Villains

They are everyone's enemy. We all hate them. Don't we? But what if I told you they weren't as bad as you may think.

A story may exist without a particular hero (protagonist) ,but a story can not exist without a good villain. The villain is always the main character. The main show. All a hero does is give the story a satisfying, not-tragic ending. But what's the fun in that? In fact, some heroes are actually villains in some people's lives. Villains are just heroes with a broken heart.

Whether the villain may be a person or bad weather or an undead being or delay or even the hero itself ,they add all the spice that's needed in a story. It's usually just a misunderstood character. The villain is the base of a story. This story starts with the birth of a villain.

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About 4000 metres down under the encrient sea,where sea dwellers (humans with fins on their arms and legs who live and breathe underwater) had built their kingdom unknown to the humans,there was a tradition that a woman was not allowed to give birth within the borders of Encrea. For this reason, and this reason alone, did Pherisa agree to leave the comforts of her home to produce her child in the wilderness of the birthing grounds, close to the surface.

She flapped her webbed feet as fast as she could,which was pretty fast for someone who was carrying an eight-and-a-half month old baby in her womb. Her spine welled up with pain. She felt pain in her belly, too. The baby was coming.

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At the heart of the Encrient sea, on fantascia colossal island,divided into several smaller islands by a Web of rivers,king Herald had decided to take his wife and fourteen year old son out to the beach at the edge of the island instead of the usual one that surrounded their castle in the middle the island. He had sent the royal guards back to the castle for the morning just to get a little bit of privacy. But of course, he couldn't send Bailewick away because he needed someone to watch his sin while he enjoyed a romantic picnic by the sea with his beloved queen.

Bailewick took the little prince a good distance away from his parents. The delta wasn't very big. It was about the size of four small airports ,separated from the rest of the island by a delta. Thland belonged solely to the royal family. It was used mainly as a lookout, but sometimes it's just a fun space to be in.

The little Prince Rolland heard a shriek coming from the water. He looked around but there was no one there. The second time, it sounded more like a scream.

Roland looked across a nearby river. A woman stood at the shore yelling, " Come back, Cornelia!!"

A splash directed Roland's attention to the sea.

A little girl had jumped into the water.

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On a delta right next to the one that belonged to the royal family, Ella and Cornelia locked the door to their cottage and headed towards the sea.

Twelve year old Cornelia had started learning sorcery, and her mother had one to show her at the beach. They walked in silence until they reached the beach, which was a few cottages from their cottage.

Cornelia fell quickly in love with the vast openness of the sea. The waves clashed against the beach and the cliffs far off. The beach was empty for the evening. Just what they needed: nothing in sight but water and sand; no sound but the sound of water colliding with the sand and rock.

"Fetch some water in a bowl while I set up our ingredients." Ella was first to break the silence.

With quick effect, cornelia took a bowl out of her bag. She looked out at the sea. The water called out to her. She had a role to play in the making of history, and it was her cue.

She,running to the shore, scooped up a bowl full of water. She picked up the first rock she could find by the river. By the time she had run back to her mother, Ella had set up all the potion ingredients on the sandy floor.

"Alright, let's get started." Ella said. She sat down on the sand; Cornelia did the same. Ella mixed a few ingredients into a vial, including a drop of salt water. Using a stirring rod, she made sure all the ingredients were completely mixed. She bathed the rock in the potion. It absorbed the magic liquid.

"And now for the moment of truth." Ella said, holding the rock a foot above the bowl of water. Cornelia stared and waited, eagerly, impatiently. Her eyes widened as the water rose slowly towards the rock.

Ella swung the rock around. The water acted with it like the tail of a whip. Finally, she threw the rock as far out to sea as she could, and the water followed in the same path.

"Wow!" Cornelia exclaimed.

"You try." Ella said ,handing the vial over to Cornelia.

