Asceia, a powerful mermaid, was sent to land to investigate what happened to her kind and to bring them home.
••°°••
After the telepathic connection between the mermaids in the sea and on the land was severed, the Order found this to be very alarmin...
A GENTLE SHAKE woke Asceia up. The first face that greeted her was her mother, sitting beside her, and looking at her worriedly. They were both in their sercean form. She felt dizziness and nausea and pain all over her body. She looked around and realized she was in an unfamiliar cave. She was never here before. As her senses returned, the memories of what she did earlier came flooding into her mind. She tried to get up but her body gave out. She was too weak to move. Everything around her seemed like it was turning and moving every time she exerts effort.
She faced her mother and they communicated telepathically. “I’m glad that you’re okay. How long I was out?”
“You’ve been out for an hour.” Mother Senthuria was looking directly into her eyes. “Asceia, my daughter. The Order called a meeting. We’ve decided to attack now.”
“N...No you can’t. Mother, they have weapons against us. They designed their soldiers to take us out. Please. We are much better than them. We will not stand a chance against them. They understand us more than we understand them. Please, don’t do this. There are innocent people.”
“You already said that and this happened, Asceia. The Order is not happy, they’re disappointed. Many of us died today. You’re getting too soft. Remember we are your people, this is your Order. Think of your blood.”
“How about those innocents? Our fight is not with them.”
“For centuries we watch how humans slaughter each other, how come this is different now?”
“What are you saying, mother?” She was so displeased. “We’re talking about the kids, infants, elderlies, those people trying to get by every day. Attacking them will not just expose us to the world but will make us the worst. Now we have the Philippine government after us, tomorrow, we will have the whole world hunting us down.”
“As I said, you’re getting too soft for them. We don’t want that kind of thinking in our Order. We can take them out, Asceia. Goddess Aesercean told us that we need to bring the ocean to the land to punish those who wronged us, she said that when she chose you as a warrior. You should have done it already, Asceia.”
“Mother...”
“What’s your plan, Asceia? Do you want to make a pact with them?” she asked sarcastically. “Do you want to eat with them? Sleep and live with them?”
“Help me access the minds of our abducted people. With all of our minds working together, maybe I can destabilize and destroy these people from the inside where they held our people hostage.”
“Maybe? We are not settling for a maybe.”
“We could try actions that don’t require massacre!”
“If they’re still alive...What if their organs and flesh are in a jar right now? Bones placed in their museum? Your plan is flawed and no one agrees to it anymore.” Mother Senthuria swam and moved meters away from her. “I’m sorry, my daughter.”
“What? Mother---”
She was about to get up when a tight and sticky knot was tied to her tail. She instantly looked at it and she watched how thick kelp, coming from the darkness behind, wrapped tightly to her. Before she could even untangle herself, she was pulled by it and dragged through the depths of the cave. The darkness was blinding. She hit some rocks along the way and it scraped her scales off. She can’t overpower the force pulling her. She extended her barbed stinger and tried to cut off the kelp but she can’t reach it. With her recovering body and weakness, she can’t free herself at this very fast pulling rate.
All she did was scream, but with her remaining strength, her voice barely made cracks in the cave. Until seconds later, she let out a strong grunt when her body hit a wall, she was smashed into a rough and hard rock. But her body didn’t drop to the ground, the kelp pinned her to the wall and locked her there. It kept getting thicker and thicker each second, she struggled to move when all of her body, except for her eyes, was wrapped tightly.
The darkness of the cave was pushed away when the bioluminescent algae covering the ceiling glowed. There she saw herself inside a small circular chamber. Her attention was shifted to the only entrance and exit of the place. She stared at her mother swimming towards her position. Her mind was close, she had no facial reaction that could hint at what she was thinking, and that terrified Asceia so much. Along with the Crown of the Order was the Mother of Floraceans, her hands were gently moving as she manipulated the kelp to keep Asceia restrained. Behind them were the Fathers of Senticeans and Faunaceans, and the Mother of Curaceans.
What horrified her the most was the five sercean bodies in the walls covered with calcified corals. The bodies were not moving anymore and she can’t sense any life coming from any of them. Right at that moment, she knew something was definitely not right and no good will ever follow up. Mixed-up emotions. Asceia can’t describe the betrayal she felt and the anger and sadness bottling up inside her seeing her mother and the rest of the elders of the Order surrounding her. She tried to scream or hum the Song, but the kelp choking her neck prevents her from doing it.
Their coral crowns glowed when they started whispering unfamiliar noises or sounds she never heard before. They were chanting. Their eyes were closed, except for her mother that was looking at her. Mother Senthuria extended her barbed stinger and pointed it directly to her forehead. She can barely breathe when she felt the tip of her stinger tears the kelp and was pressed to her scales. Her venom was burning her skin. It doesn’t hurt, what pained her the most was how her mother was treating her.
“Think of your blood, Asceia.” In a blink of an eye, she froze when her mother, without any remorse, slashed her neck with her barbed stinger. She just felt the stinging and burning pain in her neck when her mother, with no remorse, slit her throat open. “This way, you can really help your kind.”
Her blood mixed with the saltwater. Before she could even heal herself, a bright white liquid came out of her open wound. It scattered in the water and a few seconds later, it disappeared. She didn’t know what happened next for the kelp covered her eyes and throat, and choked her. The kelp pressing her against the wall became heavier when the Father of Faunaceans covered her with thick spiny corals and calcified it after blanketing her completely, just like the other sercean bodies around her. When her body lost contact with the water and air, before long, her system gave up and she passed out.
••°°••
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