Bastian's Song [Complete--Editing]

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Your Song.

The thought echoed in his head, growing into a chorus.

Your Song, your Song, your Song.

Some small part of Bastian's mind screamed at him that something horrible was about to happen to him. The rest of his mind buried that part under a wave of raw emotion. What would the Song of a Triton sound like?

"Can you really do that?" Hope was a single drop of water in a vast desert of despair.

Queen Asisya nodded. "I know of your ancestor's plight. He helped a goddess, and she stole his Song. In return, she gave him two gifts: a lock of her own hair and a pearl. It's a simple solution, really."

Bastian moved toward her without even thinking about it. She sounded so reasonable, so matter-of-fact.

"All we have to do is remove those gifts from you, and your Song will be there. You'll be able to sing all you want."

The blood drained from Bastian's face. Instinctively, he lifted a hand to his heart. "Remove? How could you remove a goddess's blessing?"

Asisya lifted the metal hand and showed him the palm of it. All along the shiny material, small arcs of energy traveled in concentric circles. Together, they showed a shifting pattern of symbols when the energy moved. "This is a gauntlet my people devised, based on theories, to interact with artifacts from the gods themselves. It is very likely that this gauntlet could reach into you and remove those gifts, the physical representations of Selene's blessings."

The silver light around Asisya flared up. Magic danced in her violet eyes. "Of course, there is a slim chance that nothing will happen when I touch you with the gauntlet, and all this was for naught. I understand if you don't want to risk the disappointment..."

Bastian wanted to believe he could have a Song. He wanted that more than anything he had ever wanted in his life. With a Song, he could show the world who he was, what his essence was. For the first time in his memory, he could make magic without the aid of the goddess. It would be his own strength driving the music.

"But...my people need me to have the blessings of the goddess." Disappointment weighed heavily on Bastian's shoulders. "I can't lead them if I can't protect them properly."

The queen smiled even more broadly. "My, my. You do have a good head on your shoulders, don't you boy?" Her shrewd eyes looked him up and down before nodding. "It is better not to worry too much about unnecessary things. You see, we're not taking the goddess's blessings away from you. We're only moving them from within you to outside of you. They should still work for you as long as you hold onto them. And, once more because I cannot stress this enough, we might not even succeed at that."

What she was talking about would almost certainly fail. The strange contraption around her hand would pale in comparison to the power of the goddess's gifts. It would be stupid to even try something like this.

Bastian didn't feel stupid. He felt optimistic.

Queen Asisya was so confident, and so logical when she spoke. She sounded like removing magical artifacts from inside Bastian would not be any harder than eating fish for his evening meal. Temptation moved him.

Reason restrained him.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't think I can do this, Asisya."

Her smile disappeared. Silence bloomed between them. 

A sharp pain blossomed in Bastian's neck, and he turned to face whoever had just struck him. Even as he turned, the world dimmed at the edges and the room spun.

"I told you to call me Queen." Asisya's voice sounded far away. 

Darkness overtook Bastian.

Voices roused him from his drugged sleep. His tail felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, and he tasted the tang of blood on his tongue.

"—derstand that, but you promised you wouldn't hurt him."

"I said I would try not to. I can't help it if he fights me."

Silver light cast shadows on the floor in front of him. Bastian struggled to move, but his wrists were bound by something cold and heavy. He turned his head to the side and saw the manacles from earlier wrapped firmly around his wrists. They clinked as he tried to tug against them, but they held firm.

"I see you're awake. You might wish you had stayed asleep awhile longer, but alas, I have finished my preparations."

Bastian did his best to look at who was speaking to him. The bright form of Queen Asisya slowly came into focus. "Wha?"

She lifted her gauntlet and swam forward until she was only a hand away. "You know, you're just as handsome as your father was. It's only a shame that you're a little cleverer than he. Must be something you inherited from your mother."

Asisya pressed her gauntlet against Bastian's chest, just over his heart. Cold lanced through him, but it was all he could do to shudder.

"Try not to move, or this will hurt even more." She forced the gauntlet even closer. The pressure grew to discomfort. Discomfort became pain.

Fire sprouted in Bastian's chest, white hot and searing his nerves. He screamed and his body spasmed involuntarily. Bastian's back arched, and he slammed his head back against the wall that kept his manacles anchored.

Around him, the water grew hot. The ocean responded to his screams, but he couldn't form coherent thoughts. He couldn't ask it to help him. Everything else faded away from his awareness except the fire inside of him.

Even his screaming stopped after a moment, when the roaring pain inside of him made it hard to even draw breath. Still, Asisya persisted. She drove her hand deep into his chest and he blacked out.

Beautiful, golden light tugged him back into consciousness. Asisya's hand slid out of Bastian's chest, and there, nestled in the palm of her gauntlet, rested a single, perfect pearl. The Ocean's pearl pulsed with magic. Bastian's magic.

His chest felt hollow.

Queen Asisya smiled, her eyes lit with the pearl's glow. "Finally. After all these years of planning, of hoping... I finally have the second gift." She reached up to her hair with her free hand, and tugged out a tress of fiery red hair. Woven into her hair, with a small braid, was a lock of silver hair that shone like moonlight. Together, the pearl and lock of hair contained all the magic that belonged to the bloodline of Triton.

"Look, see for yourself all that we have accomplished!" Asisya turned to her left. The scent of tala filled the water.

"I see it, Mother. Truly, it is amazing" Ambrosia's voice pierced Bastian's hazy thoughts and filled him with despair.

"Wa—" Bastian's voice croaked out of his throbbing throat. "Was it all a lie?" He squeezed his eyes closed.

"Oh, Bastian, of course it wasn't." Ambrosia's scent grew stronger. "I really do like you, but... not the way you might like me." Her delicate hands rested on his chest.

Asisya snorted. "I should hope not. You're brother and sister, after all. Even we don't approve of such things."

Bastian's eyes snapped open and he forced his chin up to look at her. Her pale gold tail filled his vision, followed by the spent vitae gem at her neck. Finally, he looked into her sad eyes, and the truth looked back at him.

"Sister?" Disbelief colored his voice.

Ambrosia looked away from him. She nodded.

Something clicked in the back of his mind. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place and he knew that this had been a long time coming. Bastian felt icy fear grip him as he stared at Asisya, who still cradled the pearl in her palm.

"It was a trap all along. You sent the letter. You killed my father."

The Queen of the Atlanteans smiled, and in her smile was Bastian's death.

~~~~~~~

Author's Note:

I would like you all to know that I love you dearly and I hope you will not murder me because of this story.