Cornelia, after throwing the vial into her bag, picked up the bowl and ran over to the point where the river met the sea. She took a moment to appreciate the immaculate, wonderful nature.

The wind blew back her hair. Her ears became dry. Dust got into her eyes, but she didn't mind. That was when she heard it. The shriek She looked back at her mother. Her mother was staring across the river at a boy and a man. She hadn't made that noise. Then where did it come from?

A scream echoed loud. It came from the sea. Was someone in trouble?

Cornelia ran past the shore and through the shallow part of the sea.

"Cornelia!!" Ella screamed,standing up."Come back!"

Roland ran across the river, wetting his shoes and trousers. Bailewick ran after him ,calling for him to come back. Roland, ignoring Bailewick ,ran across the shore and through the shallows of the sea to stop Cornelia.

Waves rushed towards Cornelia. Roland grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back to shore. But the waves didn't stop at the shore. They kept coming.

Ella pulled Cornelia back, and Bailewick pulled Roland back. It amazed Roland that the water kept coming and even the river had turned the direction of its flow towards them.

Ella put two and two together and finally figured out what was going on. She took Cornelia's bag off her and threw it as far out to the sea as she could. The vial, which had been leaking for the past couple of minutes, fell out, and all its contents were poured out into the sea. The waves drew back, and the river continued on its usual route to the sea. The screams had stopped.

Bailewick stared at Ella. His eyes were asking,'What just happened?'

Pherisa held her darling little baby in her scaly arms. The baby girl was so beautiful that she needed a name immediately. Pherisa had heard a beautiful name not so long ago. Someone had screamed it. Cordelia, was it?

Daughter of the sea.

Yes, that was perfect.

Cordelia's home,lit by thousands of bioluminescents, was lightly decorated for the once in a hundred years celebration of the cobalt moon. Cordelia was in the galley cutting up fish.

Nherisa swam up to her sister.

"Done?"

"Yes," Cordelia said.

Nherisa carried the tray of fish and placed it in the oven. She picked up a little cage from the ground beside the oven. From inside the cage, a frigil fish stared at her. She threw the cage into the darkness of a little space under the oven and closed it up. The scales of the frigil produced light and heat, filling the oven with heat. The water within a metre radius was extremely warm.

Cordelia, unable to stand the heat, swam out into the hallway. The intense heat was too much for her. She stopped moving. She had seen something crying out to her from the corner of her eye. She turned her head. Right under her, a rock carving of her mother's profile was a little necklace: a piece of rock with a string attached to it.

Cordelia held the necklace in her hand. It seemed like an electric shock moved through her body from her hands to her eyes.

Suddenly, a clear image of her mother appeared in front of her.

Beautiful.

Her mother was beautiful. Hair is almost red. Emerald green eyes. Blue-purple scales. She looked just like Nherisa. Her fins fluttered as she swam forward.

Cordelia followed her, noticing that she had a baby in her arms. They reached home only to find the rubble that used to be their house and five year old Nherisa laying half dead on the floor.

Pherisa went down to sit beside her daughter and put Nherisa's head on her lap.

Then she picked a piece of rock from beside her that had Nherisa's blood stained on it. Her fingers shook as she attached a string to it and tied it around her neck.

Cordelia could hear her thoughts. She could hear her mother promise to find whoever had done this to her daughter.

Cordelia returned to reality. She dropped the necklace back on the table.

No one had informed her about that night. No one had told her anything;no one ever told her anything. She picked up the necklace again and headed back towards the kitchen.

Halfway there, her eyes glowed green again. The force of gravity acting upon her grew stronger, and she fell to the ground. All she could see was black ⚫️,although her eyes were open.

Slowly, the darkness disappeared, and she could see eight year old Nherisa holding a Nherisa year old Cordelia. Pherisa headed towards the doorway.

"Where are you going ,mother?" Nherisa asked. She didn't want to be left alone again ( not after what had happened the last time.

