𝑰'𝑽𝑬 𝑮𝑶𝑻 𝑨 𝑫𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑴 - 𝑫𝑬𝑺𝑪𝑬𝑵𝑫𝑨𝑵𝑻𝑺

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑷𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝟏𝟎

NOTE: SON OF A MOTHERFUCKING BITCH HOLY SHIT THIS CHAPTER TOOK FOREVER OHMYGODDDDDDD GUYS I'M SO SORRY FOR THE FUCKING WAIT.

Anyways. Guys, this chapter is long. Like, it's LONGGGGGGGGG. 50 pages. The George R.R. Martin in me came out so hard this is just three generations of tragedy and bullshit, but it needs to be that long so all the connections and events tie together and IT'LL ALL MAKE SENSE I PROMISE. Now, without further ado;

A bit of insight, if I may...

~~~

Uma Hydravenellia was ten when she learned what was most likely the world's most important lesson:

Nothing in life was truly permanent. Nothing.

No one stayed. No feeling lasted forever. Everything, whether it be good or bad, was bound to come to an end. No matter how much you tried to stop it.

Uma's father, from what she could remember, was a lot of things; a scholar, a sailor, a healer, a hybrid. But what she remembered the most was that he was fiercely loyal. Unyieldingly protective. Ever-firm in his beliefs.

Even if it was what led to his demise.

Caspian Hydravenellia's mother, Maren, had been a mermaid with a penchant for traveling to land, similar to Uma's red-headed pest of an older cousin. Maren, from what Uma could recall, had been regarded as one of Atlantica's brightest minds. She'd had a knack for any kind of sea magic one could imagine. But she always craved more.

Since her school days, Maren had been hearing whispers of magic and mysticism on the surface. Tales of fairies and dragons and a cursed kingdom that had been sleeping behind a wall of thorns for decades. She spent her time in the Atlantica archives, devouring every observation that had been made about the ways of humans; the way they traveled, the stories they shared on their ships, the mystery their world held. She yearned for the days where she could give herself legs and leap onto the first ship she saw, sailing off to see everything the human world had to offer.

The only problem? Mermaids weren't too fond of humans, and vice versa.

It had been a long, sticky history. Unsuspecting humans on voyages would get lured to the murky depths through a mermaid's enchanting siren song, damning the entire crew, and feeding the ocean a few more wayward souls.

Vicious, bloodthirsty humans that called themselves 'pirates' would make it their life mission to hunt down mermaids, snatching them up in nets, trapping them on their giant boats, and gutting them for their scales or jewels or anything else that might have the magic of the seas inside.

It was a never-ending feud, and by the time Maren was 20, King Poseidon had decreed that those who sought a finhold in the human world had no place in his kingdom or anywhere within his seven seas.

Maren wasn't too torn up about the news. Her mother was a washed up artist she saw once a moon cycle, if she was lucky. Her father had flitted off to the southern seas to 'find himself' four years prior, and Maren hadn't heard from him since.

Truly, there was nothing keeping her in Atlantica. She had long-since advanced past the curriculum offered, and she had never been particularly interested in making friends with her classmates.

Yet, she knew that no matter which sea she traveled to, it would be the same; full of narrow-minded merpeople who trembled at the mention of a human ship, too cowardly to even peek above the water.

So, she made a decision. King Poseidon had made it clear that someone with Maren's ideologies wasn't welcome in the sea. Which meant it was time to leave the sea behind.