Erika slid behind a rock and hid for a few moments, waiting for the other two merfolk to pass by.
She had been exploring the surface of the sea quite a bit lately, which was discouraged by most merfolk but outright forbidden by her elder brother. Her adventures were normally very safe, observing ships and sailors from a distance to see what humans were like. It was not quite enough to see them at a distance anymore, she wanted to see them up close and wondered what it would be like to live among them.
In her most recent escapade, however, things took a drastic turn. A strong storm capsized a ship, and most of the men drowned very quickly in the water before she could reach them and help them out. There was one young man she was able to help though, quite handsome with a bit of red to his brown hair. He seemed to be barely conscious as she hoisted him up to the surface, where that golden-winged fae told her to bring the young man to a nearby lifeboat.
Once the young man was on the boat, she immediately swam home before the humans could actually speak to her, or worse do anything to hurt her. She doubted they would, as she had just saved their friend, but merfolk always had to be wary. However, the last few days since the shipwreck, she had been unable to get the young man out of her mind, and now she was resorting to drastic measures.
"You really shouldn't be so hard on her, you know. She's young, she wants to see the world."
Erika tucked herself neatly into her hiding spot as she heard Angelica speak. Angelica was a fellow mermaid, with darker skin contrasted by icy blue eyes and tail, and Erika knew her brother had a soft spot for her. Erika had recruited Angelica's help in keeping Basch distracted this evening, claiming that she only wanted to explore a nearby shipwreck.
"She shouldn't be going so close to humans though," Basch complained, "The sea is fine to explore, just not the surface and certainly not anything beyond."
Erika waited and watched as the two merfolk swam around the corner, before emerging from her hiding spot and swimming away in the other direction. She followed the currents and swam as quickly as she could out of the heart of the mer-city on the seafloor, carefully as to not swim into anyone or anything.
After several minutes of swimming, she finally reached the outskirts of the city, bordering where the rocks and coral became wild and untameable as the rest of the ocean. It was no secret that cecaelians lived in this part, a divergent species of merfolk that did not have tails and instead had eight tentacles like an octopus, and that some of them practiced powerful magic.
And if her childhood memories served her right, she had already met the one who might help her with her new quest.
She slowed as she approached the tall rocks surrounding the cecaelian caves, some of them shooting up like black spires against the dimming lights of dusk at the surface of the water far above. Several pairs of eyes locked on her as she floated by, Erika could tell they were watching her closely.
After she swam past one cavern, she suddenly felt the water move beside her as a cecaelian whipped around from behind to stop her in her tracks.
"Hello there, chica. You shouldn't be around these parts after dark, you never know who may find you."
The dangerously charming cecaelian was well-tanned and muscular above the waist, while below the tanned skin changed into flesh that split out into eight dark turquoise tentacles. On his head was long curly brown hair that swayed in the current, and he smiled at her with a curious look in his turquoise eyes.
"It just so happens I'm looking to find someone," Erika requested, "You wouldn't happen to know of a sea-witch cecaelian named Antonio, would you?"
"Ugh, of course you're looking for my brother," the cacaelian grumbled and rolled his eyes, "He's down here, follow me."
Erika followed as the cecaelian led her into the rocky spires towards the ocean floor, swimming past a few more curious cecaelians who watched her pass by. At the bottom of a spire, a large cave system opened up below, with multiple openings into the rocks.
"Wait here," the cecaelian instructed.
Erika did as she was told, waiting in the open water as the cecaelian dove into the rock opening. She briefly heard voices come from inside the cavern, before the cecaelian emerged from the same opening with a companion. The second cecaelian looked very similar to the first, only his hair was a bit shorter and his eyes and tentacles were green as seaweed instead of a deep turquoise.
"My brother tells me a pretty little mermaid is looking for me," the green-eyed cecaelian greeted as the turquoise-eyed one swam away, "Would that be you by chance, chica?"
"That depends," Erika said, "Are you Antonio?"