"I'll be back soon, dear," Pherisa said. "Mother has some work that she needs to attend to." With that,she was gone.

The pictures turned to dust in front of Cordelia's eyes. Then, out of that same dust, another scene emerged. One rather terrible.

Cordelia saw a head stone with the initials Pherisa Tide carved on it.

Cordelia's eyes opened. Her eyes raced. Her gills refused to respirate. What had she seen? Who had killed her mother? Why? Cordelia had questions, and only Nherisa could have answers.

She paddled back into the kitchen to find that Nherisa wasn't there.

Cordelia darted out of the house. She kept swimming until the shipwreck, where she used to play as a child. She sat on the exhausted rail. The wood creaked under her weight. Splinters pricked against her scales.

The vertical city of Encrea reflected in Cordelia's eyes. It had come a long way since the last time she had seen it from that angle. Builders layered rocks on top of each other at the top of the vertical cities. Cordelia imagined - nay,visioned - her mother being buried with that view in sight.

A shadow covered her. She looked up to find a large ship over her head, heading towards Encrea on the surface. She watched it stop right over the underwater city. After a few seconds,a long harpoon line ( the longest Cordelia had ever seen in all her twenty years of life) was cast from the ship. It lowered down into the vertical cities of encrea. Slowly ,the line drew up again with a little orealea caught by a webbed foot.

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Cornelia stood on the fore deck of 'the regal',looking down into the water. She could imagine people - humans - just like her swimming around and getting about their daily businesses down there. She had seen something that day. It was no beast or sea monster or fish or siren or even a mermaid.

It was human.

"This is not right." She said partly to herself.

"I know." Roland's voice came from behind her. She turned around to see him walking up the stairs with a harpoon in his hands. "But what other option do we have?"

"The option of leaving them alone." Cornelia almost shouted, She could cry."Only you and I know what we saw that day."

"That's the only reason why we're here." Roland had walked up beside Cornelia by now. "Our people need to know what's down there."

Uniformed guards Carrie in a pulley with a long cord connected to the harpoon wrapped around it.

"But why does everyone have to know everything?" Cornelia asked

"It's called curiosity."Roland said like he was talking to a five year old,"and then comes science, then technology after that. It's how we grow, Cornelia."

'Men really are stupid,' Cornelia thought. She felt like it was all about dominance to them. But what could she do? A wife must submit to her husband and a queen to her king. "Just, please, don't hurt them too much." she finally said, wishing he didn't have to hurt him at all.

She clasped her hands together. Her eyes turned blue,her lips moved, chanting spells.

"What do you see?" Roland asked

"See for yourself." Cornelia said,her voice very differentthan it was a minute ago. She stretched her hand towards the water. A fog like blue essence flowed out of her and unto the surface of the sea. On the surface appeared the image of a little girl: long hair; green, beautiful, sharp eyes; scales on thick skin; fins fluttering from her arms and legs; her feet webbed; playing around in a community of vertical cities that looked a whole lot more civilised than Roland's own. "They aren't dumb animals."

"Even better,we can learn from them." Roland said

'He doesn't get it, does he?' Cornelia thought. She couldn't let him do this to her. She wasn't that heartless.

Cornelia's Hazel eyes returned. The chesty voice disappeared, and her sweet, melodious voice exclaimed. "No!!!"as she reached out to stop her husband. But Roland had already thrown the harpoon.

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Cordelia's webbed feet flapped vigorously behind her, propelling her forward towards the little serea. It surprised her that no one had noticed the little serea who was being pulled up,kicking and screaming by a harpoon.

Cordelia reached out to the serea, and the serea reached back. Their fingers brushed, failing to get a grip.

The harpoon suddenly went up faster. Cordelia swam with all her strength,trying with utmost determination to save the little serea's life, but at that moment, it seemed impossible. Especially since she had become drained of energy. She gave up,using the little ration of energy she could scavenge up she managed to lift up her arm and stretch her hand towards the serea. Her eyes closed.

