Other Fan Fiction ❯ Reprise ❯ Message in a Bottle ( Chapter 25 )

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CHAPTER 25: Message in a Bottle

"A... for Arendelle?" Ariel asked. "Was this... your parents' ship? The ship that went down?"

Elsa nodded, tears beading.

Rapunzel and Ariel didn't know what to do, but wait for their friend to take action. She could do nothing for the moment, suspended by the awe of this discovery.

Elsa swam to the top deck. The sea had coated everything with lime green crust. Rotten wooden planks lay curled and bent in awkward positions. She floated over the forecastle, then dove into the quarter deck. Ariel and Rapunzel followed.

Elsa grasped the edges of the square hole and pulled herself in. It was dark and cloudy, with tiny particles of light filtering in from the broken windows and holes. Splintered timbers lay everywhere. Barrels remained stacked, but their tops had burst open from the pressure. Whatever contents they held had long since disintegrated.

"The royal quarters," Rapunzel whispered. She could imagine the dining table, butler, lamps, windows.

Ariel whispered "I think this was the dining room. Over there is where I found a dingle- I mean, a fork." She pointed to the broken picture window. "That's where the shark surprised me."

Elsa ran her hand over the carpet. It came off on her fingers as sludge. "One time, the cooks had the night off so Anna and I thought we should make dinner for our parents. She was six and I was eight. We told them to sit at the dining table and made them wait for hours while we tried to figure out how to cook."

An empty gold frame hung on the wall, its picture long torn out by bottom feeders and scavengers. "This used to be a portrait of Anna and I. We were looking to the left because the sun was in our eyes."

She swam around the room until she came to a closed door. The bedroom. Her hand hovered over the door handle. They could still be in there, their skeletons fallen into the bed frame. Although if the boat was tossing from a storm, they wouldn't have been asleep. They would have been topside, trying to help.

Elsa pushed the door open.

No bodies. No bed. A birdcage lay on the floor, turned on its side. "We had birds in our backyard garden. Mother kept them there, kept the bad bugs out. Anna dragged Father out and said they had to be knighted as official protectors of the royal Arendelle garden. I saw it from my window."

Elsa swam to the opposite corner, to an empty shelf of books. She scanned the titles, then grabbed one. It crumbled into mush. The leather retained the imprint of her hand.

"Father would read me fairy tales. But he never read the real endings if it was sad. He changed them so the princess didn't die or the young man got his sight back."

Ariel and Rapunzel stayed just outside the doorway, giving her space. They dare not say a thing as Elsa explored the room.

She approached a vanity huddled in a corner, the oval frame empty of mirror glass. But a golden comb lay in the open drawer. Elsa curled her fingers around it. "He gave me my first geometry book at Christmas. It was to help my boredom. This was the Christmas after Anna's accident... my accident. I was eleven, she was eight. He closed the gates, reduced all the staff, made it so I hardly had to see anyone."

"They were teaching me to be a ruler. And I listened to everything they said. A leader has to be stalwart and steadfast. Never show emotion. Never shed tears. The same way you control your powers. Conceal, don't feel," Elsa said.

She stared into the mirrorless frame. "Well, look where that got me. I was their eldest daughter. I was the future queen. You didn't want me to lose control in the middle of court."

Her voice broke, her lips quivered, but she never broke gaze. "You made me so scared. Scared of myself, scared of my powers. But I didn't put the gloves on. You did. You made me put them on."

"Elsa?" Rapunzel and Ariel asked.

"I was just a kid. You thought that was protecting me. You thought suppressing it would keep me safe. Keep everyone safe. I spent all those years trying to control it. And it was all for nothing. I missed any fun. I missed my sister. You took away her memories. You took away any relationship we had." Her voice suddenly stabilized from a quaking shiver to solid red heat. "Did you think ignoring it was going to solve the problem? Did you think I was just going to get over it?"

A white effervescent glow surrounded Elsa, sparkling with ice particles. Her eyes lost the bright blue iris and glowed white.

"What were you afraid of? Were you afraid that I would hurt you?"

