"She was nothing against these waves."

The whispers were unbearable for the princess. She heard them all, saw all the glances and frowns of disapproval.

There was nothing that could make her stay in the palace.

Not the jewels, not her weak parents, not even her sister.

Thus, the princess left. She did not say goodbye. She did not receive farewell gifts. She simply disappeared.

She had to travel for weeks to reach the sea and even longer compared to that to find someone that would grant her a place on their ship.

Nevertheless, she managed, and soon she was at sea.

It was like a daydream. Like the calm before a storm. Throughout the day, she spent hours gazing at the horizon, watching dolphins leap and fish swim.

"Who is she?" the people aboard the boat would whisper. "What is she doing here?"

Those whispers were far better than those heard in the palace. She could not care less if they wondered about her.

The days at sea had changed her disposition, and her appearance, both inside and out. Her skin had been pale and her frame had been weak. The princess had clearly been malnourished.

Yet another thing for them to whisper about back in the palace.

But here, her skin turned the colour of honey, and her face was sun-freckled. She smiled, though it was often a silent slip of a smile. After a few more days she began helping the crew- she'd sneak into the kitchens to chop vegetables or chat with the head cook. 

A certain acquaintance of hers lived in the most low-lying part of the ship. They didn't tell her their name, but they did tell the princess other stories. Tales of mermaids with pearly dagger teeth and silver tails.

On one particular day, the princess headed to see her friend. They were not there.

"What happened to them?" she demanded of the Captain when she arrived above decks again.

The Captain rubbed at his eyes. "I think...I think they jumped."

"W-why?" the princess' voice broke for a moment.

As she glanced out into the waters, she knew the answer. The mermaids.

***

The mermaid did not like the taste of blood in her mouth.

It made her feel like a fool. Instead of hunting her prey like a proper mermaid, she had called it to her. Like those silly preening Sirens.

Her sisters were all disappointed.

"A disgrace," the eldest, Atania, said. "Cannot even hunt."

"I wouldn't eat a human that came to me willingly," Brizo claimed, pride in her voice. She was the best of the sisters, and everyone knew it. Which meant that the mermaid was constantly being compared to Brizo.

Perfect Brizo, with her blood-stained teeth and tourmaline eyes.

Now, the human looked at the mermaid with something like awe in their eyes. "You're real. I told her. I told her all about you."

"Who?" the mermaid asked. Of course, they didn't understand. The language of mermaids was something like the bottom of the sea, something like the scrape of a dagger against a pearl.

They did not answer, nevertheless, because they were dead. The mermaid had forgotten to provide the human with some way to breathe.

Another way I failed, the mermaid thought miserably, now their lungs will be full of water.

The mermaid buried them under a mass of seaweed. She tossed handfuls of sand in, one after another. Atpnax, Goddess of the Undersea, wouldn't be pleased. But the mermaid had better things to do than worry about all-powerful forces of death.

"Burying someone, sister?"

The mermaid looked up with surprise. She hadn't thought Brizo would follow her.

Of course she did. She wanted to see how badly I would fail this time.

"Yes, Brizo."

"If you just tried, you would do much better." Brizo examined her slender fingers. Rings were piled on each- rings of dead humans. Engagement rings, wedding rings, family heirlooms, delicate jewelscraft. Brizo had scoffed at the humans and their fanciful imaginings of power. "This is called jewelscraft." she had told the youngest of the sisters, Makena, eyes darker than usual. "They craft these rings of rock and wealth."

"I do try."

Brizo shook her head, "Not hard enough."

The mermaid's tears were nonexistent in this ocean. They mingled with the salt of the sea but never showed.

Some said a mermaid tear was the hardest thing to find in the entire world- because to gather it, the mermaid must be aboveland. And a mermaid aboveland was more bloodthirsty than usual.

"I'll kill someone of royal blood." the mermaid blurted out. "I'll do it." And prove to you that I am not useless.

Brizo raised an eyebrow. "Royal blood bleeds blue in the ocean."

The mermaid instantly regretted her words. Of course, she knew that. I will have to kill a person of royal blood. "And so the ocean will bleed blue tonight."

***

The princess was not scared of the ocean.

Usually.

But tonight it was wild. It was a monster. It was dark depths and silver mermaids.

Lightning blinded her, and thunder deafened her. Her mouth tasted of salt. She was fairly certain she'd swallowed seawater.

In those frantic, desperate moments, she thought of home. When the princess was born, she did not have her mother's green eyes. Nor her father's brown ones or even her sisters' hazel ones.

They said she had eyes like the sea. They said she was cursed, destined to be killed by mermaids.

That was where the whispers had started. Maybe, if she had been laughing and cheerful like her sister, they would have stopped. But she had been quiet and sullen, a wisp of a girl.

"Girl! Why are you standing there?" the captain shouted at her. She ignored him, gripping the railing.

It was a foolish thing to do. The waves jerked the ship to the side, sending the princess flying. She grasped for something to hold, but there was nothing.

There was nothing.

