Ursula

Chapter 10 A Delicate Balance

Ursula

Things are quickly getting out of hand. My control of the situation is slipping dramatically.
Triton is canoodling with another.
Vanessa is "missing" as far as anyone is concerned.
My mother is growing increasingly suspicious of me and continues to hammer me about the wedding plans.
My sister is no help. Continuing to be wary of me and finding any excuse to do errands outside of our mother's sight.
Everything is beginning to fall out of line. I cannot, will not, let this happen.
I tightened my jaw and I swam triumphantly out of my family's day room. I refuse to let them see me falter. I am to be Queen and a Queen always stands her ground when faced by adversity.
"Lady Ursula?" A figure calls to me down the hall. I clench my teeth and form a tight smile and I turn towards the voice.
"Yes?"
"Your Mother has requested your presence. She wishes to speak to you in regards to your wedding attire, I believe," a young servant claimed. A stout young fellow but his appearance does less to hide the fear in his eyes. He maintains eye contact, much to my surprise. I'll give him credit for that.
"Does she now?" I mutter and head in the direction the merman came from. He trails behind me, giving me side glances.
"What is it boy? Do I have something in my teeth?"
The servant pauses, mouth agape, to look at me. "There's rumors that you help...merfolk?" he asks, gripping his hands together in a plea.
"I have been known to aid someone a time or two. Why do you ask?" I question nonchalantly.
"Is it true you can change their... appearance?"
Immediately I am bombarded with images of Vanessa, the once plain looking mermaid turned into a dark-haired bombshell. Only to back out of our deal and lose everything. Become nothing but a worm of the ocean.
"No," I say with finality. My tone makes the boy turn ahead and says no more.
We make our way to my mother's office and there she sits, sifting through materials on her desk. She has a scowl on her face and as she looks up and acknowledges my arrival, she spots the servant boy just behind me.
"You may take your leave now, Kenn," she says with a wave of dismissal.
"Mother, what is it you called upon me for?" I asked while looking around the room, avoiding her gaze.
"Ursula, you have been absent from the palace quite often recently." She looks back down to the items on her desk. An assortment of fabric and shells scattered across it half-hazardly.
"I've been aquatinting myself with the merfolk of Atlantica. Is it not a Queens duty to know her people?" I fold my hands behind my back and choose to make my way over to another table that displays various different dishes. Clearly made to be a sampling of food for the wedding. I eye the shrimp and can't stop myself from reaching for one. As I turn back around, popping the shrimp into my mouth, my mother stands and gives me a disappointing look. She hates my appetite. Something she worked very hard to limit. The number of times my mother has looked at me with distaste whenever I would ask for a second helping of food or even just eat everything off my plate, is immeasurable. I've grown so used to the look that I reach for another shrimp, another small act of rebellion.
"Ursula," she scorns.
"Yes, Mother?"
She sighs, "Have you decided on what you'll be wearing to your wedding?"
"I thought you would be the one to decide on my attire." I begin shuffling around the room, gazing at all the wedding arrangements and plans laid out before me. I didn't pick a single item of anything I saw. The samplings of decor, dinnerware, and more, all handpicked by my mother for the perfect wedding Atlantica would ever see. "It's not like you consider my opinion on anything," I mutter under my breath.
"I am putting in all this work for you, you know. Making sure your wedding to Triton goes smoothly. That all the arrangements are in order. The least you could do is not run off the majority of the time. I hear rumors too Ursula."
I feel my body tense and I try not to show it as I say, "Oh?"
"You are not using your magic for untoward reasons, are you?" She peers at me through thick lashes. I look a lot like my mother. Though with age, her dark hair grew to be white, but her features I bear. The same mouth, the same eyes.
I never knew my father; she never spoke of him really. Some of my features are his and I've tried to paint a picture of him with what I know did not come from my mother. All I know of my father was that he was human and refused to be a part of the change into a merman. Instead, my father set sail, supposedly in search of land he may rule over. Some days I wish I knew if he ever found it and where I might be if my mother had stayed with him. Even if I was born in the sea, I was not conceived there. My sister and I bear different fathers, her father had died at the hands of a shark when we were young. The sea may be our home, but it took many years to learn how to defend ourselves against the wicked creatures that inhabited it before us.
"I would never consider doing such a thing, you need not worry. I am intimidating to most of the merfolk, I'm sure they enjoy spinning tales of my supposed wickedness. Rumors are all it is, Mother."
"It better be, Ursula. The state of this wedding has become very fragile."
"Fragile?" I ask. "What do you mean?"
"If you're not aware due to your consistent absence from the Palace, I thought you'd like to know Triton too has not been present."
My fists can't help but to ball up. That only reminds me of what my eels had shown me. Triton with another merwomen. "I may have heard, yes."
"We cannot have Triton back out of this wedding. You need to do better Ursula. Our prince does not seem to care or dote upon his fiancé as he should. Poseidon has been pestering me about it. He is unsure whether this match was the right choice. It doesn't help matters that half of Atlantica is less than thrilled of the idea of Prince Triton and you, my daughter, getting wed." She moves across the room in a flurry. In the next moment, my mother, the most powerful sea witch ever to have lived, is pointing a finger in my face, a long red nail less than an inch from my nose. "You will see to this, Ursula, I do not know what it is that that you have been off doing but it must come to an end if you have any hope in becoming Queen. Our future is hanging delicately in a balance between gaining everything or losing everything. Do you understand?"
I take a deep breath, "yes mother, I understand."
"Good. Now off you go," she turns from me and I feel my entire body shudder in relief.
"Yes, mother."
Just as I am about to exit the room, I hear my mother call off, "oh and Ursula?"
"Yes?"
"Do be a dear and do something about Vanessa's mother. She's grown quite restless with her disappearance as of late. If you are going to make messes, you have to handle cleaning them up." I turned quickly to face her. She's sitting back down at her desk, and peering up at me through her lashes again.
I was a fool to think my mother would never know. Vanessa's appearance had changed and my mother must've seen her after the transformation and put two and two together.
"Of course, Mother."
She gives me a knowing smile and dismisses me again.