From the Depths
A Path Forward

Kirea breached the now pinkish-stained water to replace the two men staring at the surface with concerned expressions.

“Is he?” Henry immediately reached for her, taking hold of her outstretched hand and pulling her from the water.

She was grateful for his quick wit as she really didn’t want to spend another second in the tainted water that was now riddled with so many different parts of him.

Yosof suddenly screamed beside them.

When Henry lifted Kirea up into his arms, the King’s still gushing head dangled from her other hand. The evidence of his death.

Henry eyed her with a half-smirk. “Went a little overboard did we?” He commented.

“We needed evidence, no? And his body is too heavy to drag back to the top, let alone outside. We couldn’t exactly wait for it to decompose and float now could we?” Kirea spoke as though the situation was nothing new. She had one hand around Henry’s shoulder as he cradled her with surprising ease.

In truth her head was pounding in her chest, pure adrenaline running through her veins. She lifted the head up to eye level so she could stare into the asshole’s eyes. “Good riddance.”

Yosof squeaked beside her as her tail thrashed a little, unintentionally. “Remind me not to piss her off.” He commented.

Henry chuckled as he took the lead and headed for the entrance. “You should have seen her with legs, utterly ruthless!” He teased.

Kirea rolled her eyes. “Please... Honestly, it shocked me a little. I never thought I could take a person’s life like that. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the feeling, I wanted him to suffer, I was so... Angry.”

“We thought something had gone wrong when you screamed...” Yosof jogged lightly to catch up to them, he sheepishly held his hands in front of his chest, glancing every now and again at the dangling head in her grasp.

“You heard that?” She questioned surprised.

“I think everyone in the kingdom heard it.” Henry pointed out. “Surprised it didn’t burst our eardrums, probably would have if you’d been above water.”

She flinched finally genuinely remorseful. “Sorry.”

She'd have to be careful of her voice from now on, made sense.

He smiled down at her. “Don’t be, it worked in our favour.”

It was then that she noticed that the cavern door had been dispelled, had that been Henry’s doing? The two knights at the entrance were doing their best to keep everyone out of the entrance, it seemed a crowd had gathered. With each passing minute, the numbers slowly grew as more and more people came down to the beach to investigate.

Murmurs and whispers broke out as Henry came into view with Kirea in his arms. She had a pretty good idea as to what they were saying, she even caught the word mermaid serval times.

“Clear the way!” Henry ordered his Knights.

But to everyone’s surprise, the crowd cleared a path for them on their own. She felt every pair of eyes on her, studying her. It made her feel incredibly uneasy, her grip tightening on Henry’s collar on instinct.

Walking through the crowd Henry lead the three a little closer to the ocean’s edge. Turning to face the crowd, it appeared they had followed a short distance behind, just as anticipated.

Now was Josof’s turn as a witness. He stepped up beside Kirea and offered to take the King’s head. She clenched the man’s head closer to her chest in a display of hesitation and fear.

“It’s okay, I will tell them all the truth of what happened here tonight, you are in no danger.” He told her gently, though his voice was loud enough for the first row of townsfolk to hear.

She had made it a point to not allow the cuts on her cheek to heal, in fact, she was fighting with her body to not heal it. Hestitently she handed over the monster’s head. Though it was all for show.

With a grimace, he grasped the severed head by its wet greasy hair and held it high in the air for all to see. His words were elevated and stern as he spoke loud enough for all to hear.

“The King tried to eat the flesh of a mermaid, I was hired under the threat of my family being killed if I spoke a word of this. The mermaid killed the King to save her own life!”

“The King is dead?” The crowd erupted into an uproar.

“Who is to take his place?”

“What does this mean for the kingdom!?”

“Is the town safe!?”

“The mermaid is a killer!?”

Henry remained straight-faced and professional. As like clockwork the rest of the knights appeared, they immediately turned to Henry for orders, many frazzled and confused. “Hold your positions, defend the mermaid at all costs. The treaty must remain intact!” He ordered sternly.

“QUIET!” A demanding voice bellowed across the beach.

Kirea had buried her head in Henry’s chest, her crimson hair covering her smile as she recognised the voice as someone she knew.

The crowd, which at this point was likely the entire town and castle folk, parted to allow a small group of hooded figures on horseback to trot toward the line of Knights that had formed between Henry and the crowd. The leader pulled back her hood revealing a woman with long raven hair, pointed ears and tattooed skin, it was Riku.

Dismounting she turned to face the crowd. “A crime against an essence welder, or non-human, has been committed. This kingdom will remain under Elven guard until a trial is completed and a new, fair, ruler is established.”

The crowd visibly calmed at the appearance of the elves. The other horse riders followed their leader’s direction and began to see to the crowd and disperse the numbers accordingly. This left Riku to approach the Knights who were clearly on guard.

“Stand down men. I asked them here.” Henry ordered.

“Sir? You’re telling us you knew?” One questioned as they sheathed their blade.

“For quite some time, it’s how Kirea and I got... involved.” Henry looked slightly awkward using the term. After all this time he still felt it awkward to lie about their relationship.

She found it quite cute.

With the crowd gone and Henry’s men calming down, Kirea shifted in his arms so that she could see the remaining persons around them. Many of the Knights gasped as they recognised her.

She rolled her eyes, it was hard to miss her hair colour. Though in truth she understood that it was more than likely her new addition that shocked them most.

