Arista never imagined that her mother-in-law would leave so quickly. Immediately after their conversation, she had summoned her best Valkyrs and arranged for their luggage to be packed. The chests were already piling up into a mountain that threatened to be knocked over by the next strong current. Arista had to smile at the sight, it reminded her of her own departure from Atlantics back then. Apparently the two were indeed similar in that respect.
"What kind of water flea did you put in my mother's ear, sweetie?" her husband's amused voice snapped her out of her silent observation.
"Oh, oh nothing at all. Did you have a nice day?" she skirted the issue, knowing he didn't really care. His only fear, as she immediately saw through, was that it might be him who had to stand in for his mother during her trip.
"Sure," he replied monotonously, fixing her with his ice-blue eyes like a predator.
"You must be tired why don't you swim to bed?" she tried to brush him off further.
"Gladly, will you accompany me?" he replied smugly.
"Finyas, I'm busy," she immediately shrugged off the suggestion.
"When did you become so boring?" he asked, but did not wait for an answer to his question; to Arista's relief, he finally swam away. She truly had more important things to do at the moment than entertain her husband. Let him take care of his surely drunken state for the time being.
A few hours later, it was indeed time for Kyria to leave, and she didn't seem to be delaying her departure unnecessarily. Therefore, she ordered Arista to join her. The Atlantian eyed her mother-in-law as she swam in to gauge her current state of mind. Joyfully beaming eyes gazed back at her, in stark contrast to the lips pressed together in the shape of a line. The conversation that followed promised to be interesting when Kyria displayed such dichotomy.
"I'm glad you didn't keep me waiting unnecessarily. Your courtly etiquette seems to be improving. I knew my maids could accomplish even the seemingly impossible. But enough of that, you will see how important all this is. My departure for your hometown is imminent and you will be responsible for arranging those things that cannot be postponed until my return. I am aware that this task will be beyond your abilities, but it will be a beneficial and educational experience for you, I am sure," Kyria continued to talk the other into the ocean floor as usual with each of her words. But Arista passed over the obvious humiliation with her head held high.
"I will do my best, Queen Kyria," she retorted without responding to the taunts.
"Sure, only that will certainly not be enough to run a realm as complex as mine in the long run," the queen found.
Arista didn't let her anger show and just kept smiling at her mother-in-law.
"Well then, let's get this over with," Kyria concluded the conversation and waved Arista over.
When the younger of the two had reached the throne, the queen reached for a small crown laid out beside her. She grimaced once more, but then placed it on the head of the other, which was held out to her.
"What can you please your father with, girl?", Arista heard softly shortly after the weight of the crown had taken its place on her head.
She had to laugh inwardly that Kyria had not dared to ask her that question before at a volume that would have been heard by the two Valkyrians who were flanking her throne as usual.
However, an answer to the question was not so easy. What do you give a ruler who already has everything? Her sisters and she had this problem every time they looked for a present for him. Usually it had been Ariel who had found something really great in the end. Arista and the others had never been that creative and yet her father had always cherished the gifts of his other daughters. The thought behind it always counted more than the thing itself.
"As long as it comes from the heart, you can give him anything, Kyria," she whispered back, looking into the others' wide eyes.
"Oh, then I already have something. Oh and before I forget, good luck little one, you're going to need it," the queen mused, taking her leave with another tease. Arista wondered, not for the first time, how much of this theatrics was real and how much was just to approximate the image of the untouchable queen that Kyria saw as so hugely important to a successful reign over Orcanus.
Still smiling, she waved after her mother-in-law who swam out of the hall with her guards and then turned to the throne. The weight on her shoulders was finally threatening to become too heavy. But Arista forbade herself to give up now. She had overcome so many obstacles and not infrequently everyone around her had claimed she would not make it.
This time, too, she intended to show all her critics that it was very much possible for her to accomplish what they considered so impossible.
Now she had another opportunity. She glanced at the empty throne for a moment, but then resolutely set herself in motion and took her seat on it. From that moment on, she had the sceptre over Orcanus in her hands.
No sooner had she sat down on the throne than someone came floating in.
"Mother, I have something to discuss with you," Ayvar's voice echoed through the hall. His realisation, however, quickly followed.
"Your mother has already left, you may still find her outside the palace, brother-in-law," Arista nevertheless stated the obvious.
"I can't believe she actually put you in charge of Orcanus. She hates you," her husband's brother spoke out, which had probably also been the most present thought in her own mind for a long time.
"She must have had her reasons," Arista countered, noticing herself drifting into the snooty behaviour she had always been taught by her mother-in-law.
Ayvars mumbled something to himself that Arista would have liked to understand, but he probably hadn't formulated it for her ears.
"Then can you at least tell me where my brother has gone. I know he spoke to you, I haven't seen him since," the prince changed the subject.
"Perhaps he has finally become aware of his duties as the father of two little mermaids and is actually looking after his offspring," Arista replied, again sounding much snootier than she had planned.
"Tz... don't get too comfortable up there, princess!" the Orcan peppered her and then left the throne room.
