Chapter 5 - The Daughter the Sea Queen Abandoned
The little girl standing beside the Hollow Regent raised her hand, and the ocean began climbing the cliffs.
Not crashing against them.
Not breaking into waves.
Climbing.
Black water rose in twisting columns, defying gravity as it crept toward the abandoned watchtower. Within each column, pale faces appeared and vanished, their mouths opening in silent screams.
Tomas seized Mara's hand.
"Get away from the edge!"
But the child refused to move.
She was staring at the girl standing upon the enormous creature's back.
Her sister.
Her reflection.
The only difference was their eyes.
Mara's were luminous jade.
The other girl's burned scarlet beneath a crown of black coral and silver thorns.
"Mother," the crowned child called again, her small voice carrying across the impossible distance. "Did you think I would remain buried forever?"
The Sea Queen stood motionless.
Her magnificent armor had lost its emerald glow. For the first time, she looked less like an ancient sovereign and more like a woman confronted by the consequence of an unforgivable decision.
"That crown," she whispered. "She cannot be wearing it."
Seraphine tightened her grip on her dagger.
"Why not?"
The Queen did not answer.
Far below, the Hollow Regent lifted his long, clawed hand.
The rising seawater stopped.
A terrible silence settled over the cliffs.
Then the crowned child smiled.
"Hello, Mara."
Mara stepped forward.
Lysa pulled her back.
"Don't answer her."
"She knows my name, Mother."
"That doesn't mean she's safe."
The crowned child tilted her head.
"You call her Mother?"
Her scarlet eyes settled on Lysa.
"How strange."
Tomas moved protectively in front of his family.
"Whatever you want, leave the child alone!"
The girl's smile vanished.
"I'm a child too."
Those four words struck him harder than a threat.
For a moment, she looked exactly like Mara when frightened or lonely.
Then the Hollow Regent placed one black claw upon her shoulder.
Her expression hardened.
"I want what was stolen."
The Sea Queen finally spoke.
"Return to the depths, child."
The girl slowly turned toward her.
"Child?"
The word came out as a whisper.
"You gave me a name once."
The Queen recoiled.
"Don't."
"Do you remember it?"
"Please."
The child's voice rose.
"Then say it!"
A column of water shattered against the cliffs.
Stone broke beneath Tomas's feet.
Seraphine caught him before he fell.
The Sea Queen closed her eyes.
And spoke a name she had refused to utter for seven years.
"Nerissa."
The crowned girl went still.
For one fleeting instant, the scarlet light faded from her eyes.
"Yes," she whispered.
Then she began to cry.
The Hollow Regent did not comfort her.
Instead, he watched the Sea Queen with an expression concealed behind his bone mask.
"You see?" he said softly. "She remembers you only when forced."
Nerissa wiped her cheeks.
"You promised she would tell me why."
"And she shall."
The Queen looked at the creature.
"Release my daughter."
A low laugh emerged from behind the mask.
"Which daughter, Your Majesty?"
The Queen's expression darkened.
"Do not play games with me."
"You played one for seven years."
He pointed toward Mara.
"One child hidden among mortals. One child imprisoned beneath the sea. One child poisoned into weakness. One child raised to believe her own mother had ordered her death."
Seraphine's eyes narrowed.
"You said the Queen abandoned Nerissa."
The Regent turned his masked face toward her.
"Did I?"
Seraphine hesitated.
The Queen looked sharply at the creature.
"What have you told her?"
"Only what she was ready to hear."
Nerissa stepped away from him.
"Enough."
Her voice was suddenly cold.
She looked directly at the Queen.
"Did you order one of us sacrificed?"
The Queen's silence was answer enough.
"Why?"
"Because the First Tide demanded a life."
"The First Tide is not a person."
"No," the Queen whispered. "It is something much worse."
The Hollow Regent laughed again.
"Listen to her. Even now, she hides behind ancient names."
Nerissa raised both hands.
The ocean shuddered.
"Tell me why!"
The Queen looked from Nerissa to Mara.
"The night you were born, the boundary between the living sea and the Drowned Realm began to fail. The royal seers believed that one twin would close the breach, while the other would open it permanently."
