After being made the 'prize' in a twisted Suitors Dance, Sapphire, a young mermaid rebels against the Ancient Rules and could end up marrying someone she barely knows. Will Finn prove to be all that she was looking for, despite the recurring visio...
I turn my head, my long hair briefly blocking my view. I reach my hand up and using the back of my hand, push my hair to the side to get a better look at who is laying next to me. The years have aged him well. Finn smiles and leans forwards to kiss my forehead. I can't help but smile, my head groggy from sleep.
"You know what today is?" He says, settling back onto his pillow, handcrafted from the softest sea foam and sponge.
"I think so, but I'll give you the pleasure of telling me yourself." I say and lean back against him.
"its our fifth year anniversary." Finn whispered into my ear.
"Seriously?" I say "God I feel old now." I say and giggle.
"If you keep laughing like that you're going to get crow feet on your eyes." He said and tickled my nose with his.
I laugh even harder and scooted out of bed. I stared at myself in the mirror of reflective clear seaweed. I didn't notice any wrinkles, I mean by now I was around 23 years old so there wasn't a large chance that I would have them, but things under the water were a lot different than what it was like above air. When I married Finn I was almost 18, and insanely young age for marriage, but not in my Kingdom. Arranged marriages were likely to happen, arranged by the fathers to expand territory or make peace with other Kingdoms.
"We have work to do, you should probably get up soon." I tell Finn as I shrug on a long silky robe over my night clothes and open the door to our chamber.
"Awe come on do I have to get up?" He asked, struggled to get up, wallowing in the covers.
"You're acting like a child, honey, get up." I said and laughed as I put in my earrings.
He smiled at me and got up, pulling on a silky white fiber blouse made of scavenged sail. He wrapped his hands around my waist and smiled into the mirror looking at me through it.
"So your Highness, what are we going to do today?" he asked and tousled my hair. I pulled away and swam into the hallway, him close behind.
"Well we are going to finally sign the papers to ban arranged marriages," I told him, not turning around.
"What do you not like ours?" He said and swam in front of me, smiling jokingly.
"I love ours, but that is a lot different than the norm, you know that." I said and gave him a reproachful look. He looked like a wounded puppy and I kissed him on the cheek.
"We need to make sure that everyone has a choice to marry whomever they want." I say and keep swimming to the kitchen. I was greeted by Cami, with her little daughter on her hip.
"Sapphie!" The little girl squealed and reached her chubby arms out to me. I smiled and picked her up.
"Aren't you looking sealightful this morning!" I exclaimed, handing her back to Cami as we shared an inside joke about sea puns, they went back with us a long long time.
"How has she been doing?" I asked Cami quietly as the little girl rummaged through the chests for something to entertain her. Cami had found the little Mergirl abandoned in a ship that was far out into the ocean. Cami was looking for antiques to bring back for her collection and happened to find the girl.
"A lot better than when I first found her." She said and settled herself down to help the girl find something to eat.
"That's good," I say and smile and ruffled the girl's hair as I swam by to find something for myself.
I could see that Finn was looking at the little girl, a smile playing across his lips. I knew he wanted to have a kid of his own, and I'm not going to lie it's not that I didn't think that he would make a fantastic father, cause he would. I just wasn't in that headspace right now. I had and still have so many rules and things that need to be changed and I just couldn't imagine putting that all down to raise a kid, not yet at least.
I walked into the throne room and settled myself into my seat.
"Can someone please bring me the documents for me so that I can sign them?" I said into the room, one of the guards nodded and moved to the side so that another man could come in, a small stack of paper in between the palms of his hands.
I sigh and wanted to finally get this over with. I know that Finn and I were a rare variable when it came to us being happy after having a marriage that wasn't ours to choose. Many Merfolk, from all over, were forced into marriages that they didn't want to partake in. I wanted to make sure that everyone, no matter where they were or whose lineage they were supposed to carry on, where allowed to marry anyone of their choosing. I did not under any circumstances want to be the kind of Queen that ignored these sorts of things, and I would not let this chance slip out of my hands to actually enact some change in these seas.
"Are you ready?" Finn said, swimming in. I would have been just as happy signing these papers by myself but I knew that the ancient laws (that I would be sure to revise as well) deemed it so that Finn's signature would also have to appear on the forms, otherwise I know that some of the Kingdoms and Queendoms wouldn't recognize it as an actual rule.
"Yes." I say and breathe heavily, looking up at him and smiling.
He nods and says 'let's do this'. I nod in response and grab the quill that is handed to me, as does Finn.
We both sign.
"With these forms, we have decreed that no one is to be judged or forced into a relationship that they don't want. Anyone may marry whomever they choose, male or female or otherwise, as long as it is within the legalized age restrictions. Royal blood or that of commoners has no stance in the heart. May these documents help the seas realize that...." I stop trying to think about a phrase that would sum up all my feelings, and smiled once I grasped it.
"Love is love, no matter lineage or upbringing. Love is all that there is and all that there ever will be. Simple as that."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
