Throne hall,
Inside, she found her father arming himself with the guards ready too. Everyone was putting on their best armour. The clinking of gold and steel filled the air, a cold, mechanical sound that signaled war.
"Kai !" Clara cried, rushing to Kai who was still kneeling on the ground and bleeding. The sight of his crimson blood clouding the water made her vision swim with rage.
Kai winced from the bone crushing hug she gave him, "Clara..."
"What happened to you ?! How did you get hurt ? You're bleeding !!!" She exclaimed, her own eyes filling with tears as if she could feel his pain. Every scratch on him felt like a cut on her own skin.
"We were attacked princess, the humans attacked us and... Cleo's been taken. I'm sorry. I failed you, I couldn't protect her."
"No," she whispered, the word dying in her throat. Then, the shock turned into a searing, white-hot anger. She turned to her father, her fists clenched so tight her knuckles turned white. "Father I can help..."
"No," he said firmly, not even looking up as he tightened his bracers. "You'll stay in your room. Guards !"
Clara's eyes blazed. She wanted to scream, to swim out there and tear those human ships apart with her bare hands. How could he ask her to hide while her sister was in a cage ? "Why make me Queen if I can't protect my people ?!"
"Because you must learn ! Not risk your life !" Queen Haisly held Clara back as she trembled, boiling the water around her. The temperature in the room spiked, the water became uncomfortably warm, bubbles rising from Clara's skin. Her hair turned red, along with her tail. It was clear she was angry and hurt. She struggled against her mother's grip, her muscles coiling like a predator's, but Queen Haisly's hold was desperate.
"You're still not Queen or strong enough Clara, you haven't mastered any spells and can easily die right now," her mother told her and Clara just looked at her tears rolling down her cheeks. As the tears fell, they didn't dissipate.
Everyone was stunned as they watched how her tears grew flowers around her. Delicate, glowing sea-blossoms bloomed in the wake of her sorrow, swirling in the heated water.
They've never seen anything like this before and somehow they even forgot about the war happening focusing only at her.
"Clara...." Kai called softly, he knew that this meant danger. He has seen her angry before and it was good. However, Clara just looked at him, a look of pure, frustrated heartbreak on her face, then swam away before her father could see the true extent of the storm inside her.
"Please bring our daughter back Orion," Queen Haisly begged, her voice cracking. King Orion nodded, his face turning into a mask of stone. He held his trident high, the three prongs glowing with a terrifying, ancient light and the guards around him all bowed. Then they disappeared in a swirl of pressurized bubbles.
****
The Ship,
King Orion arrived in a flash, the guards around him quickly withdrew their weapons looking at the big metal. The ship was a hulking, ugly thing, reeking of rust and burnt oil.
"Circle this thing, everyone must be careful. Use the protection spell on yourselves. I'm not losing anymore guards ! I'll find Cleo," He commanded. His voice didn't travel through the air, it vibrated through the hull of the ship itself.
"Yes !" The guards swam in different ways, becoming shimmering streaks of light in the dark water. King Orion saw Cleo trapped in a glass tank on the deck, weak too. The water she was in wasn't even salty making it hard for her to breathe or use her powers.
It only made her weak like it was sucking the life out of her. The men on deck kept pointing at her and laughing hard making sure to take snaps with her, their flashbulbs popping like tiny, annoying stars.
With a wave of his trident, the water surged, shaking the ship so violently that the men were thrown against the railings. King Orion raised his trident up high. Every glass shared on the ship shattered, whether it's a cup, window or dish. It all shattered into pieces including the one which Cleo was locked in. The tank burst outward and Cleo spilled onto the deck, gasping for the spray of the ocean.
"FREEZE land walkers !!" King Orion shouted, he was still in the water but his voice was loud enough for them to hear it. It sounded like the ocean itself was speaking. They couldn't see him clearly through the churning waves and that is what scared them the most.
They screamed falling off their chairs and the ship was now unstable, tilting dangerously. Harrow, the leader with a scarred face, being stubborn retrieved his gun and tried to get to the edge of the boat wanting to fire but King Orion blasted him back with a storm of waves that hit like a physical fist.
"I don't want to hurt you, bring my daughter back !!" King Orion shouted, his patience thinning.
But Harrow laughed, wiping salt water from his eyes, causing the others to laugh too. They didn't understand the power they were mocking. "Looking at the gold armour and that crown, I'm guessing you must be the ocean King. You know it's actually funny to see an old man with a tail, it's like you're crazy," Harrow said laughing again. He spit onto the deck, right near where Cleo lay shivering.
The mermaid guards widened their eyes, how dare he speak to the king like that ?? This human is asking for death ! However, King Orion didn't care about the insults, he just looked at them, he was in the water but he could see them clearly from the power of his trident.
Harrow continued, "We have guns but you have just a trident ? What can you do with that thing ? You know I can easily just kill your daughter right now and take you but you're too old. No one will pay money just to see an old wrinkled mermaid. Which is why, I'm gonna kill you and without a king, the mermaids will be weak ! I'll bring my force and we will take as many of you as we can," He chuckled again.
"Attack !!" he added. The humans opened fire.
The rhythmic bang-bang-bang of the guns filled the air. They all started shooting again, but the bullets didn't go through King Orion. As they hit the surface of the water, they slowed to a crawl, then remained in the air stopping midway as if hitting a wall of invisible gelatin. The men stared in horror at the floating lead.
Then with a wave of his hand, King Orion made them fall into the water..... Useless. The humans widened their eyes but before they could move again, with another wave he sent a massive burst of pressure that sent them flying away and hitting hard on the ship floor, knocking the wind from their lungs.
"Father....." Cleo who was still on the floor unable to breathe or move muttered before blanking out. The dry air was winning.
"Guards take the princess !" he shouted to the guards. He raised his trident up and with the telekinesis spell, he was able to raise Cleo up, her body floating gently off the deck, then drop her into the safety of the water where the guards took her and swam far from there.
King Orion remained behind, his eyes fixed on the cowering humans. He wasn't a murderer, but he was a protector. He raised his trident once more, a soft blue light washing over the deck, erasing memories of what just happened and that they saw Cleo.
To them, the ship had simply been hit by a freak storm. He then released all the fish which were struggling there in nets, cutting the ropes with a thought, though his heart grew heavy seeing some of them already dead.
Then he swam away from the ship to the guards who were waiting in the shadows of the reef. "Your Majesty, shall we look for the bodies of the guards who died on duty ?" One guard asked bowing.
"Go ahead and return to the palace safely. You can't swim around with them to the palace so here, take my trident. Once you have them, all of you must touch the trident and it will take you back to the palace," He said and they bowed, taking the glowing relic with trembling hands.
After that, he picked Cleo up in his arms, her tail dull and her breathing shallow and disappeared just like that in a flash of light. The guards swam around the area, searching through the dark kelp for the fallen guards.