Suite 1: Water, Movement 3: Allegro

A large hand planted itself on my back and shoved me forward, sending me literally front-flipping once, twice before I finally got a hold of myself and cleaved the water sharply with my tail to reorient myself right side up again. Man, it was the same routine over and over and kill me now if I react the same way the other enchanters react, which is to swim away with a scoff of disdain. Another soldier. Didn't they ever get tired of this?

I whirled around to go at him face-to-face-er, more like frigging face-to-chest. Soldiers were pretty big in terms of size. I laughed, undaunted. "Come on, you guys! I'm tryin' to swim over here!" I was annoyed, yet I tried to keep it light and casual. Or not. Let's mix it up a bit? "Or is the whole of the ocean just not enough for all you fat sea basses?" (Fish jokes are degrading, 'cause they're below us in social stature. I'd just insulted them. Badly.)

They all guffawed. There were three of the brutes. "Looks like we got a live shrimp here!" The middle one, the leader apparently, remarked. Gold hair, gold-braceleted (soldier symbol), brown eyed and kelp green tail. Full-on facial hair, the whole works. Oh, boy. His underlings had similar tail shades, but one had blue hair and the other a dull gray. They looked down at me with mock sympathy. "Little shrimp with a girly trinket! And I thought you were a man!" They burst into hearty laughter once more. Idiots, all of them. As usual.

I resisted the urge to edge the rainbow-abalone enchanter band I wore on my wrist behind my back. Instead, I smiled without a care and crossed my arms, in effect making the bracelet even more obvious. I shrugged. "Hey, sure I might be a shrimp, but at least I'm no stupid capelin who risks his life in the trenches for a few gold coins." Look who's laughing now?

The underlings immediately turned against their leader. Murmurs and chuckles swept among them. "Ooooooh!" "Gee, that's gotta hurt." The leader flushed an angry red.

(By the way, capelin are stupid little fish in the North who swim so close to shore they can be caught by human children. They're known for being pointless-risk-takers. Plenty of soldiers go down into the deepest trenches and gamble there. Usually its a race, they bet against each other on who can reach a set finish first while dodging the thermal vents that can spew boiling water or toxic chemicals at any second. I just assumed this guy did that too, and thankfully I was right.)

"Myde." A deep voice from behind me. The familiar dark-skinned, azure-tailed, pale-haired go-between swam up, sidling next to me. "Come on, we have to go. Congregation's meeting over in the pavilion."

The center soldier, seeming to be defeated in his attempts at demeaning me, seized his chance at a new target. "Hey, looky here, lads, its Kal-Dark!" And he laughed at his own wit. (Which wasn't saying much.)

Kaldur's light green eyes, piercingly bright against his dark skin, suddenly became dark and matte, although no other feature of his face changed. The aura around him turned foul, and I drifted back a pace. I've known him for so long and it was still pretty intimidating to see him angry. The soldier, even though he was at least a few years older than us, didn't have the perception to notice, not until Kaldur quietly glided up to the him, roughly grabbed the pendant around the soldier's neck with his right silver-banded hand, and pulled it down for the soldier to be at eye level with him. (Kaldur's taller and than me but not quite at a soldier's level. Buffer too-but that's not saying much, I'm all skin and bones!)

"Geldan, fifth battalion, third contingent," Kaldur quietly read the identification pendant, then looked up to stare straight into the soldier's eyes, deep green into brown. "Watch your protocol, soldier. Even the lowest ranked go-betweens are higher in rank than any soldier-general. Especially the one that you speak to." There was something about the combination of his stoic expression, the low, threatening voice, and the permanently formal way he spoke that even I'll admit made him pretty scary at that moment. He pulled Geldan even closer. "I am Kaldur'ahm, son of the second order of go-betweens and currently twelfth in line for the throne to Atlantica." He shoved the soldier away. "You would do well not to cross me or my enchanter friend Myde here, or I will report your misconduct to your superiors, and mine." He turned away from the soldier and swam past me, heading back the way he'd came from. "Come on, we're going to be late." His voice suddenly held no more trace of the threat.

Geldan watched him go, and smirked at me. "Oh, so YOU'RE Myde, huh? You gonna keep hiding behind your blackfin buddy there?" I seethed with anger, already holding myself, because they'd insulted me and my friend. But the douche kept on. "You know, Ebyssus would have been so disappointed that his son turned out to be just an enchanter and a wannabe."