Mara clutched Lysa's sleeve.
"Which one was I?"
The Queen's face twisted.
"We didn't know."
Tomas stared at her.
"Then you decided to kill one anyway?"
"We believed the ceremony would reveal which child carried the dangerous gift."
"And if you were wrong?"
The Queen lowered her eyes.
Tomas felt disgust rise inside him.
He had nearly sold two helpless merfolk infants that morning to save Mara.
He had chosen mercy instead.
Yet the sovereign before him had possessed an entire kingdom and still found it necessary to gamble with her own daughters' lives.
"Elara knew," the Queen continued. "She learned that the ceremony had been altered. She tried to take both children."
Seraphine stepped forward.
"Then why did only one reach the surface?"
The Queen looked toward the Hollow Regent.
"Because someone intercepted her."
The Regent remained motionless.
For the first time, Nerissa turned toward him with uncertainty.
"You told me Elara abandoned me."
"She did leave you behind."
"That isn't what I asked."
His claws slowly curled.
A dangerous stillness passed between them.
Then he answered.
"Elara made a choice. As did your mother."
Nerissa stared at him.
"And you?"
The Hollow Regent said nothing.
Beneath the cliffs, something struck the water.
A bell rang.
Deep and resonant.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The Sea Queen looked toward the horizon in alarm.
"The palace bells."
Seraphine's face tightened.
"They haven't rung since the king's death."
The Regent lifted his head.
"Then perhaps the kingdom has remembered whom it once served."
From the direction of Blackwater Bay, a second sound rose.
War horns.
Tomas turned.
Along the coastal road, distant torches were advancing through the mist.
Royal soldiers.
Cassian had found them.
Seraphine saw them too.
"We cannot remain here."
The Queen spread her webbed hands.
An emerald curtain of light appeared across the cliff path.
It shimmered like sunlight through deep water.
"Take the child inland," she ordered.
Tomas looked at her.
"And trust you?"
"I am holding back an army."
"Your army or his?"
The Queen flinched.
Seraphine stepped between them.
"Argue later. We have soldiers approaching from the road and a creature rising from the sea."
Lysa tightened her arms around Mara.
"Where can we go?"
Seraphine looked north.
"To Saint Orin's Abbey. It was built above the ruins of a First Tide sanctuary."
The Queen immediately turned.
"No."
Seraphine stared at her.
"Why?"
"That place is forbidden."
"To your soldiers, perhaps. Not to the surviving members of the Tidebound Order."
The Queen's expression became unmistakably hostile.
"You would take my daughter to the people who betrayed my husband?"
Seraphine answered quietly.
"I would take her somewhere your soldiers cannot reach."
Tomas made his decision.
"Then that's where we're going."
The Queen reached toward Mara.
"Please. There is much you don't understand."
Mara looked at her.
"Did you know I was sick?"
The question silenced everyone.
The Queen's hand slowly fell.
"I was told you were safe."
"Did you ever come to see me?"
"No."
"Did you want to?"
The Queen struggled to answer.
At last, she whispered, "Every day."
Mara considered that.
Then she took Lysa's hand.
"My mother came to see me every day."
The Queen closed her eyes.
Tomas felt no triumph.
Only a terrible sadness for both children.
They escaped along the northern path while the Queen's emerald barrier held back the advancing soldiers.
Seraphine led the way through narrow gullies hidden among the rocks.
Tomas followed with Mara, while Lysa carried the remaining supplies.
For nearly an hour, no one spoke.
Finally, Mara tugged at Tomas's coat.
"Grandfather?"
"Yes?"
"Was Nerissa really going to hurt us?"
He hesitated.
"I don't know."
"She looked sad."
"I saw."
"Nobody gave her a hug."
Tomas stopped walking.
He looked down at his granddaughter.
Even after all she had endured, Mara was thinking about the girl who had threatened them.
"Sometimes people who are hurting make dangerous choices," he said.
"Like the Sea Queen?"
He sighed.
"Yes."
Mara looked toward the distant ocean.
"Then maybe Nerissa needs somebody to choose her."
Tomas had no answer.
Ahead of them, Seraphine stopped.
