IMPORTANT!
Author's Note: After reading some reviews on other sites that I've posted this on, I realized that there's a lot of confusion about when everything happens. This will all be fixed in the major revision period I plan to start this week. For those readers who don't want to have to go back through everything to understand when the heck everything is going on (haha) here's a quick recap:
- Peter and Stefan found Adva on the beach a year ago.
- Adva's supposed "suicide" occurred about a month and a half ago. Between now and then Prince Peter has kept to himself and grieved, and Adva has been living as sea foam. So! Adva, Peter, and Stefan were together for about ten and a half months.
I've also gotten a lot of comments that the characters' foundational back-stories weren't very clear, and I'm not giving enough away for the reader to feel like he/she can fully invest him/herself in the character. This will also be fixed in this week's rewrite!
Meanwhile, here's a new chapter with a bit of back-story to hold you guys over until the rewrite is finished. :)
Everything that happens in the rewrite will be recapped in Chapter 9 so that you can be up to speed without having to read everything over again. :)
Okay, I'll shut up now. Back to the story!
A year before Adva would find herself on the floor of the fisherman's hovel, a mermaid was trembling at the entrance of an underwater grotto. On the surface of the sea, the moon streamed into the water, light scattering in the water and casting gruesome shadows among the crags of coral.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to stem the shaking. There was only one entrance into Mathis' cave, a small rift barely the width of two merfolk swimming abreast. The cave within was as black as a sea-trench. Outside the grotto, seaweed grew thick and spiny, with only a narrow path left leading to the cave's grinning maw.
Is this really the right thing to do?
Before she could answer her thoughts, the image of a handsome young man, with dark hair and flashing eyes, appeared in her mind. She closed her eyes gratefully, her trembling ceasing as she spoke his name to herself quietly.
Peter.
A flick of her tail brought her to the entrance of the cave. She paused to regard it for only a moment before plunging inside.
I love you.
Within, the dark was consuming. The little mermaid lifted her hand in front of her eyes and found that she could not see it. She swam in circles, distressed. Even the entrance was no longer visible in the total blackness.
In her confused wandering she felt something cold brush against her tail. She recoiled it, letting out a small shriek.
Soft laughter echoed from somewhere behind her, and she felt something ragged and sharp brush lightly across her cheek and pull away.
"Youngest. So you've come to me at last. I was wondering which of you would come first."
The mermaid stiffened. "Astra and Esther would never stoop to coming here." She cast her eyes about trying to find the sea witch, who was circling her slowly.
She heard her cackle to her right. "You're probably right. And yet...you are here, Youngest."
"I am," said the mermaid, turning towards the voice. "I need your help, Mathis."
The blade now rested itself against her neck, and the sea witch cooed into her ear, "So formal, Youngest. Ask me by my name and I just might help you. Come now. Name me, and the little favor you want. I'm sure I already know."
Gritting her teeth, Youngest closed her eyes against the darkness, trying to hold Peter's face in her mind.
"I need you to make me a human," she said. The silence waited. "...Mother."
The cave echoed with the witch's pleased laughter.
*
Adva slowed as she approached the village. It was approaching night-time. Sounds filtered from the houses and shops, muted and sleepy. She stopped to gaze at it for a moment, an easy smile spreading across her lips. Peter dearly loved to enter the village at this time. They would walk up this same path from the shore and enter now, when no one was on the streets, and make their way back to the castle.
She tore her eyes away, her stomach fluttering. It wasn't far now to the castle. She ran away from the village, towards the forest that surrounded it on either side, framing the King's Highway.
The quickest way, the shortcut she and Peter used during the day, was through the woods. Adva lifted her skirts as she darted barefoot through the trees. She knew the path by heart.
Soon, she was able to see the drawbridge through the trees. Her steps grew so heated that her feet seemed to barely touch the ground. She held her arms out to steady herself as she walked across the log Stefan had placed across a small stream for their use. Memories assailed her as she ran.
There was that dear little tree, the one where Peter had first put his arm around her as they sat watching the stars. Other trees where she sat, watching Peter and Stefan hunt. A rock where the three sorted out small odds and ends and little shells they'd found that day. A little ways beyond it, the meadow where he announced his engagement to her and kissed her for the first time. The first, and only kiss.
Joy radiated from Adva's heart to her entire body, spurring her forward impossibly fast. She found the drawbridge and raced across, keeping herself to the shadows. Guards and servants would only slow her down.
She slipped through the courtyard to the small wooden door that lead to the servants' kitchen. Inside, coals were dimming in the stove and the faint smell of cooking still lingered from supper. Adva inhaled it quickly, grinning, as she pushed open the door that lead to the grand foyer.
The sweeping stone steps, towering royal portraits, and vaulted ceilings were lost upon her. She grasped the banister, hiking her skirts and scaling the stairs as quickly as she could manage. She was pleased to find that she could ascend much faster without shoes.
From there she took a sharp turn to the right, heart beating wildly.
*
Stefan emerged from his room rubbing his forehead.
He had lied on his bed for only a few moments before it became clear that he was to have no sleep tonight. His mind was racing, his stomach churning with the task ahead. He made his way to one of the hall windows, pressing his forehead against the glass.
The king was against him, and Alice too. He ground his teeth in frustration. Why couldn't they see things as he did?
Ambition. They think I am ambitious!
Finally unobserved, his face broke into a snarl.
If I am, it's her fault! She destroyed Peter! He spit. I should have known he wasn't all he seemed to be. Why is everyone so intent upon defending him? He's become weak.
Weak enough to be swayed off his path by a woman.
Stefan paused in his path as he caught sight of himself in the window.
"Why shouldn't I be king?" he murmured. "Peter doesn't want to be. He stopped wanting anything but her long ago." He narrowed his eyes at his reflection. "Why?"
He looked past himself to take in the view of the village, the hunting forest, the King's Highway. Beyond the forest were stretches of farmland and scattered towns, their lights dimming for the night. Stefan gazed at them with a strange mixture of longing and anger.
"You're a fool, Peter, to wish to throw all of this away." He sneered. "I am a better man than you."
Once the words had escaped his mouth, he heard the footsteps.
He turned, confused, thinking that one of the servants was coming to deliver a message.
Instead, he found Adva standing in the hallway, her face flushed and auburn hair tumbling freely about her shoulders. She held her skirts up with one hand, the other supported her against the wall as she looked up at him, breathing hard and smiling.
She tottered towards him, and between gasps for air laughed,
"Stefan!"
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