While all seven seas were watching the Games in Olympia, everyday life went on for Ares in Atlantica. Day in, day out, the same monotonous things, but at least he was now allowed to see Anaya as soon as he had finished his duties. From that point of view, his situation had improved. He tried to satisfy his teacher, Sebastian and the doctor as quickly as possible so that he could see Anaya as soon as possible.
His head was buzzing with vocabulary, song lyrics and the doctor's orders and Ares realised that this was exactly what his parents had hoped for before. He was distracted and not constantly thinking about what had happened and what would be.
"Good morning, my prince. How about a little serenade? I composed a wonderful new piece yesterday. I can't wait to hear how it sounds when you sing it. Here's the sheet music," the court composer immediately babbled as he swam through the door.
Waving a roll of sheet music excitedly back and forth, he rowed towards Ares, who followed him with amused eyes.
It fascinated the young prince every time anew how much Sebastian was absorbed in his art. Whenever one of the great concerts, for which Atlantica was known far beyond its borders, was coming up, he would usually lock himself up in his rooms for days and compose the next marvel. As small as he was in his field, he was the greatest. That was clear to everyone at the latest when he drove to his conductor's desk in his goldfish team and then counted the first bar.
Ares remembered only too well the expectant silence that always fell over the concert hall as soon as Sebastian tapped a few times on the edge of the music stand with his conductor's baton.
"Show me what your clever little head has come up with again," he called for the sheet music.
Sebastian was pleased about his prince's willingness to cooperate. So he didn't need to be told twice and handed him his scissor-written notes.
"It's not quite finished yet, but with your help I could certainly put the finishing touches to it. What do you say, your highness, will you help me?", Sebastian talked proudly while Ares skimmed the notes including the lyrics.
"This looks very demanding. Are you sure I can help you with that?" he voiced his concerns.
"Certainly, my prince. You are a natural when it comes to making music. Your intonation has been spot on since you first rehearsed with me," the crab flattered him.
"Do you really think your flattery would make me sing this?", Ares was not so easily wrapped around the other's scissors.
"I'm completely serious, Ares," Sebastian insisted, punctuating this with the confidential salutation. Sebastian always tried to observe courtly etiquette even if he actually had a mostly friendly relationship with Ares, as he had with his mother and her sisters.
"Of course," Ares said unconvinced nonetheless.
"I took the liberty of bringing a few musicians," Sebastian finally bypassed him and waved said musicians and instruments inside.
"You're prepared," Ares commented, as the cut-down orchestra, which turned out to be Sebastian's old gang, looked for a suitable spot. Shelbow, Ink Spot and Cheeks immediately set about tuning their instruments and soon fell into a collective swing.
"Your motivation in all honour, but isn't there someone missing? You wrote this as a duet, Sebastian. No matter how much you love me I can't handle two voices at once," Ares remarked, causing them to pause.
"No, no, don't worry I made sure of that too," Sebastian replied and they all looked at him eagerly.
"That was your cue, dear! Come on in," he called over his tank after a few moments of nothing changing.
The eyes of the band and the prince wandered to the entrance of the room, through which a joyfully beaming Anaya finally swam in.
"Anaya?" asked Ares, and then looked down uncertainly at the sheet music in his hands.
"I was allowed to come early after I promised Sebastian I would rehearse his new piece with you," she replied enthusiastically.
"Is that so?" asked Ares not convinced that it had been Anaya's idea. He exchanged a knowing glance with Sebastian, who then also gave him a mischievous wink, as expected.
Seeing no elegant way out of the situation, Ares surrendered to his fate, but not without giving his grandfather's advisor a warning look.
Sebastian, however, just chuckled softly and gave his band mates the signal to bang on the keys and strings.
Meanwhile, Anaya joined Ares to take a look at the sheet music. The prince willingly held them out to her.
"Oh, it's such a beautiful lyric Sebastian," she exclaimed as she skimmed the verses.
"Thank you, dear, I think every composer loves to hear that. Now let's work on it so that others will also be thrilled when they hear you," he thanked her and asked her to sing the first verse.
Ares remained silent for the moment and listened to the different sounds.
"Your Highness, your cue is about to come, get ready," Sebastian warned him, but the prince let the bars pass without even trying to time it right to join the others.
"Stop! Stop, stop, stop!", Sebastian stopped the others in their flow.
"Highness? Bar 26, your cue? What was wrong?" the crab huffed.
"Do you miss Ray-Ray? I miss Phobos a lot," Ares asked sadly, looking at the gap in the band that Ray-Ray must have left.
Sebastian drawled a disgruntled snort.
"How do you know about Ray-Ray, my prince?", Ink Spot wanted to know in amazement.
"You know your lead singer loves to chat. Especially about the old days. I've heard quite a few stories about your band," Ares replied, causing Sebastian to retreat uncomfortably further into his armour.
"That's enough now! No more talk about rays. We have to concentrate on the project. Eyes on the notes, fins, lips and tentacles to the instruments gentlemen!", Sebastian found himself in distress, however, in drifting haste back to himself, and hissed the others to order.
Ares produced a few bubbles and slumped back into his pillows.
"Your Highness, you promised your parents..." began Sebastian.
"Yes, yes, yes. It's all right. Give me those stupid notes!" interrupted Ares, alarmed that the crab might squeal. He straightened up again and took back the sheets of paper he had carelessly let drop onto the bed earlier.
