The Twins from the Sea

Chapter XXIII

Moana was audibly groaning as Ophelia and Aikaterine practically drug her through the palace doors towards the library. Aikaterine led them through a corridor that they hadn't explored before. Despite the circumstances, Ophelia felt a surge of excitement about seeing the library.

"I'm surprised you haven't already found this place, Ophelia," Moana grumbled as they continued through the long hallway. "You're, like, magnetically attracted to books."

Ophelia said nothing but smiled, and rushed forward as two grand doors came into sight at the end of the hallway. She pulled them open, anticipating a grand, Beauty and the Beast- esque collection of books. Her breath caught as she scanned the room in front of her.

"This..." she said, not able to hide the disappointment in her voice. "This is it? These are all the books you have?" Ophelia moved forward into the small room. The walls were lined with three floor-to-ceiling shelves, and that was it. The middle of the room held a table and several sponge armchairs. Aikaterine looked embarrassed.

"Yes," she said, scratching her neck. "I apologize about the doors being so... misleading. They were recovered from the original palace library. It used to be so beautiful." Ophelia felt a twinge of guilt at her insensitivity.

"There are a few more books in the Royal Family's personal library. I'm sure they would be happy to let you make use of them. I'll send someone for them now," Aikaterine said, hurrying out of the room before either girl could say anything. Ophelia cleared her throat and started scanning the titles on the shelves. Moana flopped into an armchair as Ophelia gathered a pile of books in her arms. Moana jumped when her sister dropped the large pile on the table between them. Moana shifted in her seat.

"Please help me, Moana," Ophelia pleaded, surprising her sister with the sudden urgency in her tone. Moana was at a loss for words.

"I... I'm not so good at this, you know," Moana said, referring to studying and books in general. Moana suddenly remembered the study workshop her parents had her attend the summer before they left, as a result of poor grades. She felt a small glimmer of hope as she recalled the different study techniques. "But I can try." Ophelia smiled brightly at her sister and rose, gliding to the bookshelves surrounding them. She picked up every volume she could find that had anything to do with sea life, sea creatures, ocean history, ocean gods, and so on. By the time the sisters were satisfied with what they had, they had cleared most every shelf, leaving only the fictional texts. The entirety of the small coffee table was covered in leather-bound books, and Ophelia nodded at their collection approvingly. She reached to the bag that she'd placed under the table, and pulled out the notebook that she'd made several days prior. Ophelia moved closer to her sister and opened it, revealing sketches of the different creatures they'd seen on the battlefield. Moana raised her eyes in surprise.

"You never told me you were a decent artist, O," she said, leafing through the several pages of drawings and notes.

"This is nothing, I just tried to get the main features of all the... the, um... them." Ophelia said, her cheeks turning red and struggling to find a word for the monsters they'd seen. Moana nodded and searched the pile of books on the table.

"Well, let's try to find the book that will be the most useful and try it first, then we can-" Moana started, but was interrupted by a soft tapping on the grand library doors. They creaked open and the twins were delighted to see their mother pushing a small cart of books. Fiona smiled warmly and closed the doors behind her.

"I heard you were doing a bit of research," she said warmly as her daughters rushed to embrace her. When they pulled away, Fiona reached into the cart and pulled out a red leather-bound volume with silver trim.

"I found this and thought you mind find it particularly helpful," she said, showing them the title. The block writing read 300 Ocean Monsters.

Ophelia gasped with excitement and grabbed the book, opening it and smiling ear to ear when she saw its many pages of illustrations and text. She immediately sunk into the chair and started reading, matching sketches and pictures, and making notes. Moana selected a book off the table about previous ocean wars and scanned through and read her own notes. Fiona sat and helped her daughters for a while, before being called away by a messenger. Ophelia worked tirelessly in the monster book while Moana switched between history titles. Moana was almost startled when her sister cleared her throat and closed the book. 

"Okay, so I think I might be on to something. Most of the creatures I saw are vaguely identified as Cetus, which is just a general identification for any oversized fish, shark or ocean animal. Remember the ones we saw?"

Moana nodded, excitement building in her chest.

"Well it says here, which we already know, that they work for people. Like soldiers-for-hire. But, they don't necessarily know who they're working for... they know what they're working for," Ophelia said, looking extremely proud of herself.

"Like a reward?" Moana said, slightly confused.

"No. There's this orb thing. Like a crystal ball. And whoever possesses that orb..."

"Controls the monsters!" Moana said, jumping up off the chair and rushing to the door. "We have to go tell mom and grandma!"

"Wait a minute! There's one more thing... It says the orb has been locked away in an underwater cavern for centuries. It's enchanted so only someone with noble purposes can get to it."

Moana paused at the door. "Noble purposes? That doesn't make any sense."

Ophelia furrowed her brow as she re-read the page.

"Do you think that just because Poseidon is the sea god he gets to use it whenever he wants?" Moana asked again. Ophelia shook her head.

"No. It says that the orb can only be used for good and righteous purposes, no matter who summons it," she said, looking up finally.

"It can all be worked out later. Now we have to go tell them," Moana said firmly, and Ophelia followed her out of the room.

•••

"So what we're saying is the key to winning this is to get the orb, and stopping their army," Ophelia concluded, trying to sound as confident as possible. When they'd gone to tell the queen and Fiona, they requested that the twins present their case to the entire Sirenian council of advisors. She stood in a lecture hall with her sister by her side, in front of a council of worried-looking Siren politicians. One stood up.

"Well, may I be the first to heartily thank you both for your service to us." he said, giving them a tired but grateful smile. Moana suddenly felt a huge pit of worry in her stomach.

"Oh, but sir, this is only the beginning. We have many other ways to help..." she said, sounding frantic. If they weren't going to let them be a part of this war...

The politician laughed. "No, no no. I completely understand this. We thought at first the best thing to do was keep your safe and indoors. But now we know that you're not going to do any saving sitting inside a castle."

Moana smiled brightly and rushed forward to grab and shake his hand.
"Thank you, thank you!" Then she backed up to address the whole audience. She looked at her sister, who smiled at her.

"We won't let you down."