Brellitine Grever and The Sea of Gelled

by Ruhi Jain

  Brell unexpectedly felt weak, as if something had sapped all the energy from her body. She heard all the doors in the area outside bang open. Whispers travelled down the corridor, and more doors opened soon. The owners of those voices peeped into D-5. Erene, wearing a pale and thin yellow gown, was holding a slender metal rod and the mermaids clustered around her were holding the same.

  “Where is it?” a mermaid asked, her voice quivering.

  Natalie, who looked like a frightened kitten, refused to climb down off Stiny. The much smaller mermaid wore a pained expression as she struggled to hold Natalie without collapsing.

  “It’s there!” Natalie wailed, and Brell heard a mermaid suppress a giggle. “In my drawer, it was!”

  The group of mermaids slowly advanced towards the drawer. Somebody poked the mess on the floor with their rod.

  “Something’s moving!” Stiny shrieked, throwing Natalie off her back and scrambling away from the destroyed drawer.

  “Silence girls!” Figgie stormed in, wrapped up in a fluffy peach-tinted bathrobe which looked ridiculous on her.

  “What is the disturbance?” Upon seeing Natalie, her forehead puckered.

  “Miss Bennings?”

  For once, Natalie looked afraid. “Delps have come into my room. It’s all because of her!” She shot out accusingly, looking at Brell.

  “What? No!” Brell exclaimed. “Ma’am, you have to believe me!”

  Natalie roared. “Oh please! You came yesterday, and look what happened today!”

  “You really need to sh —”

  “Enough!” Figgie commanded, and they both fell silent. She crouched near the jumble of wood pieces, clothes and accessories and ruffled through them. Everyone watched her bare hands with fascination — although there was nothing beautiful about them — as if something would just eat them up.

  Figgie stood up and announced. “It may have been Delps, girls. But it seems as if they have escaped. Don’t worry and go back to bed.”

  She then continued, wrapping her bathrobe tighter over herself. “Miss Bennings and Miss Morris, I will be seeing both of you in my office first thing tomorrow morning.”

  Chapter 17: Practice Almost Makes Perfect

  That night was the worst. She slept in the storage cupboard, not because of Natalie, but because she needed some time to think without disturbances. The storage cupboard was near the entrance of the servants’ quarters, was musty and smelled foul; it was filled with old, dirty aprons, mops in various stages of degeneration, brooms of different lengths and innumerable parchments of paper.

  She honestly didn’t care about them. As she lay on a thin, beaten up mattress that she had found rolled up in a corner of the cupboard, she thought hard about the way the drawer exploded. She didn’t know what Delps were, but she did know that they weren’t responsible for the explosion. It was her. She remembered her anger, the way she had just lost control over it. Her rage had made the drawer burst. Was it… magic?

  Of course not! Only members of the Royal Family and some others had it. She didn’t… she couldn’t have magic!

  Suddenly, she felt her Dreign calling out to Callum.

  “Brell?”

  “Do you mind if I asked you what ‘Delps’ are?”

  His voice clouded with surprise. “Yes… I mean no, I don’t mind you asking me. Delps are somewhat like… termites. On land, termites destroy wood and in the water, we have Delps. They are a whole lot worse. First off, Delps look like fluffy black balls of wool, the size of one’s thumb. Like termites, they always come in huge numbers and they feed on almost anything. Wood, stone, marble, you name it. Everyone’s afraid of them because no one has found a way of destroying them or getting rid of them. Their method of eating is very strange. They, um, enter the object, eat what they can and then destroy it to escape. But they don’t stop there. They can destroy beds, cupboards and even a whole house. But why are you asking me this?”

  She twisted uncomfortably in her mattress. “Um, well… I came back from work,” she scowled. “And Natalie had taken away my bed. I got angry. I mean really angry. The kind of angry that has your ears about to whistle with steam. Then a drawer burst; Natalie started yelling out that it was Delps. But… I don’t think it was that. I know this sounds weird, but I felt the drawer shake. For a minute, I felt the drawer was inside me, and that my anger made it burst. Callum… could it be magic?”

