Chapter 69

This chapter has been copied from the original and may contain typos and grammatical errors.

~*~

Gloria knocked on the Romeos' door, anxious. She had a lot to answer for.

"You're going straight home!" Anwyn had told her after all of the introductions had been made and the pleasantries exchanged between Queen Rosa and Anwyn's own band. "You're in danger here, the rebels will be looking to get rid of anyone associated with the king, and with you here they'll be looking to kill you too. So you're going home. Midshore-"

"On it. Hold tight Gloria, this is going to be rough." She wrapped her arms around Gloria, holding her close.

"But- Sen-" Gloria was cut off as the world fell away and she felt as if she were being spun at frightening speeds. After countless moments had gone by, the two of them dropped onto the pale sands of the Islands. Midshore stumbled, but Gloria tripped over her own feet and fell to the ground.

Looking around, she saw that she was on the Midshore's home island, volcano fuming in the background, the greenhouse standing just as they'd left it. Had Gloria really only been gone three months?

Midshore looked up at the house, yearning to go up there and let Everstar and her children know she was alright- that everyone was alright, but she also knew that she should return to Anwyn and the group to talk about their plans.

"Go to her. Mom, Dad, and Pops can wait," Gloria urged.

That extra push was all Midshore needed to get her bolting up the hill. Gloria chuckled as she dusted sand off of herself. She had been appreciating the lack of sand on the mainland, and at night the sand was very cold. She shivered. At least the air was warm, unlike the winter they had just come from.

Midshore bounded through the portal and down into her home. It had been night on the Mainland, barely touching dawn, so it was late at night on the Islands. If she thought about it, Midshore knew she should be exhausted, but she was so wired she couldn’t possibly sleep.

She opened the bedroom door and found her wife sleeping in bed. “Everstar, honey, wake up.”

Everstar rolled over in bed, hardly opening her eyes before recognising Midshore. She then leaped out of bed and the two held each other close, both nearly squeezing the air out of the other.

“I thought for sure I’d be a widow,” Everstar said. “You don’t ever get to leave me again. Next time, I go on the dangerous journey.”

“Deal,” Midshore smiled.

Gloria wandered into the little underground dwelling. It was almost a second home to her, and she knew every crumbling wall like the back of her hand, but she felt like she was a stranger here. She had changed in the three months she’d been gone and nothing felt the same even if her senses were telling her they were.

Everstar and Midshore came out of their bedroom, and a shocked look mixed with anger sprouted on Everstar’s face. “If I wasn’t so happy that you were safe, I’d slap you,” she said to Gloria, pulling her abruptly into a suffocating hug. “I’m so angry and happy,”

“I missed you too,” Gloria said.

After that, Midshore squeezed Everstar’s hand, and took Gloria’s. “We need to rescue Lily from those children. I’ll see you in a few days, if not sooner, darling.”

The trip to the Romeos’ was much smoother, teleporting just a few miles rather than a couple hundred.

“Time to face some consequences,” Midshore said as they approached the door. “And no, I will not knock with you. That woman scares me when she’s angry.”

Gloria took a steadying breath. She still felt light headed from everything that had happened. She had brought Seneca back to life less than two hours ago, and her legs were starting to feel like they were made of jelly. That was either the side effects of the magic or her fear of Lily Romeo.

“See you later, and good luck,” Midshore floated up off the ground then disappeared.

“This can’t be harder than bringing people back to life,” Gloria said as she knocked on the door. The lights were all out in the house. It was the middle of the night, no one would expect company now, especially from a girl who’d been missing for three months…

Gloria saw the soft glow and harsh shadows of a candle being carried around the house, and then the curtain part to see who was outside. The face was pale, but then most of the people in the family were, so she wasn’t sure that it was Lily or one of the twins. Or her brother Robin…

The door opened slowly, and the full form of Lily stood in the doorway. She wore a simple night dress, and Gloria was reminded that she was also wearing night clothes and how strong Lily was. She had been a nomad for a long time, and she had kept up her fitness even when in domestic life.

“Gloria, is that you? You’ve come back?” she asked.

