Seirra: Chapter Fourteen

“So that’s why you’re always with him. Are you sure you’re not his girlfriend?”

A choking sound followed by someone coughing.

“What? Of course not! Besides, he’s supposed to marry you remember? It’s his duty. And yours.”

“Hmph. I’m not going back to Aquania. I don’t care if they get discovered. It’s not my business. It never was.”

The sound of a chair’s legs scraping the floor as someone obviously stood up.

“But, Marina…”

Their voices slowly penetrated my mind and their words began to form meaning. I felt terribly tired but as usual, I didn’t feel any kind of pain. A merman’s ability only removed pain but never the feeling of exhaustion. For one, to be able to cure, one must use their own energy. And that was why it was never advisable to fight again right after healing anybody.

“You’re obviously in love with the Celari. If I don’t go back with him, he’ll remain available.”

A short pause.

“But he wouldn’t be mine, either.”

I mentally winced. Even though my eyes were closed, I knew just how Margaret looked like as she said that statement. I had been with her in the past twenty days and it was hard not to recognize what her words and facial expressions meant.

She was that easy to read.

Talking with her grandfather almost every night was a huge influence as well. It was like the stories were enough to make me feel that I knew Margaret my whole life. Ever since I started my search for Marina, I had been careful not to get too close with a female human companion. It was difficult to keep my distance from Margaret, though. That first day I saw her as she made her way to the small cave by the beach, I felt as though a strong magnet had started pulling me to her.

As if I needed to be with her.

As if she was the girl I was looking for.

As if she was my princess.

I was a Celari however. I was bounded by my duty to my people and no matter how much I wanted to be with Margaret, I couldn’t.

So I fought the attraction, kept my distance, and hid behind smiles and jokes.

Then we found Marina. I had expected her to be as pretty as the other royals but she was more than that. In all truth, she was probably the most beautiful princess of Aquania. With that I had no excuse not to fall in love with her once we were back in our kingdom.

Unfortunately, all I felt when I see the princess was either irritation or responsibility. Because of that, I knew that I would forever be unfair to her when we got married. Like I’ve convinced her to go back to Aquania.

I didn’t know whether this complication was good or not but knowing that we’re short on time was making me desperate. It was also making me miserable, knowing that once the remaining nine days were over, I would never get to see Margaret ever again. And she would forever forget about me.

Which should be good.

Hearing the sadness in her voice was enough to make me want to give up my tail and live as a Huntre—just like what Grampa did.

But I knew that Margaret would never forgive herself if I did something like that. She knew what was at risk and she was a woman who puts others first before herself.

“Well, that sucks,” Marina commented on Margaret’s confession.

I slowly tried to open my eyes.

“So what are you going to do once he left?” she asked.

“The Key would make me forget anyway,” Margaret answered with a catch in her voice. “I’ll simply go back to the way my life was before I met him.”

Somehow, their conversation didn’t sit well with me. I no longer wanted to hear anything related to my departure so I cleared my throat to catch their attention.

“You’re going to leave with me, princess. You have to.” My voice was still hoarse but both ladies seemed to understand what I said without difficulty.

“Notice I never used ‘we’ in relation to ‘leaving’ and its synonyms. In short, you leave, I don’t. End of discussion,” Marina said in a bossy tone. She went to sit on the chair by the room’s only window.

I tried to sit up and Marge immediately came over to help me.

“Are you alright now?” she asked, worried.

I gave her a smile and nodded.

“Marina allowed us to stay over then offered to heal you.” I saw her glance at the princess before she continued, “At first I thought I shouldn’t trust her but when she said she had no intention of killing you, I decided you needed her help.”

“Thanks,” I told Marge in an assuring voice. “Because of this, we no longer have to guess which room was hers.”

“Shit,” came Marina’s soft curse.

“Your Magnificence, Aquania needs you and we don’t have much time. I hope you find it in your heart to be responsible enough for your people,” I told her, subtly targeting her morals.

She laughed. “Are you trying to use my conscience to get me back to that ass of a world? Excuse me but never did I think of you or anyone like you as my fucking people!”

“I’ve offended you haven’t I? You curse when you feel trapped,” I replied calmly.

“Shut up!” she said through her gritted teeth.

I felt Margaret’s hand seizing mine, apparently nervous.

“I don’t think we should upset Marina any further, Seirra. She’s powerful, remember?” she whispered.

“Relax. I don’t think we’ll go that far.”

“You don’t know me. You don’t know anything so stop trying to psychoanalyze me.”

Her voice had a hint of desperation in it and I wondered whether she was telling us everything or not.

“Exactly,” I said. “And we won’t know anything until you tell us. That is, if you’re not as selfish as I thought you were.”

I saw her fist tighten around the hem of her body-fit black dress.

I knew it, she isn’t as bad as she wanted us to believe, I thought to myself.

“You won’t even try, princess? You don’t have a family here anymore. While your father, King Tideus, is waiting for you in Aquania.”

She suddenly stood up and focused her glare on me.

“Like hell he’s waiting!” she cried. “When my mother died, I tried to find Aquania—I tried to go back! I grew up like I had no mother and I thought I could finally find a home. After all of my mother’s obsession with beauty, I had hoped that my father would be happier to see me but that’s not what happened. Every day I was at sea, looking for Aquania. I used my powers and tried to reach my father through our minds. But when I finally got through, the moment I told my father who I am, I felt his anger as he pushed me out his mind. I felt it.” She turned her back to us and stared outside the window. “He didn’t want me there! So why would I go back?”

Her story got me confused and I had to rewind her words for me to fully understand it.

“Wait, do you mean all this time you’ve been trying to go back to your kingdom?” Margaret clarified. She glanced at me then continued, “But if that’s the case, why did you say that King Tideus didn’t know where his daughter was? Now I’m confused.”

“You’re not alone,” I replied. Then, “Princess, are you sure you were able to connect with the King?”

She turned, stood straight and looked down on us like the royal she was.

“Are you calling me a liar?”

Margaret visibly swallowed and had I not been trained to face an adversary, I wouldn’t have been able to continue looking straight at her eyes.

“No, Princess Marina. I’m not. But if you really were able to say at least a sentence to the King, it wouldn’t have been a problem to find you. And if you really were looking for Aquania, you shouldn’t have had a hard time finding the passageway. You are of royal blood, after all.” I shook my head in confusion. “Unless, Aquania’s leaders had been hiding information from me all this time. Something’s definitely not right.”

I saw Marina’s chin lift higher in a show of superiority.

“I don’t care. As far as I’m concerned, I’m no longer acquainted with merpeople of Aquania.”

Her attitude made me angry and despite the exhaustion, I stood up and faced her down.

“No matter what you think, you’re still the princess of Aquania. Don’t you dare forget that!” I saw her wince and I was glad that I got to intimidate her. She had to stop disconnecting herself from her homeland. Especially now that there was a possibility that someone in the kingdom might be trying to keep her from going back to Aquania.

“Let’s go, Margaret,” I said in a stern voice, motioning for Margaret to get ready to leave.

We were almost out of the door when Margaret stopped in her tracks then turned back to Marina.

“Don’t you want to find out the truth? What if your father really wanted to see you? With Seirra’s help, you could finally get the chance to have a family.”

“Leave,” Marina commanded in a cold voice.

I allowed Margaret two more seconds of pleading with her eyes before I pulled her and started dragging her out of the building.