Mariana Trench

Two: A Rare Exception

"What am I supposed to do?" "Allow the third form to come forth." "Dare I ask how?" She just floated there expectantly. I scowled and concentrated. Or tried to. "Why did the queen expect me to be able to shift into some human body? They were so unwieldy, so cumbersome. They stumbled around on those gangly ugly legs, rather than swimming gracefully with a single tail fin. Unless you were a rarity and had two, but even those fins still moved in unison. Humans were so, so just, just, no. But the queen had told me I could, told me I had to." I tried not to sigh out my air. "She could've ordered me to." I closed my mind to everything else, and let the power of the pendant swim through my body, searching for that other, other, part. Suddenly, warmth spread through me, an almost erotic flavor on my skin and scales. Suddenly, my body became lighter, yet heavier. And the water, was becoming very, very, very, uncomfortable. I jerked and surged upward to air air air air air air.
I gasped for breath as the water broke around my face, then struggled to remain afloat as my equilibrium was thrown all off. It was wrong, just, just all kinds of wrong. I floundered like a gangly fish in the jaws of a shark, doing everything it could to get away. Even when it was too late for fighting. "Ok, really bad comparison."I took a deep breath as I felt my body beginning to sink. I flipped, arching back, trying to keep my belly and chest near the surface. Taking a lot longer than it should have, my body floated toward the surface and I almost spluttered and sent myself floundering again. I reached out and found a wall, and grasping it, pulled myself upright. I turned to stare stingray barbs at the queen who remained in the center of the water, her head canted to one side. I bared my teeth. "Seriously? I could have drowned." I frowned. "I'd love to say it's amusing irony, a mermaid almost drowning, but I'm certain in our past, plenty have almost drowned, or have drowned."
I scowled harshly. "What is the point of this, what is this?" My body began to shutter uncontrollably. It was a strange, not too pleasant feeling. "Ah, yes, your body is more human now. Though you will maintain a lot of your mermaid instincts and qualities, your body is more susceptible to the cold. At least, this kind of cold. While living amongst the humans you won't feel their cold, not likely get sick from their ways. But, while being here, you will." "W-w-w-w-w-w-what?" I snapped, my words were strange, as if I couldn't get a single one out. The queen nodded. "Get out of the water, you'll find you'll warm up faster." Scowling more petulantly, I turned and for the first time in my life, climbed a staircase.
    "Absolutely cumbersome, absolutely cumbersome. Who'd ever want to be human!" I tried to walk, to, walk, out of the water, and fell, actually fell. Next I tried to, what was it humans called it, run out of the water, run up the human stairs. But again, I fell. At least I was able to protect my face from smashing into the hard rock. I tried, as humiliating as it was, kelp, deep sea darkness and mucking kelp it all was humiliating. But I tried crawling out of the water, crawling up the stairs. As my body slowly left the water I felt it's weight start to bring me down and I struggled as my gangly human legs shook out of control.
    The queen just floated there, her head canted to one side, watching my fruitless struggles. Finally, I sprawled against the rock, my body, my naked body, out of the water. I hadn't realized just how uncomfortable it was to show our skin. I guess because as merpeople we only mated when the time came, but now, right now, being human, everything on display for all to see. Well, I was very glad only the queen and I were here. The queen watched me and said, "You will be tasked with two duties. You will go to the human coast, and learn their ways, you will—"What, no." I snapped. The queen tilted her head to one side. "Excuse me?" She asked it like a normal question, but I knew it wasn't, still though.
    "No, I'm not going to the human lands, I'm not learning anything I'm not going there." "You will do as you are commanded, as you are ordered by your queen." "I will not." The queen's gaze hardened, hundreds of years of power staring back at me, but I refused. I was no stranger to that gaze, to the gaze of a queen or king. I hadn't lasted as long as I had by being compliant, by being obedient, by bowing my head. "I'm not going to become some low level merchant, some fisherman's bride, some boat mistress, it's not happening, Mother." "You will go to the human lands—"I will not suffer there like a fool. I will be an orca queen as I am meant to be." The queen bared her teeth.
