Nail colors and connected emotion:
Yellow- Happy
Red- Anger
Blue- Sadness
Lilac- Nervous
Green- Envy
Orange- Surprise
Black- Disgust
Grey- Confused
Pink- Love
White- Neutral
Striped-Feeling more than one emotion
No color- Sleeping or half-asleep
For a while, the mermaids squabbled with Damian regarding his need to take a turn with the mirror. Orca and her non-spellbound comrades started to get suspicious of why Damian was blatantly refusing. Their nails are orange and grey.
"If he doesn't want to, we shouldn't force him." Orca smiled sweetly. Her nails turned a brilliant yellow as she was elated Damian would not achieve his objective. Therefore, she sat down. Out of options, Orca's free will Aqua Senshi sat with her, too. All had various nail colors now as their feelings concerning this situation differed.
"If I do this, will you promise not to desert me?" Damian questioned the enthralled mermaids.
"Never," Karen vowed immediately.
"If I'm going to be queen of Rush City, I should stand by my king." Noel beamed lovingly to Damian.
Sara and Coco only nodded. They felt they would say something witty back to Damian, blowing the fact they had broken free if they spoke. When facing the enchanted mirror, Damian did not see a morbid version of himself. Instead, he saw a mermaid with long, silky, shining green hair, a white bra, and a light blue tail! Orca knew she wasn't from Hannah or Lina's domains. Truthfully, she had never witnessed this girl before. Also, while white is a standard color nowadays, it is used only among royals. However, something about her bright blue eyes remained oddly familiar...
"Damian, what are you doing here? I thought you said you didn't want me anymore?" the figure in the mirror spoke harshly to the disfigured bastard before her. The captivating girl's voice sounded familiar, to the Aqua Senshi's surprise!
"I would say, "Nice to see you again too, Lani," but that'd be a lie," Damian replied without a hint of love or intrigue.
"Wait...Lani? As in...Naia's daughter?!" Orca cried out as her jaw nearly hit the floor.
"Do you know any OTHER Lani?" Damian demanded back mockingly.
"It's not a common name," Karen added innocently. Or at least it wasn't common among mermaids.
"You broke my heart!" Lani roared at Damian.
"Your heart?! You ravaged my face!" Damian snapped back.
"Your face isn't ruined." Seira squeaked.
"So, you're the Damian who abandoned Lani for gold. What is this regarding her disfiguring your face?" Lina questioned curiously.
"Following our break up before I left, Lani deformed me to reflect my greed. That's why I discovered the whistling enchantment! No mermaid will love someone who looks like this willingly!" Damian roared, hurt buried deep in his eyes.
"As long as someone is kind to me, I wouldn't mind if they are deformed," Sara admitted quietly. Everyone agreed with her, even Karen and Noel.
"Why do you want a mermaid wife anyway?" Hannah pondered as they still hadn't figured this bit out.
"Well. Reason one: You're the most captivating creature I know of. Reason two: You are inherently talented musicians. I'd love to keep all that music for myself. Reason three: I admire your intelligence. Do I need more reasons?" Damian explained darkly.
"Thank you for such flattery," Lina replied in her usual curt voice. Nevertheless, you could still glimpse a slight blush on her cheeks.
As Damian chatted, the mermaids felt a little sympathy for him. However, how he went about things was still immoral. "I will not permit you to use that cursed melody to control our Princesses!" Somehow, Lani's influence reached through the mirror to liberate Karen and Noel's minds!
"NO!" Damian boomed. However, he was powerless and could do nothing as Karen and Noel lay on the ground, recovering.
Helping them up, they are dazed and confused. As Karen and Noel seemed to get their bearings, Lani manipulated her abilities to safeguard them from Damian attempting the hex again. Everyone's nails turned yellow!
"What happ-?" Noel began to ask until a sound caught her ear.
Something about this sound was disturbing, like it should not be able to be heard here. Consequently, their mermaid's nails glimmered pale lilac. It grew into a droning as another door began to unlock! What was making that accompanying clanging noise?! As the room unveiled itself more, it seemed dry, like it was somehow above water. Could a bit of this city be aboveground, and nobody ever noticed it for being part of Rush City?
Everyone crawled into land with their orange nails, assuming human forms. Even Damian exited his sub. In the middle of the room, a spherical orb shimmered! As Orca examined it closer, she noticed something peculiar and thought, "Huh, the orb is...moving? No, it's not an orb! It's...flying keys!"
"What kind of puzzle is this?" Damian yelled in exasperation.
"One of them must be able to open that door on the other side!" Lucy pointed across the room. The group could scarcely make out a wooden door built into the opposite wall through the haze of golden metal.
"How are we supposed to figure out which one?!" Orca called over the droning.
"There must be something...hang on a sec...there!" Karen pointed to a key with a small red tassel attached, the only one different from the rest!
The other keys were banging into it for some reason, as it already had an injured wing. As the speedy one, Karen dived into the crowd and managed to rescue the wounded. However, the girls remained undecided on how to use it as they did not think gripping and turning would suit the key's delicate wings. As Noel stroked and sang sweetly to the key, it began to sparkle! Rising out of Karen's hands, it zoomed into the keyhole and unlocked the, according to Damian, last door!
Rushing in, this chamber had a silver floor, gold walls, and everything else was made from princess jewels! Regardless, this had to be the Throne Room! To everyone's shock, a gigantic stone statue of the last king of Rush City sat on the throne! A pleasant, leveled, mini waterfalls-like decoration surrounded him!
"This is known as the Unwavering Resolve Temple. Yet why would the residents place a worthless stone on the throne? They should have been looking for a replacement monarch." Damian scoffed and readied his whip to crack apart the statue!
"Look!" Sara did not know why, but she drew everyone's attention to what, at first, everyone guessed were mermaid statues lining the walls. However, on closer inspection, they were chiseled to such perfection they looked almost real!
As everyone took a minute to admire the statues, an earthquake-like rumbling shook the temple! Shortly after, a booming voice spoke, "Admire the last intruders to my kingdom. Soon, you will join them!" Noticing a shadow looming over them, the group turned to see...