This chapter turns out longer than I expected. Well, perhaps I will finish this story in another two, if not three chapters! ^^
ToOH: are you reading my mind? :P well, but I guess that's kinda obvious since they're the only dolphins I mentioned hahaha
"Can you please explain to me what is going on?!"
"There's no time for that!" Rod retorted.
Rod brought Leighlee to Therese's, the first princess, room. Inside, all the other princesses had gathered except for Gwen and Reine.
"I need all of you to stay here."
Therese looked at the young merman darkly. Being the first princess, it was no wonder that she was aware of the politics in the court more than any other princesses—perhaps only being rivalled by Gwen in that matter. "Are you going to use us as hostages?" she asked straightforwardly.
Rod turned to face Therese. "Yes and no," he replied.
"What's going on here?" Leighlee looked at her sister and Rod confusedly.
"Don't you get it, Leighlee?" Therese snorted. "This guy is going to restore the Tritoneans to the throne."
"Atlantean Throne belongs to the Tritoneans!" Rod countered. "Without those bracelets, your grandfather will never be able to command the trident!"
"The bracelets… my family's heirloom," Leighlee quietly commented.
"That's not your family heirloom," Rod replied. "They were made from King Triton's hair so that the trident will obey your grandfather."
"He was using you, Leighlee," Therese pointed at him accusatorily. "Do you think he really thinks of you as a friend? I doubt so. He stays close to you to spy on our family."
Leighlee held her breath as she turned to Rod. Finally, Rod took out the sword he had brought with him. "My family has been the protectors of the House of Triton for years…" he said. "Your chambers… including this one… belonged to the princesses whom your family had killed mercilessly."
Leighlee never thought the day would come where Rod looked so grim and sullen. He had always been cheerful personified, at least until today. She had been so ignorant all this time. She took a deep breath and moved towards him. "So now you're going to do the same to us?"
Rod raised his head to meet her eyes. There was no anger or hatred in them, but something more like… sadness.
"You really think I'd do that?" he asked. He smiled wryly. "Well, I can't blame you. You must've believed your sister."
"That's not what I—"
Rod turned around. "I will guard the door, so don't think of escaping."
Gwen closed her eyes when the swords were raised above her. She didn't expect them to be quick; Tritoneans supporters really despised the Helenian Seeress because of her prophecy that had caused the fall of King Triton. When she heard the sound of metals clashing against each other, she thought it should be painful. However, she couldn't feel the pain anywhere on her body. Gwen slowly opened her eyes and saw Allen's back facing her.
Gwen held her breath. This wasn't in her vision.
"P-Prince Allen?!"
Allen glared at the three mermen. "I thought we agreed not to harm the Seeress?"
"Y-You don't understand!" the other merman jumped into the defense. "The Seeress was the cause of the downfall of His Majesty!"
"You mean the previous Seeress, not this one."
"They are the reincarnation of the same soul!"
"That does not mean they are one and the same," Allen rebutted as he threw his blade aside and almost immediately pointed it at the merman in front of him. "No one will harm the Seeress and the other princesses."
Allen grabbed Gwen and dragged her out from her chamber, leaving the three men dumbfounded.
"You should've let them kill me," Gwen commented quietly.
"Is that how you thank your savior?" Allen asked sarcastically. "Now be obedient and I'll bring you to your sisters."
Not many ever dared to take the tone Allen had used against Gwen—even the King himself addressed Gwen in a very respectful manner due to her position as the Seeress. Gwen didn't know how to counter that, so she simply kept her peace.
As they passed through the Throne Room, Gwen noticed that there were many armed mermen, but not from the palace guard. The only thing left was to ask for the king to surrender. "I will settle this peacefully," Allen told her. "I do not enjoy the thought of slaughtering others."
"I doubt that…"
"You don't believe me?"
"No man can ever win against Fate."
"What do you mean by that?"
Just as Allen finished his question, a horde of sharks suddenly stormed into the palace and attacked the soldiers. "What the hell?!"
