Hey Guys!!!
I confess, by the time I finished this Chapter I was too sick of it to go back over and edit it, so if there are mistakes I am sorry!! I will go over it another time and fix the descriptions etc but for now I just want to post it so that we can move forward!! :)

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Hope you guys enjoy the chapter,
Lots of Love,
Daisy xx

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(Obsidians P.O.V)

The dungeons were dark and smelt of sweat, blood and fear. There was no sound when I first arrived, just the gentle dripping of water leaking through somewhere. I was thrown into my cell, landing on my side on the rough rock of the floor. The cell was small and didn’t contain much. There was a hole in the floor, with a raised seat that I guessed was the toilet. A blanket was folded in the corner and I guessed that was what passed for a bed around here.

The bedroom that I had been in before was starting to look pretty good and as the door clanged shut behind me and I lunged for it, gnashing my teeth at the smirking face of the guard who waved the keys in my face, toying with me.

“We will be back for you later.” He chuckled. “You are going to wish you had never been born.”

I chuckled. “I’d like to see those puny arms of yours try.”

I spit in his face and he growled, reaching through the bars to grab me, but I dodged out of the way just in time and cockily backed away into my cell. I bared my teeth at him, flashing my eyes.

“I will see you later.”

The guard growled. “Hear my words traitor. By the time you reach the Elven King, you will know the true meaning of the word ‘broken’.”

*

The first few days were not so bad. I did not see the guard, despite his promise, but unfortunately that meant that I did not receive food either. And the silence was beginning to get to me. There was literally no sound apart from the steady dripping. Surely I couldn’t be the only prisoner down here, or was this city so well behaved that they didn’t have to lock anyone up?

I kept myself busy by doing push ups, sit ups, pull ups on my cell door and any other type of exercise I could manage in the small space of my cell. The rock walls on either side prevented me from seeing through to the other cells, and the door that they had opened to shove me through, only had a small square opening at the top that was barred. There was just enough grip at the top for me to hang myself from as I pulled my legs up to my head, over and over again, losing myself in the physical exertion.

It was on the third day that the thirst was beginning to get to me. The walls of the cell were damp, but even though I licked at them, there was not enough moisture there to satisfy my thirst. That was until there was a clanging noise and a small trapdoor at the bottom of my cell door was revealed. A small metal bowl of water was pushed through along with a hunk of bread.

I eyed the food warily as the trap door shut, but eventually my thirst took over. I was about to down the lot when I realised that I did not know whether I would start getting food regularly now or not. As much as it hurt, I forced myself to drink only half the water and eat a small amount of bread. The rest I tucked away in the corner of the cell, hiding it from prying eyes. Not that there were any.

My suspicions turned out to be correct; I did not receive any water or food for what I estimated was another three days, by which time the food was well gone and the water bowl was almost empty. I had tried to catch what water trickled down the side of the walls in the bowl, but what I did get was not enough to sate me.

The silence and the darkness were getting to me now and I was beginning to lose track of time. Scratch that. I had lost track of time. My body clock was gradually disappearing and the need to sleep out the hunger pains was hitting me at random times. I forced myself to continue to exercise, fuelled by the hatred that I held for the guards. I knew what they were trying to do. They were trying to make me weak. Weak enough that I would succumb to the beatings and the torture that I knew would be coming.

I could feel myself becoming paranoid, waiting for them to come as the next few days passed without anything happening. I knew they were coming; I would come for them if it were me. I would have come for me long ago. My eyes flickered through the darkness; even with my heightened elven blood it was difficult to see anything down here. The problem was there was nothing to see. Apart from rock. And more rock.

There was a clanging suddenly and I shot up into a defensive position in the far corner. But the clanging did not signal the opening of my door, but rather the happening of something to the right of me.

The prison fell back into silence after a short while and I was almost willing to pass it off as something unimportant when the wailing began. At first it was quiet, soft almost but over the course of what I guessed to be an hour the noise grew until it rattled me to my very core and I was crouched in the middle of the floor begging for it to stop.