  For a moment he didn’t respond and she thought he had closed the connection.

  “Maybe. Brell, you need to know one thing about magic. Every merperson has it. But for most that magic is so little, so insignificant that the merperson will need years — decades even — of coaching and guidance to touch and harness it and still the magic will be very weak. My family and I were born with large amounts of it, so it comes naturally to us.” He paused. “Lukas told me that he had to spill the beans to you. He and Meaken are rare cases wherein an ordinary merperson has large amounts of magic. How old are you?”

  “Seventeen.”

  “I can’t be sure. But if you feel certain, and you want to test it, concentrate on one object for a long time, and think about the things that make you angry, because anger stirs magic initially. Now this may not work… you may not have magic, okay?”

  Brell nodded and then realised Callum couldn’t see her nod.

  “Yeah, I got it.”

  She felt a mental sigh come through the link. “I sent Lukas after you because Meaken was insistent that you make it unscathed to the Castle. He had to return to Meethe with a message anyway. I probably should have told you.”

  “Yes. You should have, Callum. I’m fully capable of taking care of myself.”

  The line went dead and she eventually fell asleep. She awoke to the noise of all the mermaids getting ready for work. And then she remembered that she had to go to Figgie’s office. Hurrying out of the room, she stumbled to a halt in front of the room marked “NIGELLA”. She smoothed the front of her apron and lifted a hand to knock.

  She heard a muffled, “Come in,” through the door.

  Brell pushed open the light violet door in front of her and swam in. Thankfully, it wasn’t fully red or purple like Thomas’ and Lily’s room. The furniture was just like in an ordinary house. Figgie’s office was at least five times as big as Brell’s dorm room. It had a long and wide desk stacked with papers, four chairs to sit on and a full length mirror.

  Figgie had somehow managed to plant her big body in one of the chairs.

  “Well Ms. Morris,” she rapped her short nails on the desk. “Explain the ‘commotion’ that took place yesterday.”

  “I honestly don’t know why the drawer burst.”

  Figgie remarked sharply. “We are here to discuss how it happened. What was the conversation that you were having with her at that time?”

  “She told me to sleep in the storage cupboard and at that time the drawer burst. That’s it,” she said innocently, knowing that she wasn’t exactly lying.

  “Do you think it was Delps, Miss Morris?”

  “No.” She paused. “I don’t know what it was.”

  “Very well. But before you leave, I have noticed that you are taking an absorbing interest in cleaning the west side of the castle. Am I right?”

  Brell flushed, her cheeks burning due to her panic. It perfectly matched the embarrassment she should have for what she was going to say. “I… well, ma’am, I come from a very poor family and I need the money this job offers to help feed my younger sister. I know that I am a person who can work hard but I wanted to prove how loyal I am to my work.”

  Figgie nodded, but Brell saw that mentioning ‘younger sister’ had touched a part of Figgie which she kept hidden — her humanity.

  “You may go now.”

  Brell hurriedly left, and the moment she closed the door behind her, a relieved sigh slipped out of her lips. It was a marvel how she could pull off that lie without Figgie becoming suspicious!

  She joined Erene, who of course, asked
her what had happened.

  “I just went into Figgie’s office. She wanted to know what happened, so I told her.”

  Amanda passed by just then. “Yo, Golden Fish!” she yelled, waving at Brell. She waved back. The triplets were on their way to work at the same time and they grinned. “See you tomorrow, Golden Fish.”

  She turned to Erene. “Why did they call me Golden Fish? Is it some sort of inside joke that I don’t know about yet?”

  Erene almost beamed. “I was waiting for you to ask me. Your encounter with Natalie has spread like wildfire. Golden Fish is a human term, but we use it because it is linked with water. It means being fearless and being free.”

  “Fearless and free?”

  “Yeah. No one has stood up to Natalie the way you have. You’re giving us hope, Susan.”

  “Wow, okay,” Brell murmured, humbled. She didn’t realise that she had that kind of power.