Cordelia might have been drained of all her energy, but her will lived strong. She willed hard that she could save the serea.

Rip currents, out of nowhere, went around her outstretched hand. More rip currents surrounded her entirety, and before she could figure out what was going on, she was being pushed up at superspeed.

She reached the serea. She passed the serea. It was just then that the little sea dweller's mother decided to look around in search of her. She looked up just in time to see cordelia crash through the ship from the centre, dividing it into two. The water held Cordelia up in mid-air.

Cornelia and Roland stared in astonishment at cordelia,failing - for a second - to notice the sinking shipthey were standing on. A few soldiers shot arrows and bullets at Cordelia. It seemed like she was invisible as the dense water stopped their bullets and broke their in two.

Cordelia dove back into the water. She swam directly to the serea, unhooked her, and pulled her back down between the vertical cities of Encrea.

The mother immediately swam to her daughter and pulled her away from Cordelia's grip. The zenizens gathered around them. The mother took her daughter into the safety of the crowd.

"Witch!" Yelled an old sea dweller who stood in front of the crowd. "Explain yourself or face the judgement."

Cordelia looked around at the angry, amazed crowd. She was certainly far from the shipwreck. She looked up at a slowly sinking ship, which was split into two split into two. She looked at her sister, who was swimming towards her. Her day wasn't going on the way she planned. And she still had fish cooking at home.

"Nherisa!" Cordelia called hugging her. "What happened?"

Nherisa didn't answer. She, too, saw whatever her sister had just done. She wasn't as shocked as the other zenizens( she had seen things), but she was surprised.

"We must take her to the king," said someone from the crowd. "He'll know what must be done with her."

"And take her sister too." Said someone else from the crowd.

Cordelia's eyes didn't leave Nherisa even when a group of four men held her hand and pulled her away as they did with her sister.

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The hall of echoes.

The place where sea dwellers were taken to be brutally disgraced in front of the whole city by the trial of the king.

The cracks on the stone walls told of its age and its history. The shells on the walls gave the dome surrounded by arches a more festive appeal than it was entitled.

The zenizens floated around the room in an orderly fashion, leaving a path that the guilty would take out of the hall after being banished.

The king Seward of the sea dwellers sat on his throne, trying to comprehend the accusation that had been made against Cordelia. The witnesses behind Cordelia, who was knelt down in the middle of the hall.

"Now, Cordelia." Said Seward. "Are you not responsible for the shipwreck that we now find sinking into Encrea?"

"I have no knowledge about the shipwreck." Cordelia retarded

"You dare lie to my face!!!" Sewaed yelled,rising up from his throne.

"I wouldn't dare at all, your highness." Cordelia spoke back.

"So you accuse all these people of lying?"

"I said no such thing."

"Then what do you say? What do you say in your defence?" Seward asked

"That the last thing I remember before being captured was trying to save the young Serea from the harpoon."

"So you do remember heading towards the ship?"

"Y...yes." Cordelia stammered.

"Then the truth is crystal clear."declared Seward "Apart from the serea in question, only you went near the ship at the time of the incident. Numerous witnesses claim to have seen you cause the shipwreck using sorcery. Since you claim not to remember, it proves that you have no control over your powers. Therefore, you are declared a threat to all of Encrea and you are hereby banished from Encrea not to be seen for miles away. Forever. Along with your sister. My word is law." With that, king Seward went back to his chamber and the zenizens pulled Cordelia and Nherisa away.

Nherisa's heart was heavy, but tears, she dared not shed. She held Cordelia's shoulder to comfort her. She had questions. Lots of questions. She wanted to ask, but Cordelia looked like she wanted answers, too.

Nherisa followed Cordelia's gaze back to the vertical cities of Encrea. They were about half a mile away from Encrea. Nherisa turned Cordelia around. "Come." She said. "Let's find somewhere to stay for the night."

