Maame Water: The Legend Of The Fish Queen

The Quest

The King grunted in pain; the temporary cold had rendered him numb but now that the warmth was returning, so was the pain of the wound his sister had given him.

"You would help me?" the King whispered in confusion. He had assumed that the Oracle had deemed him too arrogant to render him her services.

The Oracle nodded imperceptibly.
Yes, she said. Rise little king; lying aground like a slave is not befitting of a king.

"If it please you," the King replied. "Great Oracle."

The King struggled against his half-paralysed body and finally managed to stand on his shaky feet. He fought off his light-headedness and forced himself to focus on the Oracle, pointedly avoiding her icy gaze.

As you may have noticed, the Oracle began. Your sister and I are two sides of the same coin; polar opposites of each other. Where your sister is warm, I am cold. Her skin shines with a golden lustre while mine remains pale. Her hair is as dark as night, while mine is whiter than the whitest cloud. Her eyes, now red, were once dark but my eyes remain white. Her power gives her control by calling upon love while mine gives me control by invoking fear as you may well have noticed. She rules the southernmost part of the kingdom while the north has always been my domain. You see, we are alike in so many ways, and yet very different all the same. Two sides of the same coin.

The King considered this; he had realized that there were similarities in the Fish-Queen and the Oracle's powers, but that still did not tell him why the Oracle wanted to help him.

The Oracle narrowed her eyes and as if reading the King's mind she said,
I help you because her power threatens mine; it grows stronger everyday and until now, I had thought she did not have a weakness.

"A weakness?" the King asked. "Great Oracle, she may have spared my life but that does not mean that she-,"

She loves you, the Oracle cut in.

"W-what?" the King stuttered.

She loves you, little king. That is her weakness.

"No," the King said, shaking his head. "That cannot be true. She massacred my men! She killed Kabu!"

But she did not kill you, the Oracle said pointing at the King.

The King looked at his chest and saw the jagged wound across it.

She could have killed me. She had every chance to kill me...

And the he remembered:

I love you, brother.

She had said that when she kissed him. The King had thought she hadn't meant it but what if-

She meant it, the Oracle said.

"H-how do you know?"the King asked. "You can't know that! A-and even if what you say is true, how is that a weakness?! H-her powers-,"

"Will not work on you."

The King's head sharply turned to the entrance of the cave in search of the new voice. For a second, he had thought Kabutey and his kin had disobeyed his orders and followed him against his wishes, but he soon realized that the voice did not belong to any of his men.

The King looked towards the entrance of the cave, where the footsteps seemed to originate from, and as they drew closer, the figure's outline became clearer until he was finally fully bathed in the pale blue light.

"Her powers would not work on you," the figure said. "Now that you know she loves you."

You are returned, the Oracle said. What kept you?