When one of the sharks attempted to attack Gwen, Allen quickly stabbed its side and let the blood seeped into the water. True enough, the others sharks quickly caught the scent and attacked one of their own as Allen pulled Gwen away to a safer place. The scent of blood soon filled the water, even as they had put some distance between them and the Throne Room.
While maintaining his calm appearance, Allen racked his mind of how the hell sharks were included in the plan. In fact, the sharks had attacked the Tritonean soldiers.
"There is a third party," Gwen quietly told him. "Your family's mortal enemy."
Their attention was attracted by the sound of someone clapping his hand slowly. "Who's there?" Allen asked as he drew his sword into a defensive stance.
"My, my… I'd never guessed I would see a Blood of Triton fraternizing with a Helenian—the Seeress, no less!"
Morgana slowly came into the light, her wicked grin spread across her face. Her tentacles acted much like legs, gliding across the water. She extended one of her tentacles towards Allen, but the prince quickly moved his blade. Much to his surprise, however, he couldn't cut the appendage. In fact, it had a similar consistency with metal.
"I am no fool to enter the battlefield without preparation," Morgana told him. "Ah, where is my manner? Let me introduce myself. You may call me Morgana. I am sure your… grandmother would have fond memories of me."
"Why should I care about someone who should be on a seaside grill?" Allen asked derisively.
"Oh, what a cocky prince!" the octopoid woman responded. "Well, no matter. You will learn soon."
That was when the king entered. He was obviously perplexed by the state of the palace. "What is this? I thought—"
"Ah, Your Majesty, what a perfect timing," Morgana smiled. "You see, this beloved granddaughter of yours is fraternizing with one of the Blood of Triton."
"Gwen…?"
Morgana held out a shell and opened it, revealing a pearl with the size of an adult's palm in faint pinkish glow. A voice came out from the gem and there was no mistaking it; it was Reine's voice.
It began with his extremities. His grip on the hilt gradually loosened and the sword fell to the ground. Slowly, Allen couldn't feel his arms and legs, and he floated helplessly no matter how hard he tried to move them. He couldn't even open his mouth.
"W… What is this?!" the king asked, feeling the sensation crawled to his neck.
"This is the true power of the Voice…" Morgana hissed. "But no Seeress has ever exploited this!"
Only then the realization sunk in to the king. The one who wanted to rebel wasn't Reine; the traitor was in front of his eyes.
"Why… are you doing this, Morgana?"
Neil tried to push against the restraint as hard as he could. His sense of urgency increased when he realized Reine had stopped in trying to free herself and her arms simply hung limp on the side of her body. The water slowly descended and Reine's body was exposed to the open air. Neil had no idea what it would do to the mermaid, but from the king's parting words it wasn't something he would hope for.
His wrist began to bleed due to his efforts. The glow on his restraints dimmed shortly afterwards, and after three more forceful attempt Neil finally managed to break the restraint on his right arm. Neil quickly freed his other hand, and then his tail and mouth before swimming towards Reine.
Reine watched everything although her vision was blurred by the water. Just… what is he?
Neil popped out from the water, "Reine!" he called out. "Just hang in there!"
Like there's anything else I can do at this point… Reine remarked inwardly.
Neil looked around. There must be some way to reach Reine. His eyes then noticed the uneven surface of the cave; he could climb it if only he had his legs.
Relax, boy, those will disappear when your fake tail turned back into legs, which will happen when it touches a dry ground.
Right, he thought. I just need to touch this tail to dry ground!
He swam to the nearest wall and tried to grab the parts that protruded out. Climbing with only his arms was something he had never done before and the fact that his wrists were in pain wasn't helping. His skin grazed against the rough surface as he dragged his body up and when he tried to reach a higher place, his hand slipped and he fell back to the water with a violent splash that send piercing sensation to his back.
Neil wasted no moment to retry. And he failed again. Slowly, the front part of his body was full of graze thanks to his efforts and his back was numb from falling over and over again to the water. Neil felt the pain throughout his body, but when he saw that Reine's lips slowly turned to white, he couldn't afford to give up. Not when she had given her power for this cursed tail. Not when she had been branded a traitor wrongfully because her voice couldn't defend her.