  Erene folded a green sheer top gingerly and said, with her eyes cast down, “You know, maybe you should sleep in the storage cupboard after all. Natalie is dangerous and you know that, no matter how fearless you are.”

  Brell frowned. “I’m not going to leave. Figgie has to make Natalie put my bed back.”

  Erene lowered her voice. “But be careful okay? No one talks about it, but I’ll tell you.”

  “What?”

  “Last year, a girl named Mollie Pinkson borrowed the mattress from one of the two extra beds in Natalie’s room because someone had spilled soup on her bed. No one knew what happened that night… even her roommates heard nothing. Next morning, she failed to report for duty and Figgie sent a mermaid to her room to call her. She found Mollie lying on her left side as usual. When she shook her, Mollie’s body turned over and …” Erene lowered her voice so much that Brell had trouble hearing the words.

  “…and she was dead. There was not a single wound on her body, no sign of any violence. She was sleeping on that mattress. You know which one I’m talking about.”

  “Was anyone caught?” Brell asked. She wondered if everyone could hear the uptick in her heart rate, or if it just felt loud to her.

  “No… but there were rumours that Natalie …”

  “Natalie wouldn’t do such a thing,” Brell cut in “She is a bully and a really mean person… but she would never kill somebody.”

  Erene sighed. “We don’t know. But just be careful.”

  After their chores were over, she sneaked around the castle. An idea was forming in her head; it was connected to the conversation she had had with Callum. Erene had told her once that the storage cupboard was rarely ever used, and she banked on that fact as she quietly slipped into it.

  The only source of light was a small lamp which hung on a rusted nail. Brushing aside some brooms, she made an open space in the middle of the cupboard, and placed a slab of wood around three centimetres thick in front of her. She had found it in the corner of the cupboard.

  “Anger triggers the magic.”

  Brell concentrated on that one block, and her vision narrowed in on it. She knew this would take a lot of effort. She cleared her mind of everything that was bouncing about. She recollected the memory of the day Timmy had accidently broken Aunt Lucy’s delicate china, and the blame had been put on her; she was forced to work four extra hours every day for that whole month. The memory of her anger at her cruel aunt simmered in her gut. She kept that thought in her mind and focused on the block, imagining it shattering. Nothing happened. She thought that it would have shattered.

  Taking a deep gulp of water, she thought about the moments when Natalie had thrown the Houp at her face, her inability to breathe, when Natalie had taken her bed away, the loneliness of not seeing Timmy for so long… all these emotions mixed together in a jarring cacophony of noises in her head, bringing up mixed emotions with rage playing a prominent part.

  A small, almost invisible crack ran down the side of the block, but it didn’t explode like the drawer had. She needed a much more powerful memory, a memory that could shatter the block like the drawer. She searched her mind…and gasped quietly at what she found.

  Her father’s demise, her mother’s disappearance, and the realisation that she had to become a mermaid… the fury swelled up like a balloon inside her and almost choked her. She channelled all this anger on that one wooden block. It shuddered, quivering with her in tandem with her fury, and the crack expanded. Suddenly, it burst and chunks of wood flew through the water!

  Brell bit her lip in excitement. It worked! Then she noticed blood dripping down her elbow. A piece of wood had sliced a cut into her left upper forearm when the block had shattered. The blood that hit the floor of the storeroom acted in the same abnormal way as the time her blood had spilled when the Noralian Thorolis had injured her; it got absorbed by the concrete floor and disappeared.

  She fumbled through the pile of rags she found in a corner till she found one that was clean enough. She hissed as she pressed the rag to the still weeping cut, but thankfully it didn’t look too deep. As she pulled back the rag to check the wound, she wished she had that black healing gel that Lukas had used.

  She rewrapped the rag around the cut, and winced as its rough fibres rubbed against it. However, the sting from the cut paled next to her excitement. The shattered block proved she had magic. She let out a tiny whoop of joy, but just then the world shifted and she collapsed onto the floor, feeling dizzy. It seemed as if the usage of magic had drained her of energy. She gasped and reached out to Callum through her Dreign.

