“Personally speaking, I think it’d be best for you all to do as the blue-haired maiden says.”
“What was that?! Could it be...hm?”
“I” draws the attention of the whole crowd. We look up, seeking the source of the voice. Everyone tilts their heads to the side and frowns at the unfamiliar person speaking to us. Half-doubtful that we’ll actually see the source of this odd remark, we all look up—only to see a most unexpected character floating above us.
“Prince Maiteiah?!”
“I’ve come to grace you with my presence, Humans.”
“Long time no see, Zenon!”
“Bella!”
There, several yards above us, is Princess Bella from the Kingdom of Seleina riding what appears to be her familiar, accompanied by Prince Maiteiah. I must say, this is unexpected...in several ways, at that. My jaw drops as I recognize the two of them. Besides the other five who came to rescue me when I was taken to the Land of the Sea, however, no one recognizes Princess Bella, let alone the merman Prince Maiteiah. All of them stand there, staring and speechless.
Prince Zenon waves up at them. “Bella, good to see that you’re safe—but what are you doing here?”
“Under the orders of the Sea King, Prince Maiteiah here came to the capital of Seleina just before the disaster started. He took all the citizens of the city and the members of the royal family down to the Land of the Sea and sheltered them from the ice. Everyone else on land froze over, and the monsters tried to attack them—but the merpeople left the sea to defend them all against the demon hordes! We made our way towards Doran as we helped protect people along the way. According to the Prince, however, his magic can only work on himself once he’s on land.”
Prince Maiteiah levitates himself off her familiar and descends. He comes to rest in the air before me, just barely hovering off the ground. “Essentially, your magicks and those demons cannot harm us, but in turn, we cannot use our magic against them. The fundamental principles of our magic differ too much for us to have any effect on each other, so we are forced to fight the demons with our fists, which is rather a hassle, if you ask me.”
All the Knights and Royals around us are watching them with complete confusion written across their faces. “Merpeople? The Land of the Sea?”
Prince Maiteiah pays them no mind. “Now show me! Where is this King of Doran?”
“...Here I am.”
King Zerolight steps out of the crowd. His eyes are wide as he faces the mer-Prince, as if he cannot believe what is floating in the air right before him. A moment passes, though, and he finds his tongue again. “And why, might I ask, has the Prince of the Sea himself come all this way to Doran?”
“The reason for that could not be more obvious. Within this Kingdom lives one whose veins flow with the Blood of the Sea, a descendant of the Sea King himself.”
“A descendant of the Sea King?”
“The Sea King’s daughter once fled the Kingdom, and in some miraculous manner changed her form to that of a human’s. That daughter of the King is my older sister, and it appears that she gave birth to a daughter in this land, or so I heard from my father the Sea King the other day.” Prince Maiteiah turns to me and rubs my head with his scaly hand. “Just as I thought,” he says, “you are my sister’s daughter.”
His ‘sister’s daughter.’ If what Prince Maiteiah is saying is true, then my mother is his older sister. But Mom is a human, and even if someone were to try telling me that she isn’t my “real mother,” I wouldn’t believe them; all of my relatives have always said how much I resemble her. She’s got to be my real mother.
Benjamine tries to clarify the whole situation. “So, you’re saying that Nanalie is the granddaughter of the Sea King? Is that correct?”
“It is. This girl is my niece, in other words... Well, since we’re all gathered together like this anyway, perhaps I should take this niece of mine and make her my bride.”
Satanás gags and turns pale at this answer to Benjamine’s question. “Ugh! This ‘Prince’ guy is a gross dude, no doubt.”
Setting all that “bride” nonsense aside, however, I can’t quite believe his story about my mother. The King himself looks at me and asks, “Is this true?”
I hesitate. I can’t say yes, I can’t say no—what can I say? I wasn’t raised in a wealthy household. I grew up in a normal home. Yes, Mom traveled to foreign countries on occasion, but Dad has been working here in Doran all my life. I’d never even seen the sea until I became an adult. I remember how moved I’d been by the sight of the beautiful blue expanse stretching from the Seleinian shores out to the horizon, waves crashing gently on the sand.
Wait, that’s not everything—another memory flickers through my mind.
“Would you mind calling me ‘Grandfather’?”
“Ah!”
“What is it, Nanalie? Did you remember something?!” Benjamine draws close to me after I cry out in recognition.
Prince Maiteiah’s lips tremble as he glares down at the iced-over Rockmann, practically spitting with every word he speaks. “That unsightly frozen fool lying on the ground there seemed as though he’d sensed the connection between you and my father.”
Don’t lie. Don’t lie.
“You mustn’t lie.”
Mom’s always said that too, hasn’t she? Telling me not to lie. I never have met my grandparents on my mother’s side, have I? That’s because she basically ran away from home, or so Prince Maiteiah would have me believe. I only know the relatives on my father’s side. But that’s not unusual, is it? I don’t know my mother’s magic type either. Not knowing things about your parents in and of itself isn’t unusual, though.
Still. If the reason I don’t know much about my mother is that, well...
“Listen up, Humans: You’ve got one chance to attack. It has to be a one-shot kill. Take every last bit of magic you have and spell it against it.”
“Huh? Hold on, please—what about my mother?”
“Like you said earlier, the only way to take out a monster like that is with a massive amount of magical power. My older sister was changed from a mermaid to a human by the power of Ice, who had hidden herself for many years in the deep seas. At the time, that power took refuge inside of my older sister, but now that power lives within you.”
“Within me...?”
This is all happening too fast for me to follow. I force myself to try to understand what he’s saying: my mother is actually a Princess of the Sea, became a human using the power of Ice that had been hidden deep in the sea, and after that married my father and gave birth to me. Essentially.
And now that power of Ice is inside me, and that’s what Städal has been after all this time. Or so he says.
“But if I’m the daughter of the Princess of the Sea, how could you know that?” I ask the Prince. “The Sea King is said to possess the power to ‘see all,’ but surely he could not understand all that about me, even with his great power.”
“By merely entering the Land of the Sea, he saw your past, your present, and your future, as easily as one would look into a mirror. My sister’s life he saw too. From beginning to end, all is proceeding as he has foreseen.”
Okay. If I make it out of this alive, I am going to have a lot of questions for Mom.