    I knew it was stupid, kelp and plankton I knew it was foolish to argue. You never argued with a ruler, being sent to the dungeons was the least of your worries. The rumors of what happened down there, the fear the dungeons of any ruler had was apt. Yet I was the princess of a ruler, yet I was the daughter of a ruler, I was an exception to the normality. My own personality made me fearless, dangerous to anyone. My questioning, my denying, it was normal. All of it was normal. The queen honestly should expect no different from me. The queen neared and said coldly, "You will do as you are ordered child, because, child of mine or not, you will be rebuked if you do not—"I've heard that before, and I am not afraid, at all. You won't do anything to me, and I'm not going to the surface to become some human pet for the Trench Colony. I will not." "You my child are such a, heretic." She said after a moment of thought.
"Are we really surprised though?" The queen bared her teeth and hot rage lit in her eyes. "Make no mistake child, that heresy, that arrogance, the disrespect, will get you killed before long." "Luckily for me, I'll be queen, so I'll get to make my own laws, my own rules." The queen sighed, laying her head back. "By the sea, you sound like me when I was your age Mariana." The queen didn't make it known whenever I acted like how she did when she was my age. Though she truthfully, didn't look much older than say, twenty-seven, in human terms. In truth, merpeople could outlive humans, some from the older families, could survive for thousands of years. From the more ancient bloodlines, such as ours. Then, I frowned, frowned, because, because something she'd said had went straight over my head. "It had been illegal for centuries. You sound like me when I was your age." I looked at my human legs, my belly button, my exposed human crotch.
"You, you, you, you," it was suddenly, very, very, very, very, hard to breathe. As if my now human lungs couldn't catch a breath. The queen just stared at me, her eyes impassive. "You broke the laws, you mated with a human male, how, why, when, what—"Ah, finally, she's asking the right questions." The queen swam closer, as if that were the moment she was waiting for. "Simply put, about seventy-two seasons ago, eighteen human years, there was a brewing storm, a storm across the oceans that caused most ruling families to go against each other. Caused one of the deadliest country wars. Most of the time, we go to battle to test each other, because the oceans change, because powers shift, because seasons call for it. But this time was different, and our country needed special forces. So, I set out of the castle, and moved toward one of the human lands."
I stared at the queen as she recited a tale that was older than I, a tale that she'd kept to herself for so long. "I realized that the humans had changed beyond what we could've anticipated. That they were the cause of many of our battles because they were changing the ocean, were changing our lifestyles. Were killing us, our food sources, everything. So, I fell in love with a human male and showed him what I was, allowing him to see that the world was bigger than anything he or anyone else could've envisioned." "I was born from that union?" I asked, though the answer was obvious. The queen nodded. "I encouraged him to speak, to tell the world who we were, to inform the world they were destroying our homes, our food, destroying us. But he told me he couldn't he couldn't tell anyone because he'd be seen as a fool, as worse than that. So, I broke the laws to have you, to be able to do what was necessary to truly give us all a better world." "How?" I asked.
Then the flood came out, an inundation of words. "How could you create me like that? How could you shame me, shame our family like this? How could you honestly say this, this creature I am would save our world? Humans are disgusting, deserve nothing but death for destroying our homes, killing off our food, our territories." I fully expected the queen to lash out, to slap me down, literally, to cause me such agony for such massive disrespect. But she merely bowed her head. "Haven't you wondered my child, wondered at the other part of you? There are more reasons why it's illegal for merpeople to mate with humans. Because that union, that pairing, causes a shift in the balance of powers that is our kind. Those children, become more." "More? What do you mean by more?" I asked.
"They become more, in the sense they have what the humans would call, powers." "Powers?" She nodded. "It depends on the ruling families, sometimes, even others can rise and have gifts of their own. But the more ancient the blood, the more power is rewarded to the mermaid." "Hold on, powers? Merpeople don't have powers." The queen tilted her head. "Do we not? To the humans, the ability to change form would be viewed as having powers in itself. Being able to communicate with other species, other races would be viewed as having powers. But what happens when mermaid blood si mixed with human, is where you get those who can predict storms, those who can control the water. Merpeople who can step on to the land, and cause earthquakes."