"Where were we?" he asked, nonetheless disinterested.
"Bar 26," Sebastian told him in the same tone and then continued, "but we'll start again. Try not to fumble your cue this time, my prince."
Ares had a great desire to stick his tongue out at the red crustacean, but he ultimately thought better of it and simply flipped back to the beginning of the piece.
Sebastian counted off again and signalled the musicians to start the prelude.
As Cheeks produced the first notes, however, several more unexpected wind instruments joined in.
The fanfares of the royal guard resounded throughout the palace.
Every single one of them listened. Sebastian grumbled quietly while Anaya hurriedly swam to Ares' balcony. Having used it as an escape route, she could not get out now, but looking down was enough to search for the reason for the fanfares echoing through the palace.
"A messenger? Why are they making such a racket over an ambassador?" she wondered.
"The seas seem to have conspired against our little sample. All right we'll end this for today. I must see the king," Sebastian broke off instantly and hurriedly made his way to Triton.
"Goodbye, Prince Ares," Octopus, Pufferfish and Dudley said suspiciously quickly.
"Did I miss something?" asked Anaya of her friend.
"These are not some announcement fanfares. They were sounding the alarm about something," Ares explained to her.
Like Sebastian, he too had immediately recognised what was being heard. From an early age he had been told to be careful if the guardsmen ever sounded that particular sequence of notes.
Anaya slapped his hands over his mouth in fright.
"What now? Do you think it's Morgana?" she asked fearfully.
"Take it easy. I don't think that witch would dare come here. It must be something else," Ares reassured her at least a little.
"I can't leave here," the prince bound to his bed clarified, something they were both aware of.
Anaya gave him a sorrowful look, knowing only too well how much Ares would have liked to just swim into the throne room right now to find out what was going on.
"I'll stay with you," she tried to build him up.
"No, swim behind and be my eyes and ears. I want to know what's going on," he ordered her.
Anaya nodded and swam off.
"Oh, if only you were here, Phobos," Ares spoke sadly to himself when she had disappeared. Little did he know that the ray was closer than he could have imagined.
As Morgana had instructed him, Phobos had followed the messenger and made sure that he had indeed arrived in Atlantica. The journey back to the city had taken a lot longer. Despite the sea witch's treatment, the Lione seemed to be in a very bad way. It was all the more important to get to his destination quickly so that he could deliver the message.
Phobos had kept the original message tightly wrapped since his departure. He still did not know how to put his plan into action. He hoped that a suitable opportunity would present itself. He was incredibly tired from all the effort and tension, but he did not allow himself to slacken.
After several days of travelling, the two of them had finally made it to the city limits of Atlantica, and from now on Phobos had to be especially careful. Surely everyone in the empire knew about his unspoken banishment by now. As soon as even one of the citizens would see him, his whole plan would be doomed to failure. So he had let himself fall even further behind since then; after all, nothing evil threatened the injured merman among all these people. Even if he collapsed on the last metres, someone would be able to take care of him and bring him to the palace. That the Lione would insist on delivering his message, no matter how bad things were for him, Phobos was sure of by now.
The ray hid where he had taken shelter days before to meet Anaya as arranged. Under his sandy blanket, he waited for the messenger to reach the entrance of the palace.
Phobos recognised the guardsman whom the little mermaid had so expertly tricked back then. Perhaps he could gain access to the palace again in the same way, as soon as the latter would be busy with the lione. Phobos weighed his other options and came to the conclusion that this was probably the most promising. It was certain that he would have to be present when the wrong message was delivered. He had to put it all right before anyone, especially Ares, would be harmed.
Then it was time, the messenger had dragged himself up to the portals of the palace and had just been asked by the guard to identify himself.
Phobos didn't think twice and glided through the meadow of giant sesame grass that conveniently led to just outside the palace. There, however, it was truncated, so that the guards should normally notice if someone sneaked onto the grounds without permission.
But even now, Triton's men seemed mercilessly understaffed due to the meticulous search for the Sea Witch. Phobos, at least, could only make out the old familiar garrulous guardsman even at close range. Good for him, he decided, and used the conversation he had with the Lione as his opportunity to infiltrate the palace.
The Lione had identified himself to Phil and presented his request, everything seemed to fit at first glance and yet the guardsman could not shake the feeling that something was not right here. He inquired further, revealing some obvious gaps in the other man's memory. The other's battered appearance testified to an eventful and not exactly happy journey of the scout. Furthermore, he seemed to have needed a lot more time than he should have from Liones to Atlantica. So at second glance, not so much seemed to fit together. Phil nevertheless let the messenger pass, but indicated to one of his colleagues to keep an eye on him as long as he was inside the palace.
When the Lione was already halfway across the bridge leading to the palace, Phil turned away again. Back at his post, he noticed something in the corner of his eye. Suspiciously, he turned around and could just see the tip of a ray's tail disappear through the side entrance of the palace. Since the incident, he had sworn never to be so inattentive again. Once again he would not let the other swim unnoticed into the grounds he was guarding. Instantly he reached for his fanfare and sounded the alarm. The signal was picked up by the other guards and immediately passed on, so that in no time at all the entire palace was informed that an intruder had gained unauthorised access.