"What happened?" Cordelia asked, eyes wide open, brain refusing to function.

"I don't know." Nherisa told her. "But we'll find out together."

Cordelia looked at Nherisa's face. She couldn't find the marvelled expression she was looking for.

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"Are we really going to ignore what just happened here?" Roland dusted the sand off his clothes. He stretches out his hand to Cornelia, who is sitting on the sand beside him. Swashes reached her feet, and a couple of feet away, their boat lay capsized.

"We are not going to ignore it." Cornelia said. She stretched her hand out to hold Roland's and clumsily pulled herself up. "We are going to keep it buried until we can prove that contact with these marvellous creatures is not dangerous. Then, we can create peace between our worlds."

"Did it look like they wanted peace?" Roland asked.

"We didn't exactly hold up a white flag either." Cornelia said. "We tried to capture one of their kind. Roland, I told you they aren't dumb animals. They are humans. Like us."

"I doubt that."

"You saw that today."

"No."

"No?" Cornelia saw a fire starting to build in Roland's eyes.

"All I saw today was a threat to our people."

"Roland, no!"

"We must rid our people of this threat."

"Roland!" Cornelia held his arm. He seemed to calm down. "We will leave them alone. They deserve their privacy. We do not attack until we are attacked, and that is exactly what they did. They never attacked before. I have faith that we would be safe if we leave them alone."

"You are right." Roland agreed. "We will leave them alone."

Cornelia smiled. "Let's go home."

Arms locked, they walked towards the river where a boat awaited them.

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"I have questions." Nherisa finally announced when she and Cordelia decided to rest on a rock on the ocean floor. "What...?"

"I have questions, too." Cordelia interrupted. "You do remember what happened that day, don't you?"

"What day?" Nherisa asked

"The day I was born." Cordelia spoke, quick as ever.

"What about it?" Nherisa said

"Oh, don't pretend with me. You remember, don't you?"

"I don't understand."

"I saw it in a vision. You - five year old you. You were almost dead, Nherisa. What happened? And who killed Mother?" Cordelia noticed that Nherisa was crying. She placed her hand on her shoulder. "Who were those men?"

"They were bad men." Nherisa said. "Very bad men."

"Tell me everything, I deserve to know."

"I'll show you."

"Pardon?"

"Open your palms." Nherisa said. Cordelia did as she was instructed. Nherisa placed her palm on Cordelia's. The world around them disappeared: the corals, the rocks, the fish, Encrea and every other thing they could see turned into sand and fell to the ground in front of their eyes which were now glowing blue. They floated freely in the ocean.

The sand on the ocean floor rose and formed images around them. Cordelia could see the same house that was in her vision,carved entirely out of rock.

"Shall we go in?" Nherisa asked

"Okay." Cordelia answered. She was still astonished by what she was seeing - nay, what she was living.

Nherisa, still holding Cordelia's hand led her through the stone walls, like they were ghosts, into the house where five year old Nherisa sat on a rock, waiting anxiously for her mother to come home.

"It's you." Cordelia said.

"I'm not the star of the moment," Nherisa said. "It's them."

Cordelia looked right at where Nherisa was pointing. Two drealivs entered the room through an arched doorway. "Where is Pherisa?" One of them asked.

"She is not home." Little Nherisa answered.

"Does she think she can escape us?"

"No, it's not like that." Five year old Nherisa tried to explain to them that her mother had gone to give birth, but they were not ready to listen.

"Bring the house down." One of them said.

Once again, everything fell to the ground as sand.

"What happened?" Cordelia asked.

"You already know what happened next." Nherisa explained. The memories still haunted her. The way those men had so easily turned her home into rubble and left her wounded. She wouldn't want to relive that(or let Cordelia live it either). She thought she could, but she couldn't.

"Who were those men?" Cordelia asked.

"You know," Nherisa said. "I didn't find out myself until after a lot of meditation a few years ago. No one else couldanswermy question.