She had managed that wonderfully, if her aim had been to copy her mother-in-law, but of course she didn't want to do that. She intended to find another way, but only now did Arista realise how difficult that would actually be in the end, and so far she had only had to deal with her brother-in-law of the same age. How would it go if she had to assert herself against older, more experienced Orcans?
She realised that she would find out sooner than she would have liked when some of the high-ranking Valkyrians swam in. Kyria had not taken all her best warriors with her, so Orcanus was well protected even in her absence.
"Your Highness," the highest-ranking of the women announced herself and her companions.
Of course, she did not address Arista with the title of queen, but she had to admit that this fact still grated on her, after all, she was her official and justified representative.
"What is there to discuss, Bryn?" she finally tried to get her own way. Arista wasn't aware if Kirya had never bothered to learn the names of her warriors or if she commanded the women all in a deliberately impersonal manner.
In any case, she had tried very hard since she had moved here, she knew each of the warriors by name and had also tried to find out some private information about them.
For example, Bryn, the commander in front of her, loved to sew in her spare time, her right hand Dalya enjoyed all kinds of water plants, which she was able to tie into beautiful bouquets, and Yula, the niece of the two, was a true prodigy. She was younger than Arista and yet already a high-ranking member of the guard. Even as a child, she had proven her strategic thinking when she beat even the most experienced Orcans at chess. Arista had been told these and many other such trivia by the palace staff.
Now she wanted to use this knowledge to treat the warriors with a closeness she had never shown before. Her mother had always done the same in Atlantica and thus not only had a special relationship of trust with the palace staff, but also an all-embracing view of the entire fabric of the empire. Arista did not know if she was capable of doing the same as her mother, but at least she wanted to try.
Bryn, who was not used to such a personal address, widened her eyes for a moment, but then immediately caught herself as was expected of her and indicated a bow.
"You will have to take care of some loose ends, your highness," she replied.
Arista already suspected that these things would probably be particularly unpleasant tasks picked out for her. After all, Kyria was only too happy to see her fail in her task. However, she would not do her mother-in-law that favour.
"All right, let's get started," Arista announced with vigour, slapping her hands together.
The three Valkyrs in front of her did not seem to have expected such élan, for they briefly exchanged a few glances. Then they asked Arista to follow them and they took her to the place of the first task to be accomplished.
In another part of the palace, an angry Orcan prince had just burst through the previously closed door to the chambers of his twin brother, who was a few minutes older.
"FINYAS!" thundered Ayvar's voice across the room, vibrating the ice walls.
"What's your problem, please?" it instantly sneered back over the whining of two sea toddlers, "Thanks too, they'd just quietened down."
"Your wife is acting like she's our mother," the younger twin brother indignantly complained.
"Are you missing something here right now? She is a mother. And what's bothering you all of a sudden?" retorted Finyas while trying to get the two crybabies quiet by sticking their dummies in their wide-open mouths.
"That's not what I mean. She sits on mother's throne and dares to order us around!", Ayvars simply raged on.
"So what? Let her be, I'm glad mother has saddled her with these tasks and not me," Finyas made his view of things clear.
"You really are a hopeless case. Sometimes I wonder how we both can be twins," Ayvars continued to chide his brother.
"Now, calm down. You almost act like you want to sit there," Finyas laughed at his brother's absurd words.
"Would that be so wrong?" Ayvars asked, catching his brother cold.
"I beg your pardon?" the latter echoed, as if he had not heard properly.
"Yes, I am very much of the opinion that I should sit on this throne when mother is not here. Not your wife. She knows nothing about Orcanus and she was never brought up to rule. You both should have gone to her home when all this happened. That would have been best for all of us," Ayvars explained himself.
"Now don't pretend that you don't enjoy our carefree life as much as I do, brother dear, and you were brought up to even less," Finyas tried to get his brother to finally come to his senses.
"I'm doing this nonsense with you because otherwise I won't be taken seriously in our society, not because it's what I envision for my life. That I am right in this opinion is proven only too well by your current behaviour," Ayvars countered, leaving his brother speechless for the time being.
After a while, he burst out laughing. Finyas slapped his own fin several times with the flat of his hand and wiped tears of laughter from the corners of his eyes with the other.
"You do realise that there has never been a man on the throne here in Orcanus?" he asked to be on the safe side when he had calmed down a bit.
"Then it's high time that you did," Ayvars replied without pulling his face away.
"You're actually serious, huh?" observed Finyas.
"Yes, and it would do you good to take life a little more seriously too. You have two daughters. A life in Atlantica would have done you good. You'll never amount to anything here," the ambitious prince accused his lazy brother, " do us both a favour and get out of here with your usurper to where she came from."
"What did you just say?" growled Finyas now seriously wounded in his pride.
"You heard me perfectly well, I will not repeat myself. Heed my advice or you will regret it," Ayvars threatened openly and then swam away.
Finyas still looked after his brother, puzzled. Then he shook his head to clear it again, shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the flu: "Your uncle Ayvars must have had a bit too much to drink today, he probably won't even remember what he said about your mother tomorrow. And now please be quiet, my head is pounding from all the shouting."