Ursula's Beginning

23. Look at this trove

Ursula didn't want to leave. She didn't want to miss a moment of the hearing, even though Ganeon had promised to fill her in on every detail later. And she could hardly tear her eyes from Triton's magnificent form. Thanks to the vitality spell, he looked almost as large as Alphon now.

The two princes were suspended next to one another facing the Council of Elders in one of the palace's largest halls. Banners bearing the royal symbol of Atlantica—the trident—were suspended above the room at even intervals. It was very much like an amphitheatre and it was packed. The crowd that had gathered to witness the hearing spilled out of the hall and formed a throng outside the castle itself, where highlights of the proceedings were passed along verbally from the hall to the outer reaches. The event had begun with high drama: Prince Triton proclaiming King Nepp's dying wish. The collective gasp inside the hall was echoed outside the castle about a minute later.

Alphon had countered that his father's final moments had been witnessed and described by an unreliable source. The Elders said they would explore the matter after some preliminary questions.

Ursula could feel Ganeon's eyes boring into the back of her head. The royal family was seated several rows behind her, and elevated above everyone else on a platform. "Go now!" she could sense him urging.

Still, she paused. She scanned the crowd. The Diaphanous were across the hall from her, amongst a group of their kind. Down the line to her left, Ephram was next to Cosmas. The cuttlemaids were to the right. Diagonally, Amoret lit up a section of the amphitheater with her loveliness. Sebastian was clustered with some nautili behind the Council, low to the ground. Ursula gazed upon countless merfolk she had treated over her career. Cecaelians that had mentored her. Volunteers for her vitality spell. Everything that had happened since King Nepp had died on her watch had led to this moment, and Ursula didn't know how any of these individuals would regard her after they witnessed what she was about to do.

"Excuse me for a moment," she murmured to Melisande and Dismas, who flanked her. She pulled the hood of a new dark violet cloak over her head and ducked through the crowd. Melisande watched her go with a sigh. She had made the cloak based on the recently tailored gowns that fit her frail daughter so well.

Ursula was thinner than ever. Despite reconciling with Triton after saving his life, and despite him receiving protection from her again, she remained a nervous mess in the lead up to the hearing. The two lovers knew full well that Alphon had ordered the attack on Triton, but having no way to prove it, they said nothing to the Queen or anyone else. Triton's absence from the castle had been brief, his recovery swift, thanks to Ursula's incredible skill. Alphon lay low after this and was scarcely seen around Atlantica, but Ursula was still frightened of what he might try next.

Ursula hadn't explained to Triton that he was part cecaelian now, and all that entailed. After the surgery, Triton had been so focused on apologizing to Ursula and declaring his undying love that he asked almost nothing about the procedure. And besides that, there was simply too much to contend with as the hearing approached. She dreaded disclosing the truth.

Ursula's multiple anxieties had narrowed her into survival mode. Sadly, it never occurred to the healer to perform the vitality spell on herself again; the ability to assess her own situation had deteriorated. Plans to study new branches of magic, so as to fully control her own future, were now distant and fuzzy memories. She was no longer a frequent visitor at the library, at Siddikah's, or at the home of her parents. Ursula had cut back on her work hours and spent much of her time at home with Flotsam and Jetsam, aiming her intuition towards Triton, trying to sense whether he was in any danger. The obsession had taken its toll.

Toll. Tax. A tax. Attacks.

Ursula's fevered musings ended when she reached the double doors to Alphon's private chambers. There were no guards stationed outside his room. Praise Poseidon.  Some had been posted along the corridors, but most were spectators at the event of the century under the pretext of guarding the royal family. 

She had mentally rehearsed the steps to retrieving Alphon's collection countless times, based on the cuttlemaids' account. She had spent double that amount of time praying that everything would still be where the girls had found it. Ursula slipped through the door.

Her prayers had been answered.

The mysterious items were shoved into two satchels she carried next to her body under the billowy cloak. In less than twenty minutes, she was back between Dismas and Melisande. It had all been too easy.

The princes were answering questions about relations between Atlantica and Arctica. Alphon was doing better than she expected. Her eyes narrowed. Who had tutored him?

"I'm satisfied," said the Arctican Elder. "We may proceed."

The Pacifican Elder rose above the rest of the Council. He was a tall, thin merman with closely cropped salt-and-pepper hair and a hooked nose. "Prince Triton, you tell us your father's last instruction as king was to keep Alphon from the throne. To whom did he give this order?"

"To Ursula, the cecaelian healer that was on duty when he died."

At the word cecaelian, several of the Elders glanced at each other. A few shifted uneasily in their seats. Seeing this, a grin tugged at the corners of Alphon's mouth.

Triton remained calm. Regal. "Ursula is a renowned healer in our kingdom, and my mother, the queen, approved the use of her services. She was steadfast in her attention and effort, and was sitting through the night with my father when he passed."

The Elder turned away from Triton to address his brother. "And Prince Alphon, you say this Ursula is an unreliable source. Explain yourself."

"Respected Elders, my mother did entrust father's care to this...cecaelia." He enunciated the word with hisses. "It was a last resort. She was certainly not the first healer summoned."

Atlantican spectators that knew Ursula were starting to glance her way. Dismas wrapped his arm around his daughter. She loved him for it, but she had never felt smaller, more childlike, than she did in her diminished body at this moment.

Alphon pressed on. "Ursula performed a spell on my father that was experimental. Dangerous. And what I can't seem to figure out is why the spell helped so many others she practiced it on, but killed my father."

The Elders eyes widened.

"Yes. Ursula killed my father."