That was the final straw. I lunged at him in fury-only to have my arm yanked back as someone was literally dragging me away at an upward angle, away from my intended victim. "My father was ten times the merman you will ever be!" I shouted at the soldier. "And nobody messes with my friends!"

The viselike grip on my left arm tightened. "Don't do it."

"Dammit Kaldur it'll make me feel a heck of a lot better!" I snapped back, trying to twist myself free. With my free right arm, I made a hook punching motion, and the water next to Geldan coalesced into a giant fist as big as he was and rammed itself into him, and I could sense his body jerking with pain. The water was of my magic, anyway. It served him right.

The farther we got from the soldiers, the more my adrenaline started to wear off, and with it, my anger, until I stopped fighting Kaldur and let myself go limp. Only then did he let go, and I swam alongside him, rubbing my arm where he'd grabbed me. He looked at me with a sidewise, amused smile. "Are you really that bent to get in trouble on Graduation Day?" His eyes had lightened to its pale emerald green by now and had regained their sparkle-this time with a tint of humor.

"I hate it when soldiers spit on us," I muttered. "And even more when they bring up my father. You know that."

"Hm." He nodded. "I think he would've been proud," the dark merman mused. "You're the strongest of all the new enchanters." He paused, his smile turning even more wry. "But was it really necessary to...you know...?"

I let out an exasperated sigh. "I know, I know what you're going to say, yeah, 'violence is not the answer', I get it." We passed upward, passing the towering spires of limestone and coral, past the small sandstone buildings far below us. But then a thought came to me, and I grinned back at him. "Wait, you can't say that, you were doing the same anyway!"

"I was not," he replied with just the barest hint of good-humored indignity. "I simply threatened them, while you actually provoked them."

"Yours was much more effective," I pressed, "You scared the bejeezus outta them." And his sly grin acknowledged it.

Just then, we passed into a tunneled obsidian cave, and our laughter echoed through it. But we hushed ourselves as we approached the light at the end. As we exited back out into the open water we floated near the edge of a pristine courtyard with structures and pillars of silver, abalone, gold, and other precious materials. About three hundred mermen were there, separated into their corresponding factions all at the edges of the outer courtyard of the pavilion just as a fanfare of conch horns were sounding the arrival of the royal family. It almost looked like the whole graduating class had been sorted by physical fitness. The go-betweens were, stupidly enough, placed between the enchanters and the soldiers. I swear I wanted to find the coordinator and shake him until he passed out.

Kaldur smiled at me. "Just in time." We swam together to stand in our adjacent factions.

"Just in the nick of time, Myde," the enchanter next to me, a redhead with a brown tail, my training partner Sparion, muttered as the fanfare reached its climax. "Just a few more seconds and my father would've flayed you alive for being late. On Graduation, of all days."

I chuckled. "You have no faith in me, man. I always make it on time, if just barely."

Sparion shoved me playfully. "Total opposite. I have too much faith in you." Which was true. The slightly younger and shorter merman looked up to me, which I imagine probably isn't too good for him. I was a horrible role model.

"By the way, did Scion see me?" I glanced back at the middle-aged merman at the edge of the pavilion with grey eyes and matte red hair, who was scanning the crowd. By the way, Scion is the supervisor, and second in command of the enchanter faction. Also, he's Sparion's dad, which is a real pain. Really strict, really powerful, and not so much liked by anyone, not even his son.

Sparion rolled his eyes. "No, but when you came in he was about to do a headcount."

"Quiet, you two," Kaldur nudged me, a slight smile in his voice rather than his face. "It's starting."

As the shell fanfare ended and every merman fell silent, the doors of the pavilion opened ceremoniously and that little red crab flitted through, the herald and composer for the royal family. Sebastian, I think his name was.

"Young militants of Atlantica!" He called out dramatically. A little too much so. "I present to you, the daughters of Triton!" As each princess glided out from the pavilion, the crab called out her name. This being a formal graduation and not a royal concert, there was no singing from the princesses this time. My mind and my gaze wandered to other things. I'd seen all the princesses before at their concerts. I knew what they all looked like. Sebastian called them out from oldest to youngest. "Attina! Alana! Adella! Aquata! Arista! Andrina!" He paused, as if not finished, and I looked up. "And...Ariel!"

