#lttr

Just then, the first mate, Cameron, appeared over the rock outcropping. “Oh!” he exclaimed. “Captain! Are ya all right? Is anything broken? Can you move? Ya know what, just stay down there and I’ll be right down!”

Emma sighed, resigned to her spot on the damp sand, knowing that Cameron wasn’t going to let her get up until he had thoroughly searched her for any bumps or bruises.

As he scrambled over the rocks, Emma laid back and tried to relax and take stock of her body. Breathing hurts a little, so I probably have bruised ribs. My fingers and toes are OK. My legs can move so I don’t have a spinal injury. My head hurts but that would coincide with a possible concussion. Emma ran through the possible injuries like a checklist in her head. Her mother had taught her about medicine. Processes and terms the mainland doctors hadn’t yet thought of. Her mother had been to school and had been taught by her father. She had been worlds away from the certified medicals in the cities. It had helped her throughout the years. She had taught the ship doctor too.

Cameron had finally reached her, his chest heaving and face red as a tomato. Gasping, he tried to speak. “Captain-gasp-are-gasp-you-gasp-OK?” He finally made it through a coherent sentence. “Yes. I’m fine. A little banged up but otherwise unharmed. Are you? Did you happen to see something here as you were coming up, Cameron?”

He took a giant breath and spoke, exhaling as he did. “Like what, Captain?”

Emma shook her head. He hadn’t seen the merman. I saw a fricking merman.. merpeople are real?!!

Her mom would have flipped. Her dad would have laughed. Even though it’s been more than five years since their deaths, Emma still had moments where she didn’t remember they weren’t here anymore and it burned in her chest like a fireball. She shook it off. Maybe this was like a wake up call. She had been out at sea since her parents’ death. Maybe it was time to get her land legs back.

Either way, they needed to get their boat fixed and that would take time and money. Thankfully, Emma had plenty of money. Time, well that could be negotiated. It would depend on the parts that were available in the port they had crash landed on. Cameron had finally caught his breath and was helping her up. It endured him to Emma. Especially considering, he never sat  down during his watch because he wouldn’t have been able to get up. Heaving, Cameron stayed bent at the waist, catching his breath yet again after “helping” Emma up. She hadn’t put any weight on him and he could barely stand it. But Emma didn’t have it in her heart to tell him to stay on land. He loved sailing as much as she did. And he had been sailin with her parents. As much as Emma should have told him to stop, she wasn’t going to. He was veritable relic from her parents’ time and Emma wasn’t going to let him go.

Cameron caught his breathe a second time and looked at Emma. “What were you talking about, Cap’n?” Emma had hoped that, in the process of catching his breath, he had forgotten about her question. Evidently not. “Nothing. I just thought I saw something in the water. It was probably the sun.”

Cameron smirked, looking years younger than his actual age. “Aye. It could have been the sun. Or it could have been a mer-person.”

Emma froze. Cameron hadn’t seen anything. He couldn’t have. Julian, the merman, hadn’t been there long enough for Cameron to see. It was probably just seamen superstitions. Emma was more than sure that Cameron hadn’t seen Julian. And since, to the rest of the world, he was a mythical creature, Cameron wouldn’t ever see Julian. Hell, Emma probably wouldn’t ever see Julian again. For a moment, the thought saddened her and weighed on her mind. As though she was going to be missing something vital for the rest of her life.

She shook it off. Ignoring the overwhelming feeling of loss, the likes of which she hadn’t felt since her parents died. Emma turned toward the rock hiding the Cordelia. Gesturing to Cameron, Emma urgently said, “Come on. The sooner we get to Cordelia, the faster I can see what needs repairs. And the sooner I can get the repairs done.”

Cameron nodded and hurried to catch up to her, already halfway up the rocks obscuring the ship. Emma started scaling the rock, finding holds easily and quickly. Cameron lagged behind her, already panting. At the top, Emma could see her home lying almost on it’s side and wearing a big hole on the side that was exposed. Hearing Cameron’s audible breath behind her, Emma turned around and helped him up. Cameron tried to deny the help but when he couldn’t make the last step, he reluctantly allowed her to gab his hand and pull him up. “Do you want help going down?” Emma asked, trying not to insult Cameron. “No, Cap’n. I think I’ll be OK but perhaps you go first just in case. I’ll try to copy you.”

Emma tried not to chuckle as she nodded and started going down the other side of the rock. It truly isn’t that big. Emma thought but kept to herself. Cameron, oftentimes, displayed a low self-esteem and Emma wasn’t going to be the one to damage it any further than it already was. Cameron started climbing down once Emma was almost halfway down. Jumping the last few steps, Emma immediately turned towards her beloved ship and started running towards it. “Captain! Wait! Please, Emma. Give me a second!” She skidded to a stop on the sand and turned back to Cameron.

He was running towards her, pell-mell. “Cameron! Are you sure you should be doing that? What about your heart?!” Reaching Emma, Cameron stopped an breathed heavily again. Emma put her ad on his back as he leaned over his knees to try to catch his breath. “You are going to give me so much to worry about while we are here, aren’t you?”

He smiled and nodded his head, lifting it again as they continued to walk towards Cordelia. Emma looked up at the ship and started to categorize what they would need to repair it. Most everything, she surmised, would be easy to find and could leave Cameron in charge of the repairs. There was, however, one single piece that they would need that Emma had to go searching for. Cameron turned to her. “The crew is in town. I stayed here to look for you. There weren’t any casualties. There are some injuries but besides that, Em, we didn’t suffer much except for the old girl.” Patting the ship’s hull and gesturing towards the town, Cameron updated her on what she should have already found out. But considering her distraction, Emma was ashamed that she hadn’t tried to find that out before now. “OK. As long as everyone is safe, then I am going to go look for that damn piece. If I can even find it.”

