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Chapter 3

Leia

As I am sitting in my water chamber letting my tail soak up some saltwater, I hear the door to my main chamber open and close. I immediately know it’s Natal from the soft patter of feet as she comes running in.

“Guess what, my little messenger returned and told me he delivered the message and waited just in case Delphine had one in return. He said as soon as he finished reading it, Delphine turned into his dolphin form and disappeared so fast he couldn’t track him. I have a feeling Delphine is already here or will be at any moment,” she tells me.

“Did you thank your messenger for the speedy delivery?” I ask her.

“Of course. I kissed his other cheek and I swear he will never wash his face again.” She laughs.

I roll my eyes, because she is probably right on that account. Hopefully Delphine can find a few people to help with this upcoming war. The gods know my father would keep me in the dark about the situation until all hell breaks loose. It helps to have a friend like Natal that can get any info she wants out of a man here. They can’t help but to tell her anything she desires.

“Any other news that you have heard from your many admirers?” I ask.

She laughs, “No, but I can go find out! I always like to test my charms and see what I can see or hear.”

I smile at her, “Go ahead, let me know what you can find out.”

“On it! I will see you at dinner,” she says as she turns to leave.

I need to figure out a plan of action. I pull my fin from the water and it turns back to legs as I conjure a sheer blue wrap dress that hangs to my feet. Being myr, clothes feel restricting and heavy at times. Most of us find clothes that are light and easy to remove, and we never like wearing shoes, so we rarely do unless we need to be around mortals, which isn’t very often.

I have my long tresses half pulled back and a silver headpiece that lies on my forehead to help keep the rest of my hair in place. I’ve always wished I looked like my friend Natal. Instead, I am tall and willowy with long brown hair, my father’s turquoise eyes, and an olive complexion, which I am guessing comes from my mother’s side. My father never talks about her. I just know as a myr-babe I was with him, and I never saw her or heard from her. Maybe one day I will find her, but for now it doesn’t matter. She has never wanted to be a part of my life, so I am happy with my father being the only parent I have. That is how a lot of gods and goddesses have done things. They don’t get pregnant easily, and when they do, by the time they have had their child, they don’t want to raise it.

I clear my mind; I need to stop thinking about absent parents and start thinking of who else I can reach out to that will help in the upcoming battle. I really need more info on what to expect and who is involved so we know who we are fighting. I decide that some recon is needed. Time to find Father and see what he is up to, and if there’s anything I can overhear. Having to sneak around like this makes me feel like the myr-babe my father still thinks I am, but if it’s the only way I can get information then so be it.

Tane

I follow Proteus and Delphine into another large room. This one has floor-to-ceiling books, maps hanging from various places, and a large table in the middle with another map laid across it, with markers on different spots in the ocean.

I look over and I see Poseidon whispering to the lady in the corner. She has a smile on her face. They are a beautiful couple, if that is what they are. I hear Proteus whisper to Delphine.

“Are you the one that got Rita here?” Proteus asks. Delphine just nods his head once.

“I knew she would be able to sway his stubbornness to whatever plan we decide,” Delphine tells him.

I look back at them and see one of her hands raised and brushing her fingers through his hair. I look back to Delphine.

“I don’t understand,” I tell them.

Delphine smiles, “Rita, or Amphitrite, was Poseidon’s consort for almost a century. She left abruptly because Poseidon wouldn’t marry her, or at least he hadn’t considered it. So she left to teach him a lesson.”

“How long has she been gone?” I look to Delphine.

He smirks, “Almost a century! She had to hide in a few different places, because Poseidon was searching the vast oceans forever after she left, trying to find her and bring her back. Being as stubborn as he is, he never understood why she left.” Proteus just shakes his head.

“Poseidon has never loved anyone as he does her, and he still doesn’t understand why she left. He has a lot to learn about goddesses, or women in general, if he wants to keep her. What did you say to convince her?” Proteus asks Delphine.

I am looking back and forth trying to learn all I can about the people around me.