"I had seen it in a vision. Our father had borrowed some gold from them. Mother was sick. He needed to save her. He had already spent all the gold he had on building the house.

"Mom was pregnant with you at the time. Father was unable to pay back....They killed him." She paused.

Cordelia learnt never to think about her father. She thought he had left her mother and ran away. She used to hate him, but now she just felt terrible.

"Mother didn't know." Nherisa continued,"Dad never told her. They still asked her for the gold. She couldn't pay. They... they killed her, too.

"After killing our father?" Cordelia was broken and furious at the same time. Nherisa didn't want to go back to that memory.

"Our uncle refused to take us in. But he had helped us."

The sand rose to form an unfamiliar setting. Six year old Nherisa sat down on a short rock bench holding baby Cordelia in her arms. Beside her sat her uncle and in front of them sat an old drealiv whose bones shook from weakness. He looked like he was dying.

"Are you sure they can handle such power." The old drealiv said. His shrine was decorated with fish skeletons and skulls. The walls surrounding it had drawings of an eye in a square in a circle in a triangle. He looked at Cordelia, who was playing with a fish skeleton that hung from the roof. "And one of them is just a baby."

"There is no one more willing or in more need of this than them." Said Cordelia's uncle. "You are dying, and you can't let such great power die with you."

"Alright then," the old drealiv stood on his weak legs. He forced himself to be propelled towards Nherisa and Cordelia. He placed his hands on their heads. Power flowed out of him, and from his eyes, the power of supernatural sight flowed around. Everything was shared between Nherisa and Cordelia.

The water parted, leaving a tunnel of air from where they stood to the surface. Overwhelmed, Cordelia's uncle made sure to stay out of it. Rip currents spiralled around the tunnel of air. The old seer opened his eyes. He felt something else flowing through them. Two forces mixing, mingling.

The next clock tick, all the power had flown through to Nherisa and Cordelia. The old seer wished he could tell what he had seen. He looked down at Cordelia. Her hands stretched towards the sky, her fingers fiddling.

The old seer let gravity take effect on him. He fell to the ground, dead.

Cordelia turned to look. The tunnel closed up, and the currents disappeared.

"It's time for us to leave." Her uncle said.

"But what about him?" Little Nherisa did not like the scary sight of a dead person.

"He doesn't need us anymore. He has found rest."

All fell to the ground as sand.

Cordelia's eyes returned to their usual colour, as did Nherisa's. They found themselves sitting on the rock again - outside Encrea.

"Why did it stop?" Cordelia asked.

"You saw it too, didn't you?" Nherisa asked

"I did see it." Cordelia said. "This curse has been in me since I was a baby."

"Not just you." Nherisa said. "It had also flown through to me."

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With a gentle push, Cornelia pushed open the large wood wood doors to the royal library. She looked inside at the towering rows of ladder-lacking shelves filled with books, organised by order of genre and then in alphabetical order.

By the fairytale section, floating in mid-air, a little girl in a wine coloured gown picked out a book to read. She looked down to find Cornelia standing by the door.

"Mother!" She exclaimed. She slowly floated downwards. Cornelia placed one leg through the doorway. She looked down at it, bracing herself. Her second leg bent at the knee so that she was stepping foot only in the library. She was pulled up by a force she hadn't quite gotten used to yet.

"Zephyra!" She replied as she hugged her ten year old daughter in mid-air.

"You're back so soon." Zephyra said.

"We had a little problem, but we're fine." Cornelia said. "Now go see your father."

"Alright." Said Zephyra. She floated back out through the door and turned left for King Roland's office.

Cordelia looked up at the magical creatures section. She wondered whether there was a psychotic maniac crazy enough to have seen a sea dweller and written about it. Floating upward, she browsed through the shelves of alphabetically arranged books. Balvadoors, kernalis, monlates, she made her way down the alphat until she got to the s section. Salms, sarcas, scronches, sonjanas, sperios. No sea dwellers. No one had written a book on them. Not that Cornelia actually believed that a person could have enough information on them to write a book about them.