It was simply unbearable, the pain that was in the voice, as though the persons very flesh was being peeled off in strips. It grated me to my very soul until all kinds of scenarios dug their way into my skull and I felt as though it was me on the torture table making those horrible inhuman noises of despair. I tried everything I could to make it stop, but nothing would drown out it out. Even when I crouched under my stinking blanket with my fingers plugged into my ears it echoed back to me, bouncing around the walls of my cell as though it was a force, pushing down on me, demanding me to listen.

Eventually I just gave up trying not to hear. I let it envelope me. Brand itself into my mind and my ears, my body becoming numb. I could not sleep, I could not get used to it. The sound grew until it filled my cell, pounding in front of my eyes. My lips grew dry and cracked and my eyelids heavy, but I could not close them. I just stared at the wall of my own personal hell, begging inside for it to stop but the words never made it out of my mouth.

When they came for me, after what had must been another three days, for the beating that I knew was coming, I was too gone to fight back. They strung me up by my hands with chains that they looped through rings in the ceiling and as they finished beating me with their fists it was a sweet, sweet relief to hear the crack of the whip split the skin on my back as I realised that the wailing had finally stopped.

*

(Circe’s P.O.V)

We reached the city at record speed, yelling loudly as Anthemin zoomed through the water with us dangling off his back.

“THIS IS AWESOME!” Liss yelled, struggling to be heard over the water rushing past us.

“I KNOW RIGHT?!” I yelled back, letting go with one hand and letting it drag behind me, waving cheekily at the surprised faces that we passed as we bolted through the crowds at record speed.

When we finally slowed down we were in the middle of a plaza, much like the one above ground that we had passed through on the way to my Mothers Palace. In fact, there was a giant well shaped circle in the centre of the plaza that mirrored the other one exactly. I saw people swimming up out of it and others swimming into it.

“That’s the channel.” Liss pointed out. “It goes up into the centre of the city above ground. It’s like a short cut; you can swim all the way up to the top.”

“I know,” I said enthusiastically. “My mentor told me about it during the procession. We should use it to go back home afterwards.”

Liss smiled. “It’s quicker for me just to go back the way we came,” She pointed out.

I laughed at her. “Yeah but you have to come back to the palace after this? I can introduce you to my friends! I am sure that my Mother wouldn’t mind.” I smiled at her shocked expression.

“Really?”

I took her hand, pulling her towards the closest food stall. “Really, now come on, let’s go exploring!”

“Shouldn’t we wait for the others?”

I shrugged.” They will find us eventually, after all,” I turned and pointed to Anthemin who was just swimming back down to us after popping to the surface for a breather. “We have him, and he sure attracts a crowd!”

As though proving my point we laughed as the small cluster of people around the dragon grew  larger, as did the crowd around us I realised. Anthemin swam over, a silly toothy grin on his face. I could tell he loved the attention.

Turning back towards the stand that we had been heading towards, I gulped as I realised that we had actually attracted quite a few people. Men, woman and children surrounded us in a circle, openly staring. They were all so beautiful, but so different, the colours were entrancing. These were real pure blooded Sirens.

Suddenly a tall man pushed his way through the crowd. His tail was a beautiful emerald green and his hair and beard were long and greying. His face was kind as he paused in front of me, bowing low. Following his lead, every single person in the crowd bent at the waist and I blushed heavily.

The man straightened, the people following his lead and extended his arms out towards us.

“Princess Circe, it is an absolute pleasure to welcome you into the depths of our great City. I am Titan, current Mayor and also the Siren representative on your Mothers council.”

I smiled at him, dipping my head in respect and copying his formal tone. “Pleasure to meet you Titan, allow me to introduce Anthemin, the Dragon I am bound to, and Amaryllis, a good friend of mine.”

Beside me I could almost feel Liss’s face growing redder and redder with her blush.

“Ah Circe, there you are.” Ambrose chose the right moment to come through the crowd, the people parting for him as he swam forwards, bowing their heads in respect. “I see you have met Titan.”

Roman, Jethro and Hansel were following behind him and I could see that they were focused on their duties right now with this many people surrounding us.

“Ahh Ambrose,” Titan exclaimed, his voice booming out magnificently through the square. “Good to see you, I was just about to ask the Princess where her guard was.”

Ambrose’s eyes sparkled as he looked at me. “We had a race; it was safe to say that the Princess won.”