“Yes, it’s me,” Gloria shivered.

“Where’s my husband?!” Lily let her voice raise, standing defiantly in the doorway, looking like she was ready to pull out all of Gloria’s hair if she gave the wrong answer.

“Pops is fine!” Gloria replied quickly. “They’re all fine. Mom’s fine, Dad’s fine, Midshore’s fine, everyone’s fine. I promise. They just stayed back to talk to Queen Rosa and everyone. They thought I should come back so that I wasn’t hurt.”

“Oh, well then,” She softened visibly. “You can tell me everything over a nice cup of hot juice, you look like you haven’t eaten in days! I want to know everything!”

Gloria ended up talking until her voice was hoarse and the sun dawned, but it felt so good to be able to talk about what she’d done, to share it all with someone and not have to carry it alone.

“The kids will be happy you’re here, and you can all go home. The house will feel empty with them all gone, I had just gotten a rhythm going, too, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be happy your siblings are gone! That was a lot of food… You look exhausted, and you need a change of clothes. You can sleep in my bed, and you can borrow some of my clothes.” Gloria looked up from her mug and felt like she would crumble to pieces from the tenderness. “Oh, don’t you start that now, I’ll start crying too, and I’ll be 🐸🐸🐸🐸 if my boys see me crying. Come on, lass, let’s get you taken care of.”

~*~

Anwyn took Liam’s hand and turned to Rosa who was holding her son at arm’s length. He looked remarkably fine for someone who had been dead fifteen minutes ago. The king hadn’t kept many guards on the island, just enough to be comfortable, not fortified, and the sounds of the skirmish were coming to an end.

“Rosa, there are some things that I feel should be discussed. Perhaps we could meet in the dining room in fifteen minutes? I’ll try to find something for us to eat, and you can talk to your people, or whatever else you need to do?”

“Yes, that sounds fine to me,” she said, not looking away from her son.

“Very good,” Anwyn said as she stepped out of the dungeon and started up the stairs in search of food. The kitchen was always well stocked; hopefully the soldiers hadn’t been dumb enough to ransack it.

Liam let out a sigh. “Our daughter is safe.”

“Gloria is safe,” Romeo echoed, looking into the distance. “What do we do now?”

“Now we talk to Rosa and her team and we iron out an agreement. Didn’t Gloria say that Seneca doesn’t want to be king? We know who would be in line for the throne if he turns away from it, and something tells me that she isn’t up for the job on her own. So we need to talk to Rosa.”

The next few minutes were spent looking for food, which was a fruitful mission. They found plenty of ready-to-eat foods like bread and preserves. It wasn’t hearty, but it would fill the stomach.

“Queen Anwyn,” Rosa said as she sat down at the table, her people on one side, Anwyn’s on the other. “What is it that you wish to discuss?”

“You can drop the title, Rosa, we’re equals here,” Anwyn smiled. “And I am no queen. What I wish to discuss is that I know who can reign if Seneca wishes not to take that path. The girl doesn’t know that she is in line, so she’s no threat to you. She lives on the Islands, and has no knowledge of any of this, besides perhaps that Gloria ran away from home. Everyone on the Islands knows that by now,”

“Why would Seneca not wish to be king? It was what he was born for. He’s got the blood of kings in his veins,” Rosa said, looking at her son with skepticism.

“By the way, the king’s blood is on the floor in the princess’s wing… You may want to get that cleaned up…” Anwyn said quietly.

“Good for you,” Rosa said, looking at her out of the corner of her eye. “Seneca, you want to be king, don’t you?”

He looked at his mother, his mouth dry. All eyes were on him. “I- mother I think you want to be queen again more than I want to be king,” he stammered out quickly. “This has always been your dream, not mine. I- No. I don’t want to be king.”

“You don’t!? But all the work we’ve done over the years- all of your education- You’re primed to be the king! Anwyn said herself that the girl who would rule instead has no knowledge of government!”

“Which is why I think that it would be a good idea for you to rule with her. As co-ruler.” Anwyn said.

“Co-ruler?”

