"You were amazing sister !!" Ariel whispered.
"I'm so proud of you !" Shelly cried.
"You're gonna be the best Queen ever !" Kelly squealed.
But Clara… she wasn't sure. It all felt too much to her. However she smiled at her three sisters who loved her so much ! "You guys should be bowing and calling me Queen now" She teased and then they all laughed before hugging again. "Thank you guys !" She exclaimed and kissed Kelly's and Shelly's cheeks softly. Ariel just hugged her, she's the same age as Clara but she's not even a bit jealous of her. The last thing she wants is to have responsibilities that will distract her from her mission of finding all the sea species they have.
The ceremony went on, everyone enjoying as the music played and the feast began. Clara excused herself quietly from the noise and slipped out of the palace to look for Cleo. She knew where she might find Cleo and went there.
****
Drifting through the shadows of the reef, Clara came upon a large, mossy wreck of an old pirate ship. They had discovered it together as kids, her, Kelly and Cleo. And knowing their father is very protective of them, they decided to hide it, kept it a secret and used it as their secret hideout.
There, sitting on the broken mast, was Cleo. Her arms were crossed and she didn't look surprised to see Clara approaching. "You found me," Cleo said coldly.
Clara floated closer. "Why didn't you come to the ceremony ?"
Cleo turned to her, eyes dark. "Because I couldn't watch you take the crown that should've been mine. I spent my whole life training and working hard to be Queen, but it had to be you ! You can't even hold a sword !"
The words hit Clara like a physical blow, but for Cleo, the pain was even deeper. Every breath Cleo took felt like swallowing broken glass. She looked down at her hands, hands that were calloused from years of gripping practice spears, hands that had bled while she mastered the art of war to protect a kingdom she was told she would lead.
She felt like a fool. Every book she had memorized, every lesson she had taken from the elders and every night she had spent studying the stars felt like a joke now. The rejection wasn't just a choice by her parents, it felt like the ocean itself was saying she wasn't good enough.
The silence of the wreckage echoed the emptiness in her chest. She felt small, cast aside and utterly invisible.
Clara's chest ached. "Cleo, I didn't ask for this..."
"I'm the firstborn," Cleo snapped. "The oldest. The one who trained the hardest, who memorized every law and every lesson from the elders. But you ? You just play with shells and sing to seagrass and suddenly you're the Queen ?"
Cleo's heart twisted with a jealousy so sharp it made her stomach turn. It wasn't that she hated Clara, it was that she hated how easily Clara moved through a world that Cleo had to fight for. She felt like the discarded shell of a pearl, useless once the treasure was taken. The unfairness of it all burned in her throat, a hot, salty fire that no amount of seawater could cool.
Clara's eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry, Cleo. I didn't want this either. I don't want to be Queen if it means losing you." She floated closer, voice trembling. "I'll talk to Mom and Dad. Maybe we can change things. Maybe… you should be Queen instead."
Cleo scoffed, laughing bitterly. The sound was hollow, lacking any real joy. "Even if they wanted to, they can't. You have powers I don't. The Pearl chose you. You can speak to creatures, you have hidden many powers, you change the ocean just by crying, look." She pointed. Clara hadn't noticed, where her tears had fallen, small glowing sea flowers were blooming from the wreck's deck. Cleo stared at them in disgust. "You're not just a mermaid, Clara. You're something… else. Something I'll never be."
Cleo felt a wave of pure, unadulterated agony. She realized in that moment that no amount of training could ever bridge the gap between them. She was just a girl who worked hard, while Clara was a miracle. It was a realization that crushed her spirit, leaving her feeling like she was drowning even though she was a creature of the sea. She felt like a shadow standing next to the sun.
Clara opened her mouth to speak, but Cleo spun and swam away, disappearing into the deep blue without another word. Clara sat on the mast, sobbing. The flowers beneath her grew, lighting up the wreck with soft, glowing colors.
"Why the long face, sparkle fins ?" Clara looked up. Mos, the cheeky dolphin she had grown up with, circled above her.