Titan chuckled, clapping a large hand on the water sprites back. “You are a clever man.” He looked around the crowd, his voice joyous. “It appears that we have the Princess’s undivided attention for a day! Is that not cause for celebration?”

And suddenly there was chaos as the people erupted with cheers of delight, swimming up into the water they became a huge mass of colour and swirling bodies, intertwining with each other as they rushed around the square doing who knows what.

“While we give them time to prepare, how about you take a look around the plaza and see if you find anything you like?” He winked at me. “You know what they say, the most precious of treasures are found at the bottom of the ocean.” He roared with laughter at his own pun and I couldn’t help but laugh with him.

Liss took my hand and dragged me towards a stall. “Come on, I want to show you my favourite one.”

I looked back to see Anthemin was happy, playing with a group of Siren children in the middle of the square. He was swimming around and around the well, with the little group following him. Every now and then he would slow down just enough to let them grab a hold of his tail before he would swim off again. Their shrieks of delight were enough to assure me that he would be fine for now.

“Jethro, Hansel, you keep an eye on the Dragon. Ambrose and I will accompany the Princess,” I heard Roman saying before I was pulled out of ear shot by Amaryllis.

We stopped in front of a stall and I could see straight away why she brought me here. Beautiful jewellery covered every inch of the stall, pearls the size of my palm gleamed back at me from velvet cushions, beautiful gemstones dangled from the ceiling and everywhere I looked something precious winked back at me.

‘Wow …” I breathed, unable to believe it. This little stall was like a treasure trove. “Aren’t you worried that someone will steal these things?” I asked the stall owner, a beautiful blonde siren with hair the same colour as mine, but with a tail that was a ruby red as the setting sun.

She smiled gently at me. “Not at all Princess, what is priceless in the Human world is simply something for decoration down here, there is so much of it to find and share around.”

I couldn’t believe it but over the next twenty minutes or so, she helped me to pick out some beautiful jewellery that she herself had made with the many different gems and pearls that she had at her disposal.

“It’s so beautiful,” I sighed, touching the beautiful head-dress that she had helped me to put on. It was made mostly of delicate golden chains that draped around my head like a head band, but gathered in the middle to make a third chain that ran down the middle of my head to the back. Pink and white pearls and what I guessed to be a couple hundred thousand dollars’ worth of diamonds gathered in the centre of the headpiece to make one stunningly beautiful piece of jewellery.

“It’s so beautiful,” Liss sighed, touching the jewels on my head.

The lady, whose name I had found out to be Gemma, ironically, smiled. “For you my dear, I think this would suit your hair colour quiet well.”

She gently placed a similar head dress on top of Lissa’s hair, but this one was made up of ebony black chains that sparkled demurely when she turned her hair. Embedded in the front were a nest of sapphires, their deep blue mimicking the night sky.

She touched her hand to her hair, slightly gobsmacked. Her hair floated out in the water around her as she turned in the mirror, this way and that. I was still getting used to how everything looked under water; it amazed me how casual everyone was, as though going about their daily business at the bottom of the ocean was completely normal. Everything was so anchored as well, nothing was randomly floating away and when I had asked, Roman had broken his serious role for a moment to wink at me.

“Magic,” He had grinned, wiggling his fingers at me.

And although I was beginning to realise that a powerful magic was probably most definitely at play here, the wonder of the situation did not cease to amaze me.

“Beautiful,” Ambrose brought me back to the present as he came up behind me and we looked at my reflection in the mirror. “How much do you want for it, for both of them?” He asked, waving his hand to include Amaryllis as well.

Gemma beamed, waving her hand in dismissal. “No charge.” She laughed, “Just your wearing it is a big enough payment, you are practically a walking advertisement, and whatever the Princess wears is sure to become popular.”

I blushed with gratitude. “Thank-you so much,” I said, Liss echoing my thanks.

“It is a not a problem.” She beamed, hugging us both, “I hope that you enjoy the rest of your day!”

And enjoy our day we did, for there was so much to see and so much to do. The stalls in the plaza were a treasure trove of beautiful trinkets and exotic foods, everyone and everything was so charming and so beautiful that I felt as though I never wanted to leave.