~*~

Seneca looked at his bandaged hand. There was nothing wrong with it, but it had started changing colors and while he was alarmed, he didn’t want to scare anyone else. Gloria had colored hands, maybe now he carried a small part of her.

Krista rushed into the room, throwing herself into Seneca's arms. He had no option but to hug her back, her arms were too tight around his neck to allow him to have any other response.

"I heard what happened!" she said. "I can't believe you were dead. Things were so close to going wrong! All I can think is that we're so lucky."

"Luck didn't have much to do with it," he said into her hair. "Just lots of bravery." He held her at arm's length. "Krista, there's something I have to say,"

"Me, first. Please." She sat down on the bed next to him. She seemed to radiate, and she was still so clean. The idea of things being clean was still a mystery to him. The palace was in ruin, they had only cleared out a few rooms to work from in the past few days.

"Seneca," she smiled, taking his hand in hers, "I know you're going to want an heir as soon as possible, or at least your mother will, but I want to wait. I don't want to have children right away. There was a little while after I visited you that I was sick, and I wondered if I was expecting, but that wasn’t the case." She smiled a small smile. "I was terrified. I know that there's much less to be worried about now, with our cause in power, and we have a whole island to have as our own, but I don't want to bring children into the world where their home is a building site and we're sorting out government policies."

"Krista," Seneca felt like he was about to jump off a cliff into an ocean. "Krista, I don't want to marry you."

"Oh," she took her hands from his, confused. "But our parents signed a deal. This was the deal. My father’s support in exchange for our marriage. You can't just back out of that,"

"Krista, I want to marry someone I love. I can't marry you,” he said gently. “I've found someone else who I love. You and I hardly know each other, Krista. We've seen each other a handful of times, and that may be enough for some people, but that's not enough for me. I don't want to spend my days regretting who I married. You're a wonderful girl though-" he covered. "You'd make any man very happy as a wife- any man but me."

Krista took a shaking breath. "Oh thank the Creator!" she said. "I don't want to marry you either."

"You don't?" he asked.

"No. I mean, if we're being blunt, you're never clean, you always have dirt under your nails, you're grumpy all the time, your hands are rough, and you're broody. I found a really nice man in the capital; he's a merchant selling jewelry. I haven't pursued it because I was tied to you, but now that neither of us want to get married, it doesn't matter!"

Seneca blinked in surprise, chuckling. "That's the best news I've heard all week!" he hugged her. "Congratulations on finding a nice man!"

"And I hope you're happy too, you deserve that much."

~*~

“I’m what?” Ember asked. It had been nearly 20 years since she’d had to think about her father or being locked in the basement of that manor, and she’d hoped to never think about it again.

“You’re the next person in line to be the ruler of the Mainland,” Anwyn said. Ember hadn't seen much of her in the past 20 years. She’d been taught by her, yes, but Ember had been well-read by the time she’d been in Mrs. Reed’s class, so she hadn’t had much to learn and had graduated early. Ember was 25 now, and she was happy where she was.

“Do they know I’m a mermaid?” she asked.

“No, but I don’t see why that matters. And between you and me, they could use some new perspectives in that stunted government.”

“But I’m- I’m happy here! There are other mermaids like me here. Peace! And I’m going to be married soon… I can’t leave just like that.”

“I’m not saying you should, but I am saying that you’d be a good fit for it, and it is your heritage. You’ve always been bright, Ember. Always. And you won’t be alone; the previous Queen will be there with you, ruling beside you. She’s a tough cookie, but I think you could teach her something about acceptance and kindness. And tolerance. If you ruled the Mainland, you could revoke discriminatory laws that were placed against all those who are different. Mermaids, Spellcasters, all sorts of people could live without fear,” Anwyn smiled and patted her knee. “It’s a lot to think about. Talk it over with your fiancé.”

“I’ll do that,”

AH! the next chapter is the finale! I have the feeling that you all know what's going to happen, but as always I would love to hear what you thought and felt. This story has been such a journey, and I'm so happy that you've all been here for it./b]

I have a few bloopers!