Elsa raised a fist. BAM! A giant icicle extended from her knuckles, penetrating through the oval frame to the hull. "Were you afraid of your precious legacy?" BAM! Another icicle. Another hole. "By your cursed daughter?" BAM! "Did you have any concern for me? For my life?"

The ice particles grew until they became globular spheres of slushy ice. Her shoulders grew small ice spikes.

"Elsa? Elsa!" Rapunzel and Ariel called.

"I missed all those years. I missed my life. And it was your fault. Your fault." Elsa whipped around, slicing great tears in the ship. She gouged the floor below her as the ship were a monster she was stabbing. "Well, look at me now! Can I control my powers now? Does this look like CONTROL?"

Shards of wood and iron flew everywhere. Ariel and Rapunzel covered their eyes for protection. Then they heard the giant, groaning creak. Masses of bubbles rose out of the ship's cracks.

Elsa thrashed about, rending and cleaving the room. A cloud of wreckage swirled around her like a cyclone.

Rapunzel caught sight of a ceiling joist falling out of place above them. She pulled Ariel out of the way just in time.

"Elsa! Elsa, stop!" Crashing of breaking walls overwhelmed her voice. The ship emitted another low groan, this one sounding final.

Ariel spiraled forward, tackled Elsa by the torso, and continued through the rear window. Rapunzel followed, barreling out as the aft deck collapsed.

Elsa struggled to free herself, but Ariel didn't let her go until they were clear. When Elsa opened her eyes, they were normal. The white aura of freezing water disappeared.

"Wh- what happened?"

A tremendous crash answered. Back at the ship, the main mast toppled like a felled tree. Rising clouds of disturbed sand consumed the rest of the ship. It sounded like a cannon. In a few moments, all that was left was a gray mist.

"I am so, so sorry."

"We know." Rapunzel said. Even she was getting sick of Elsa's constant apologizing.

Elsa sat at a table in the palace's study, a blanket draped over her shoulders. Books and documents lay out in front of them both, preparing for research on their new evidence.

"It was like a landslide or an eruption or a flood. Or whatever weather phenomenon that has a slow build up then an explosion of force. It was like everything inside me lost its seal. It kept building and building and then it just... it felt like I could have frozen the whole ocean."

"We know. You said that three times," Rapunzel said. "We understand."

Elsa looked away. What she hadn't said was how liberating it felt. How freeing to act out like that.

Ariel reappeared behind her chair. She held out a cup. "Here. I tried everything and this tasted the most like tea that I could find."

Elsa took it with quivering hands and sipped the warm beverage.

Ariel watched with expectant eyes. "Does it taste like tea?"

"A little." Elsa sipped again. She licked her lips. "It's uh, kinda... no, not really. Nothing like tea." A tiny wisp of a smile crossed Elsa's face. "Not even close." Elsa snickered.

That started Ariel giggling. Rapunzel followed, and soon all their chuckling turned into full-bodied laughs. The tension around the table diffused.

Elsa propped her head on her hand, still laughing. "I'm sorry, guys. I just... I don't know. When I saw their room it was like they were alive again. And all those feelings I didn't know I had before came out."

"We always remember things the way we want to," Rapunzel said. "You blamed yourself for what happened, but... like you said, they're the ones that put the gloves on."

Elsa nodded. She sniffed, and put her cup down. "All right. We need to take care of business."

Ariel held up a giant crab claw, which she had also fetched from the kitchen while getting Elsa's not-tea.

Rapunzel held the bottle in the middle of the table. Ariel clamped the claw around the little bit of cork that stuck out.

"Here goes." Ariel twisted as hard as she could. The bottle trembled as the cork shimmied up and popped off. Sea water mixed in and darkened the paper.

Rapunzel dug her slender fingers in, and pulled the scroll out.

Before the cosmos formed, when matter was dust and energy feeble, there were the sands of time. Ever pouring, ever rolling, with no ending and no beginning. A flow that never slows down. That never stops. That never turns back.

Then came the gods. They ruled as gods do, as a child rules an anthill. Noliet, the trickster god, convinced Ytr, a war god, to impale the falls with his unident.

"A unident?" Elsa asked.

"Like a trident, except with one point," Ariel said.

"That's a spear."

"Oh. Yeah, suppose it is."

Rapunzel continued.