This REALLY got my attention, and everyone else's too. We had known Princess Ariel had existed, but she had been sheltered at the very least, from the rest of the kingdom. Rumors had abounded that Triton was very overprotective of his youngest daughter. And now we could see why. Long, red hair, blue eyes, aqua green tail, purple shells. Mutters swept among the crowd. Ariel looked EXACTLY like Queen Athena, who'd passed away a few years ago, when pirates had attacked Atlantica. Seriously. The princess, uncomfortable at the obvious surprise at her arrival, edged behind her sisters.

Sebastian cleared his throat loudly, and the crowd fell silent once more. "And now, for his Royal Highness, the ruler of the seas, King Triton!" And the King himself glided out into the courtyard, strongly built, aged, wise, but so obviously powerful. His golden crown and trident gleamed in the light. Every merman present bowed as one unit with one hand over our heart and the other behind our back.

"Greetings, warriors of Atlantica!" Triton addressed us with a regal voice that rang with authority. "Today is a momentous day, the day that you have become full fledged fighters to protect our beloved kingdom." He paused as we all cheered, even me. I felt a swell of pride and loyalty, like many others around me. When our cheers started to die down, he continued. "I congratulate you all on completing your training. It is an important landmark in the life of all worthy mermen. Forces exist out there, in both land and sea, that threaten our glorious kingdom, and it is the duty of the aquamilitary to defend us, and to keep us strong!" He stopped again to let his words sink in. "Now let us publicly declare the Militant's Oath, the final touch to seal before you all receive the initiation I am sure you deserve so well."

As the King spoke, every male voice in the room joined in, and the creed filled the courtyard with reverberating tones of bass, tenor, and some alto from the younger ones like me and Sparion. The Militant's Oath had been hammered into us from the earliest years of our training, and everyone knew it by heart.

"I am a merman of Atlantica, and I have been deemed worthy of being its protector. I hereby swear my undying loyalty, and the allocation of my abilities, whether it be strength, or magic, or both, to the protection of the greatest of the five undersea kingdoms. It is my great honor and pleasure to stand by my fellow kinsmen to uplift, protect, and enrich Atlantica. I will never betray nor forsake my faction, my king, and my kingdom. This I swear in the presence of every creature, under and above, and to the gods of the seas who have raised up our race. And if this oath is broken whilst I remain a protectorate, I duly accept the whole of my consequence."

King Triton's voice continued alone. "On behalf of myself, and my daughters, and the whole of Atlantica, I thank you and humbly accept your oath! This is my great honor to witness the rise of the next generation of our aquamilitary..."

He kept going, but my mind had wandered off again. As much as the initiation meant a lot to me, it didn't put off the worry that I wouldn't see my friends so much anymore. Would I be grouped in the standard trio groups, always off on assignments? Or, knowing how strong I was, would they keep me confined in the enchanter's towers, to study magic on an elite and deeper level? I couldn't see myself doing either. I couldn't see myself lasting so long in the advanced sorcery. But mostly, I couldn't see myself trying to be like the rest of the enchanters, playing a support role in battle for a bunch of ungrateful soldiers. I wanted to be the hero, not just the sidekick. It all came down to this. I just wanted to be like my father, and somehow the initiation made me feel like that chance was slipping away. But I shook myself off, giving myself a pep talk. No depressing thoughts, Myde. You can make things work out. You always do. Watch, you'll be the greatest of them all. (Out of the corner of my eye I could see Kaldur glancing at me, concerned at my probably taciturn expression.)

Triton's speech finally concluded, "And I am proud to declare you all new initiates! Congratulations, all of you, and let today be one of celebration, for tomorrow, your duties begin!" The whole pavilion let out a resounding cheer, and when Triton and his daughters exited back into the large porcelain double doors, it was as if a plug had been let loose. Every merman suddenly left the pavilion with whoops of celebration and laughter, streaming out between the precious-metaled spires. Among a blur of activity I saw Kaldur laughing with a few other go-betweens, and Sparion swimming over to Scion, who had on one of his rare genuine smiles.

Eventually I was the only one left. I didn't bother going after my friends. Graduation was a day of spending time with family, and I wasn't about to begrudge them of their time. Yes, there WERE other orphans, but I just felt like being alone with my thoughts today.

