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Isabelle met with Joshua as he worked on her sword. His warmth struck her.
Isabelle always felt flustered around Joshua for some reason. Her heart would start racing and her thoughts jumbled up. It didn’t help that Joshua had an intimidating manner of working. He asked to attend Isabelle during her practice. He would study her with a keen artist’s eye, carefully drawing sketches of her movements.
Isabelle was used to men staring at her beauty. She even invited their flirtations. Joshua’s gaze was different, as it made her blush deep down to her core.
“Why do you look at me like that, Joshua? It looks like you are trying to map my very soul,” Isabelle said, blushing.
“That would be an impossible task,” Joshua said with a smile.
Isabelle blushed again.
“Does my gaze divert you? I will not bother you again, if it does,” Joshua said. “I want to see what weapon would suit you best, but I feel I can’t.”
“Why is that?” Isabelle asked.
“It is because you are holding yourself back during practice.”
Isabelle’s heart beat faster at Joshua’s words. How did he know she was holding back?
“I think you overestimate my abilities,” Isabelle said.
“I think you underestimate mine,” Joshua said. “Care to prove me wrong?”
Joshua grabbed a sword and stood in front of Isabelle. Was he challenging her to a sword fight?
Isabelle smiled, accepting his challenge. All the soldiers she practiced with held back when they fought with Isabelle as she was the Princess. All but Joshua.
Isabelle laughed as Joshua dealt blow after blow without stopping. He meant what he said about not holding himself back. Isabelle stopped fighting defensively and finally fought like she meant it. Their duel ended with both of them covered in sweat and gasping for breath. It was Isabelle that made the winning strike, placing her sword inches from Joshua’s throat. Joshua just smiled at her victory.
“I know what to make for you, Princess Isabelle,” Joshua said, still trying to catch his breath.
“Call me Isabelle,” Isabelle said with a smile. “Where did you learn how to fight?”
“Ok, Isabelle,” Joshua said, and Isabelle’s heart fluttered at hearing her name from his lips. “I wouldn’t be much of a swordsmith, if I didn’t know how to wield a sword myself. I offered to make a sword to a soldier for lessons,” Joshua replied.
After a month, Joshua presented her with a beautifully finished sword, one she had never seen before. From a distance, the sword looked plain and unadorned. Up close, the sword had intricate carvings throughout, with a single gem on the top of the sword’s hilt. It was a sapphire, the same color as Isabelle’s eyes.
When Isabelle first used the sword, she immediately felt that her swings were deeper and her strike deadlier. He made the sword for her and responded to her commands like another extension of her body.
“I need a swordsmith of your skill in my kingdom. Will you become my royal swordsmith?” Isabelle asked Joshua.
“It will be my honor to serve you, Isabelle,” Joshua replied.
Being a princess was lonely even at the best of times. Now with her sister Sarah married, and keeping secrets of her own, Isabelle felt the need of a trustworthy companion.
Isabelle found Joshua easy to talk to. Their budding friendship and trust would continue to grow until one day, it sparked the embers of love.
——-
Even though Victor tried to stay away from the water, somehow he would get closer to it again. He came by the fishing village where he and Ariana had looked for the owner of the locket.
Victor wished that they never went searching. Victor wished they never found Ivan.
Victor found the bookshop again. He debated whether he should go back inside. The bookseller saw Victor by the window and came out to greet him himself.
“It is you! The boy who was skeptical about mermaids. I thought you had gone back to your country, and that is why I didn’t see you again,” the bookseller greeted Victor with a smile.
It seemed to Victor that he met the bookseller a lifetime ago.. in some ways it was true, he thought, he had met the bookseller in a different life.
“Are you ok, my friend? You don’t look too well. Please come inside from the cold,” the bookseller said with concern. “I have some news that might interest you.”
Victor nodded his head and went inside.
“You are quiet today and I am the chatty one,” the bookseller said, laughing. “Did you have time to look over the book? What did you think of it?”
Victor remembered the bookseller had given him a book about mermaids and sea creatures. Victor has used a spell to keep it safe from water. He had used a language spell to understand it.
“I am afraid I left it in my home, and don’t have it with me,” Victor replied.
It was an old habit, Victor thought as he remembered he didn’t have a home anymore.
“That is fine. Did it change your mind about mermaids, I wanted to ask,” the bookseller asked, curious.
Victor remembered the book was mostly inaccurate. It said that mermaids ate kelp and fishes, and that sirens were half women and half bird-like creatures. Victor thought the siren sisters would likely claw out the eyes of those who insisted they were birds. There were some parts in the book that were true, but it had no references to the more terrible sea creatures.
“It certainly had a lot of information, and opened my mind to different possibilities,” Victor replied politely.
“That is wonderful to hear! Especially with what I wanted to tell you next!” the bookseller said. “I saw a mermaid again, near this very village. As soon as I saw her, I thought about what you had said. You said, ‘I hope you may encounter another mermaid yet’, and I did just that!”
Victor was surprised by what the bookseller told him. Surely, it couldn’t be anyone he knew?