A rider stood across the path.
His horse was exhausted, its flanks covered in foam.
The man swayed in the saddle.
"Garrick!" Tomas shouted.
The harbor master nearly fell as he dismounted.
His coat was soaked with blood.
Seraphine rushed forward.
"He's wounded."
Garrick pushed her away.
"There's no time."
Tomas caught him by the shoulders.
"You survived."
"Barely."
"What happened to Cassian?"
"He's coming."
Garrick struggled to breathe.
"And Varrick is gone."
Seraphine stiffened.
"Gone where?"
"I don't know. His laboratory was cleared before the soldiers arrived."
Tomas remembered the medicine.
"The bastard poisoned Mara."
Garrick closed his eyes.
"I know."
The admission shocked Tomas.
"You knew?"
"I suspected the treatments were suppressing something. I didn't know they were making her ill."
"You knew he was dangerous, and you said nothing?"
Garrick's silence was devastating.
Tomas released him.
"Every person I trusted has lied to me."
Garrick looked toward Mara.
"I kept silent because Varrick had promised to leave her alive."
Tomas stared.
"What did you give him?"
Garrick's expression crumpled.
"Names."
"Whose names?"
"The last members of the Tidebound Order."
Seraphine went still.
"What?"
Garrick could not meet her eyes.
"Seven years ago, Varrick offered me a choice. Help him locate the surviving guardians, or watch him take Mara from the surface."
Seraphine stepped backward.
"My brother disappeared seven years ago."
Garrick said nothing.
Her face drained of color.
"His name was Edrin."
Garrick closed his eyes.
"Seraphine—"
"Did you give them his name?"
He nodded once.
The silence that followed was terrible.
Seraphine drew her dagger.
Tomas moved between them.
"Stop."
"Get out of my way."
"He's bleeding to death."
"So was my brother when they found him."
Garrick lowered his head.
"I thought I was saving a child."
"You sold everyone else's children to save one."
The words struck him like a physical blow.
Garrick made no attempt to defend himself.
Finally, Seraphine lowered her blade.
But her voice was colder than the northern sea.
"If you survive this journey, Garrick Thorne, you will answer for what you did."
He nodded.
"I know."
They reached Saint Orin's Abbey shortly before sunset.
The ancient building stood upon a lonely ridge, surrounded by twisted pine trees and fields of black heather. Its stone walls were marked with symbols so old that even Seraphine struggled to recognize them.
A bell hung above the entrance.
There was no rope beneath it.
Yet as Mara approached, it rang once.
The abbey doors opened.
An elderly woman stepped outside.
She wore a plain gray robe, and a long white braid fell over one shoulder.
Her eyes settled immediately on Mara.
Then on Garrick.
Her expression hardened.
"You."
Garrick lowered his head.
"Sister Maelin."
"You have considerable courage returning here."
"Not courage," he answered. "Desperation."
The woman looked at his bloodstained coat.
"So I see."
Tomas stepped forward.
"My granddaughter needs shelter."
Maelin studied Mara.
The child looked back at her.
For several seconds, neither moved.
Then the old woman knelt.
"Do you hear the bells, little one?"
Mara nodded.
"Even when they aren't ringing?"
Another nod.
Maelin closed her eyes.
"Then it's true."
She stood.
"Bring everyone inside."
Seraphine hesitated.
"Is the sanctuary still protected?"
"For now."
"Against the Queen?"
Maelin's expression darkened.
"Against anyone who has not been invited."
Tomas helped Garrick across the threshold.
As Mara entered, the symbols carved into the doorway began glowing.
The bell rang a second time.
Then a third.
Deep beneath the abbey, something answered.
Maelin tended Garrick's wound while Seraphine examined the abbey's old records.
Tomas sat beside Mara in a small chamber warmed by a coal stove.
Lysa had finally fallen asleep.
The child was staring at a wall painting.
It depicted two identical girls standing beneath a great wave.
One wore a silver crown.
The other held a broken chain.
"Grandfather?"
"Yes?"
"Why are there pictures of me here?"
Tomas followed her gaze.
His heart tightened.
The painting was centuries old.