I looked around, checking that there was no one else I missed, then glided over to the spire on the left side of the door. I pulled at a loose tile of shale about the size of a large sea turtle shell, and uncovered my most treasured item. My sitar. I carefully lifted it up, tilting it around, checking for cracks or any signs of tampering. The instrument was three and a half feet long, a light brown, glazed with kelp resin, and carefully kept polished by yours truly. But there was no sign of any damage, and I sighed with relief. This was my mother's. She played a lot before she got sick. She used to play for me when I was little. It was all I had left of her.

It had taken a really long time for me to learn to play. I kinda had to figure it out, by watching other mermaids play, and trying it on my own in secret. Merfolk are seriously gender stereotyped, and music just wasn't a skill or strength that was 'appropriate' for a guy. A male fish maybe, but not a merman. They'd think I was...what's the word humans use? Gay? Yeah, I think that's what it was.

I slung the worn strap over my shoulder and replaced the tile. I sat at the pillar's foot, closing my eyes as as I plucked a few strings for tuning. No, one was off, and I turned a knob to adjust it. I strummed a finger across all twenty strings. I wondered for the millionth time what the others were for, usually I only played on three, even seven at the maximum. Absentmindedly, I played a few simple chords, letting them reverberate throughout the courtyard. Not that I was too worried about anyone hearing. When merfolk celebrated, like today, they tended to stay away from any building associated with formality. They probably went to some music clubs, or back home with their families, or as some of the capelin soldiers do, go down to the forbidden trenches to gamble.

So that left me alone for now, and at the moment that was just the way I liked it.

I launched into a melancholic tune, which just happened to reflect my worry of the coming years. The hollow, haunting notes were filled with a sense of pressure and foreboding. I let my emotions out through my sitar. That way they wouldn't come out so much otherwise. That songs that followed displayed how much I was beginning to relax. Twenty minutes later, the song was a gentle tune of reminiscence. I missed my parents. I missed not being an outcast. I missed not having to put up a facade just to get people to leave me alone. And the final tune, I began with higher, uplifting chords; it was a song of hope. Things were going to add up, somehow. I just had to keep at it.

Finally satisfied, a half hour since I'd begun, I sighed and lifted myself up of the ground, treading the water a bit as I adjusted my sitar strap so that the instrument was on my back. I wanted to take it back home. Now that my training was over, I wouldn't be here at the pavilion much. And while everyone was busy, now was my chance to do it unseen.

Something caught my eye. A glimpse of pink among the silvery-blue shale of the tiled floor.

I drifted closer, to the center of the courtyard. It was a bright pink shell on a band... I picked it up. Then it came to me. This was one of the princesses' tiaras. Which one, I couldn't remember, at least not then. But I made one of my split-second decisions and found myself forcing open one of the heavy double doors.

I'd never been in the Grand Pavilion before. It was dimly lit, a giant ballroom with calcium yellow pillars supporting a very high, too-dark-to-make-out-any-detail ceiling. Everyone knew that the pavilion was the official entrance to the castle. So I glided further in, expecting guards at any second. But there were none. The place gave me the creeps, and I hurried more towards the lone door on the other side, to the throne room...maybe I could get some servant-fish to deliver it to whichever princess this belonged to...anonymously. I paused when I heard voices behind one of the side doors of the hall.

"Where IS it?!" A feminine voice cried angrily. "Arista, now don't be surprised if you find a live sponge, or a sea slug, or something else equally horrid in your room one of these days! You'll know who put it there!"

Another female voice, Arista (probably Princess Arista, I reasoned). "I told you I didn't steal it!" she whined, and then paused. "Ok, I might've taken it before, but I swear it wasn't me this time! You know, it might've been Alana! She's always using shell extracts for her cosmetics and lotions and stuff!"

By now I was sure I was hearing the bickering of Triton's daughters. I couldn't suppress a smile. Thank goodness we weren't in the same room. They would've probably turned on me if they'd noticed me trying not to laugh.

"I did not!" Alana cried indignantly. "I've got more than enough shells to use, and it's not like Andrina's shell on her crown is anything special!"

"You're saying my crown, the crown of a princess, isn't special?!" The first voice, Andrina's, shot back. Her next words held a touch of sarcasm. "Okay, well in that case, why are we even looking for it. Its nothing IMPORTANT, after all."

