In the dark of the night, after tossing and turning in her bed to no avail, Erika finally opened her eyes. No matter how much she tried to ignore it, the intense pain in her feet had awoken her and kept her from going back to sleep.
She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, rolling her eyes in annoyance when they refused to shut again. It was already bad enough that Antonio's spell was starting to backfire on her, but insomnia and exhaustion would only compound her misery. And yet, she was still unable to communicate with Feliciano well enough to explain that he was the reason she became human.
It was as she laid there, contemplating her predicament, that she finally realized the night was not as silent as it should be. There was a familiar voice in the distance somewhere, singing what seemed to be a familiar melody. Niba was right on the ocean, perhaps there was a mermaid nearby in the water luring a naive sailor to his death.
Erika climbed out of her bed, wincing as she put weight on her feet, and grabbed her housecoat from the edge of the bed. As she put it on and tied it around her waist, she stumbled toward the balcony doors and opened them, revealing a cool but still comfortable summer night. She reached the railing and leaned heavily on it, looking up to see a million stars and a crescent moon in the sky.
As the singing voice became clearer in the night, Erika concentrated intently on analysing it, and quickly made several terrifying discoveries.
The voice was her own.
Her disembodied voice which, by Antonio's spell, was put into a seashell.
Her disembodied siren's voice which Antonio had claimed to have sold to the fae.
The singing was not coming from the ocean, it was coming from the forest bordering the castle to the east. The seashell with her voice had definitely left the ocean now, as Antonio said was arranged, so the Unseelie King should be in possession of it. But it was not in the fae realm now, that was for certain.
The voice was being manipulated to sing an enchantment melody, normally used to lure sailors out of their beds and to the railings of the ship. This powerful hypnosis was known to be the easiest way to make sailors fall in the water, where malicious sirens could drown them.
At the moment, the melody her disembodied voice was singing was not to lead a man to water, it was to lure a woman into the forest.
And Erika knew exactly who the target was.
She looked down below her and spotted Natalya slowly ambling across the courtyard, heading towards the castle entrance by the servants quarters. She wore only her white nightgown, her long flaxen blonde hair hung loose behind her, and a white ribbon loosely dangling from her hand. A couple guards were loitering in the corner nearby, talking to themselves and not paying attention.
Erika rushed back into the room, glancing around for something she could use to get everyone's attention. Her eyes fixed on the vase holding flowers on the dresser - it was already a replacement, a maid dropped another vase yesterday - it would have to do. She grabbed the vase, marched back outside, and threw it down into the courtyard.
It landed only a few feet in front of Natalya, shattering to pieces and leaving the flowers strewn on the ground. The blonde was not startled, and did not falter in her slow pace. She merely kept walking forward, stepping on the shards of vase with her bare feet while the ribbon nearly dragged in the spilled water and flowers. Meanwhile, alerted by the vase shattering, the guards came over to speak to Natalya.
"Excuse me, miss, what are you doing outside at this hour?"
Erika watched as the first guard tried to speak to Natalya, only for her to keep walking forward past him with no reaction. The second guard looked up to the balcony, so Erika gestured at him - first by pointing to her own two eyes, then at Natalya - to watch her.
After the guard nodded to the command, Erika knew there was no time to lose. Willing her body to not fail her now, she strode back through the bedroom, pausing only to put slippers on her sore feet, and straight to the door. She emerged into the hallway and immediately marched all the way to the stairs, taking them down to the main floor as quickly as possible.
When she made it to the courtyard and rushed through, the second guard was waiting for her across at the entrance to the servants quarters.
"Your friend was not responsive at all," he reported as Erika reached him, "It was like she's in a trance. Tomas has followed her to the castle entrance on this side, Lars and Laura are here too."
He led her through the doorway into the servants quarters and down to the ground floor, through the multi-purpose room that was silent at this late hour, to where Lars and Laura stood by the outside door.
"Natalya's gone out into the forest, Tomas is following her," Lars relayed, "Do you know what is happening?"
Erika nodded, before bringing her hands up to gesture - laying her left palm flat while using her right hand to motion like a quill on paper - that she needed to write it down.
"Over here."
Lars motioned to a nearby table, where a single lit candle illuminated a quill, an inkpot and some parchment. Erika grabbed the quill, dipped it in ink, and wrote as quickly and legibly as she could.
Natalya is in danger! My stolen voice and its siren song is being used to hypnotize her and lure her away!
"Stolen voice?" the guard read aloud, "Siren song?"
"Erika was formerly a mermaid," Laura briefed the guard, "So that's how she's in such a powerful trance."
"Is there anything we can do to break the trance?" Lars asked.
Erika considered carefully, before beginning to write again.
Only by stopping the voice at the source, before it lures Natalya to wherever she's being led!
"She's being led into the forest," Laura determined, "We need to tell Tomas."
"You go catch up to them, Laura," Lars directed, "Erika, you don't know how to ride a horse yet, do you?"
Erika shook her head as Laura bolted out the front door.
"I thought so," Lars continued as he circled the table, "Eduard, take Erika with you to the stables, and have Eric prepare five horses. I'll go wake the Princes!"