Riku pushed through the men before any of them could truly react. Her own shock overshadowed the Knight’s reactions.

“Kirea!” She exclaimed taking in the scene. “When the letter from the Knight came I never expected...”

“Miss Riku, it’s so good to see you again.” She smiled brightly. They’d done it! An overwhelming sense of relief flowed through her tense form. She slumped against Henry’s chest finally relaxing, his hold gently tightening around her to compensate. It was over and they... they were free.

It was just a shame that one person was missing from their group.

“Umm... Sorry... But ah, not to interrupt or anything...” Yosof sheepishly stepped forward. “C-can someone please take this from me?” He looked on the verge of tears as he held the served head of the King out as far away from himself as possible.

The elves took the ‘trophy’ from the boy and proceeded to take his statement while Henry, Kirea and Riku headed for the water line. It was high time she was placed back in the water, her skin was already drying out and becoming irritated. It seemed she couldn’t be out of the water for long at the moment.

“How did this happen?” The elf asked.

Henry gently placed Kirea down into the cold foaming edge of the ocean as it lapped over the sandy shore. He remained silent but alert, not leaving her side. He wasn’t just worried about the people of the beach but the beings that could be dwelling under the waterline as well.

Kirea brushed aside her still slightly damp hair to reveal the scar down her chest. “He gave me his heart to save me from my illness-”

“That’s not entirely true.” Henry interrupted her. His expression a mix of emotions making it hard for Kirea to make sense of his words. “It wasn’t just for you.” He tried again. Though he was stumbling over his words now.

Furrowing her brows she shook her head confused. The elf looked just as perplexed.

“He... Ah. You’re...” Henry checks flushed, then he hastily blurted; “You’re pregnant.”

“Nonsense!” She retorted with a laugh. “That’s impossible...” She paused looking at the two who were staring back at her with rather serious looks. “Right?”

“May I?” Riku asked making a notion that she would like to place her hand on her lower abdomen.

Kirea nodded.

The elf reached forward placing her palm on her lower belly.

Kirea gasped as she felt what could only be described as static electricity as the elf’s hand touched her skin.

Riku chuckled. “You quietly attuned to essence, interesting.” Taking a moment to focus before her lips spread into a smile. “Congratulations, it’s true. You’re with child.”

Kirea’s mouth fell open in disbelief. Her hand found its way to her stomach as she slowly came to the realisation that she was carrying his child. Pushing this newfound information away was quite hard, she’d worry about that in a few months time. Right now they had a kingdom to think about. “What happens now, the Kingdom?”

Riku explained that she had rushed ahead of the others still to come in order to reach them as fast as she could. There was a group of elves coming to help aid the Knights and the kingdom through a transition of power. There was no doubt in her mind that the King’s death had been out of ‘self-defence’.

With the elves backing them Henry was visibly less worried, but he soon had to leave with Riku to help retain order within and outside of the Knights.

In a matter of hours, the elves and Knights had driven out anyone who dared to take the king’s place for sheer power. The Lords of the various regions needed to be contacted and filled in. These men were the most troublesome and likely would be for quite some time. They couldn’t just be replaced without a new King in place and many of them would try for that very seat. But with the Elves intervening due to the treaty the new ruler would have to be approved by them as well.

As the hours passed she noticed the town was putting on a celebration as the sun rose high into the sky, and the morning turned to afternoon, a fitting way to usher in a new era.

Kirea had unfortunately been left alone on the beach, though not for long. Many people came to see her throughout the day and even left her offerings of jewellery and food.

She didn’t stay on the shore, rather she made herself comfortable on a rocky outcrop a little ways out from shore. The time alone had given her some much-needed time to think about what her next move should be.

She still had no idea how to return to a human form and she’d had no true knowledge of how to be a decent siren. She needed to learn, not for her own sake but for her child. Was the child to be half siren? Or were the genes dominant?

Later in the afternoon, a rather tired-looking Henry swam out to her and joined her on the rocky outcrop. On approach, he knew she’d made up her mind. No longer did she have the questioning gaze or uncertainty in her movements.

“You’ve decided what you’re to do now.” He simply stated as he heaved himself up onto the rocks beside her.

She nodded. “I’m going to replace some sirens and learn as much as I can. I won’t travel too far from shore though.”

“I’ll be here, you do what you need to.” He paused to look back up at the castle on the cliffside. “The elves are helping keep the plan on track. Everything will be turned over to us Knights after a short transition period. A discussion and... what was the term they used, election? Anyway, we will give them candidates for the next King and they will approve or deny. Before that, we need to gain the trust of the people again, show them that we have their best interest at heart.”

“I know you’ll do great.” She gently touched his hand that was resting on his knee. “And thank you.”

“I didn’t do shit. Remember I would have drowned if not for you.”

They both laughed, spending the rest of the evening talking about everything and nothing. She refused to say goodbye to him, ending the evening with a ‘see you later’.

The letters he had been given were still to be delivered, when he asked why she explained that it was better if people thought the ‘Kirea’ who had been taken to the castle had died the way she almost had.

She knew it would break her mother, but if people found out that her mother had a daughter that was a Siren it could mean all sorts of trouble for her. She didn’t want that.

Every couple of days the two would meet up again. Kirea would talk about the Sirens she had met and the things she had learned, while Henry kept her up to date on her mother’s heath and how the Kingdom was progressing.

Life went on, days turned to weeks and weeks to months, soon it was time to start worrying about the baby...