Ytr's desires are unknown--perhaps to earn the love of another goddess, perhaps he wished his spear unsullied by the passing of time, perhaps he was dumb. Noliet's motive has no explanation. Chaos does not need one.

The result was catastrophic. But none are left to know its nature. And when the weapon pulled back out, a single grain of sand lay on the blade leaf.

The gods' time in this realm grew short. The demigods were rising. It was time to pass on. But Noliet lay one last seed of discord. He left the grain of time in the hands of the demigods.

The two sides engaged in war. Those who didn't seek its replacement desired to possess it selfishly. But its power could only be harnessed by the strongest magicks. Even demigods degenerated into shambles trying to use it. In the end, to cease the war, it was thrown into the realm of mortals.

Rapunzel flipped to the back. "That's it? That's not any help!"

"Okay, okay, let's not panic," Elsa said. "Maybe there's some further meaning. I mean, mine was in code."

"And mine was invisible without sunlight," Rapunzel said. "Arcius said these notes were for us and only us. It could only be read by our special talents."

Ariel took the paper. "It's seaweed paper. It has to be immersed in ocean water to be read, otherwise it doesn't show. But merpeople do. Maybe it would have been more secret if I was human."

Elsa played with the bottle, spinning it between her fingers. "My letter showed how to get to the island." She pointed at Rapunzel. "Yours told us how to get around the island." She pointed at Ariel. "And yours... told us... why we should get to the island?"

"I don't know," Ariel said. "Why does he have to be so cryptic?"

Elsa bonked the bottle to her head, trying to kickstart her brain. She noticed the end. "Hey, does this mean anything?"

She pointed to an symbol embossed in the bottle's bottom.

"I recognize that!" Ariel said. "That's the insignia of my kingdom. I mean, not Atlantica. My human kingdom. With Eric."

"Whoever made this bottle might have had contact with Arcius. They may know something about him. It's a slim chance, but it's our only one," Rapunzel said.

"There aren't that many glassmakers," Ariel said. "A little detective work and we could find it."

"This doesn't make sense," Elsa said. "Arcius is a powerful sorcerer. Maybe the most powerful one in the world--he has the ability to control time. Why would he use a bottle from a small city? Did it just float by? Why didn't he just conjure up a bottle?"

"Maybe it's a kind of message," Rapunzel ventured. Her eyes widened. "You don't think he's holding the kingdom hostage?"

"No, he would have told us so." Elsa tapped her finger on the bottle's bottom. "If he was forced to use an empty bottle, he must have limitations."

"Maybe he has trouble leaving the island," Ariel said.

"And that would explain why he hasn't tried pursuing us yet," Rapunzel added.

Elsa nodded. "Either he can't or he won't. Maybe he doesn't want to leave his precious grain unprotected. And if that's the case, maybe he didn't send those notes himself. Maybe someone else did it for him."

"And that someone is squatting in MY kingdom." Ariel furrowed her brows.

Elsa rose. The blanket fell off her shoulders. "Ladies, it's time to head back to the surface."

Elsa tied the scroll with a piece of wormy yarn. She squeezed a dollop of brown paste from a cartilaginous shell on the seam. Ariel assured her it was just as good as a wax seal.

"Now, you will make sure this gets to him, right? Make sure that he reads it," Elsa said.

Dudley saluted with his right flipper. "Eh... don't... worry... about... a... thing... The mail... always... gets... through," the sea turtle wheezed. He trotted off down the hallway.

Rapunzel and Ariel strolled around the corner. Ariel pointed in a "here you are" gesture.

"What's that?" Rapunzel asked. "You're sending a letter?"

"A letter to whooooo?" Ariel asked.

Elsa stiffened. "No one."

"Come on. In the short time we've been here, who could you know well enough to send a letter to?"

"Fine, it's Gil. I'm not going to be able to see him before we leave. It would be bad manners to leave him hanging."

"What does the letter say?"

Elsa blushed, but remained steadfast. "A lady does not divulge her personal communiques."

"Come on, please?" Ariel asked, holding up her clasped hands.

"No, it's for his eyes only."

Ariel and Rapunzel pouted. "Fine," Ariel said. "I guess I should say goodbye to my sisters too. Meet me outside the palace entrance."