While Lars crossed the room to head back through the courtyard, Eduard pointed towards the door leaving the castle.
"This way, Miss Erika!"
Erika followed him out the castle door, the same one where Laura had met her and Natalya the other week, and around the staircase that Lovino and Feliciano had used that day on that first meeting. At the bottom of those stairs was the entrance to the stables, where three stablehands were playing cards by a lantern.
"Eduard?" one of them called out, "What's happening?"
"We need five horses prepared at once, Eric," Eduard demanded, "It's an emergency, Lars is fetching the Princes as we speak."
"Why so suddenly?" Eric inquired as he and his companions stood up.
Erika stayed back as Eduard rushed into the stables with them, and he explained the situation as they checked which horses were awake. Feeling weak in the feet and legs again, Erika took a seat at the table where the group had been playing cards just moments before. She could still hear her voice in the distance, still singing that melody, she hoped they would not be too late to save Natalya.
After a few minutes, Eduard and Eric had brought forward the first two horses, already awoken and saddled.
"Miss Erika, can we please get your help here for a moment," Eduard requested, "I need you to come in front here and hold their reins."
Erika nodded and stood up, wincing at the pain but carrying on, and walked over to help. He placed her in front of the two horses, handed her the thin ropes tied around their heads, and ran off to help the others. She took a moment to look up at the two horses, their large beady eyes blinking and their ears twitching as they looked down at her.
Hearing voices and steps from the stairs, she glanced over to see Lars rushing down with Feliciano and Lovino, who were also still in housecoats and slippers like she was.
"Erika, you will ride with Feliciano," Lovino instructed as he approached, "Hand me the reins, Lars will help you get on the horse."
Erika handed Lovino the reins, then circled to the side of the horse while Feliciano quickly mounted himself in the saddle.
"Hands on my shoulders," Lars advised as he approached her.
Erika did as requested, and was a little surprised when he suddenly grabbed her waist.
"Jump."
Erika jumped, which Lars used as momentum to lift her in the air, high enough for Feliciano's arms to wrap around her and pull her back to sit sideways on the horse.
"Wrap your right arm around my waist," Feliciano directed, "You'll need to hang on tight. What direction are we going?"
Erika pointed forward to the forest, in the direction her voice was coming from, while Lars held the second horse for Lovino to get on.
"Lead the way," Lovino ordered, "The rest of us will follow."
The horse suddenly moved forward, prompting Erika to hug Feliciano tighter as they departed the castle and ventured into the dark woods. They had to swerve around several trees and fallen trunks, which made it so Erika had to check their way a few times and point in whatever direction her voice was now.
After a few minutes, they finally reached a path where Natalya was still walking, though she was actively being slowed by Laura and Tomas trying to hold her back. Feliciano led the horse in front of the trio before stopping it directly between two trees that marked the entrance to a clearing. Behind them, Lovino and Lars rode up to block the sides, while Eduard followed last on his horse while leading another saddled horse with no rider.
"Get the rope out," Lovino commanded, "Looks like we'll need to tie her up."
Feliciano dismounted the horse, before raising his hands up to Erika's waist. Realizing what he was doing, Erika reached forward and placed her hands on his shoulders to help support her weight, before he lifted her down to the ground. Once she was steady on her own feet again, Feliciano whipped around the horse to help the others.
Hearing her voice very close by, Erika looked the other direction into the dark clearing. Floating in the air, at the opposite side of the clearing, was a faintly glowing object that looked a lot like a seashell. Ignoring the voices behind her, Erika took a couple steps into the clearing, hoping to see the object a little more clearly and perhaps identify what it was.
After her third cautious step, the object disappeared from sight, and her voice stopped singing. Just above where the object had been, blue eyes glowed in the dark as they looked directly at her. When she broke eye contact, she noticed a few more pairs of blue eyes to the sides that were watching her as well.
"Erika? Do you see something?"
She turned quickly to find Feliciano approaching from behind to join her. She pointed first towards the edges of the clearing, then to her own two eyes, then between the two of them.
"We're being watched?"
Erika nodded, before looking out at the clearing again to see the eyes were gradually backing away and disappearing entirely. She took two more steps forward, and proceeded to take a third step, only for Feliciano to suddenly grab her and pull her back.
"Stop!" Feliciano warned, "Don't step in there!"
Snapping out of the surprise, Erika looked to the ground to see what Feliciano didn't want her to step in. In the grass was a perfectly formed circle of dense mushrooms, which looked in the dark like they might have multiple colours and plenty of white spots. Erika pointed at it and looked at Feliciano in confusion.
"It's a faerie ring," Feliciano described, "A portal to the fae realm of Yuvalon."
Erika gasped as that detail made everything clear.
"You know it too, don't you?" Feliciano deduced, "They were luring Natalya into a trap."
Erika nodded, before turning back to look at the others. Now that the voice had stopped and the trance was broken, Natalya was acting and speaking freely as Lars helped her onto Lovino's horse, her white ribbon clasped more tightly in her trip. Eduard was helping Laura onto another horse, while Tomas mounted one for himself.
"Come on, let's return to the castle," Feliciano led her, "When we get back, we'll tell the others what we found out."