The Tale of Zaharos

Chapter 12: A big hairy mess

"Good morning, Sidonia!"

Sidonia turned around, looking for the source of the voice.

"Good morning, Eliana!" she beamed.

"Tuesday..." mused Eliana. "We have music today, don't we?"

"Yeah," answered Sidonia, not with as much excitement as one would expect from a mermaid, who is doing the unbelievably easy music lessons of the human school. But then again, when something is too easy, it tends to get boring.

"What instruments do you play again?"

Sidonia obediently started listing all the instruments she could play, including those that were made by mermaids. She was completely under Eliana's spell by now and the white-threaded bracelet on her hand was vibrating while it drained the energy out of her.

Eliana thought about Axel, about his opinions over free will and honesty, and for the first time, she thought that what she was doing might be wrong. Her smile wavered and Sidonia noticed it.

"Eliana? Are you okay? Is it something I said?"

"No, no," Eliana reassured her. "It's something I thought..."

"Do you want to talk about it? Could I help in some way?" Sidonia offered.

Cute, Eliana thought, her good nature and willingness to help might actually have been touching if she wasn't under the influence of my spell.

Eliana carefully controlled her expression as to hide her thoughts, while internally, she lectured herself about controlling her emotions:
'Axel is having a bad influence on you. His ideas are affecting you more than you should allow them to. You are getting quite emotional and it destroys your better judgment.
'The plan must not fail and if he is a danger to the plan, then you will have to eliminate that threat,' she thought. 'I will be careful,' she promised to herself, pretending to be two different people, which she usually does when playing a role.

'Now, it's play time, Viona... or should I say Eliana?' she thought, and for the first time in days, she smiled genuinely to her own joke.

Classic villain. First thing they do is start talking to themselves in second or third person and next thing you know, they try to take over the world. (Which is pretty much the next phase of the BIG PLAN.)

"You were incredibly good at music the previous lesson. The two-people-performance that you did was AMAZING!" Eliana exclaimed, changing the subject.

"I mean Mariana helped me a lot in that project," Sidonia answered honestly and she got lost in thoughts about her ex-best friend.

The past few days had been a nightmare for her. She wasn't feeling okay, she was crying often and she was almost always in a bad mood. She hadn't been herself ever since the day she argued with Mariana.

(Actually, she hadn't been feeling well since the day Viona gave her the bracelet, but she hadn't realised it back then, because the power of friendship's seashell had been protecting her.)

The bracelet... Viona had been quite proud of the little trick she had played on her so-called friend. Like friendship's seashell, the beads of Yin Yang, established a bond between the people wearing them.

The Yin Yang symbolises balance and the internal battle between good and evil, but with some magic in it, it becomes the perfect tool to destroy that balance.

Good, like the white light cannot exist everywhere. There will be always those dark spaces, untouched by the light and ruled by shadows. But darkness, like evil, can exist without the light. It can destroy the balance without any consequence. Therefore dark magic can twist the balance depicted by the beads and drain the energy and willingness out of the person wearing the white-threaded bracelet, giving the person wearing the black-threaded bracelet more power and control over them.