Ursula's Beginning

33. A tale of the bottomless blue (continued)

Land proved itself to be almost too simple. For one thing, the men were laughably easy to seduce. Ursula amused herself frequently doing just that. A pointed look from her inky purplish navy eyes, a toss of her long black locks, and the man's fate was sealed. It helped her forget about Triton, to have such novel experiences.

Only the men didn't know her as Ursula. She had adopted the name Vanessa, after a genus of butterflies she came to adore during her travels. She collected them herself, preferring to use them in her Transformation spellwork above all others.

Siddikah went by Cynthia above water, the name coming from a subgenus of the Vanessa family that she favored. Like the winged painted ladies she captured, she was gorgeous in her human avatar: ageless, graceful. Their butterfly namesakes belonged to the Nymphalini tribe, and together Cynthia and Vanessa formed their own little tribe of nymphs. The Squid Witch was playful and girlish with her endless stream of men. It gave Ursula an entirely new perspective on her mentor.

Whether on land or in water, Ursula could not have asked for a better guide or faster learning curve than what she received through Siddikah. Months passed in a snap. Ursula never wrote to Dismas and Melisande, and returned, unread, everything sent by Ephram. The only exception was the letter that never came back because it was sent with the court's blowfish and lanternfish--the ones that had irritated Ursula what seemed like a thousand years ago. They became Flotsam and Jetsam's lunch the day they arrived, as clueless and loud as ever, and Venerable Ephram's missive was shredded in the process.

Ursula was shameless now. She was happy in equal measure. The garden was silent, as she had become a master at manipulating voices. She found she could not only speak through her familiars--she could see through their eyes! This alone kept her occupied for weeks as she tested the range of her newfound viewing power. She sent the eels as far as Arctica to catch snippets of the double wedding in which Psamanthe and Halimede married the two eldest princes of the Arctic kingdom. Flotsam and Jetsam kept their line of sight away from Triton as much as possible. They enjoyed their master's high spirits too much to jeopardize anything.

It was the brief flashes of Ganeon at this event that impacted Ursula unexpectedly. The prince looked so much older now--the faintest beginnings of lines showed around his copper eyes and he had a full beard that nearly concealed his mouth. He was silent and somber at the wedding, completely oblivious to the jubilation surrounding him. Ursula recognized his crown as the one they had drunkenly toyed with at Triton's coronation.

Visions of this new, mature Ganeon began to haunt Ursula. Her capacity for guilt had dissolved alongside her capacity for shame, so it wasn't that kind of haunting--she regretted nothing about her interactions with him. She simply missed him, missed his friendship. Missed having male companionship that meant something. It was Prince Ganeon, not Triton, that had the nerve to shape his own life to his liking and didn't mind making waves in Atlantica to see it happen. In that way, the two of them were the same.

Ursula began to wake in the dead of night in the grip of desire. Curiously, she wasn't filled with longing; instead, she felt it outside of herself, as if a beacon was calling her to pleasure's shore. It was coming from Atlantica. Ursula believed Ganeon must be reaching out to her, willing her to return, hungering for her. But six months remained in her apprenticeship with Siddikah, so Ursula knew there was nothing to do but endure these feelings.

After a few weeks of this, the beacon became mobile. Sometimes she felt the pull coming from Atlantica, and other times--though not as frequently--it was coming from Pacifica's direction. This piqued Ursula's curiosity--was Prince Ganeon traveling between the two kingdoms on a regular basis? Perhaps he was in the thick of one of his research projects, or doing some diplomatic work at the family's bidding. Ursula sent Flotsam and Jetsam to track his movements.

They returned after a week, looking about as stricken as eels can look. Ganeon could hardly be spotted outside the palace walls. It was King Triton who was on the move.

He was courting Athena Marielle DuPacifica, and the desire Ursula was feeling was a consequence of Triton's growing excitement over the fiery haired mermaid. The tentacle segments living inside of Triton's belly, located between his heart and his loins, were relaying emotion back to their original owner. Ursula and Triton were as entwined as Siddikah had warned her would be the case.

A living nightmare had begun.