As we explored, I was educated by Ambrose and Amaryllis about the gorgeous buildings that towered above the plaza, twisting and winding up towards the surface. The architecture was interesting enough by itself, a lot of the buildings spiralled up out of the sand bed like giant seashells, reaching a fine point at the top, but what I liked most about them was that the stone they were built from was embedded with jewels and quartz, the sun that came down from the surface to scattered across the ocean floor was reflected off the buildings, creating beautiful flickering colours of light that danced around us.

There also seemed to be some kind of system in the water above us, the sirens were swimming so fast through the water it was surprising that they didn’t crash into each other. I had paused for a while, munching on a stick of sea weed floss, and tried to figure out the patterns but the bright colours were too dazzling and I couldn’t pick out a singular Siren in amongst the moving colour.

In the middle of the plaza, beside the well, they seemed to be setting up a stage or something along those lines, I could see the Mayor directing people as they worked, their laughter bubbling through the water as he made more jokes to himself that you couldn’t help but giggle at. A small band had set up to the right of the stage with the most curious looking instruments that I had ever seen. I recognized a few of them, there was a harp, made out of a giant coral shell and what I thought to be trumpets, also made from shells, and a flute of some sorts, crafted from what Nathaniel and I would call a ‘unicorn horn’, but as for the rest, I had no idea.

Amaryllis came over to me, handing me an oyster. “Circe, you have to try these, they are soooo good!”

I tipped the morsel down my throat and had to agree with her. Definitely the best I had tasted. The food was so delicious here, all of it un-cooked of course and consisting mostly of fish, but the octopus tentacles that I had tried earlier definitely took the cake.

“Mmm that is delicious Liss.” I pointed over towards where the Mayor was. “Do you know what they are doing?”

Liss smiled. “They are setting up for the show silly!! It is customary to have what you might call a talent show of sorts, to entertain important guests! You will love it!”

I grinned, it looked exciting. Ambrose caught up to us and I relayed what Liss had told me. He nodded. “You will greatly enjoy this Princess, the Sirens have many underwater talents that you will find fascinating. “

Suddenly the band started up, the music underwater sounding oddly clear and sharp when I had expected it to be the opposite. The sounds vibrated through me, lighting something within that just made me want to move and dance.

 I watched as a beautiful couple stepped into the area that had been cleared as a dance floor. The woman’s tail was a stunning royal purple colour and her hair a curious shade of mint green. The male was equally as beautiful, with high cheekbones and full lips. His hair cut off at his shoulders and was the same colour as hers, but his scales shone blue, slightly darker than Ambrose’s. I had noticed that more often than not, the men’s fish tails tended to be different shades of blue and green, while the woman had the flashier colours.

The couple twirled gracefully around each other, making dancing under water look easy. The music had changed slightly to a more mournful tune, and I watched with my heart in my throat as the pair spiralled upwards towards the surface, their hands reaching longingly out to one another before they ‘fell’ back down to the ocean floor, the man catching her gracefully and raising her above his head in an effortless lift as they continued to spin.

The whole dance was so beautiful and they had attracted quite a crowd as they finished and took their bows. I clapped enthusiastically still entranced by the effortless performance, as the Mayor came to stand beside them.

“Thank you very much! What a wonderful start to the show! I would now like to invite our Princess and the rest of you to come and gather and enjoy the rest of the performance!” He thrust out his arms and I gasped as the sand around the plaza rose up suddenly and when the water had cleared, I was much higher up than I had been before and I realised with excitement that we were seated in a coliseum like structure that had suddenly appeared out of the sand.

Ambrose was beside me along with Amaryllis and Roman and we were in a separate seating part, a box of sorts that was slightly higher than the rest of the crowd and looked straight down at the arena below where the Mayor Titan still stood, his grin wide.

The roar from the crowd was huge as they cheered for their leader and the amazing stadium that he had just created out of nowhere. I was still in shock and stood up, placing my hands on the ledge that stopped me from falling into the arena. There were arches placed all around the huge structure and through them I could see that the stalls were still there, lining around the outside of the stadium.

The seats were quickly filling as the Sirens streamed in from above and I slowly move back to sit in my seat, touching it in wonder as though it was going to disintegrate under my fingers. It was sand, just soft smooth sand, but how it was holding its shape without collapsing was beyond me.