  “Callum! I did it! I actually did it!”

  “Woah! Wait a sec… did what?”

  She explained how the block had shattered, and the side effects of her using her magic.

  “So you’re still tired?”

  “Yes, very, very tired. I tried to get up, but I can’t. I feel like my tail has turned into jelly.”

  “Brell, this… this isn’t possible. Only royals have powerful magic, unless…” he trailed off. “Anyway, the tiredness is an effect from using magic. Magic requires energy from the caster, and users learn to build the strength and stores required for spellcasting. Right now, your ‘magic muscles’ are weak, so when you used it to shatter the block, all your magic drained and with it, your energy. You probably won’t be able to use magic for at least an hour or two till your strength returns. Don’t try magic till then, or it might knock you out for a while. Be cautious, okay?”

  Brell rolled her eyes at the admonition, but squealed mentally. “I have magic! What else can it do?”

  “You’ve seen Lily and Meaken. Your tail will be able to create objects and change the colour of things. If you’re strong. I mean really, really strong, you can even… control minds.” His mental voice took on a dark tone. “Like Zeldae.”

  “Is that what she did to your parents?” Brell whispered.

  “Let’s not talk about that now.”

  Brell agreed, but frowned after a moment. “Wait. My magic didn’t work with my tail… it came from my mind. I didn’t see any sparkles.”

  “Those are not sparkles.” He sounded offended. “They are merdust, a magical dust that does what we want it to. But you didn’t have that come out from your tail? That’s… odd.”

  “Is it bad?” She asked anxiously.

  “Actually, that’s a great sign.” He started to jabber excitedly. “Brell, even I can’t control my power from my mind! It takes a lot, a lot of practice. There is only one person who can do that —”

  “Zeldae.” Brell finished.

  “And our ancestors; the Ruling Family that used to have control over all the Seven Seas. How is it that you can do it from your mind?”

  Brell snorted. “Like I know. I’m as puzzled as you are.”

  “I’ll look into this. In the meantime, can you get up now?”

  She managed to get up, but she still felt wobbly.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  A loud gong rippled through the water.

  “It’s dinner time. I have to
go.”

  “Yes I know, but one more thing, you have to come to the Ball.”

  She had almost forgotten about it.

  “I don’t have a choice. Servants have to come.”

  “But the reason I’m asking you is important. Don’t fake a sickness or pretend you’re hurt. Zeldae will be there, and tomorrow would be the only time that you get to see her before… you know. Don’t wear anything fancy. The last thing you want is to get her attention.”

  “Callum! I don’t even have a dress to wear. Fancy will be a long way off.”

  Chapter 18: Ripples of Excitement

  As Brell entered the hall, an unusually loud wave of chatter greeted her. She slid into a chair next to Amanda. Erene was sitting to her left.

  “Why is everyone so excited?” Brell asked Amanda.

  Amanda stared at her in disbelief. “Dude! Tomorrow is the Ball. What are you gonna wear?”

  She looked into her thin soup. “Actually, I haven’t got anything except our uniforms and the clothes I came in.”

  “You’re in trouble girl! I wish I could help you, but I only have one dress.”

  A skinny blonde swam up to Amanda suddenly and squealed, which looked strange.

  “Omg! Amanda! You have got to hear this: Katty is wearing gregar to the Ball! It’s only a bit at the waist but gregar! That is so amazing!”

  Amanda got up, apparently forgetting Brell in her excitement.

  “Gregar? You mean the real stuff? No fakes? That is so expensive! What are you wearing?”

  “Me?” the blonde twirled happily. “My uncle has sent new green —” their conversation dulled to a buzzing in the background as they swam away. She vaguely heard Amanda say that she had a similar coloured dress and they both went off to see it with palpable excitement.

  Brell was left staring after them. She had never been the kind who was head over heels when it came to fashion but all this drama and excitement behind the Ball was starting to make her feel that even she should at least think about what she was going to wear.