Weight of the World: Chapter Four

I (sort of) Get with the Program
This type of travel was harsh, especially because I had no warning before my mother's sudden 'Hold your breath'.

The best description I can give is being in a pool at night. Go underwater, feel your hair float around you, your ears pop, and its so dark you feel a painful anxiety deep in your chest. I could hear echoes around me, and my body went into shock due to the chill in the water.

And I couldn't just rise from it because it held me down, spinning and pulling my away. I lost my breath about half way through the trip, but was reassured by a hand grabbing mine and the sudden feeling of emergence. When I opened my eyes, it was black. Next to me, a dimly contrasted figure was holding my hand - the form of a woman, and I realized this had to be my mother.

"Where are we?" I mouthed at her, and I could hear her laugh softly through the thick airspace around me. Seconds later light filled the tunnel and I tumbled headfirst into a pretty marble floor, feeling the bubble move with me yet not pop - a blessing.

Coughing and hacking, I rose onto my knees. We'd been dropped hastily onto a courtyard, almost like one at school, but bigger and obviously underwater. The water was bright blue, very oceanic, and fit well with the marbles and bronzes decorating the building. At the edge of the empty courtyard was an archway, holding up a large bronze trident decoration.

Seconds later, the soft patter of water further away from my caught my attention. Just a few feet away, perfectly standing on the marble floor, was my mother.

Or rather, what used to be her.

She was camouflaged in the water. Her body was merely a slightly off-blue to the ocean, though mostly the same shapes that I remembered from being aboveground. Her hair was taken out of the bun and swayed gently in the current. She seemed to remember then that I was there and rushed over, taking my hands and pulling me up. It felt like small waves had curled around my wrists as she did so.

"You okay?" Her voice was now somewhat distorted, as though she were speaking into the blades of a fan. It was very choppy. I nodded and shook my head simultaneously, and I felt her draw me into a hug again.

"Don't worry, baby. Everything will be explained, don't worry."

She took my shoulders and pushed me forward gently, walking me through the courtyard.

We reached the arch and entered the actual building before finally seeing people. They were mermaids, and I even mouthed it for clarification. People with human bodies.....yet fish tails? Years of watching the Little Mermaid did not prepare me for this, and I knew somewhere deep down that the old me who wanted to be a mermaid was silently screaming at the idea that they were, in fact, real.

"Photina," I heard one say. "What is the meaning of this? You and I both know that his majesty does not like when demi-gods intrude-"

"I've spoken to him already, and he will make an exception. Thank you for your unwanted concern though, Arsenios." She spat the last word with a forked tongue, th same kind of tone she would use with particularly agitated customers back at the restaraunt. We continued through the room under the watchful eyes of the merpeople, and I self-consciously pulled my skirt down as I walked just in case.

We passed through a few more rooms before finally stopping. Ma turned around and pulled a lever, slamming a slab of stone over the door opening. She then looked at me, raising a hand daintily to her chest.

"Oh dear, Ramona. I.....didn't want you to find out this way darling. Really."

"What's going on?" I asked, throwing my hands through the bubble and into my hair. "What are you? Where are we?"

She raised a blue finger to her lips and closed her eyes. "I'll explain now,before you meet him."

"''Him?" ''She ignored my question and began her story.

"...Something happened when you were born. It would....take ages too long to explain it now, but it was in this incident that we lost your father." I could feel tears already pricking the backs of my eyes and blinked them away quickly, but it was obvious Mom had already seen them.

"And so your mother.....your real mother....called my lord for a favor. She wanted you to be raised by a trusted official of his court.And after a brief discussion between him and my sister....they chose me." She gestured to herself, and I watched as the watery silhouette disappered and replaced itself with the form I was familiar with - long dark hair, bronzed skin. Her work clothing was replaced with beach wear - a one piece bathing suit and floral skirt.

"So my lord granted me the ability to take on this form and raise you as my own. I opened a restaraunt with your mother's help at first, and soon enough we became the big success you know now." I nodded slowly,watching her change from her human form back to her watery one.

"...Does that mean I can change into a water person too?" I asked. Her face lit up, taking my question as a form of acceptance, but she shook her head.

"No, neither your father nor your mother were 'water people'. I'm the only Nereid you've met."

"Nereid?"

"Yes, there are 51 of us. I have forty-nine sisters and one brother."

"Geez." She laughed at my blank voice again but regained her composure shortly thereafter, adjusting her wavy hair - no pun intended.

"Anyway, I took on the name 'Waverly' and raised you like nothing had ever happened."

"Waverly, though?" She shrugged and covered her face, maybe feeling a little embarrassed.It was hard to tell because of her composure.

"...My sister suggested it. She could keep tabs on us better. It's one of the reasons I chose 'Priscilla' as my human name too, it's not exactly a popular name. Also, I really love Elvis." That finally got a laugh out of me, imagining my mom dancing around to Elvis as a teenager. It only really hurt when I remembered she had never been a real teenager.

"Aside from you, I have two sons."

"What'd you name them? Elvis and Presley?"

"Agathon and Zosimus."

Oh.

I looked at her, probably imagining her two children. I was filled with so many more questions, but couldn't ask them for some reason.

"...So what's your real name?"

"...It's Photina."

I nodded again and looked at her with new eyes. This woman - no, Nereid - wasn't my real mother. She wasn't human, she was some sort of water....thing. I was not, and that meant my father or mother had to be human, right. I looked to Photina with the words on my tongue.

"So, what was my Dad's name? Who was he?"

She looked around for a few minutes, obviously uncomfortable, but decided that answering would be her best option at this point. There were enough lies that needed to be cleared up.

"His name was Sebastian Debruler. That's all you need to know." Silence filled the room. Everything was so shocking,I was scared and confused and a little hurt that I hadn't been informed. I wanted to know why this was all coming out, and why I had to leave home. I closed my eyes and tried to block it out for a few seconds before my former-mother's voice floated through the water.

"You'll meet my sister and her husband in just a few minutes. They are very kind, do not fret." She floated toward me and gripped my shoulders. I watched in idle fascination as my soggy school uniform stripped away to reveal a white dress. It had to be magical or something, because despite being white and underwater it felt dry and was completely opaque. It was only then I ealized that through my cotton white uniform shirt, you could probably see my bra. I'd basically embarrassed myself in rooms full of merpeople without realizing it.

Photina had just retied my hairbows when another door in front of us finally opened. I jumped back, or tried to being that we were underwater, due to the sudden crash. In the doorway was a very peculiar merman.

He had green skin and curly, clumped black hair that was oddly familiar. His tail split about halfway, giving him two seperate tails instead of the standar one we had seen in the courtyards. I could see a ponytail swaying with the seemingly unpresent waves behind him. He gestured with his hand into an even bright room and smiled.

"My father will see you now, Photina."

She smiled at my and took my hand, squeezing it, before leading me into the throne room.