Everyone took a few seconds to process this. Ezra broke the silence by breaking out in laughter. He stopped when he saw the look Valida gave him. "Oh my, he's serious."

Expressions of confusions changed to shock. Except that of the King. He was furious. With a small gesture, guards came forward and grabbed Valida, pulling her forward to see the King.

"I don't know what witchcraft you have pulled on my son but I will not let you get away with it."

He was interrupted by Eric pulling out his sword and pointing it towards his father. "Release her or I swear I will make you regret it."

Ezra seemed to be enjoying this and began cheering under his breath. It was obvious that after this charade, Eric would never be getting the throne and Ezra couldn't be happier. Edlyn of all people shushed him. The Queen looked like she was about to burst into tears. "Eric please think about this."

He ignored her and continued to glare at his father. Both continued to glare, waiting for the other to crack. Finally the King barked "withdraw" to the guards who released Valida. She faked an annoying 'look at me, I'm scared' act which Eric easily fell for. He put his arm around her and while continuing to glare at his father.

"Let's go," he said to her, pulling her away.

"Eric if you leave you can kiss the kingdom goodbye because you will never be King," his father roared after him.

Eric simply shrugged, turned and walked out. The King looked as if he was about to explode, or pass out from rage, whichever came first. Bernard chose to overlook his anger and snuck after the couple. He found them whispering together down a small corridor. It was just the right size that he could hover around the edge without them seeing him. She looked really upset about something and Bernard whispered to himself "seems serious I could never listen in on such a personal moment." Then he disregarded this and snuck as close as he dared.

"They'll never understand," she was practically yelling at him. "He's already set the guards on me once, how long before he does it again? It's time Eric, we have to leave."

"Don't do it Eric" Bernard mouthed, hoping his friend could somehow hear him and understood.

This was not the case. "I'll do anything you want," he said in a tone that Bernard had never heard his friend use before.

"Organise a ship" she ordered him "we'll leave tonight."

"For you my sweet, we can leave before sunset."

Bernard held back to urge to hit his head repeatedly on the wall. Eric's footsteps made him snap back to his senses.

It is a shame he was not wiser. If he were, he would have noticed the sound of only one set of footprints.

Her anger stricken face snapped him into action but he too late and he she had hand wrapped excruciatingly tight around his neck.

"You think it's funny to eavesdrop?" she said in a terrifying voice. "Well it's the last thing you'll ever do!"

Thankfully, Eric heard commotion and came running back. Unthankfully, she was a quick thinker and leapt to the ground screaming. "He attacked me," she said in a mock shaky voice as she faked terror.

Before Bernard had a chance to defend himself, Eric had slammed his fist into his friends face. Falling backwards, Bernard fought to stay alert. From his position on the floor he could only see their feet as they strode away.

Pulling himself together, he ran.

He knew that Sibra loved peace and quiet but he didn't care at this point. Slamming the door open, he ran as fast as he could to Ariana. It seemed the running the whole way there was not as wise as he initially thought and it took him a few moments to regain his breath so he could sputter out "She's making him leave, tonight, before sunset."

Once again, Ariana let little emotion through. "I'm sorry but-"

He continued to sputter out "No time, for your, excuses." Finally he caught his breath. "It'll take Eric a bit more time to organise everything but they'll be leaving around sundown. I shall be stowing away and doing anything possible to stop my best friend making the biggest mistake of his life. I hope you'll do the same."

Not wanting to hear her excuses, he ran off again, constantly hating himself for not bothering to get a horse.

Ariana paused to take everything in. "She got her wish" she whispered to herself.

"So what are you going to do now?" Sibra asked, startling Ariana.

"Continue with the dress. I think I've finished the bodice."

"And after that?"

That question caught her off guard.

"Regarding?"

"The rest of your life."

It got Ariana thinking. What would be worse for Eric? The merfolk or the sorcerers? At least she could defend him from the merfolk. Valida hadn't said that she wanted to hurt him but would stop her when she grew tired of him?

"I'm going to crash that wedding"

Sibra nodded proudly. "And you haven't nearly finished the bodice, you haven't done the lining properly." But Ariana didn't hear this because she had already run out of the door.

Eric seemingly had taken it upon himself to load the ship without any help from workers so it was easy to sneak on board. It was a rather small ship so it was easy to find Bernard. "Is this hiding spot taken?" she asked as he recovered from the shock.

"I thought you were her, I was literally about to die in fright."

"So what's the plan?"

He hesitated. This hesitation didn't help Ariana's nerves. "I'm not sure exactly."

If they hadn't been hiding, she would have yelled at him but she had to settle for whispering in a very angry tone. "You man to say you went to all this trouble stowing away on a ship in the hopes that a plan would miraculously form?"

He nodded pathetically. "Ok give me a moment to think" he said and signaled for her to be quiet. "I've got it," he said proudly. "Actually no, that would never work. How about, no we'd almost definitely die."

"How about I just go and talk some sense into him?" she suggested.

He gave her an exasperated look. "What do you think I've been trying to do all week?"

"You forget that I'm better."