"Yes, that is me," Antonio answered, "It's not every day the pretty young merladies come looking for me, it's usually the other way around."
"We actually met once before," Erika divulged, "It was many years ago though, my brother knew you better."
"Your brother knew me, did he?" Antonio reflected as he circled around her to get a better look, before stopping in surprise, "Oh dear, you're not Basch Zwingli's little sister, are you?"
"That is me," Erika confirmed, "My name is Erika."
"What are you doing out here so late?" Antonio fussed, "Basch would no doubt be worrying about you right now, and you are near the dangerous parts of the Eldarin."
"There's something I need your help with," Erika demanded, "Something Basch would never approve of me doing, but I need to see if it's possible."
"You've come looking for some witchcraft, have you?" Antonio caught on, "If that's the case, why don't we move down into my lair?"
Antonio pulled on her wrist to gently guide her down into the rocks with him, and Erika let him lead the way through the passages. After a few turns through the rocks and corals, they reached a cave that looked quite well-used for magical purposes. The center of the cave had a large hydrothermal vent protruding from the seafloor like a cauldron, which was emitting some faint white steam through a hole in the roof of the cave. The walls were lined with alcoves full of trinkets, and she saw as she got closer that the vent was glowing white from inside.
"Well then," Antonio pried as he started circling around the vent, "What magic are you hoping I can conjure for you?"
"I want to leave the ocean," Erika revealed, "I want to walk on land and join the humans."
"You want to become a human?" Antonio questioned, "Why in the deep blue sea would you want to do that?"
"I have my reasons," Erika stood firm.
"None of that shying away," Antonio ordered as he backed away to one of the alcoves of trinkets, "If you expect me to cast the right spell, I need to know what purpose you have that requires being human."
"I've always been curious about humans," Erika hesitantly started, "I want to see their world, to walk and dance like them -"
Before she could finish her sentence, Antonio grabbed something from the shelf and tossed it into the cauldron-like hydrothermal vent. The glowing inside suddenly changed from white to green, and created steam that gathered above the vent. The steam then transformed to start showing images, and revealed the scene of the shipwreck where Erika rescued the human.
"Oh, you've been very reckless, haven't you?" Antonio chuckled as he approached the vent to observe the vision, "Going to the surface, rescuing a young man from a sinking ship… He's the reason you want to become human again, isn't he? You like him and want to find him again!"
Erika held her tongue and refused to answer, but it was all for naught as she could feel her cheeks heat right up. Antonio only giggled as he swam over to her and pinched her red cheeks.
"Your blush is just too cute!" Antonio cooed before backing away, "Don't worry, chica, I'm not making fun of you. The fact that you've fallen for a human is delightful! And on top of that too, I can even see who he is, if you want to know."
"You can?" Erika asked, "Who is he?"
"You managed to find yourself a prince," Antonio identified, "To be specific, Prince Feliciano of Solyra, second in line for his family's throne. He lives in Niba, in a lovely castle right on the shore of the Eldarin Sea, very easy to find. The tricky part will be getting him to actually talk to you, royalty do not mix with commoners very often."
"I need to become human to stand a chance," Erika reiterated, "What can you do about that?"
"I know just the spell to work with here," Antonio explained as he used his hands to swirl the mist, "You must understand, though, that this spell depends on you completing your ultimate objectives for why you're becoming human in the first place. If you don't accomplish this within the allowed time, this spell will backfire and your remaining time as a human will become very painful."
"How much time will that be?" Erika tested.
"Hard to say, it's never the same," Antonio disclosed, "The spell adapts itself to whoever it is being cast upon. It can be days, weeks or even months, but hitting a full year is rare."
"I should be able to work with that," Erika accepted, "Anything else I need to know?"
"The spell cannot be reversed, attempting to do so will turn you to seafoam," Antonio elaborated as he grabbed a purple pearl from an alcove, "Also, we need to discuss payment, I don't cast magic for nothing, you know."