The princess was slipping into the water. It was cold as ice. Destined to be killed by mermaids. She almost laughed. How right they were. Another wave crashed over her head. It pushed her down, and for the first moment, she was determined to hold her breath. But then she saw the mermaid.

She's beautiful, was the princess' first thought.

And then: I'm going to die.

The mermaid was just like the stories. She had a tail of silver, dagger-sharp teeth, and almost alien eyes. Her form was muscular and lithe, her skin dark. Something like sorrow was in her eyes.

The mermaid made a sound that the princess could not understand. It sent a shiver up her spine.

"Who are you?"

The princess' eyes widened. "I can understand you." she tried to say, but instead swallowed water.

The mermaid frantically swam over, pulling the princess above the sea. She took a gasping breath.

"You saved me-"

Then the mermaid pulled her under again. She held the princess close. The princess could feel those silver scales against her palm. They traced up the mermaid's arms, she noticed. Beautiful.

Once again, the mermaid spoke in that eerie language of hers. Noticing the princess' expression, she tried again, this time in the language of humans.

"I am sorry."

***

She could not kill this girl.

You have to, she reminded herself, Brizo will know if you don't.

But she looked at the girl once more, with those ocean eyes, and knew the princess wouldn't be her prey.

The mermaid would kill this princess, but only the sea would take her. Only the sea would be tainted by blue blood. Only the sea would truly kill her.

Therefore, it was decided. Royal blood would be spilled into the ocean, and finally, she would be accepted by her sisters. By Brizo. The mermaid was not gentle as she killed the princess. She ripped out her heart, as true mermaids do. Other mermaids would have eaten the heart. She'd seen Brizo do it once. Blood had dripped down her face, bright red.
The mermaid had cried.

A true mermaid would never have cried.

In her arms, the girl went limp. Dead. Her ocean eyes were blank.

Blue blood had been spilled. The mermaid should have been satisfied with that. But instead, she felt numb and...monstrous.

Monstrous as her sister.

I can't hold her any longer. She can't be here when Brizo returns.

So the mermaid did what any other mermaid would have never done: she let her prey go. The girl drifted to the bottom of the sea, her dress billowing around her.

Her body was soon gone into the darkness, but the mermaid kept staring.

"I didn't think you would do it," Brizo said. She almost sounded proud. The mermaid hadn't even noticed that she had arrived. "But I can see the blue."

The mermaid also suddenly saw the blue around her.

Just like her eyes.

"Neither did I." the mermaid agreed weakly.

"Sometimes the pearl must learn for herself the rules of life and death," Brizo said, but the mermaid barely heard her.

Instead, she heard something else: a voice, ringing in her ears.

You saved me.

***

Death was not like the stories. Not the human ones- the ones of the golden spirit that would take your hand and lead you to the moon. Nor the mermaid ones- the ones of Atpnax, Goddess of the Undersea, who would keep your soul and leave the body behind.

Whatever this was, it was not like the stories. The princess could see nothing but water. And her own body.

It was splayed out awkwardly, blood still pouring from her chest. Black curls spread out against the sand. Eyes blank. Golden skin pale. The blood came out blue.

She had seen herself in a mirror before, of course, but never had she actually seen herself. Who was this girl? Who was she?

The question wasn't to be answered, because suddenly she heard that language again. The mermaid language.

The princess attempted to swim away, but she wasn't fast enough. The mermaids were here. Beautiful and deadly.
They had colourful hair that contrasted with their silver tails. Red and pink and green and yellow and blue. Purple and orange and white.

Any moment now, the princess thought, they will see me.

They did not. The mermaids circled around the princess' body. They spoke in their language. But they did not see the princess.

It is true then.

She was dead.

Staring at those mermaids, the princess had the sudden, awful wish for them all to die. For them to be cursed forever. For them to see their children and family members ripped apart.

Destined to be killed by mermaids. So it had been and so it would be.

She thought again of the mermaid who had killed her. She now realized that those sounds that did not make sense to her before were slowly becoming words whenever she thought of them.

The mermaid had wanted to please someone, desperately. And the mermaid had wanted to kill the princess.

A sharp spark of fury broke through. She was not some worthless, cursed little girl that could be killed and thrown away to the bottom of the sea.

She would find the mermaid who had thought those things and haunt her until the day the mermaid died.

***

"Our darling sister," Brizo smiled, "has turned the ocean blue tonight. I sent some of the scouts to gather some blood."

Oh. The mermaid looked down. She knows.

"The first glass will be for you," she continued with a wink.

The mermaid gave a weak nod, ignoring the smiles and laughs all around.

Monstrous.

Why did she keep thinking that? She was not monstrous.

Her thoughts did not agree.

Somehow, the mermaid made it through the night. She drank the girls' blue blood. She admired the bone daggers Makena had crafted. But as soon as they all swam away, the mermaid headed back to the place where she had killed the princess.

The girl's body had been taken away. She almost choked on her tears. Her worthless tears.
She'd killed tonight. She had murdered a girl her own age.

All for the approval of a sister who did this every night. Who killed every single night.

How did Brizo do it? Was she simply blind to the blood? Was she simply heartless?

The ocean of blue did not answer any of these questions.