Rapunzel and Elsa held hands and swam away. Ariel turned in a different direction, heading to the great hall behind the throne room. Attina and Aquata sat at opposite ends with fierce expressions on their faces, reading through documents and scrolls. The four others between them looked bored.

"I'm leaving now. Back to the surface. I wanted to say goodbye?" She couldn't help hedging by making her request a question.

Attina and Aquata gave her a side-eye, but Alana, Adella, Arista, and Andrina swam up to her and hugged.

"Don't be a stranger now," Andrina said. "Come back any time."

"Seriously, save us," Adella whispered jokingly.

"It was so short," Alana said. "We didn't get to have a welcoming celebration... or a parting celebration or anything."

"I know. But we found out something and I need to get back. There are people on the surface who need me," Ariel said.

"It seems like you were barely here," Arista said.

"Hmph," Attina uttered. "She was barely here when she lived in the palace."

The other sisters released her. Ariel took a jaunt forward. Attina and Aquata straightened up, holding themselves like a pair of grand emperors. "Attina, Aquata. Please find a way to get along with everyone. For Atlantica's sake?"

Attina gave her another side-eye, then turned back to her reading.

Aquata's eyes glanced at the trident at Ariel's side. "I suppose you'll be needing that with you still."

"Yes, just for a little while longer. If that's okay?"

Aquata sneered. "I guess I can't stop you. If it's as important as you say it is. Just don't lose it. It's only the key to ruling the sea kingdom."

Ariel grimaced. That was all the good she was going to be able to do. After saying her final goodbyes and headed out.

She turned to the throne room where the chair for the sea king was not empty. An old friend was snoozing away, head on his front claws like a resting feline. She crept up, not wishing to wake him.

"Sebastian," she whispered. "Wake up. I'm leaving."

His thick lips continued to puff and blow air out in a snore.

"Come on, Sebastian. I don't want to give you nightmares about cookpots again." She poked him in the back of his shell.

He sleepily opened his eyes. "Oh. Ar-re-ell."

"I just wanted to say goodbye. I'm leaving."

"Oh? But you just got here."

"I know. I'm sorry I couldn't stay longer. But my friends need me."

Sebastian smiled like a wise old man. Like King Triton smiled. Maybe they had spent so much time together he'd adopted his appearance.

"Sebastian, how did Daddy die?"

"Ah-ree-ell... sumtimes, it is just our time. Maybe he'd done everyting he needed to in this life. But he did great tings before-"

"No, I mean, for real," Ariel said. "Arista said Daddy died of a broken heart. What really happened? I know there's something people are keeping from me."

Sebastian's eyes bulged. "Keeping... sumting? Heh, heh, like what?" He shrugged his claws.

"Come on, Sebastian. Do you think that's going to work? You're the worst secret-keeper in all of Atlantica. In fact, this all started because you told Daddy about me being in love with a human." She smiled. "In fact, you might say I have you to thank."

Sebastian chuckled humbly, swishing a claw at her.

"Is it that they think I'm too young? I'm married now. I'm a princess. I can-"

"No, no, nut-ting like dat. Dey just... dey just don't... ah-re-ell, you got enough trubbles on de surface."

"Sebastian..." Ariel pouted. It was the same look when he was about to march back to the king after she got legs. "Please?"

"All right, all right. You not gonna like it. He... he choked. On a piece of fish."

Ariel reared back. "He was eating a piece of fish?"

"Yes... it's true. I don't know how he got de idea. When you left, he changed his colors more dan an octopus. He was so proud. He told everyone how you were so brave. And how wrong he'd been about humans. He started visiting the surface again. Just to watch the boats. He helped de sailors in trouble, when he could."

"Really?" Ariel never realized what impact her actions had when she left. She didn't know anything had changed.

"He was doing everyting he could to prove to come out of his shell. But then... I guess he wanted to swim that last mile."

"So he tried eating fish?" Ariel gasped. "How did he... I mean, I can't imagine..."

"I guess he figured you were doing de same. Fish got to eat otter fish." Sebastian nodded. "Had it prepared and everyting. Only me and his daughters knew. I was dere de whole time. But den... it got caught in his throat..."