Another female voice, this one calmer, probably one of the elder princesses. "Girls, fighting won't solve anything. Let's split up. It'll be easier to find it that way. Don't worry, Rina, we'll find it."

A mixed chorus of mutters. "Fine." "Whatever." "Okay..."

Seconds later, the door I was approaching flew open, and upon instinct I darted behind a pillar. A shaft of bright light entered the ballroom and was suddenly cut off again as the door closed, and Princess Andrina glided past me, hazel eyes clouded in thought.

"I still think you took it, Arista," she murmured to herself, running her fingers through her short blonde hair. "I've never lost anything before...I've always been good with my things..." Apparently she hadn't seen me.

I looked around. No one else was here...

I moved away from the pillar. I called out tentatively, "Princess..."

She whirled around, violet tail swishing. "Who's there?!"

I flinched. I didn't expect her to be so jumpy. "Uh..." I quickly bowed. "I'm sorry I surprised you, um, Your Highness." I decided to play it safe. I bit my lip from introducing myself. Keep it simple, keep it formal, and then I'm outta here. I belatedly realized that being in this dark, creepy room didn't help either of our moods. When I looked up again, she was studying me suspiciously, and I felt my cheeks grow warm. Oh, crap.

Before I ended up embarrassing myself further, I showed her the tiara, keeping my gaze averted. "I...I found this in the front courtyard a-and I think...I mean I believe, it's yours." I held it out to her, inwardly cursing myself for giving her the impression of a stuttering naïvete.

I felt the weight of the crown leave my hand, and heard the obvious surprise and uncertainty in her voice. "Oh...well, thank you...?" Her voice lifted at the end, signaling her unspoken question.

"Oh...me?" Holy Poseidon, why am I so flustered? No, no, keep it cool. Formal. Unattached. Dammit, Myde. "My name is Myde, of the enchanters." I mentally slapped myself. Crud. You HAD to tell her your faction. You're looking more and more like a loser. In front of the freakin' PRINCESS. That's right, Myde, look away.

"Well, thank you then, Myde." her musical voice cut through to me, and I looked back at her. She tilted her head, peering at something behind me...oh, no. A look of genuine interest sparked in her eyes. "Oh, do you play?"

My breath caught in my throat. CRAP. This just keeps on getting better and better, doesn't it? I forgot I still had my sitar on! My cheeks burned, and I drifted back a couple paces. "N-no. No!" I quickly lied, coming up with whatever excuse I could think of. "One of my friends...sisters...asked me to bring it over to them!" I suddenly got cocky. I scoffed. "Me, play? Nah, I'm a merman, its just not my thing."

She burst into uncontrolled laughter that echoed throughout the hall, and I felt like I wanted to shrink. If somebody overheard us...I didn't even want to think about it. It took a few moments for her to get a hold of herself, and she favored me with a wry smile, placing the tiara lightly on her head. "Don't worry, you're secret's safe with me." She sighed, looking wistful. "I think you've got guts, enchanter. You've been able to do the things that you want, even when everyone else tells you its wrong. Especially with music. Everyone loves it, why shouldn't everyone be allowed to learn to play for themselves." Her smile darkened to a playful smirk. "Maybe you could play for me some day."

My first reaction: incredulous embarrassment. Was I that obvious that she totally saw through me? Second reaction: absolute relief that she didn't repulse me for learning to play music. Third reaction: Pride. Someone believed in me, in what I wanted, and what I quietly stood for. My actual response to her request: I backed off even more. "No, I'm horrible at it," I blubbered. "I never had proper training, and it won't nearly be good enough for a princess." I was pinker than her shell tiara, and she seemed to find this incredibly amusing.

She chuckled at my discomfort. "Lighten up, Myde. It was just a suggestion..." her light, playful demeanor clearly said that the invitation was still open.

"You wouldn't want me to," I admitted. "Even if you thought I played well, it would stain your reputation to be around me..." the truth came out way too easily. So easily that I had to clamp my stupid mouth shut to stop anything else from slipping out.

"No one has to know," she chirped. She paused as one of her sisters' voices called her name from behind the door where she'd came. Some sort of realization seemed to hit her, I could tell by the brief stunned look that passed over her face. Suddenly she drew back meekly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound forceful," she managed, turning away. "I should head back. Thank you again, enchanter...I mean, Myde..."