So she tried to find Eric, all the while praying that she wouldn't be with him. It was an odd feeling for her, being on a boat, Having finally mastered the art of walking on straight ground it felt like a large step backwards to try walking while rocking. Gripping a hand rail tight, she continued on, knowing that is she were caught, she would have no way to run. The slightest noise made her jump and freeze but other wise, there was no sign of either of them. Towards the end of the hallway she stumbled across Valida's quarters. The sorceress was talking to someone in a hushed tone. It wasn't Eric. Ariana had known enough sorcerers in her time to recognise one when she saw them. They didn't have similar features like merfolk did but their expression was always the same. It wasn't expressionless; on the contrary it was normally filled with something. But if this emotion was happiness it looked more like a smirk and if it were anger, there were no words to describe. The expression they all had was something very subtle, something you had to look for. It gave off a vibe of evil.

Ariana knew that it would be wise to hover and try and see what they were saying but now she knew that they were apart, she had to press on and find Eric.

"Trust Eric to be on the other side of the ship" she muttered as she hobbled back along the hallway. He jumped up when she entered but looked disappointed when he saw that it wasn't Valida. This wasn't the opening Ariana had wanted but it was better than nothing.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, barley interested.

"I could ask the same question," Valida said from the doorway.

Ariana quickly scanned for exits or weapons but nothing came to her and Valida was already beside her, holding her in place with a vice-like grip. "Eric do you want to see her?" Valida asked, in a sickly sweet tone.

"No" he replied "I only want to see you.

"Excellent. And as for you," she said as she tightened her grip on Ariana "I think it's time I taught you exactly who you're dealing with. I-"

Ariana never learnt what she was going to say as Bernard burst through the doorway, holding a chair of all things and hit Valida as hard as he could with it. A normal person would have gone flying across the room at such a blow but all she did was rock a little. Her head snapped in his direction and he got the full effect of her flaming red eyes. Cowering backwards he stammered "this isn't the fishing trip. I guess I'm on the wrong boat. I'll just go catch the next one."

"Eric darling, catch him." Bernard was never as strong as Eric who easily caught him and held him in place.

"Now back to you," she said with a smirk as she pulled Ariana from the room. Ariana cursed her decision to wear long sleeves and gloves that day. These were perfect when protecting humans but when needed to fight off a sorcerer they were not the best wardrobe choice. Valida appeared to barley be holding her but her grip held Ariana firmly where Valida wanted her. Eric pulled Bernard along behind them, trying to do anything to help Valida.

"Do you think it would be dramatic irony to drown you?" Valida asked as she threw Ariana towards the side of the boat. Ariana was sure that if the sorceress' intention was to drown her, than she would already be at the bottom of the ocean rather than slamming hard into the side of the ship. She didn't have time to reflect upon her wounds or regain her breath as she looked up and saw daggers flying towards her face. Rolling to the side she barley dodged them, continuing the idea that the sorceress was playing with her. Bernard yelled abuse at Valida but she didn't seem to hear them, to busy enjoying this prolonged abuse on the mermaid. Eric did nothing but do that sick smitten face, obvious oblivious to her acts of violence.

Eventually Valida grew bored of thinking of ways to almost kill Ariana. After the fireballs, everything lost its excitement.

Finally she turned to Eric "I've decided. I think you should kill her for me."

The fear on Ariana and Bernard's face showed Valida that she had selected the worst possible method.

Eagerly he took the dagger that she passed him. "I'd do anything for you."

Ariana tried to run but Valida tripped her with a flick of her hand. Eric was beside Ariana in a second but it wasn't to help her up like she had hoped. He had a determined look in his eyes as he held the dagger above her. She tried edging backwards, rolling, anything to get away but Valida's magic still held her in place.

He hesitated and it gave her a glimmer of hope. "Do it Eric" Valida yelled at him, losing all calm that she once possessed.

Eric drove the dagger towards her stomach and Ariana squeezed her eyes shut, trying to handle the pain and blot out Bernard's yells.

She seemed to be doing a good job, there was minimal pain. Cautiously opening one eye, followed by the other, she found no blood on herself. His hand had frozen, inches away from impact. He had lost the smitten face and instead looked confused.

"Just do it" Valida yelled again. The smitten look half returned but he shook it off. Still his arm raised again. This time Ariana refused to shut her eyes.

"Don't Eric. Fight her" Ariana said, refusing to break eye contact.

The dagger made impact. But it wasn't with Ariana. Suddenly Eric turned and threw it straight into Valida's shoulder. In her moment of shock Bernard broke through whatever curse she had put on him to remain still and punched her as hard as he could. Eric jumped up and grabbed some rope to tie help tie her up.

She was disorientated so they were actually succeeding. "If you think I'm going down that easily you are clearly mistaken." She managed to get her hand free and with a simple flick Ariana felt her body go tense. With a second flick she felt disorientated and she wasn't sure how but she ended up in the ocean, being dragged down fast. She fought to get back to the surface but only sank deeper. Her arms grew heavy and it was harder to swim. Eventually she knew it was hopeless. Looking up, she saw the sun above the water and remembered how she used to think it beautiful. Now she knew that it was more beautiful above the water. She felt oddly peaceful. The burning in her throat lessened and she felt like she was drifting off into a deep sleep. The last thing she saw was a flash of silver before her eyes finally closed.