He dumped the pearl into the vent, which made the vent's magic shift again, this time switching to purple and not showing anything that Erika could decipher.
"Well, that is strange," Antonio muttered as he observed the new purple haze.
"What is?" Erika asked.
"For powerful spells like this, I have the fates tell me the price to charge," Antonio clarified, "In this case, the price is not to be paid with any currency we know of, but with a peculiar item that will be of use to me sometime soon."
"What is this item?"
Antonio swam up close to her, and gently brushed a finger along her throat.
"Your voice."
"My voice?"
"Your voice," Antonio spelled out, "I am to store it in a seashell, where I will keep it safe until it is needed. Meanwhile, you will join the humans, but you will not be able to speak."
"I will be mute?" Erika verified, "But how will I talk to Feliciano then?"
"You'll have to figure that out for yourself," Antonio analyzed, "Add in the time limit with the spell, and it seems the fates are challenging you and making you pay for your wish. I suggest you consider this carefully before you accept."
Antonio silently swam away to another shelf, where Erika could see he had a collection of seashells to choose from for the spell to take away her voice.
She watched the swirling steam of the vent and silently contemplated the choice before her. If she went through with this, she could never return to the sea, this life would be completely lost to her. Her brother, her friends, the wonders of the ocean, she would never see any of it again. In addition, if she joined the humans without any voice, how would she learn to live among them? Who would care at all about a former mermaid who had become a mute human?
And what of Prince Feliciano? Would he remember her and have any interest in her? Was it worth the risk to become a human and find him again, only for him to reject her? Or was this meant to happen? Was she meant to find Feliciano again, and see what could happen with the two of them? Was this only the beginning of what would lead to her true fate?
Erika finally glanced away to see Antonio approaching again, holding a shell.
"Do you need more time to think about it?" Antonio offered.
"I'll do it," Erika declared, "Turn me human."
"As you wish," Antonio obliged, "Here, hold the shell for a moment please."
Erika accepted the shell from his hands, before he swam off quickly to collect other items from the alcoves. She inspected the shell in her hands, it was ivory-coloured with purple adorning wherever lines had cut into the smooth texture. It would surely make a good home for her voice, which many have described as light and sweet over the years.
Antonio returned to the vent with several items piled into his arms, and dumped them all into the vent at once. Powerful green steam shot up from the vent, which Antonio used his hands to stir and manipulate the magic within. He then backed away from the vent, before tossing in one last white pearl to activate the magic.
"It's your turn, Erika," Antonio instructed, "Approach the vent with the shell outstretched in your arms, both it and your hands need to enter the steam."
Erika willed herself to venture past the point of no return, and slowly swam forward with her arms outstretched. There was no immediate impact as her fingers entered the steam, nor when the shell in her palms joined it.
As soon as her hands and the shell were completely immersed to her wrists, the magic suddenly shot up her hands, through her arms, and stopped painfully in her throat. Suddenly unable to breathe, Erika withdrew her hands from the steam to reach at her throat as it burned. After a few breathless moments, she began coughing harshly, feeling the pain arise to the back of her mouth as she gasped.
After one painful cough, a small ball of magical essence escaped her mouth and started floating in the middle of the water. Gasping for breath, Erika watched as it floated into the steam, where the seashell was now floating without anyone holding it. The moment the ball of magic went inside the shell, the shell began to glow with the same magic. The steam faded away, and Antonio reached inside to collect the glowing shell.
"That should have done the trick," Antonio verified, "Try to speak."
Erika tried to complain that the spell was painful and hurt her throat, only to find that no sound was coming out of her mouth.
"It worked," Antonio advised, "You can rest your mouth, you don't need it for a while."
Erika rolled her eyes and calmed back down as Antonio returned to an alcove and placed the shell gently on a coral cushion within. He then grabbed a couple more items, and turned to look at her with a wicked smile on his face.
"That was only the opening act," Antonio directed, "Now, for the main event, let's turn you into a human!"