Ursula

Chapter 9 Suspect

Ursula

I've been pacing around my room back at the palace for what feels like days when it's only been hours. My heart is still beating too fast and my hands are wringing themselves to the point where my fingers ache.
Vanessa is gone.
Practically dead.
But she's not, she's been turned into this... thing. Only able to moan and cry. She did so loudest when I passed by over her.
I don't know what I can do. The contract was binding. Magically and legally. I cannot change her back. She's stuck like that, forever trapped as that polyp thing.
I tried to change her back but failed each time. I dare say I may have only made it worse for her. She would forever be trapped as this thing. The only way to break it and change her back into her original form, before our deal was even made, would be my death.
Mother has taught me that a witch's power only holds so long as she is alive. Once I die, every deal I had made will come undone. My mother knows a few loopholes to this and ensures me that working with Poseidon to change all of the Atlantica citizens into merfolk will be fine. That by the time she passes, all the merfolk will have been born this way and thereby will not change back into human form. So, there is no need to worry of older generations suddenly having their tails split into legs.
Witches tend to live a very long time anyway. By now, only the oldest of mermen and merwomen are from that generation that lived as humans. My mother is old, that, I am sure. She's never explained to my sister and I exactly how old she is. We know it must be centuries. My mother released a hell into this world when she was young, or so the rumors say. Not many speak of them nowadays. She's don't a marvelous job at concealing her past.
My mother has told me she's made mistakes before but has since learned from them. I suppose I may face obstacles and misfortunes that I will have to learn from. Such as these deals I make that turn my victims into seaweed polyps.
I knew whatever they, my clients, would turn into, if anyone ever were to break my deals, it would be bad. I had not realized it would be this bad.
Vanessa's mother has come to me once to ask if I've seen her, knowing Vanessa and I used to share each other's company often enough. She was my only other friend, aside from Triton.
I brushed Vanessa's mother off, claiming she found a merman recently and has been spending all her time with him.
Oh, if only she knew the truth.
I could be banished. Sent to live out in the ocean by myself. Not that I was the most extroverted person but I enjoyed having the option to have others around me. I enjoyed pretending to not be alone. It's easier when you're surrounded by people.
I must marry Triton as soon as possible.
There is no other guarantee to secure my safety. If I am crowned the Princess of Atlantica, then surely, they cannot punish me for my heinous actions.
I halt in place as I feel a tug in the back of my head. It's not sharp but it is sudden. It's my eels. They've found something they wish me to see.
I rush to an empty cauldron and throw in the ingredients to draw out the vision they're trying to send me. Colors burst up from it and a ball of light begins to form like a crystal ball.
The vision begins to come into view and there, above the surface lying on a rock, is Triton.
But he's not alone.
Sitting very close to him is a mermaid with bright red hair. She's looking at him reverently. I feel my insides clench and my fists ball up as the sight of Tritons face comes into view. For he has the same adoring look on his face.
I feel my face turn hot and it takes everything in me not to shout, scream, pull out my hair.
I feel my heart breaking as he lifts a hand to her cheek.
No...
This cannot be what comes of us. I refuse to be a wife with a husband who entertains a mistress. I will be nothing more than a pawn. Never the Queen.
"Watch her. I want to know who she is. Where she lives. Everything," I tell the eels through our link. Then I cut it off, the scene of Triton and that merwoman fading to nothing just as Triton leans in to kiss her.
I ache.
My heart is beating but it feels as good as dead. There is a weight at the pit of my stomach and I feel my world caving in.
What can I do? What must I do?
I cannot allow this... relationship he has with her to continue any longer.
I take several deep breaths before the ache lessons and I can think more clearly.
I must take matters into my own hands. I have to find out who this merwoman is and destroy her. Then Triton can forget all about her and we can move on.
Live happily ever after.
I've never felt such a way before. The searing heartbreak mixing in with this burning rage. My power is yearning for release.
"Sister?" I hear Morgana ask just beyond the threshold of my room.
"Yes, come in, come in," I waved at her. My sister finally posed as a good distraction.
"Is something wrong, Ursula?" she asks, swimming through the doorway and approaching me cautiously.
"What-ever would make you think so?" I ask, folding my arms as I face her straight on.
"You've been acting strange lately. At first, I thought it was because of the wedding planning. I know Mother can be very particular with how things are done. It's just..." she huffs, "you haven't been spending a whole lot of time in the palace lately. I worried something may be wrong."
"Nothing is wrong. Everything is fine," I tell her. "I've just been keeping out of Mothers hair, she doesn't much care for my suggestions anyhow."
"I know, it's just..." Morgana looks down, picking at the skin on one of her fingers. "I've heard rumors."
If she were any closer to me, I feared she may have heard my heart thump faster and faster. My anxiety is taking root. Rumors? What rumors could this possibly be? I've done well at covering up my tracks and making sure all my clients keep our deal a secret and my name out of it.
"Rumors?" I force a chuckle. "What preposterous rumors have you heard now? You know the city likes to speak I'll of witches already."
"Just that Triton seems to be avoiding this marriage to you," she looks up at me and pauses her fumbling hands.
I feel an instant sigh of relief wash over me. The anxiety of what may have been said fading away. No rumors about my deals.
"Prince Triton is very busy himself. I'm sure after we're married, we will be spending an awful lot more time together."
My sister frowns, "but he is avoiding you though?"
"Of course, he isn't Morgana. You do not need to trouble yourself with these rumors. That's all they are, rumors. Prince Triton and I will marry and all will be right," I declared, not only in an attempt to convince her, but myself as well.
"I fear our mother may be investigating other things now too," she stated. "She's beginning to grow suspicious of you."
"Of me?" I laughed.
"Yes, of you."
"That's absurd, she has nothing to worry herself with regarding me," I huff, waving her off.
"Listen to me Ursula, she's grown concerned about where you spend all your time now. The prince may not be here but neither are you. And it has been very evident that when you both are not here, you are not together," she explains.
"No need to speak in circles Morgana."
"Well then why can't you tell me where it is you are going off to do?" She throws her back against a wall and sighs looking up, "I just wish you'd talk to me."
"I am speaking with you know, am I not?" I ask.
"Usuals," she deadpanned, "you know that is not what I meant. I have no one else here to talk to. Besides Mother of course and you know most of the time her company is no good!"
"Maybe to you, I quite enjoy Mothers company," I comment.
"That's because she's always praising you and teaching you everything she knows while I'm left to read books about it. Mother hasn't even tried to teach me the way I've seen her teach you," she lamented.
"Morgana..." I look at her and she looks more defeated than I ever saw my sister before. She looks worn down and tired. Her shoulders are slumped and she carried bags under her eyes. Needless to say, my baby sister looks like a mess.
As her eyes begin to moisten, she says, "this place is so lonely. Made even lonelier when you have no company other than books. I can't even go find new books to read. I only have a small collection of spelled books to withstand falling apart in water. Why can you not just tell you about your life?"
"Morgana, I—" I stilled for a moment. I didn't know how to respond. What do you say to that? I cannot tell her the intimate details about what I do outside the palace.
What do I tell her? Yes sister, I make illegal deals with merfolk just so I can get something out of them and build my empire. No, I cannot tell her anything. It is not only too dangerous for her to know but too many hands in the pot could spoil the whole dish. I do not need my inexperienced sister to know about the magic I deal with. It's better this way.
"Forget it," she muttered and turned to leave the room.