A Siren at the Helm

Chapter XI: Fort Montego's Chains

2 Years earlier

The future queen of Thalassophilia was a frightening sight for most. Her blood red tail and piercing green eyes that seemed to look right through you gave her an eery air. And this was just in general. When she was angry, this fearsomeness only intensified. Unfortunately, Amina only knew her too well in this state, as she seemed to have had little other emotion in the past few days. And as it happens, she was in one of her raging moods again.

"Your highness, I know this is a shock, but I have as much reason to be with humans as I have to be with sirens," Amina tried to reason.
"No, I forbid it!" Manon turned wildly, swiping a silver tray off her dressing table. It collided with the wall in a loud clatter. The things that had been laying on it were now in pieces on the bedroom floor. "For eight years you have served, and that service is not about to end. You can stay... we will find a way to conceal it, no one has to know about your true blood."
"With all do respect it is pretty obvious." Amina gestured to her tail. Unlike those of the other sirens her's lacked pelvic fins. "And my blood is not the reason for my decision, Manon."
"Do not forget your place!" The princess yelled.
"I am sorry, Your Highness," Amina corrected. Amina had served as lady in waiting to the princess for eight years, and in all of those eight years she had never been allowed to call Manon by her name. It always had to be Your Highness or -Royal Highness.

After having found out about her siren heritage, a friend of the Queen's had taken a liking to Amina. She had swindled the situation in such a way, that Amina was taken in as lady in waiting to princess Manon. Amina did not have much choice in the matter, and as she had thought it might better her situation, she went along blindly. Later, however Amina came to wish that she had protested against it with all her might.

"What do humans have in your eyes that sirens do not? They are dirty, they do not have magic and they are weak."
Amina could feel anger boiling up in her. With every passing second she was finding it more difficult to keep calm. Manon had just insulted almost every person she had cared for in two sentences. "For one I have found more compassion and decency among pirates than in this palace," Amina answered with clenched teeth.

For years she had been treated differently, and now she finally understood why. Yet, it did not sit right with her in the slightest. It had only been recently that people's suspicions were confirmed, but she had been judged long before this confirmation. If Amina had been honest, her "true blood" as Manon called it, was part of the reason for her leaving. Or at least her treatment because of it was. But she would not give Manon the satisfaction of being right. She had received that leniency for all of  the time that Amina had been in her service and she would not be allowed it again.

Manon swam up to Amina with such speed, that when she stopped not a foot away from her, Aminas hair was whipped back by the rush of water. "That is a two faced lie!" Her eyes glinted dangerously. They filled her whole field of vision. Amina did back down however. She had experienced this far to many times to be intimidated. "Every day that you have spent in this palace you have been treated exactly the same as I have. Tell me then, what great injustice you have suffered?" Manon hissed.

"Have I? Perhaps if you were not so blinded by your own selfish desires, you would have seen how your actions and the actions of others affected people. Perhaps if you gave a damn about anyone but yourself, you would perceive the world for what it really is." Amina was past all point of being nice. For too long she had served under someone who would find every opportunity to make her feel small. For too long she had been stuffed into a role where she didn't fit. Now she was tearing out of it, and she did not care if she offended Manon. Some of these things needed to be said.

"You will not speak to me that way. I am your princess, I am the future queen of Thalassophilia. You will treat me with the due respect!"
"There is a difference between respect and blind, forced admiration. And I have been living... no it cannot be called living, surviving with the latter for far longer than I care for. You," Amina pointed an accusing finger at Manon, "do not have the power over me that you think."
Manon laughed, a crazed ominous laugh. "I, a royal, have befriended you, a lowly, halfblood, former pirate and this is how you repay me? By abandoning your kingdom and me, your only friend. Do you honestly think that you will find better among humans?"
"I know that I will find better among humans because I already have," Amina hissed. "We were never friends. I was merely forced into your presence."