“I told her that war is brewing, and Poseidon will likely get his head cut off if she doesn’t come to knock some sense into it. Of course, she agreed the stubborn ass would probably try to take down a war alone if someone doesn’t talk sense into his mull-headed skull. Those are her precise words,” Delphine tells us. Proteus chuckles at that, and I smile, only getting a small shred of insight into these two.

All of a sudden, the door opens, and another woman walks in. She has fire red hair and alabaster skin with mischievous green eyes. She sees Poseidon in the corner talking with Rita in hushed tones. I can see her eyebrow rise, but then she looks over to where the three of us are standing and looking at her. She smiles wide and saunters over with a sway of her hips. She is a beautiful woman. I can tell she is used to getting her way because of the way she looks, yet I feel nothing toward her. Surprisingly, it doesn’t take much for a young god like me to get aroused. Right now, though, all I want to do is find out what the plan is and what I need to do to help before this war really starts.

“Delphine, Proteus, so good to see you again,” she says, smiling wide at them as she gives them hugs in turn. Then she turns to me with a coy little smile. I just raise an eyebrow, showing her that her smiles won’t have me falling to my knees for her attention. Visible surprise and shock pass across her eyes at my gesture, you can tell right there that she isn’t used to not getting her way. I heard Poseidon had a daughter, is this her?

“Hello, and who might you be?” she asks, looking up at me. I nod to her, not sure who she is. If she is Poseidon’s daughter, I do not want to be rude.

“My name is Tane. I have come to help stand with Poseidon.”

She looks at me like she is trying to figure out who or what I am. I turn my head and look at Delphine. “Should we get started and see what we need to do first? I noticed some sentinels lined up at the edge of the city as we were coming in. We need to see how many there are and if we can position them further out to give us a heads-up if there is a problem approaching, instead of at the edge of the city,” I tell him. I can see by the way the redhead cocks her head at my statement to Proteus and Delphine that she is used to being the center of attention, and having me turn from her after a short introduction isn’t sitting well with her. I won’t be one of the myr-admirers I am sure she is used to having. It would take a lot more than her coy smiles and obvious want for attention to turn my head. Delphine and Proteus both have a small smile on their lips at how I am ignoring the looks the girl is giving me.

They point to the map on the table behind me. I look back at the redhead, not even catching her name. I just give her a quick nod and say, “Excuse us.” I turn and walk over to get a better look at the map. At this point, Poseidon comes over holding Rita’s hand as if he’s afraid she will disappear again. It is kind of amusing for this strong god to worry a little slip of a woman like her would disappear. I wonder who will make him see that if he really wants to keep this Rita around, he will have to marry her.

Focusing back on the map and what I need to look for, I push all thoughts of Poseidon and his consort out of my mind. Delphine is pointing out where the sentinels, sentry is what they call them, are located currently. I see the redhead slip out the door quietly. Poseidon interrupts what we are discussing, “So, what exactly do you all have in mind?”

Leia

As I am about to leave my room to see what snooping I can do, I see Natal storming through my door. She looks puzzled and mad all at the same time. “Ah, hi again, what’s wrong?” I ask. She looks at me.

“I was basically dismissed by a man! That has never happened to me before,” she says to me as she paces back and forth. I laugh at her outrage. One, because it is funny to see her get dismissed by someone of the opposite sex, and two, because she gets a glimpse of how men usually react to me. She looks at me with an annoyed expression.

“I’m being serious here; my charms have never failed me before and there is a new myr in your father’s study. Oh, and by the by, Delphine and Proteus are here in the study as well.”

Thank goodness they came, and quicker than I would have thought. Seeing Natal still distressed by being dismissed by this new myr, I figure she has finally met someone that is her equal.

“Maybe you finally met your match!”

She looks at me as if I am crazy for thinking that way.

I push aside thoughts of Natal’s outrage over this myr and her inability to accept that a single myr-man wouldn’t fall to his knees for her. I am just too excited that Delphine has made it and that he has brought some people to help, even if it is only a couple.