"Maybe they aren't pictures of you."
Mara pointed toward the crowned child.
"That one's Nerissa."
Then she pointed toward the girl with the chain.
"And that's me."
Tomas swallowed.
"How do you know?"
"Because she's holding what I saw in my dream."
"What did you see?"
"A door."
"What kind of door?"
"A big black door under the sea. There were people behind it."
"What people?"
Mara looked frightened.
"People who were crying."
Tomas took her hand.
"Dreams can feel very real."
She shook her head.
"This wasn't a dream."
Before he could answer, a knock sounded at the door.
Sister Maelin entered.
Her face was grave.
"Fisherman, we need to speak."
Tomas rose.
Maelin glanced at Mara.
"Alone."
Mara looked uneasy.
Tomas brushed her hair gently.
"I'll be right outside."
In the abbey's underground library, Seraphine stood beside a stone table covered with ancient manuscripts.
Maelin placed a sealed scroll before Tomas.
"The Crown of the First Tide was never meant to rule the living seas," she began.
Tomas frowned.
"Then what was it meant for?"
"To guard the boundary between the living world and the Drowned Realm."
Seraphine opened the scroll.
An intricate drawing showed two children standing on opposite sides of a black doorway.
"Centuries ago," Maelin continued, "the First Tide created a covenant. When the boundary weakened, two heirs would be born. One would carry the power to command the sea. The other would possess the ability to seal the breach."
Tomas remembered the Sea Queen's explanation.
"One daughter opens the door. One closes it."
Maelin shook her head.
"No."
Seraphine looked up sharply.
"What?"
"That was the lie the royal court accepted."
Maelin pointed to a line of ancient writing.
"Neither twin was born to destroy the other. Their powers were meant to work together."
Tomas felt a wave of anger.
"Then why did the Queen order a sacrifice?"
"Because someone altered the prophecy."
Seraphine stared at the scroll.
"Who?"
Maelin looked at Garrick, who had entered silently behind them.
"That is the question he may finally be willing to answer."
Garrick's face was pale.
"The Hollow Regent."
Maelin shook her head.
"He helped spread the false prophecy. But he did not create it."
Garrick looked stricken.
"Then who did?"
Maelin opened a second manuscript.
Its pages were covered with names.
One had been crossed out.
Another had been rewritten repeatedly.
Tomas leaned closer.
He recognized his wife's name.
Elara Vale.
But beside it was another designation.
Keeper of the Seventh Seal.
Seraphine inhaled.
"She wasn't merely a member of the First Tide."
"No," Maelin said. "She was entrusted with guarding its oldest secret."
Tomas gripped the table.
"Then where is she?"
Maelin hesitated.
"Her body died eleven years ago. But her consciousness was bound to the prison."
"The chest."
"Yes."
"Can she be freed?"
Maelin looked away.
"Perhaps. But there would be a price."
Tomas's voice broke.
"What price?"
Before she could answer, the abbey bell rang.
Once.
Twice.
Then seven times.
Maelin went white.
"Impossible."
Seraphine rushed toward the doorway.
"What is it?"
"The sanctuary has recognized another heir."
From above came a child's scream.
Mara.
Tomas ran.
In the small chamber, Lysa was struggling to hold Mara down.
The child had risen from her bed, her eyes glowing brilliant jade.
Her hands were pressed against the wall painting.
The stone beneath her fingers was dissolving.
Not crumbling.
Opening.
A narrow passage appeared behind the ancient mural.
Cold air poured from the darkness.
And from within the passage came a familiar voice.
"Tomas."
He froze.
Elara.
Not the false voice of the creature.
Not the Sea Queen wearing his wife's face.
This voice carried the small, imperfect warmth he remembered.
The gentle rasp that appeared whenever she had been awake too long.
"Tomas, please."
He stepped toward the opening.
Maelin caught his arm.
"Don't."
He pulled free.
"That's my wife."
"Something is using her voice."
Tomas shook his head.
"No."
From the darkness, the voice whispered:
"Ask Garrick what happened to Rowan."
Tomas stopped.
His missing son-in-law.
The father Lysa believed had died before Mara's birth.
