Chapter Nine - Changes

"I'm afraid I won't be home anytime soon," Orm updated when they spoke next. "I don't have a timeline. It's really bad out here, Aurelia."

"Well Opal, it looks like it's just you and me - again. We're going to have some serious girl's time..." That's right, girl's night! "What should we do?"

Sleep, it would seem. Both mother and child had a good long, and certainly much needed in Aurelia's case, snooze.

Then it was feeding time, and changing time, and bath time. Aurelia entertained Opal by using her hydrokinesis to make animals and other shapes appear in the water and spray around her - it made a big mess, but was totally worth it. And then, at last, it was Opal's bedtime. They settled down in the rocking chair for a bedtime story.

"'Roar says the scary grey shark. Blub blub says the little orange fish. Waaaaaa says the big blue whale'," Aurelia read aloud. "Huh, whoever wrote this book definitely can't talk to fish - not like we can, huh Baby Girl?"

But Opal wasn't listening - she was asleep. She was asleep!

"Holy shit-" As carefully - and quietly as she could - Aurelia carried the little bundle that was her daughter to the crib and tucked her in. As soon as she exited the room and shut the door behind her with no mishaps, she did a little victory dance in the middle of the hall - quietly of course.

"Guess who's asleep?" she announced in a whisper, continuing her little dance when she entered the kitchen to join her father.

Tom chuckled. "Ah, not bad. It used to take me twice as long to get you to sleep."

"I believe it. I had a lot to say - ugh-" In her fuzzy-brain state she had reached into the fridge and instead of grabbing her juice, she grabbed a bottle of her own breast milk. She quickly swapped it for the desired juice and joined Tom at the table, where he was drinking, you guessed it, a beer.

"You certainly did."

"I don't know how you did it, Pops. I mean Orm and I have you guys and a whole Kingdom helping us and the kid is still kicking our asses every day. And you, taking care of me, raising me on your own..." She raised her glass. "You're the real superhero, that's for sure. To single parents."

They touched glasses in a toast.

"Sometimes I don't know how I did it either. Don't worry kiddo, first time parents have no idea what they're doing. We certainly didn't."

"Thanks Dad. Were you scared?"

"Oh, terrified. Especially after your mother had to leave. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it, but I did." He took a gulp of beer. "And my job was a little less stressful than yours."

"And you actually like your job. I just plain suck at mine. Vulko and Aria wanted me to bring the land and the sea together, but the problem is half of Atlantis still wants to destroy the Surface. They won't listen. I can't bring shit together." She heaved a sigh, a heavy one. "I sure do miss them."

Tom patted her arm. "Hey, we can't save them all, Kiddo. You really wanna know how I raised you here all by myself?"

"Sure do."

"You just keep going. You celebrate your wins and mourn your losses. Then you get up and do it all again the next day. Sometimes not giving up is the most heroic thing you can do, and the strongest thing you can do is keep going."

"Wow, wise words, Pops." She reached across the table and squeezed his hand. He squeezed her hand back. "Cheers to that." They gave another little toast. Tom took a drink and then spoke some encouraging words in Māori.

She smiled. "Thanks Dad."

From his travels, Orm was checking in constantly, regretfully with no good news and also no ETA of when he would be returning home.

"We've been running tests and it's worse than we thought, I'm afraid - the state of the water has shifted dramatically. It's spreading rapidly, and only getting worse, not better. At this rate, it will not only be a problem of Atlantis, but the whole ocean."

What was happening out there? They were no closer to answers than before.

"On a positive note, guess who's asleep?"

"No way."

"Yup. Again."

"You're amazing."

"Well I'm not so sure it was me - we were reading a pretty terrible book."

"I'm sure it was all you. Kiss her goodnight for me."

"I will. I love you."

"I love you too."

She missed him like crazy.

"Just unbelievable footage coming in from all around the world. Good evening folks. In the past five months we have seen an extraordinary rise in temperatures reported around the world. And that has resulted in some of the wildest weather we have ever seen. Yes, this is thundersnow in Dallas, Texas. Visibility level is zero, and there's more snow expected tonight than Dallas usually sees in a year. It's only one part of the worldwide weather phenomenon unlike anything we've ever seen before. Scientists are at a loss to explain, but the real question is, how much longer will it continue, and how much hotter is it going to get?"

"What the hell?" Those really were the million dollar questions. Not only the sea, but the Surface seemed to be imploding as well, all happening in near-perfect sync.

Aurelia was snuggling with Opal in bed, watching the depressing newsreels - well she was watching, Opal wasn't.

Footsteps sounded out in the hallway. Then there was a tap at the door and Mera walked in, fresh out of the water in her classic green wetsuit.

Aurelia knew even before Mera spoke that she had been summoned. "You're dripping all over the carpet."

"Sorry. Aurelia, the Council's called an emergency gathering. There's been another outbreak."

Yup, summoned. She heaved a heavy sigh and scooped up Opal. "Sorry Baby Girl, but Mama's gotta go to work - go back to work."

Soon - again, too soon for her liking - she was back in Atlantis and all suited up. She did not like being in the Council Chamber facing down the Council without Orm at her side.

"Where was it this time?"

"The Ninth Tride of Atlantis, but there are now incoming reports of cases in the Fishermen Kingdom as well," Karshon informed her.

"You should see all the weather reports from the Surface - this is affecting the entire world now. Which is why we need to join forces - we can combine our technology with theirs, and work together to reverse all this."

Still they were resistant. Big surprise. "The damage has already been done. There is no 'reversing this'. And have you already forgotten that this plague killed your beloved mentors."

She gritted her teeth. She really wished Orm was here or she might just lose it. "Yes, the wound is very fresh still. You don't need to remind me."

"They have infringed on our waters more now than ever. We gave King Orvax-"

"Do not mention him-"

"-War powers and made him Ocean Master for a reason. They cannot be reasoned with, only stopped."

Aurelia couldn't believe they had worked with Old Orvax but their values did align, so there was that.

"I can't do it all on my own. Isn't that the whole point of this stupid Council? To help me do my job? Especially now that my advisors are dead? How the hell are we supposed to get anything done if we keep having the same conversations and arguments over and over again with no results?"

It was clear: one of them was going to have to change their stance, and it clearly wasn't going to be Lady Karshon and the Council.

Well, it wasn't going to be her either.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed and we'll see you in the next one! :)