"Wait, am I hearing this correctly? Queen Esme and the sirens conjured up a tsunami to pull Atlantis under the water, Poseidon turned the survivors into mermaids, and hid the trident away possibly between Atlantis and the Siren kingdom?" Violet asked once I told the others about what I had read.  "Yes, exactly!" I answered. The others were very confused by what I had just explained to them. But after a few moments, they started to come to terms with what we were dealing with when we decided to find the Trident of Poseidon.

"I can't believe that someone could do that to innocent people. They didn't deserve to die such terrible deaths," Veronica sighed, moving a few strands of her hair to the side. "I agree. I can't even imagine being in that situation, knowing there's nowhere to hide," Klaus nodded in agreement. I did not expect the story of Atlantis going under the water to be so tragic. I knew that something had happened, but never in my life did I think that the sirens would cause something like this.

"Alright, we know where the trident is, but we don't have a map or anything that shows us where it could be. Is there a way we can find a map?" Quigley asked. While Arthuas and I were in the library, there was a table that was full of wrapped up scrolls and maps, and I knew that if we were going to be successful in our original quest to find the trident, I would have to steal one of the maps so we would know where we were going.

"There's a table full of maps in the castle library. There may be one that could help," I suggested. "That's perfect! Delphine, do you think you can get the map from the library? If you can do that, we can leave Atlantis tonight and search for the trident," Duncan asked. Are they asking me to steal from King Nereus and Prince Arthuas? I didn't want to steal from them, especially since Arthuas and I were building a strong relationship.

"I can't do that. I don't feel comfortable with stealing from King Nereus. He would have our heads if he found out!" I admitted. "You're not going to steal it. You have to tell Arthuas the truth now. I'm sure he can help us get back home if the King won't help us," Veronica said, patting my shoulder gently. I let out a small sigh and reluctantly nodded, but I couldn't imagine telling Arthuas the truth about us being humans. As much as I trusted him, I couldn't trust him with this secret because I didn't know how he would react to the news.

I then realized what I had to do if I wanted to keep our secret from Arthuas. I would have to lie to my friends. "Okay, I'll tell him, and hopefully, he'll give me a map," I lied. "Okay, it looks like we have a plan. I'll try to get access to some of the tools in the inventing lab so I can help us find a way to sneak over the wall," Violet said. We thought that it was an excellent idea, I put a smile on my face, but it wasn't genuine. It was to hide the guilt that I instantly felt after I lied to everyone. Hopefully, it will go away soon. I said inside my head.

When I headed back to the castle, I still had that fake smile on my face. Even though Arthuas and I were becoming closer to each other more than ever before, the guilt became worse because of the life-altering secret I was hiding. "Hey, are you okay?" Arthuas asked after noticing I was looking at one of the windows in his chambers. "Hm? Oh, I'm fine. I just zoned out for a second," I answered.

Lying was not something that came naturally, but if I told a big lie, all I could ever do was keep going with the lies until I finally admitted the truth. "Are you sure your okay? You know you can tell me anything," Arthuas asked again, gently rubbing my back with his hand. "Yes, Arthuas, I'm fine!" I sighed, raising my voice slightly. He removed his hand from my back, and I could tell that he got the message loud and clear.

"O-okay," I felt so bad for yelling at him, and I felt salty tears threaten to fall down my face, but I quickly wiped them away before Arthuas could notice them. Not only was I lying to people, but now I was hurting them. I felt like I had shot myself in the heart when I lied to my friends. I looked over at Arthuas kelp bed, but I was surprised to see that he wasn't there.

"I'm sorry, Arthuas," I whispered to myself.