Garrick stood in the doorway, his face draining of color.
Tomas turned slowly.
"What happened to Rowan?"
Garrick said nothing.
The voice continued.
"He didn't drown."
Lysa looked up.
"What?"
"He was taken."
Tomas felt the world narrow around him.
"Taken by whom?"
The voice grew weaker.
"By the man who needed a father for the princess."
Garrick closed his eyes.
Lysa stared at him.
"You knew?"
His silence answered her.
Maelin stepped toward the opening.
"Elara, if that is truly you, tell us where Rowan was taken."
A long silence followed.
Then came a whisper.
"The physician sold him."
Tomas staggered.
"Varrick?"
"Yes."
"To whom?"
The darkness beyond the passage began to glow.
A scene appeared upon the far wall.
A younger Rowan stood chained inside a flooded chamber.
He was alive.
Older.
Exhausted.
But unmistakably alive.
Lysa screamed his name.
The vision shifted.
Master Varrick stood beside him, holding a black leather ledger.
Behind Varrick was a woman wearing a silver crown.
The Sea Queen.
Tomas stared.
"What did they want with him?"
Elara's voice answered.
"They needed his blood."
"Why?"
"Because he was never an ordinary human."
Lysa shook her head.
"No..."
The vision showed Rowan raising his head.
His eyes glowed gold.
Exactly like the eye Tomas had seen inside the chest.
Maelin stumbled backward.
"By the First Tide..."
Seraphine grabbed the manuscript.
Her hands trembled as she found a name written beneath an ancient royal portrait.
The portrait depicted the Sea King's younger brother.
A prince exiled before the murder.
A man declared dead decades earlier.
His name was Rowan.
Tomas stared at the painting.
Then at Lysa.
Then at Mara.
And finally, at the vision of the chained man.
"Rowan," he whispered, "what are you?"
The image flickered.
The prisoner slowly lifted his head.
He looked directly at Tomas.
And spoke.
"Don't trust my brother."
The chamber went silent.
Then Rowan added:
"The Sea King was never murdered."
Far beneath Blackwater Bay, Nerissa stood alone in a chamber of black coral.
The Hollow Regent had left her with two silent guards.
She stared at the crown resting on her small hands.
It had grown heavier since the confrontation at the cliffs.
Every time she closed her eyes, she heard voices.
Some begged for freedom.
Others whispered her name.
One voice was different.
It belonged to a man.
A gentle voice she had heard in dreams since infancy.
Nerissa.
She raised her head.
"Who are you?"
The voice answered from inside the crown.
Someone who loved you before you were born.
Tears gathered in her eyes.
"Father?"
The crown pulsed.
Listen carefully. The creature who rescued you from the prison is not your friend.
Nerissa glanced toward the doorway.
"He's the only one who came for me."
He came for the crown.
"He said Mother abandoned me."
She did.
The answer hurt.
Nerissa squeezed her eyes shut.
"Then why should I trust you?"
Because I know what happened to your sister.
She went still.
"Mara?"
The girl on the cliffs is not the sister you remember.
Nerissa's heart pounded.
"What do you mean?"
The voice grew faint.
Seven years ago, the physician exchanged more than the cradles.
Before Nerissa could ask another question, the chamber doors opened.
The Hollow Regent entered.
He stopped when he saw the crown glowing in her hands.
"Who were you speaking to?"
Nerissa quickly lowered it.
"No one."
The Regent approached.
"Do not lie to me, child."
His claw brushed her cheek.
She forced herself not to flinch.
"I was asking the crown about Mara."
The creature became motionless.
"And what did it tell you?"
Nerissa looked into his golden eye.
For the first time, she realized how carefully he watched her.
How he decided what she could know.
How every answer he gave created another reason for her to hate the Queen.
She remembered the voice's warning.
And she lied.
"It told me Mara has to die."
The Regent slowly smiled.
"Then the crown has finally begun teaching you the truth."
Nerissa lowered her gaze.
But beneath her small fingers, the ancient crown pulsed once.
A secret acknowledgment.
And somewhere deep within its silver thorns, the imprisoned voice whispered one final instruction.
Find the girl before he discovers which of you is real.