing like the Count… but it was all she had. She lost everything in the sea. She had nothing to look forward to but darkness and loneliness and a long miserable life followed by a lonely death. Up there in the surface, above darkness and suffering and tyranny, above the Sea King's unjust laws, above her friends that she loved but could never see again, above...
As she looked on it, she vaguely remembered the lyrics from Harkonnen's concert.
Far away I hear the call of the heart that sings a song like mine...
I know it beckons to me from the land above the sea
Yet I know I must follow wherever it leads me...
She looked up at the surface, and hesitated for a moment.
The road to love is paved with broken hearts
If I am to reach my goal, I must stake everything
No matter what the price…
"Wait!"
"Yesssssss?"