“It is a fine art, in the Siren world,” Ambrose said from beside me, his voice amused, “To be able to sculpt sand into any form is a coveted talent, and one that Titan has perfected over his many years. The Siren world moves and changes with the flow of the ocean, being able to rebuild in an instant is very useful. This whole plaza is, for lack of a better word, just a huge sand pit. A dip in the ocean floor that has gradually been filled with sand, giving way to endless opportunities for sand sculptures, because after all, once you are done, you simply release the image and the sand falls back into place.”

I looked at him, astounded. “So this will all disappear? Once this is finished?”

Ambrose nodded. “Yes,” He pointed towards the arena. “Watch now.”

I looked eagerly to where he was pointing, the arena was pretty much just the middle of the plaza, the well was still in the centre, huge and gaping, the flow of people coming out of it had ceased now and the band was still off to the side on their little stage, playing some more upbeat music that added to the voice of the crowd.

There was a roar and the roof above my head shuddered, sand falling down in little streams before being carried away by the underwater currents. I was momentarily alarmed before I relaxed as I saw a long white scaly tail droop over the side of the roof. Anthemin’s head poked over the edge, looking at me curiously.

Are you alright Vanima?

I laughed. Yes, I was wondering where you had gone.

His jaws hung open in a toothy smile. I was exploring.

I see. I smiled at his vague answer. Dragons.

*

The show began fully not long after that and I became completely absorbed in the wonderful talent that was on offer. There were more dancers and more sand sculpting, as Ambrose had promised, and sometimes a mixture of the two in which beautiful scenes would be erected out of the sand as the dancers interacted with the art. My favourite was a woman who came by herself but as the music started, she pulled a partner from the sand and danced with him, the sand man’s movements so realistic that I forgot that she was controlling him till the end where, as they bowed in unison, he dropped back down into the ocean floor and disappeared, leaving her standing on her own.

There were also chariot races, much to my delight, some carts pulled with huge koi fish and some with seahorses. There was also fighting, but not to the death, much to my relief, it was simply a grand show of skills. One man was particularly impressive, his tail was a glorious bronze colour and as he entered the arena I could hear the cheering increase to a giant roar as the crowd recognized a favourite.

He then proceeded to battle against an army of sand soldiers that Titan created, each solider bursting into nothing as he ‘killed’ them using a huge shining silver blade and an impressive knowledge of sand sculpting as he erected walls from the sand to block off his attackers and created soldiers of his own to aid him.

With his battle won, the man turned towards where I was seated and bowed low before straightening and blowing a cheeky kiss up at me. I grinned and reached out a hand to ‘catch’ it, much to the crowds delight. He was definitely a highlight.

I was enjoying myself so much that I did not realise that the light above us was turning red as the sun sunk below the horizon. As the final performer left the arena, Titan made his way into the centre again, his booming voice echoing out through the stands.

“Thank you for your attention! That concludes our show and I would like to invite our Princess to say a few words before she retires for the evening.” He smiled up at me, his beckoning hand indicating that I should join him in the arena.

Ambrose gave me an encouraging nod. “It would be good for you to speak in front of the people.” He said simply.

Leaving my seat, I swam down to join Titan. The view was certainly different from down here, there were so many faces looking at me and I gulped, feeling a little nervous.

Anthemin had just come back down from the surface and joined me in the arena, instantly calming my nerves.

We should do something for them, He suggested.

Like what?

He eyeballed me. We could heal someone, as a gift?

Are we allowed?

If he could have shrugged he would have. I don’t know, does it matter? You are the Princess, you can do what you want.

I almost laughed, but I pushed it down and cleared my throat. “I would like to thank you all for welcoming me into your beautiful city and putting on this performance for me. I have seen so many wonderful and extraordinary things today and as thanks, I would like to give something back.”

I reached up to Titans ear, trying to explain what I wanted to do. His face was surprised and slightly disbelieving, but he nodded.

“I know a few who are deserving of this.”

He swum quickly away and I watched as he approached a few groups in the crowd. A murmur began as people craned to see what he was doing.

I gulped, feeling a little silly.

Are you sure we can do this? What if it is something we cannot heal?

There is nothing that we cannot heal.

I touched the pendant at my throat, glad that it was still in my possession until the ceremony in which the three would be united.