Not when he loved her.
An idea then came into his mind. Neil took a deep breath and grabbed the wall. Instead of climbing, however, this time he throw his lower body upward and slammed it against the cave wall above the water, using his arms as the pivot. He fell into the water again right afterwards. Now, there was nowhere on his body that was free from pain.
Dammit! He thought to himself as he felt the water slowly brought his body up to the surface. It was then he felt that he could move his lower body apart. He turned around and saw Reine's face was above him. She was chuckling at him.
"…you dolt."
"I saved you… from that ice…"
"Yes, and I thank Your Majesty for that!" Morgana laughed. "With now my magic powers finally awakened, it is only a matter of time to exact my revenge against Triton, and Your Majesty had done exactly that! Thank you for your service, but now you are outdated like a stinky fish."
King Troanes could only watch helplessly as his formerly trusted advisor stood above him. "Damn… you…"
"Now, where is the trident?"
"I… stabbed Reine with it. So that… nobody could free her."
"FOOL!" Morgana roared.
That moment, Gwen, who had been quietly waiting for her chance, snatched the shell containing Reine's voice from Morgana while pushing her out from the way. Morgana's body was slammed to the nearby wall, but strangely she didn't make any move against Gwen. Instead, she smirked. "If you destroy the shell, your sister will never get her voice back."
If she had wanted Gwen to be surprised, she had totally failed. Gwen's expression didn't change at all as she watched the pearl. "I do not need to do that…" Gwen muttered quietly.
The glow around the pearl began to dim. Morgana knew what it meant.
"W… what's happening?!"
Finally, the pearl's glow vanished completely and it turned black. "The power of the Seeress is bestowed only to those deemed worthy…"
Morgana was too dumbstruck by Gwen's words that she didn't realize Allen was propelling his body towards her. The prince managed to knock her aside and he immediately reached for his blade again and went towards Gwen. The king also used this moment to recover.
"It seems that we have common enemy now," Allen remarked.
Once he regained the function of his legs, Neil immediately reached to the cave wall nearest to Reine and climbed it.
"I bleed my way to return your voice and the first thing you said to me is 'you dolt'?" he grumbled. "Talk about being grateful."
He heard her laughing faintly, something that he had missed.
Climbing with four limbs was obviously easier as now he managed to reach Reine at the top of the cave. "Hold your breath," he said. "I'll make this quick."
Reine grabbed his wrist. "I'm as good as a skewered fish," she said. "Only those with Blood of Triton could move this trident."
"You mean Allen?"
"Someone like him, yes."
"There's no time!" Neil argued.
Neil shrugged Reine off and grabbed the trident. The moment he touched the regalia, Reine was struck with another vision. Chain of visions, in fact.
The trident glowed in Neil's hand and he pulled it in one breath. He then put his arms around Reine and placed her above him as they fell into the water together.
When Reine went back to her senses, she was already in him arms, floating in the water. He was looking at the glowing trident, speechless, then turned at her.
"You're… a Blood of Triton…" she told him faintly with an undertone of disbelief herself.
I am…? But, that means…
Neil's real parentage is finally revealed!
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
Thanks for reading! Please rate and review ^^
A/N: well, so yeah, Neil and Allen in this story are half-brothers. Actually, I have put some hints regarding Neil's merman blood:
1. He adapted very well in water that he forgot to ingest haleweed. (the haleweed stock Reine brought during the trip hardly decreased)
2. Gwen always refers to Neil as "your brother" to Allen. She meant it literally.
3. Reine remarked that Neil bears some resemblance to Eric Jr. when she saw the painting.
Now, finally I can answer teamBLAZE's review. What actually happened in the Cave of Treasures was that Neil got angry listening to the insults against Reine and unknowingly controlled the water current around him, strong enough to knock the two fish guards off, similar to how Allen unknowingly dropped the temperature of the water around him in one of his conversations with Gwen. Neil didn't realize that it was his doing at that time.
Neil's power is likely to be stronger than Allen because he has touched the Flower of Illusions, similar as to how Reine's power was awakened after the first mission (which is why the changes can be observed more after the first mission).