In the meantime, Zion had decided with a heavy heart to send two of the men under his command ahead of their own group in order to regain the missing eye contact with Triton and the others. The two had almost reached the ridge when one of them began to look around anxiously.
A few moments later, apparently seized by sheer panic, he ran away and abandoned his companion. Zion's eyes narrowed critically. What could have frightened a seasoned soldier so much that he suddenly forgot his duty and left?
"Your Highness, something is wrong here," the scholar accompanying their group remarked worriedly.
"I can see that myself, thank you," the Lionesian prince nipped any further unnecessary remarks from his compatriot in the bud.
He balked at this, but it was high time to intervene. What his eyes had just witnessed was clear evidence of Morgana's machinations. There was nothing rational in front of them that the soldier could be so afraid of while his colleague remained completely calm. He needed to see something that was only in his mind, something that brought his most hidden fears to light.
"You there, keep splitting up. Two scouts and two mounted messengers each. We will take a look at the summit ridge from all sides at once. As soon as one group sees anything unusual send out the riders from you to inform the nearest two groups. Be careful, we are dealing with an extremely skilled opponent here. Try to keep a clear head. Take these bags and carry them close to you. While there is insufficient study that these herbs truly keep the senses in check, we should consider anything that will give us an advantage over her playing with our perception," Zion ordered, handing out a small pouch to each of the men. Considering the suspicion and ridicule of his strategies by the other members of the council, he had not dared to take this measure before. Now, however, he had a free hand and he did not want to have to scold himself afterwards for not having played a trump card that could have turned the tide for them.
So the groups of four finally swam out in different directions, hopefully well equipped.
Zion himself joined the group that followed the two soldiers sent ahead and when he too arrived at the place from which the other had fled, his theory was confirmed.
The cauldron of an extinct volcano spread out before him, its circular vent still defying the forces of the sea. Apart from this breathtaking natural spectacle, however, he could not discover anything that would have justified the merman's flight, as he had expected. But there was also no trace of Triton and his men.
For the time being, Zion took care of the soldier he had sent ahead, who was still on the spot. The soldier had not moved since then and even when Zion tried to get his attention by talking to him, he did not react. Stubbornly, he looked straight ahead and did not even blink. The Lion prince finally raised his hand and moved it back and forth in front of the other's eyes. But even this did not interrupt the other's stare at all, much more did Zion recognise the emptiness that spoke from the other's eyes. There was nothing more he could do here for the time being, so he turned back to the valley.
As he searched for clues, he noticed the surreal silence around him. Not the slightest sound reached his ears and when he looked straight into the direction where Triton and his men should be, he could see a veil clouding his view. Things were really not going according to the book here. The smartest thing would have been to follow the example of the soldier who had taken his fin in his hand and was now surely long gone. But they didn't have that option if they wanted to win a victory over the sea witch.
Hoping to be mentally prepared for whatever might come next, Zion made the first flipper stroke forward. No sooner had he started moving than he found himself in a blurry cloud that wouldn't spit him out any time soon.
With all his might he tried to free himself from the clutches of the Force, but he quickly realised that there was no escape through sheer effort. After giving in to his first impulse, he registered the tantalising whisper of a woman.
Zion forced himself to keep his eyes on his target. With great effort he continued to move through the seemingly endless streaks. The voice became clearer with each successive flick of his fins, and Zion could not tell how much longer he would be able to withstand the bewitching whispers. The owner of the disembodied voice seemed to be able to read his thoughts like an open book. She spoke of the fulfilment of all those dreams that his childish mind had already created and in the same breath threatened him with such fears. Now he could imagine what the soldier had gone through and he resented not having passed this test of the spirit. In the meantime, he was no longer sure that he would be able to withstand it.
Again and again he reminded himself that the terrible images that appeared in his mind's eye were only triggered by these well-chosen words. They were not true and they would not be in the future, provided he won this trial of strength. Morgana, however, had quickly realised where his weakness lay and the fears for his family and his people that she triggered in him with her deft utterances were unlike anything he had endured before.
"Morgana," Zion confidently confronted the disembodied voice, seeming to astonish its owner no less, lapsing into silence for the moment. Valuable seconds that allowed Zion to re-sort his thoughts and regain a clear head.
"So you saw through my little trick, Prince of Liones. However, a clever mind like yours should also know when it's time to give up. Return to your family or die here in this desolate place for a cause that is not yours. What will you choose?" she continued to manipulate him undaunted.
"It will not be me but you who will meet her end in this place, witch!", Zion firmly countered.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that if I were you, but see for yourself," she replied with a sinister laugh, lifting the veil around Zion just enough for him to catch a glimpse of the battlefield before him. To his horror, he had to watch through it how Triton's men had begun to fight each other. The bags he had distributed did not seem to be able to counter Morgana's power in the slightest. What made the situation even more critical were the Sharkan weapons that each of them wielded. With their precision and penetrating power, they would sooner or later claim many victims if this continued.
"Very few can escape my influence. Their spirits are weak and simple-minded. Surely you understand now the position you are in, Prince?" she purred, sending a shiver down his spine.
"Stop it! Come to your senses! Fight them, you fools!" he shouted powerlessly at the soldiers, but they remained completely unimpressed. They continued to attack each other with dull glances.
In the distance he could make out his father-in-law, who felt compelled to use his trident as a last resort to keep the will-less mermen at bay.
However, from Triton's controlled movements and obvious efforts to inflict as little damage as possible on his men, Zion was hopeful that the witch appeared to have little or no influence on him either.