I could see Ambrose staring down at me silently, his face unreadable. Amaryllis was bouncing up and down in her seat beside him and as I caught her eye she waved enthusiastically. I waved back at her, but as Titan swam back towards us, with a small group in tow, my attention switched back to him.

As they approached, I could see that he held a small body in his arms. A woman swam beside him, her face sad and worried. Behind them swam a few others and my heart strings tugged painfully. They were all children, accompanied by one or two adults. The small party stopped in front of us and I counted three children in total.

I knew that children were very precious in the magical world; Hobbson had told me that children were hard to have, although the Water Kingdom was blessed with fertility and the women could conceive fairly easily, it was not often that they had more than one child. I knew that in the Earth and the Air Kingdoms, children were even harder to have and as Zalas had said, in the Dragon world, a new dragon was born only once every 500 years.

So as Titan knelt before me and placed the small body on the sand, I should have been prepared for the worst, knowing that he would only bring me those who could not be helped by any of the normal healers.

The little girl lay lifeless on the sand, her golden hair floating out in a cloud around her. She couldn’t have been more than three years old and a lump grew in my throat as I was reminded of Pearl, my precious half-sister that I had left behind with my Step Father when Obsidian had come to take me away.

Her tail was completely gone, from below the waist and I could see that a horrible accident had occurred as the wound was still healing. My shock was so great that I couldn’t find any words to speak. I looked around at the two other families that stood quietly to the side. One other couple cradled a little girl as well and I could already see that she was gravely ill, she was far too thin and a white mist clouded her eyes.

The other was a boy of about five, who was hiding in his mother hair. She was carrying him also and I could see that the bottom half of his tail was missing, the wound sewn up, but not properly healed. He also appeared to be missing his hand from the wrist. His Mother was alone.

Titan’s deep voice was strangely quiet as he spoke, his eyes never leaving the little girl who lay in front of him. “I know that it may be selfish to count myself as one of the few in need of this gift, but I had to try.” The woman beside him touched his shoulder gently. “She is probably the only child that we will ever have.” He looked up at me, his face tired. “I would be eternally in your debt if you would heal my daughter.”

His daughter.

I felt as though my heart was being tugged from my chest. The entire stadium had gone completely silent and as I looked up at Ambrose, his eyes were fiercely intense as he stared down at our small party. I wondered how widely spread the knowledge was about Titan’s daughter but I could feel the empathy as his pain for his child and the other children with him resonated through the crowd.

I crouched down beside her tiny body, touching her hair gently. Anthemin sank down into the sand beside me, his body curling in a half moon around my own. If there was anything that I could do for these children I would do it, I would to it to repay this incredible man that I had met today, a man who put his peoples happiness above his own, a man who I could tell had risen to this position because he deserved it, I knew that my Mother would not have chosen him to sit on her council if he did not deserve to be there and the respect the Ambrose had shown towards him today had confirmed that fact.

Can we really do this? This isn’t healing a cut, this is regeneration. I don’t know-

Vanima, we can achieve miracles if you would only open your mind to the realisation. His rumbling voice was calm. Join with me and have no doubt. Together we have a limitless power that can only be restrained by your worries and fears.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, calming my shaking hands. He was right, I would not be able to do this if I was over thinking. I cleared my mind, grateful of the silence, and reached out with my consciousness until my mind touched with Anthemin’s and we dove into each other, our separate thoughts swirling around until we let go of all our restraints and our walls and opened our minds completely.

I gasped, for a soon as this happened, it was like a whole new world of possibilities opened up in front of me. This connection was so much stronger than the last time we had merged.

It is because we have become closer, Vanima. Our bond has strengthened greatly.

I opened my eyes and everything was illuminated, the sun had almost completely set now, but the power that was circulating between Anthemin and I lit our little group up in the middle of the arena. I could hear the soft gasp of the crowd and ever so quietly a chant began, somewhere to the left of me, the hum igniting something as it passed from person to person until the soft chant circulated around us.

Anthemin’s eyes were glowing and I knew that my own mirrored him, for right now we were one being. His head stretched out to touch the top of the little girls head gently and where they touched, a bright light grew. We pushed power into the girl through their connection, our new sight showing us what we needed to do in order to heal her. We reached out to touch her hips, examining the stump of her tail. There was barely anything left, just enough that her lower body parts and organs were still able to function, although she also appeared to be in a coma of sorts.