Ariel's hands went up to her own throat. Her eyes teared up. "That's why Attina and Aquata blame me," Ariel said. "If I hadn't left, Daddy wouldn't have died."

"No, no, child. I know he don't blame nobody." Sebastian patted her hand. "It was just an ach-see-dent. De same ting coulda happened de next day on a plankton wrap. Don't tink it was you for a minute. De girls, dey have dere own trubbles. You got yours. And speakin' of which. You got to get back to dem, don't you?"

Ariel gripped the trident in her hands. "Thanks, Sebastian. For everything."

"You go on, child. You go make your fadder proud. You always did."

She picked Sebastian up and gave him a kiss on his fleshy head. He shied away. "Oh, well, come on..."

Ariel swam out of the castle and met Rapunzel and Elsa at the entrance.

"You okay?" Elsa asked, seeing Ariel's melancholy expression.

"Yeah," Ariel replied. "Just learned some interesting things about my father."

"Like what?" Rapunzel asked.

"Nothing. Nothing important. Let's go."

Ariel led the way, taking them out many miles. They headed east, closer to coastline. The seabed steadily rose. Dense populations of fish and bright colors waned.

Ariel was too thoughtful to make conversation. She loved her father, but she always saw him as a stubborn tyrant, setting rules that made no sense. He'd banned all music from Atlantica. He declared absolute isolation from the surface. He forbid any contact with humans or human things.

For the year following her marriage, she never wondered about the impact of her actions on her old world. Did that mean she was responsible for them? And did she have to take care of those consequences? Clearly, Daddy wanted to make amends. But it was making those amends that killed him.

In the distance, they could see beginnings of a dropoff. The waters were pushing and pulling them like a heavy wind.

"Are those boats?" Rapunzel pointed out oval shadows above them.

"Yes," Ariel said. "That's just the luck we need. We'll transform close to the surface, then swim up. We'll act like shipwreck victims."

The three of them ascended, pressure squeezing their ears.

"Do you hear that? It's like thunder," Elsa said. "I hope there's not a storm."

The water was too murky--stirred up by the ships--to get a clear view of the sky.

Five fathoms away, Ariel stopped. "Okay, who wants to go first? I'll have to change last."

"I will," Elsa said.

Ariel held out the golden trident, glowing like a marigold sun. A beam of light enveloped Elsa in a bright, gentle glow. Rapunzel had to shield her eyes. When she could look again, Elsa was already gone, kicking her legs to the surface.

"You're getting pretty good with that," Rapunzel said. "You even gave her a dress."

"Maybe. I feel a little more confident."

Rapunzel held out her arms waiting for her turn.

Ariel pointed the trident at her. Golden light flowed out and, a moment later, she was swimming up, her braid spiraling behind her.

Finally, Ariel pointed the tines at her own chest. After the bright yellow aura blocked her eyes, then came the familiar sensation of her tail splitting in two. But this time it was painless. Before the final moments of the spell, she took a deep breath. Then she crawled upward with all her might.

Ten feet from the surface, she heard muffled thunder. As she broke the surface, she threw her head back to keep the hair out.

The seas were so rough she couldn't open her eyes. First she noticed the air--thick with gunpowder and smoke, burning wood, and hot metal. Sails flapped and shuddered amidst panicked wails and shouted orders. Ariel opened her eyes.

Galleons and clippers pitched all around them. Mighty ships swirled around each other, firing cannons. Sailors swung across ropes. Muskets and hooks dropped into the water. Elsa coughed from the thick smoke.

"How did we get in the middle of a war zone?" Elsa shouted.

"What is going on?" Rapunzel shouted. "Is this the right place?"

Ariel caught a glimpse of her castle between two ships, far in the distance on a promontory. A galleon traversed the circle of battle. Its figurehead bobbed into the ocean and back out. All Eric's ships had one.

"That's my castle. These are my ships," Ariel shouted.

"Then why are they fighting mine?"

Elsa pointed at another clipper with a different banner. As it turned hard to port to face its cannons, the hull presented a fashioned A, surrounded by a wreath of crocuses.

Ariel's mouth dropped open. She and Elsa looked at each other. "We're at war?"