Dancing On Ice

Silver and Steel

Kazimir lay flat on his back on the rotting deck of one of the sunken ships in The Graveyard, his hands pressed to his eyes, the heels of his palms pressing in as he groaned.

"How exactly am I supposed to feel about all this?" he moaned, feeling the stir of water as Aeralie drifted passed, examining a book that didn't have much more then melting words on it now.

"I couldn't tell you. I haven't discovered that I have a secret dead-not-dead brother, that my father is a monster or that my mother was... I don't know."

Kazimir snapped his hands away from his face and sat bolt upright, glaring at her.

"How can a person like that be king?" he snarled.

"Well I assume it's like us, one is born into the role. It's bad luck if you get a monster. Tragic if he isn't controlled."

"I don't know how you tolerate him," Kazimir spat, turning his attention to the sea, "How can you let him sail across the ocean after what he did to one of your princesses?"

The sea didn't give an answer, not a proper one at least, just muttered something about protection then detached itself from the conversation before Kazimir could scream that the king didn't deserve any protection.

"He does look like you."

"What?" Kazimir snarled, turning his fury on Aeralie.

She ignored him, calmingly turning to another page, a spark of excitement every time she spotted a word she could actually understand – she hadn't lost her ability to communicate when she'd lost her legs.

"Dalton, he looks like you."

"How?"

"I don't know, it's just something in his... eyes? Expression? Turn of the head maybe. It startled me seeing the two of you together when I first saw him with white hair."

"But we don't look alike."

"No but there's still something about you two sitting together both with a look of 'There is an annoying person in close proximity to me, make them leave,' that lends itself to sibling similarities."

Kazimir pressed his hands to his face again.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to feel," he said again, "It's so much to take on at once. It's so confusing."

"It's not really so confusing if you take the emotional element out of it," Aeralie said, "Icadora went on land and fell in love with Aloys – The King's brother – correct?"

"Correct," Kazimir muttered, not caring to point out that he got it, but the emotions made it confusing all the same.

"Aloys, I'm going to assume, loved her back. The King – Dago, undesired beast that he is – probably lusted after Icadora. How could someone resist the seductive aura of a mermaid?"

"Must we talk about my mother like this?"

"I'm filling in some blanks but I'll bet Icadora rejected Dago and he couldn't have that. He sounds like a lunatic anyway so he killed Aloys. Why? To get him out of the way? To punish him and Icadora?"

"Who knows? Probably both?"

"And once the brother was out of the way... he attacked Icadora, to get what he wanted and to punish her. Thus, you and Kato – who was renamed Dalton. But what I don't understand is how did he get hold of Dalton?"

Kazimir glanced at her.

"That doesn't make sense. If she had a natural merfolks birth, she would have needed to be in the water. If she had a human birth – if that's possible, who knows? Can a mermaid have a human birth when they're just masquerading as a human? – but regardless, they take – what? – months? It's nearly an entire human year. Why would she go back?"