“What did the mermaid look like? Was she the same as the one you saw in your childhood?” Victor asked.
“You remember, eh,” the bookseller said, smiling. “No, she was different. The funny thing is that she looked a lot like the girl you came with last time. I thought I must have been imagining it.”
Ariana? Victor's heart started beating faster. What was Ariana doing here?
“Oh, really? What was this mermaid doing when you saw her?” Victor asked, trying not to falter in his voice.
“Nothing. She was just sitting by the rock and looking at this fishing village. It was nighttime, and I had gone out for a walk. When I spotted her, I dropped my lantern in surprise, and she saw that and quickly dove back in the water. I am sure that I saw a tail... it is amazing, isn’t it? A mermaid right here,” the bookseller said excitedly.
Victor wasn’t listening to the bookseller anymore. What was Ariana doing back here again? Victor thought. It was unlikely that she was looking for him, Victor thought bitterly. She was probably missing Ivan and came to see the place where she found him again.
“So what do you think?” the bookseller interrupted Victor’s thoughts.
“I am glad for you, my friend. That must have been amazing,” Victor said.
“It was! I had been dying to tell someone and I am so glad that you came by,” the bookseller said, smiling. “Is there any book you want today? Perhaps this book about ships and sailing would interest you as a traveler? You can consider it a gift.”
“The first time I came to your shop, you gave me a book as a gift,” Victor said to the bookseller. “Let me purchase it this time. Please, I insist.”
Victor remembered last time he had some money from the robes he had stolen. This time, he earned the money by working in the workshop with Joshua.
The bookseller relented, seeing that Victor was adamant to buy it. Victor thanked him for the book, but knew he couldn’t stay there any longer. If Ariana was close by, Victor couldn’t afford to be spotted.
“Thank you once again for your book, my dear friend,” Victor said. “I was wondering if I could ask you something? Where did you see the first mermaid?”
Victor had a feeling that the mermaid the bookseller saw in his childhood might have been Queen Helena.
“Near where I grew up... a village named Haven,” the bookseller replied.
“Haven?”
“Yes. Are you going there?”
“I think I might. I have a question that I need to answer,” Victor said.
“Will I see you again? How long are you staying in the village?” the bookseller asked.
“Today is the last day of my stay,” Victor replied.
“You are rarer than a mermaid sighting,” the bookseller said, joking. "I hope we meet again."
Victor smiled, but he didn’t make any promises to the bookseller. He didn’t know if he would still be alive to keep his word.
“Take care, my friend,” the bookseller said. “May our paths cross in the future.”
“Take care,” Victor said, warmly. “I shall cherish your memory until then.”
——
Victor went miles and miles without stopping. He only stopped to rest when he saw his horse was getting tired.
“I am sorry that I burden you so,” Victor said to the animal. “I will let you rest as long as you want.”
The horse neighed happily in response. He liked Victor, for he sensed his wants, and cared for him.
Victor brought out the book the bookseller had given him. He needed a distraction to stop him from thinking again. Victor was grateful the spell he used when he was immortal gave him the ability to read. He was even more grateful that he didn’t forget it when he became a mortal.
The book was mostly about the history of ships and sailing. It contained first-hand accounts of the sailors of ships, sometimes from those ships lost to sea.
Victor marveled at the humans' ingenuity. Without magic, they floated great objects like the ships on water. He was reading the section on shipwrecks, when a section caught his attention. It was a first-hand account of a fisherman who had witnessed the sinking of a magnificent ship.
It said: “Out of the water, rose huge tentacles that wrapped around the ship. The mighty ship looked like a toy that had been strung together by ropes. The creature roared and tightened its grip, breaking the ship in half! That was the last thing I saw of the ship and the people on it.”
There were other accounts of similar sightings. Was this the Kraken? Victor wondered. His mother... Ursula, Victor reminded himself, had said that the Kraken would go missing for days until one day it returned with a great injury.
Did the Kraken go to the surface during those days? Victor thought. Was it the humans that injured it?
Victor read some more pages before he got his answer. There was a royal decree which stated that all big vessels should gather together to defeat the new threat at sea. They must be talking about the Kraken, Victor thought. There were no other mentions of ships sinking or sighting of monsters after the account of the royal decree.
If the ships were successful in injuring the Kraken, that must be when his mother trapped it with her spells. It would make sense if no further ships were damaged, or the humans didn’t see the Kraken anymore. The Kraken was fast asleep and was trapped under a spell in the deepest trench, Victor thought.
Victor had possibly solved the mystery of the Kraken’s disappearance and its injury, but he had no one to share it with. Victor was forever an exile from the waters.
“What use is this information anyway, rather than to soothe my ego,” Victor said to himself. “The Kraken is unlikely ever to be free again with my mother watching over it.”
After his horse was well-rested, Victor started his journey again.
He was going to find the village of Haven. From there, he would find the answer he was looking for about Helena. Victor would find out how her mortal life would have been if Brutus had not taken her.
——-