We quickly and cleanly opened the wound, ignoring the gasps from around us. The crowds’ chanting was growing stronger and I could feel now that they were lending us their energy, our minds were so open that the collective power flowed straight into us. We focused fiercely on the severed muscles, tendons and veins, hovering energy around the wound to create a protective cocoon so that she would not bleed out.

She was hovering slightly above the ground so that we could turn her as we worked. The energy from Anthemin streamed out from his slightly open jaws, a white pulsing cord that connected to the top of her head. It was as though we were building backwards, first the veins and nerves grew, extending and branching out until the entire network was reborn, giving a base outline of her tail. Next we moved my hands as though we were pulling the bone forth, encouraging it to regenerate as muscles grew rapidly and ligaments and tendons stretched outwards as though breathing a sigh of relief.

The love that we poured into our creation was immense. Everything had to be perfect, everything had its own place to fit into and the body helped us, eager to grow with the energy that we were providing, nothing was amiss and we turned her around in the air, studying her with critical eyes before we began covering the flesh with skin and scales that grew back a beautiful dusky pink colour.

Finally her tail fins were the last to grow, starting as small buds before they flourished outwards like a flower opening its petals for the first time. She was perfect, but she was still not opening her eyes and so we probed in to her mind, doing a sweep of her body and fixing any small issues that she had before withdrawing.

She hovered in front of us, whole once again and we spoke to Titan and his wife who were watching us with wide eyes.

“Her unconsciousness is a mental issue, trauma from her accident.” Our voice was doubled as Anthemin spoke through me at the same time. “If you want, we can remove the memories and the fear from her mind. Then she should wake.”

Titan nodded and delicately we entered the little girls mind. Images of blood and fear flickered in front of my eyes and I winced, but Anthemin was strong.

Find them all.

She had wandered too far from her home, distracted by something pretty. Her Mother had been inside; her Father had been at the Palace. Sharks were a rarity but sometimes they simply slipped past the guards. They had arrived in time to save her, but her tail was destroyed, a mangled bloody mess.

It was an accident, no one was to blame, and there was danger in the ocean just as there was danger on land. But she had almost lost her life.

I took the memories from her without hesitation. It would be as though she had amnesia, her parents could explain to her what had happened, but she would no longer have the blow by blow images circulating in her head and dominating her thoughts. And the fear would be gone.

As we withdrew the little girls eyes blinked open, we moved her through the water until she arrived gently in her parent’s arms. Breathing in deeply, we withdrew our influence and the cord connecting her to Anthemin was severed.

Not finished yet, we beckoned for the next child to come forward, hope now shining in the parents eyes.

We were not fast by any means, but over the next half hour we healed the sick girl, a delicate task as the disease that flowed through her body had to be coaxed out and absorbed into our own bodies before the powerful magic flowing through our veins could destroy it entirely. Thread after white thread was removed from her eyes until their natural blue could be seen once again.

The little boy with his Mother was simple to heal after the huge job of healing Titans daughter, but when we delved into his mind to find that his Father had been killed in the accident that had resulted in his injury our hearts ached as we knew that this was a pain that we could not fix.

Gently we offered to remove the memories, but the little boy simply looked up from wiggling his new tail and hand, to sincerely decline, stating that he didn’t want to erase any memory of his Father.

Exhausted, and finally finished, we stood, realising that the crowd had moved from their seating to form a tight circle around us and in the background, the massive stadium had disappeared, leaving us in the middle of the plaza once more.

Ambrose and the others were standing just to the left and the chanting had stopped as every single face turned towards us. Titan swam up to me, looking down at me with eyes filled of unfathomable emotion. He twisted his hand in the sign of respect before bowing low in front of me.

The entire crowd followed his lead as I watched, my heart thumping as Ambrose bowed his head to me as well. And it was then that I knew that everyone who had been here would never forget this moment, the moment that the gesture that I had made had turned from a simple thanks to something that would continue to spark loyalty in the hearts of these people long after I was gone.
The moment that I had gone from being someone that they were expected to follow, to someone that they wanted to follow, to a Ruler who, in their eyes, was now worthy to rule.  

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