His theory that Morgana had to be in a certain proximity to her victims in order to cast her spell had proven true with what was revealed to him here. After all, as he had expected from the start, the soldiers and he himself had only been deprived of their senses when they had approached the summit ridge. Added to this were the quick reactions to the changing situation that he heard from Morgana's utterances. All this made it clear that she was watching the whole event from somewhere. That this was done by a spell he could also rule out, for if it were within her capabilities without actually being present, she would have pulled her strings much earlier.
So she had to be hiding somewhere around here. In a place that gave her a clear view of everything.
Zion tried hard to find her, but was careful not to draw her attention to it. He skilfully pretended to be more captivated by her powers than was actually the case. Zion felt himself regaining more and more control over his senses, the more concentrated he worked on beating her with her own weapons. If Morgana wanted to play this game with him, then she had better be ready for something, because he was not someone who was easily deceived with empty promises. Right now he was benefiting from what he had been ridiculed for so often. He didn't like to be very flexible, because he always let himself be held back by his considerations. His compulsive urge to always consider in advance every possible development of a decision that once made could not be reversed, now granted him the necessary steadfastness against the whispers of the witch. This quality distinguished him from the impulsive soldiers before him and he thanked Mazu and all the other gods that he had chosen to accompany Triton and not his Olympian brother-in-law. No matter how hard Morgana pushed, she would not be able to push him into hasty decisions with her words, provided he remained true to himself.
"Prince of Liones, do you really want to watch your people meet the same fate as those poor souls there? I can see to it that you and the Lione come out of this whole affair without much loss. Everyone knows you are not a fighter. Join me and your family, your people will continue to exist in peace," she continued to talk at him, making a really delicate point.
He had been struggling with the decision to put his men in such danger even before he had decided to travel to Atlantica. Did he really have the right to expose them all? Shouldn't he take advantage of this last chance to retreat? Leave the fighting to those who have always prided themselves on fighting battles?
"My people would be spared, but you would not give us peace, witch!" he snapped out of the trance that was once again trying to grip him.
An angry hiss was heard and Zion had the vague feeling that he could locate her voice, which had previously echoed off the circular ridge surrounding the valley, and indeed, when he let his ears follow his eyes, he finally found it. There to his left, halfway up the steep cliffs, was a dark spot that looked like the entrance to a cave the more he eyed it.
"You will never rule the seas! Even Ursula failed at it, so how will you manage, when you will never be able to reach her? Aren't you holed up in one of her old caves right now? Aren't you even capable of finding your own hiding place?" Zion now changed his tactics and tried to lure the witch out of her reserve. His assumption, derived from her previous behaviour and actions, that she was driven less by sisterly love and a desire for revenge than by jealousy and the desire to prove herself in her actions, also proved to be a bull's eye. He could hear Morgana in her hiding place raging with anger at his words.
To his satisfaction, his plan seemed to be working and he could observe how her control over the soldiers was gradually loosening.
Triton gave him a grateful look and, realising he could do no greater harm, held the power of the trident against the remaining fragments of Morgana's iron grip on the fogged senses of his men. The latter, finally freed from the alien force, looked around briefly in confusion and then recollected their task.
Zion pointed to the opening he had spotted in the distance and not a wave later the soldiers were already swimming towards it, weapons drawn.
A black cloud of ink billowed out of the cave opening, keeping the soldiers at a distance for the time being. Shortly afterwards, Morgana's two rays came out of the cloud like arrows. They stretched a net between them and tried to trap the troops and make them immobile.
The highest-ranking of Triton's soldiers, however, was not intimidated by this and cut the net coming towards him with a sweeping movement of his sword. Spurred on by their comrade's example, the other soldiers now rushed forward again.
They managed to confront the two rays before they could retreat back into the protective ink cloud. Three of the soldiers each guarded one of the twins and pushed it to the seabed with the help of their barrier. Keeping a close eye on their sharp pointed tails as they did so. Dagger and Cloak glared at the soldiers but realised that their fins were tied.
"Let my darlings go," demanded Morgana's voice from the depths of the grotto.
"Why should we!" objected Zion again, "You are trapped, Morgana surrender!"
"You have better things to do than to keep them at bay, look behind you, Prince," she remarked, unimpressed, and then lapsed into an evil laugh that rang out from the cave and stretched across the entire valley, being thrown back again and again by the surrounding rock walls, giving the impression that Morgana was completely encircling them with her person. Of course this was not the case, but Zion understood why the witch had made this grotto her own. If one did not know how the whole thing behaved, it was truly a breathtaking and extremely intimidating effect.
Fascinated, he let his eyes follow the echo across the valley and realised what Morgana had alluded to. Back there, not too far away, a group of killer whales were swimming towards them.
Triton seemed to have noticed them too and immediately took up a defensive stance. Threateningly, he pointed his trident at the ever-approaching whales. Irritated by Triton's reaction, he looked at the whales again and realised that their eyes had the same emptiness as he had seen before with the manipulated soldiers and, if he thought carefully, also with Yuan.
These whales had been robbed of their free will and it was clear to everyone present who was behind it. Triton immediately shouted orders through the water and the soldiers let go of the rays and formed up around their ruler. Zion watched helplessly as they swam resolutely towards the whales and especially their dangerous teeth.
He himself could never have been moved to be so brave in the face of approaching death, but these men had been trained for years for such situations. He, on the other hand, was a prince, and aggravatingly a Lion, and so he followed his instincts without being able to do anything about it. Everything in him screamed to put as much distance between himself and the source of danger as quickly as possible and he was only too happy to follow.
The panic, however, only lasted for a few beats of the fins until Zion came to his senses. He hadn't made it this far to be shown up by Morgana after all? Surely this group of whales was also just a figment of his imagination. But Zion could not fully convince himself that this threat was really only imaginary, everything seemed too real and when the first of the soldiers met his end between the sharp teeth, which were anything but imaginary, with agonised screams, Zion also abandoned all attempts to convince himself otherwise.