I’m so excited that others have come to help that I am making my strides to the door to head to my father’s study when she says, “Oh, and also, Rita is back and has your father wrapped around her finger already.”

I stop dead in my tracks and turn to look at Natal. Is she serious? My father hasn’t been close to her in almost a century now. He was a mess when she left, and I know he searched everywhere he could think of to find her and bring her back with no luck. Now, with war imminent, she shows up out of the blue.

Natal is nodding her head, answering my unspoken question. Yes, she really is back and here in my father’s study with him.

All thoughts of finding out more information disappear, and I feel my temper rise through my blood remembering the way my father was after she left him. He was a shell of a man for so long, heartbroken and empty. Wanting to rip every piece of blond hair out of Rita’s head for what she put my father through for the last century, I storm out of my room. The door slams behind me as I head straight for my father’s study. There is a lot that needs to be said to that woman and the gods know my father would never say it. He is putty in her hands, acting like an untried myr-youth. She can’t just show up now and hurt and manipulate him after all this time. I can feel my blood boiling more the closer I get to his study, and I can hear Natal’s feet padding behind me trying to keep up. My vision starts turning red at the thought of what it would be like once again for my father when either the war is done or she is, and she leaves him again. I can’t watch him go through that again. I can’t see the look of his heart being crushed and the humiliation of what others said about him behind his back.

I push the door open with a shove and it slams back against the wall with a loud bang. I have a tunnel of vision glaring down straight to Rita. All I hear is complete silence, I can feel eyes one me, but I don’t care or see anyone except her.

I walk right up to her, and I see her arm wrapped around my father. At first, she has a smile on her face at seeing me walk into the room, then she notices the death glare I am sure is written all over mine at the moment. “Leia!” she says in a squeak.

I come face-to-face with her as she drops my father’s arm and turns her back to him.

“Rita, if you are here to toy with my father’s heart again and leave for another century, you better say so now so I can just bury you where you stand! Just because you didn’t get your way hundred years ago, don’t think for a minute that I will let you twist up and tear down the man who has finally come back from his despair, and then disappear again when you want to throw a tantrum! I will rip your damn black heart out first!” I shout at her.

Seeing my blood still boiling, my father puts Rita behind his back, comes close to me, and places his hand on the side of my face. I can feel his power rush through me and send a calming feeling, as if cold water is running all over my body, to cool me down.

I look up at him, not ready to let go of my anger. I want to release all my hatred on the woman who hurt the only parent that has loved me. He smiles down at me, “Leia, I am not exactly sure what you meant about her not getting her way; however, it warms my heart that you are worried for it.”

I look around him and see Rita hiding behind him with an actual frightened look on her face, grasping the back of his tunic.

“I know you don’t understand, Father, but that doesn’t matter. Rita knows what I am talking about!” She had better realize I am speaking the truth. I will happily rip her apart and feed her carcass to the sea life if she tries to pull her shit again. I hear a chuckle to the side of me and turn and see Proteus and Delphine trying to hide smiles behind raised hands covering their mouths.

Of course, just seeing them lightens my spirits and I rush over to give each one a hug. I then back away and notice that there is someone else in the room on the other side of the table. I look over to him, and wow! That is one beautiful man—tall, broad shoulders, square jaw, and dark hair with bright blue eyes. He looks like he is in shock, his mouth gaping open, probably from having to see my display toward Rita. Feeling embarrassed, I duck my head down and feel a flush go over my cheeks at the thought of what he just witnessed. I look to my father. “I am sorry to barge in on you. I will be seeing you all at dinner shortly.”

I turn abruptly, before anything else is said, and exit as quickly and gracefully as I can. I see Natal by the door biting her lip and trying not to laugh. I wrap my arm around hers as I come through the door to drag her back with me to my room. Natal looks at me as if she has never seen me before. “I have to say that was the most splendid thing I have ever seen you do. Seeing Rita hide behind your father, worried you were going to start slicing her up that second, it was a beautiful scene. Wow, I had no idea you could act like that.”

“Oh, I wasn’t acting; I was dead serious about what I would happily do to her if she hurt him again.”