Sea dwellers had always been normal creatures (humans) to Cornelia. Then what had just happened? She searched for the creature encyclopedia, the biggest book she had ever seen. Thank God for the index. She searched through it. No sign of the words sea dweller.

That did it. They couldn't he the third wealthiest island all planet Elyndra and had the second largest collection of books. There had to be at least one book that mentioned sea dwellers at least once.

She floated to a crystal ball at the exact centre of the room. Placing her hands on it, she thought only of the words 'sea dweller'. On the crystal appeared the image of a brown leather book with multicoloured gem stones decorating the cover and spine. The book slowly floated into place in the prophecy section.

Cornelia left the ball and floated over to the prophecy section. The book was there as was shown in the crystal ball. She picked it up and held it in her hands. All by itself, the book opened to a page where the sea dweller was highlighted. Cornelia read through the page. She couldn't believe her eyes. After reading the whole thing, she closed the book and floated back out the door.

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"What happened after that day?" Cordelia asked.

"We became the powerful seers of Encrea." Nherisa said. "Everyone same to us to know their future. We were a big hit."

"So what happened?" Cordelia asked. "Why aren't we seers anymore."

"You might not remember." Nherisa answered. "You were six years old, then you had just started seeing visions that you could interpret. But somehow, you only saw bad things. Terrible, terrible things. It was about the time of the terrible plague of bad luck. You saw terrible things, and they came to pass.

"The Encriens blamed it on our psychic abilities. In order to save us, I pretended to give our powers away to a pearl and close the chapter for good. To date, that pearl is still in the museum.

"I could never have imagined that this day would come. I had, in fact, succeeded in making everyone forget we ever had any special abilities."

"You must teach me to use my ability again." Cordelia said, her head filled with anger and zeal for vengeance.

"No, Cordelia." Said Nherisa "is too dangerous."

"I need it."

"Why?"

Cordelia didn't respond.

"I will not let you do that." Nherisa said. "You have to let go."

"Will you teach me or not?"

"Cordelia ..."

"Fine." Cordelia said. "I will do it alone." She swam away quickly.

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Cornelia opened the door to King Roland's office. She half expected to find him pacing around the room restlessly (which was what she would do if she didn't find him). She looked around at the shelves that covered every part of the walls that didn't have a window, at the big office chair and the huge desk in front of it where Roland would normally stamp papers. There is no sign of her husband.

She walked to one of the shelves and pulled a blue book. The shelf opened up like a door.

"Roland." She said after going through the doorway into Roland's secret study. She found him writing away in his journal at a small desk. "You need to see this."

"I am not interested." He shot back.

"But it's...."

"I said I am not interested." He looked at her with annoyance, but after seeing her face, calmed down and said:" later, please."

"I'm afraid it can not wait,sire." Cornelia said with a tone of urgency.

"Alright," Roland said. "What is it?"

"I found this book in the library." Said Cornelia. "Look what it has to say about sea dwellers."

"Sea dwellers?" Roland said, collecting the book and placing it on the table in front of him. "But we don't have any books on them."

"Be don't,but we do have a prophecy." Cornelia said.

Roland read through the page:

The date remains unknown, but judgement day cometh.

It has been confirmed that power shall come from the sea to overtake our monarch and take the crown.

I saw a creature of the sea, not very different from us humans. It revealed itself slowly from the water. The creature had the looks of a human and the looks of a fish, mingled together in such a way that it resembled no mermaid but was unmistakably human. And she was beautiful.

It went on, carried by a wave that seemed to be under its control - or should I say her. She went into the village, destroying everything in her path to the castle.

I saw her reach the castle, bring down its defence, and make her way to the throne. She sat on the throne, the ruler, the new world she had created.

Roland looked at Cordelia. She was speechless too.