UNDER THE SEA

The merman slowly swam upward until he was out of the shadow, and until the light had slowly hit him. A chain of gasps came from the audience. Lia frowned.

The merman that stood on the stage was no one other than the commander-in-chief. A highly respectful, strong merman who had a long history of serving the royal family.

His whole upper body was filled with lumps of skin and rough textures, something that was common in military personals. In fact, the more rough and tattered their skin was, the higher their rank in the military was.

After all, it was a clear sign of their sacrifices to the kingdom.

Nonetheless, he wasn't the king. And even though the whole stadium stood up in respect, everyone started murmuring in confusion and tried understanding why the king wasn't present.

Lia immediately looked at her mother the moment the commander walked out. She was able to see the complex expression that her mother displayed. It was clear that her mother had her own thoughts on such an occurrence.

Yet, they could do nothing other than watch things unfold. And whether Lia liked it or not, she felt her heart beat faster.

Finally, the commander began speaking, "I would like to apologize on behalf of the royal family for being unable to attend." Lia was surprised by how clear his voice sounded in her head. It was unbelievably crisp. Not to mention him being able to send his voice to hundreds of merpersons, but he was also able to send everyone the same quality of voice.

That was incredibly mentally draining.

"Today, I, one of many mermen that pride themselves with our land, and with all honor, I present to you, the king of the seven seas, Marcus,"

One of his hands opened up, and he presented it forward. On the palm of his hand, there was a tiny disc, it was colorless and almost transparent, yet stayed still without floating. As he was pushing his palm forward, the disc lit up slowly until it shone with a bright light, almost blinding the mermaids that weren't used to such brightness.

'My eyes!'

'I can feel them burn!'

Again, the stadium bustled with noise and screams of agony and it wasn't until the light had slowly dimmed that the merfolk calmed down and uncovered their eyes. Lia didn't blame them as most of them were used to the deep waters where light didn't reach, rather than the ones near the surface.

The light that had come out of the commander's hand and out of the disc, pulled out a picture, no, it was a huge screen — similar to the ones her father had shown her before, or the ones that humans have — that floated onto the water, and stayed there as it took shape from the waves.

Everyone caught their breath. Their eyes widened at the scene, and some of them sat there in awe. It reminded Lia that not all of them were educated about the outside world.

It gave her a sense of pride and sympathy. The pride for she had such a knowledge and maybe one day she can spread it around for all of them to benefit from, and the sympathy because they had missed on such a depth of information.

Her pretty hands clenched against each other as she thought of endless possibilities that could happen if she combined both of the mermaids' intelligence and the humans' technology. It would create a whole new revolution and would push forward the generations coming.

The screen transmitted a sound similar to white noise for a while, and the noise that was broadcasted somehow had prickled Lia's ears. She wanted to block it off, but to her surprise, she wasn't able to. It was a first for Lia to be unable to cut off a voice from reaching her ears, and that made her feel scared for a second. So, she covered her ears and gritted her teeth in pain as she waited for the noise to finish.

Around her though, all the mermaids and mermen sat quietly, no one was screaming or saying anything at all. The prickling in her ears slowly increased until she felt it in all over her body and her bones started to drum against her skin.

She knew that it was only herself as the stone debris beside her stood still.

Terror pushed through her heart and she felt her voice begging to be released and scream loudly. She held back.

Her mother who was sitting and observing everything, slowly neared her daughter and placed both of her hands above that of Lia's. Creating another layer of protection. Right at the moment her mother's hand touched hers, she felt that noise suddenly vanish, and her surroundings quieting up once again.

With the noise gone, her body still trembled a little, shaken by such occurrence. Her soft lips slowly tried to form words but were unable to, and she looked up at her mother.

Vanora had a dark look on her face. Her eyes were narrowed as she stared at the screen, and her expression was frozen cold. The dark light that flickered onto her mother eyes reminded her of the times when she used to go to the battle, completely fierce and heartless.

Her mother's hand left hers and laid them back elegantly onto her lap, but kept tapping them as she was lost in her thoughts. Lia felt curiosity bleed into her as she wondered what could her mother be thinking of.

"Hello my children," someone greeted. Lia instantly snapped her head toward the screen. In there the king's picture appeared, seemingly pleased with his flamboyant entrance.

The king himself wouldn't be considered handsome or beautiful, but rather unique. His black hair and eyes were very odd between merfolk and the way his face was structured very sharp and strong made him more intimidating.

His age was unknown, but Lia was pretty sure he was a few hundred years old, maybe even a thousand. Her mother had stood alongside him in the war, and Vanora had seen him being a king since she was a kid. That alone was six hundred years, so nobody really knew his real age.

"I would like to thank all of you," he motioned with his hand as if he was sweeping the crowd as a whole, and that alone made Lia wonder how he was able to see them. "For coming today and presenting yourself in front of me."

Lia's eyes were looking at every corner of the screen, trying to break down how it was transmitting voices and pictures. It was definitely nothing that was made by them, and if so, it wasn't known by the public.

Marcus' eyes were shining with joy, and Lia couldn't help but frown at how happy he was looking. It wasn't the time, nor the place for him to show such an expression. "Sadly, the reason I'm gathering you all is that we have lost one of our dear citizens,"

'Lost?' Lia thought.

The king's smile gradually disappeared as he sighed. "A dear soldier and mermaid was caught by the vicious, ugly humans." There was suddenly fire and disgust in his eyes, "Those insolent beings were bold enough to try and touch one of our family members." The words he was saying were slowly railing up everyone in the crowd.

'How dare they?!'

'How audacious of them,'

'What do they think of us!'

'We shoul-'

"-But," The king gently interrupted the sudden wave of anger and thoughts that the mermaids were letting go. His voice was loud enough to shut up everyone, "Because of such rare occurrence, there is only one thing we should do at such a time."

Hearing that, everyone became intrigued, practically sitting at the edge of their seat. Lia raised her eyebrows at the king's words, pondering what he would say.

"Here it comes," she heard her mother mumble and Lia naturally wanted to ask her what she meant. But before she could do so, the king resumed his speech.

"We need to throw a party!"