    This was all just too much for me to take in all at once. "Is this why you brought me to some remote part of the castle, so no one would know you broke the laws?" The queen grinned. "Of course." "So, what powers, supposedly, do I have?" The grin turned into a broad smile. "How old is the Trench bloodline Mariana?" I sighed throwing my head back. "Of course you can't just answer a simple question, you have to answer question with a question." She merely waited. I sighed again. Drawling the words, I said, "We are one of the oldest families, since the beginning of mermaid kind. We have lived for five thousand years, though some speculate we have been alive for three times that long." "With our blood and the human male in your veins, you'd be an unstoppable spy." I laughed, then jerked at the word, "Spy." "Wait, are you actually serious?" The queen nodded. "You were intended to learn the ways of the orca, this is true, but you were meant for more than that."
    "What do you mean more?" "As of today, we are putting the finishing touches on your cover story, you will go to an orca pod, learn their ways, learn to gain the trust of the entire orca species, then travel to the human lands and do the same, you will become a spy in the human realm, to learn how it is they are destroying our homes, and stop them." I laughed, deeply, darkly. "You can't be serious. Am I supposed to do this on my own, if that's the case I'll die as soon as I leave the castle, not to mention I go nowhere without Zoe." "Ah yes, your dolphin companion." The queen stared at me, and my heart sank. "I'm afraid you will have to travel without your dolphin companion." "What, shark-bait no I will not. I go nowhere without her." ""She is one of the many unfortunates to have lost her pendant and is confined to her animal form for eternity. There is no way for her to reach land with you."
"Thankfully I'm not going to land, I'm not going to some human lands to spy. I will not learn their ways, I will not travel their world, I will stay in our world, learn the ways of the orca as I'm meant to, and that'll be that." The queen swam closer, her gaze fixed on mine. "No child of mine, that will not be it, that will never be all. You have powers that is rare amongst our kind. Powers that could change mindsets for generations, and you need to own that. Learn what you can do, learn the human tongues, the human ways, and determine when war is coming." My mouth gaped open. "W-w-w-w-w-what? War? What war, who's war?" "As I said, humans are destroying our homes, our crops, our food, even our hunting grounds."
"Yes, and what does that have to do with war?" "Because Mariana, our kind will rise against the humans one way or another. If we don't discover a way to stop the humans destroying the oceans, other colonies, other merpeople countries less civil than our's will rise and raze the human lands." I frowned unable to fathom it, to truly imagine it. "So, so because of this, merpeople would actually attack humans?" "They already have, there have been attacks since the beginning of our time. But the truth is that there are countries who'd do it for selfish gain, because they believe humans belong beneath us, they are less than us. There are some who are just outlaws and want to get a taste of human blood. There are many many reasons many parts to it all."
I shook my head, unable to honestly believe it. "O, for the record, I wasn't raised under a rock, I was well aware that there were always merpeople who wanted blood, human or otherwise. I was aware of the battles that were fought against colonies and against countries. I was aware there were outlaw careers, outlaws who didn't care about honor or loyalty only their riches. But still, to think of an all out war, where millions of merpeople would die? That was hard to follow." There were millions of us, we'd spread to even the coldest parts of the world, spread to the hottest points, the deepest, the shallowest, we found ways to adapt and survive. To imagine all those lives lost, wasn't easy. The queen nodded as she saw the realization strike in my eyes. "More devastating than you can possibly imagine, so much more." "Why me?"
"Because your bloodlines my love. Because you have the potential to do great things, to bring peace rather than war. Because war is coming, you can bring peace and save our kind, but also human kind." "If you saw this coming why didn't you just do something when you had the chance?" For the first time, sadness entered the queen's eyes. "I did try, I tried to warn the humans, tried to stop them, but they wouldn't heed my words, and, and someone almost killed me for it." My heart stumbled a beat. "W-w-what, who—"Your great grandfather." I shuttered. I remembered the stories told about him and his reign before my mother dueled him and won, barely. "Was that—"That's why I dueled him, yes." "Did you kill him?" I asked, almost afraid to know the answer. The queen stared off into the distance, as if she was remembering that battle. "There's never a way to kill evil like that." She hadn't answered the question, and a cold vent opened up and breathed down my spine.