Julian hid underneath the waves for a long time. Longer than he should have. Half hearing the conversation that Emma was having with the overweight man and unable to stop himself from trying to extend the time he has with her. He shouldn’t have felt like that. At all. Even doing what he was doing was grounds for exile. And he wasn’t going to leave his siblings fending for themselves. Not after Livvy.

With that thought, Julian shook his head and turned back to go home.

After a long route, Julian began to see the glittering windows and buildings that made up his home. The Institute. Originally a school for humans, it sunk and the only words that survived were those. Merpeople inhabited it almost immediately. Being a previously nomadic people, the merpeople settled surprisingly well on the structure. It had been more than 3000 years since the first merperson made a home in The Institute. Julian was constantly mesmerized by the jewels adhered to the walls and buildings in The Institute. It was a sight to behold.  The center tower loomed over the smaller, slightly insignificant towers. That was home. His father and mother had been in charge of The Institute since long before Mark or Helen; his older half-siblings, had been born. Now, after the war that had taken Livvy and his parents from him, the tower no longer held the same appeal it once did. No longer the welcoming sight of home, it felt like a responsibility since he was stuck taking care of not only his remaining siblings but his father’s brother as well. Julian’s uncle wasn’t right in the head. Merpeople weren’t tolerant of the people who weren’t normal. So my whole family. Julian thought bitterly. He wasn’t happy with his family’s situation but he couldn’t do anything about it yet. He was working through that but Julian was stuck currently.

After making his way through The Institute, Julian went to his family’s wing. He lived in the giant tower that lorded over everything. Julian hated it. He hated the responsibility that came with living in the tower and the weight he had on his shoulders. Julian felt like the world was on his shoulders.

Sighing as he opened the door, Julian smiled. His family was all sitting “normally”. Something was wrong. “Where’s Diana?” Julian asked his baby brother, the weak link of his family.

Tavvy, Octavian, the baby, smiled crookedly and looked toward Drusilla, Julian’s second youngest sibling. Dru shook her head slightly. Julian’s shoulders sagged. He didn’t have time for this. He needed to start on dinner and help Dru with her homework and try to talk to Ty again. That was what was weighing on him the most. Ty wasn’t anywhere to be seen with the family and he wasn’t talking to anyone. He’s started to pull away more and more and Julian was so scared that Ty was going to do something he wasn’t going to be able to fix. “Guys, just tell me please. Dru, come on.” He pleaded to Dru, thinking that maybe she could take pity on him.

She wasn’t going to. Dru looked at Julian and smiled. “Where do you think Diana is, Jules?”

Julian realized that they hadn’t done anything to Diana and she was, instead, with Gwyn. Her boyfriend. He was one of the warriors of the people. Gwyn was good for Diana, Julian thought. If only it wouldn’t include leaving Tavvy and Dru alone for a length of time. Not that Dru wasn’t capable of taking care of Tavvy but Julian didn’t like leaving them alone. Not yet. In his mind, Julian still thought of Dru as his baby girl. Despite the fact that she was almost a teenager.

“Ok. So where’s Helen, Aline and Mark, then?”

“I have no clue. I think Aline and Helen are in the library and Mark was heading outside, last time I knew.”

Julian nodded and let the duo get back to reading and coloring. Heading to the library, he was mentally going through what they could eat for dinner. Helen and Aline were huddled over The Institute’s books. Julian had never understood it. Instead of rotting away and molding over, the books that came with The Institute lived and thrived even with the water. The furniture too, never changed. “What are you guys doing?” Julian had arrived by Helen’s side and was trying to look over her shoulder to see what they were so intent on. Aline jerked and moved to cover the paper and Helen swirled around, leaving a trail of bubbles in her wake. “HEY! Jules, you’re back! What’s up?”

Helen was acting strange and Julian was feeling uncomfortable, keeping secrets from his family. He wasn’t going to tell Helen about the ship and the girl-Emma-at least, not yet. Julian wasn’t sure whether Helen or Aline would have to report his interactions with a human. And he wasn’t about to put them in that situation. Not after everything they had given him. “Nothing is up. Do you guys want anything specific for dinner? I got some oysters.”

Aline returned from putting whatever they had been looking at away and shook her head. “We’re good with whatever you want. I still don’t understand that contraption that came with this damn building. And I grew up with it.” Aline grabbed her wife’s hand and began to swim away.

Helen waved as they left Julian standing in the middle of the library.

Honestly, Kyvana thought as she typed out a quick reply, this entire succession war business is absolute bull. I was going to use this trip as an opportunity to promote my new Crystal Beauty palette and do some Picstagram partnerships, but how am I supposed to make time for that and deal with my sisters trying to kill me?! She looked up when her aunt asked to see her dress, and twirled around, showing off the crystals and sequins splayed across the long train of her rich mauve gown. They shimmered prettily when they caught in the light.

–

Camila smiled, pleasantly enough. She leaned in close – close enough that her painted lips were mere inches away from Tselvya’s ear; close enough that even the cruel, cruel Fourth Princess stiffened slightly – and whispered, “I don’t need your help, Tselvya. If you want mine, you’ll have to make it worth my time.”

Then, she drew away and let out a soft laugh. It twinkled with a saccharine, sugar-spun sweetness that did not quite reach her eyes.

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