"I'm sorry I startled you earlier," I blurted. Why was I being so stupid today?! She's the princess, not just another mermaid! I bowed, correcting my previous casual tone. "Princess...Andrina..."

She waved off my horrible attempt to keep to protocol. "Its fine, I need to be more aware of what's around me..." she turned back once, smiling radiantly. "By the way, my lips are sealed. About your playing."

I flushed more. I didn't even think that was even possible at this point. "U-uh...thanks...?"

She laughed. "Of course, anything for a fellow musician," she mused, turning away and swimming back to the side door from which she came. She paused before opening the door, and turned back to me. "See you around, maybe." And the bright light of that room enveloped her as she opened the door, and vanished as she closed it.

In the dim ambient light of the ballroom, I slapped both my cheeks. Too red. Get it together. I shook my head, trying to shake it all off. Not gonna happen. Okay? (But Stevie is courting Princess Adella,) some part of me whined. Shut up, the rational part of me thought. Stevie is a soldier. You're an enchanter. Get real.

I turned back toward the huge double doors of the pavilion entrance. I was done here. Time to go put the sitar away, maybe screw around and play a few pranks...before the initiate training began tomorrow-

A loud, authoritative voice bellowed, echoing through the room. "It simply CANNOT be!" It was Triton's voice.

I froze. Was this seriously going to be the worst day ever for me? But...I concentrated on the water in the room, and through it, I sensed that there was no one here. I tentatively turned around. Nobody. But the voice emanated from the closed throne room, where I'd originally been heading. Cautiously I drifted toward the towering door, even bigger than the pavilion entrance, listening in.

"Your Majesty," another deep, muted voice pleaded, and I pressed my ear to the door. "I beg of you, you must send forces to investigate further. Many of them are going missing, and it is something I fear might escalate into something greater." Maybe one of the advisors?

"There must be another cause for the disturbances," the King continued angrily. "Mariana Trench is foolproof! My brothers and I saw to the beast's imprisonment ourselves!"

My ears perked. Mariana Trench? An old story surfaced in my mind. Supposedly there was some sort of monster in the Mariana Trench. It was just a story to get little merchildren to obey, not sneak out at night, and never to stray too far from home.

Or was it? Here was the King himself, speaking of this as if really existed. If it was all true, then... I let out an involuntary shudder. The stories were scary enough without the premise of them possibly being real.

"Its just a theory, Your Highness," the advisor assured, interrupting my thoughts. "Albeit a convincing one...the quakes recorded there at that magnitude are what give surface to that theory. It would also explain the disappearances of the merfolk along the fault line."

The King's voice paused, considering it. "Very well, he acquiesced. Send another contingent. But add more enchanters this time, they can relay back what is going on there."

"Of course, Your Majesty," the advisor sighed in relief. "I will send word to Brinon immediately."

I perked at the other familiar name. Brinon was the leader of the soldier faction, and the theoretical leader of the whole aquamilitary. The fact that this would be told as a message from the king meant that whatever was happening, whatever this thing from the trench was, it was a really big deal.

The sound of swishing water came closer. Oh, crap! I darted away, ducking behind the nearest pillar. The advisor's voice sounded again, so close to the door that I could hear him from where I hid. "Your Majesty, I wholeheartedly wish that my suspicions are wrong. But I have a sinking feeling that something large is in our hands."

"Do what you must." Triton's voice was pained.

The door of the throne room opened, and closed again, and the advisor—a slender, muscular figure with blue hair tied back in a ponytail and a darker blue tail shade, whom I'm guessing used to be a go-between before he got promoted to advisor—swam past, exiting the pavilion doors. I took shallow, quiet breaths, and although no one could hear me, I coulda sworn someone would hear my heart beating outta my chest. Just to be sure, I waited a straight ten minutes before I moved from my spot behind the pillar and slipped through the doors myself. After a cursory glance around the empty courtyard I decided to swim straight home. There was too much on my mind for pranks today.

If this thing is real, then what the heck was I ever supposed to do?

What was gonna happen to all of us, all of Atlantica?

Author's corner: Hope you're enjoying this so far! Please review, and feel free to PM if you have questions/comments/critiques/story ideas! ~~~8KinTora