The day my life ended began like any other.
I was ten. Young and careless. Weaving between towers of coral that shone like painted glass. My mother's laughter floated behind me, soft as drifting kelp.
Celestine, my sister, darted at my side, challenging me to races I always lost but never stopped running. She was two years older than me.My tail gleamed bright blue, every flick scattering light like jewels across the water.
I felt free, alive and untouchable.
Then, in a heartbeat, everything changed.
A crushing weight pressed against my chest. My tail stiffened as if shackled, refusing to obey me. I sank. The water, once gentle, felt heavy, smothering.
"Mum! Celestine—!" My cry came out strangled, bubbles bursting from my lips.They rushed to me, panic twisting their faces.
"Tina? What is it? Are you hurt?"My mother asked,her face pale with worry.
"Feeling tired already?" Celestine asked smirking at me.
But I couldn't answer any. My body convulsed, and before their horrified eyes, my blue tail began to fade away. Scale by scale, the colour drained into something forbidden. Something whispered about only in hushed tones.
Purple.
My mother's hand froze inches from me. Celestine's eyes went wide, her mouth parting in disbelief. And then—before they could reach me—an invisible current ripped through the sea. It coiled around me like a living storm, yanking me upward.
"Mum!" I screamed. "Celestine!"
Their voices were drowned in the roar of the current. I watched as their statures blurred. And in a single, merciless instant, the ocean itself dragged me away.
That's how I arrived here. In Dome K61.The prison of the naturally cursed.
Oh,I forgot to tell you my name. Haha. My name is Kristina. And yes… my tail is purple.
They say mermaids' souls live in their tails. Each colour marks where we belong: blues to the calm seas, greens to the kelp forests, golds to the rare-born leaders. Every shade is celebrated… except three.
Purple. Black. Grey.
The cursed.
We're born powerless, stripped of gifts, denied freedoms. The moment our forbidden colours show, we're locked away forever in magic domes at the ocean's floor. No trial. No mercy.
Only... banishment.
Why? Because they claim our tails leak dark energy. An energy that is absorbed by the ocean core. And from it are born creatures of nightmare.
Perclings.
I've never seen one, but the stories are everywhere. The elders whisper of fins like daggers, corrupted and grotesque features and scales sharper than coral shards. They hunt at the edges of merpools, hungering to tear through barriers. And always, always, the elders say, it's because of us— the naturally cursed.
Not all merfolk chose fear.
Once, a golden-tailed mermaid named Alora rose from the depths. Her scales shone brighter than sunlight. Her hair was pure white, said to carry threads of magic itself.
Alora was no ordinary mermaid. She was the mother of ocean magic. With wisdom older than the tides, she discovered the truth: cursed tails bled energy too dangerous to leave unchecked.
So she created prisons.
Domes forged of he tor own magic, scattered across the seas. They pull cursed ones like magnets, dragging us inside. Once captured, you never leave.
The domes siphon the dark energy, neutralizing it into harmless things: moss drifting in currents, plankton feeding fish, glittering icebergs, mineral salts and more. This way, aquatic balance is restored.
At least… that's the story.
But ...not everything is neutralized. Not all the energy is scrubbed clean. And that explains why Perclings still prowl...Why the ocean still trembles with shadows.
I still dream of the day I was stolen from my family. Not the moment my tail turned purple, but what happened after.
I remember pressing my palms against the glowing walls of Dome K61, crying until my throat burned. And beyond the barrier—my mother.
Captain Annabelle.
Her eyes were wild, her fists glowing with the fury of a hundred storms. I watched her strike the dome with her weapon, again and again, each blow rattling the sea. But the barrier only shimmered, mocking her strength.
She inhaled deeply and her tail glowed too. And in whoosh of strength,she let out her powerful sonic scream at the glowing walls.
The powerful circular soundwaves collided with the wall and it managed to crack. But no further efforts could bring any damage to it. Mother watched as the small crack she had managed to inflict shrunk and disappeared.
'Hold on, Kristina!' she shouted. 'I'll find a way!'
I wanted to believe her. But despair had already taken the better part of me.And as her figure blurred into the dark waters, I realized the truth.
Even the strongest mermaid in the seas couldn't save me.
Sometimes I stare at my tail—the forbidden purple gleaming like bruised amethyst—and I wonder: am I really cursed?
I don't feel powerless. Not all the time. Deep in my chest, something stirs. A spark, restless and hot, pressing against the walls of my ribs like a secret waiting to be freed.
The domes are strong, yes. They hold me now. They hold all of us. But nothing lasts forever.
One day, I'll escape this prison.
One day, I'll swim free again.
And when I do… the ocean will finally learn the truth about me.
*******************************
Far above Dome K61, the water stirred.
Captain Annabelle sliced through the currents astride a silver-skinned dolphin, her cloak trailing like ink in the sea. The shimmer of the dome rose ahead, vast and unyielding, its golden runes crawling like fire across the barrier.
Her hand brushed the necklace at her throat—a golden chain cradling a sapphire-blue pendant. For years it had been nothing but a keepsake, but tonight it was going to be more than a necklace.
A Reverse Weapon.
She gripped the pendant and yanked. Metal warped and light bent in her palm as the jewel unfolded, reshaping into a trident of radiant steel that throbbed with oceanlight. The currents bent away from its glow as though afraid.
Annabelle's lips curved into a sharp smile.
"Here I am, Kristina. Your freedom is nigh."
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