"Oh Mos," she sniffed, wiping her cheeks. "I think I lost my sister… and I didn't even want the crown in the first place."
"You talked to her ?"
"She hates me. I tried to fix it. I even offered to give her the crown, that's all she wants, right ?"
Mos tilted his head. "And would that have fixed how she feels ? You can't heal a cracked shell with seaweed. It needs time… and maybe, a little love too."
"But I don't want to be Queen if it means losing her," Clara whispered. "What if being chosen ruins everything ?"
Mos gently nudged her shoulder. "Maybe being Queen isn't about being chosen. Maybe it's about choosing how you lead. And your sister is just hurt, give her time to process the changes."
Clara sat in silence, thinking. Then, with a determined breath, she stood up. "I'm going to talk to Mom and Dad. Maybe there's another way Cleo can be Queen. I can't let my family fall apart. Not like this." She gave Mos a grateful smile and swam off into the night, the glowing flowers still blooming behind her, proof that even pain could grow something beautiful.
But then, the water around the ship changed. It grew cold and still. Feeling it, Mos just swam away in a hurry. The warm light that had filled the space only moments ago faded into a dull grey. The tiny fish darted away as if sensing something… wrong.
The glowing flowers that Clara's tears had made continued to shine, so soft and delicate… until a shadow slithered across them. A black tail dragged through the water, slow and quiet, like a whisper in a grave. Long, tangled black hair flowed behind her, swirling like ink.
Her skin was pale and wrinkled, her eyes dark as the deepest trench and her nails, sharp and cruel, clicked softly as she floated closer. She didn't belong to the light. She never had. The sea seemed to hold its breath as the figure appeared from behind the broken frame of the ship.
No one saw her arrive. One moment there was nothing… the next, she was simply there, like she had always been waiting. She stared at the glowing flowers Clara had left behind and gave a slow, twisted smile.
She looked like death itself had taken the form of a mermaid. Her presence was a rot, a sickness that moved through the water. Every movement she made was predatory, like a shark circling a wound. The air in the ship grew heavy, suffocating, as if the water had turned to oil.
"Hmmm… how touching," the woman hissed, her voice low and crackling like dried seaweed. "Tears… blooming into hope ? How sweet. How useless." With one long, bony finger, she reached out and touched one of the flowers. It turned black instantly. Then another.
And another. They withered into ash right before her eyes, the water around them boiling slightly as they burned to nothing.
She laughed. It was not a normal laugh, it echoed like a hundred sharp shells grinding against coral, like a sound not meant to exist in the living world. It was a sound of pure, unrefined evil, a sound that promised pain and celebrated the end of all things.
"So much power, packed into such a pitiful little girl," she sneered, circling the flowers like a shark. "But I saw it.....I felt it. The Pearl chose her. Her ! Not the strong one. Not the oldest. No..... It chose the soft one. The one who cries." She leaned closer to the glowing necklace mark that still hovered faintly in the air, a shimmer from where Clara had stood.
Her eyes flickered with a hateful, ancient light. She was a void, a creature of the abyss that wanted to drag everything down into the darkness with her.
"I've waited long enough…" the spirit whispered. "Years trapped in the dark corners of this ocean. Watching, waiting and now finally, I see cracks forming. Cracks in the royal family. Jealousy and pain." She ran her hands through her long black hair, her eyes wild and gleaming with wicked delight.
"I will use her pain," she hissed, "and twist it. And when the kingdom turns against itself, I will rise." Her tail flicked and her laughter returned, louder, darker.
"Let them dance and sing in their shiny palace. Let them believe this little celebration means peace. Soon, they'll kneel, not to a Queen, but to me." She flicked her hand and the last of the glowing petals shriveled into dust. Then, as suddenly as she had appeared, the darkness around her began to swirl like smoke in a storm. Her body became shadows, her face fading into the blackness.
"You'll see, Aquaria…" her voice echoed. "You'll all see."
Then, whoosh, she was gone. Only silence remained, the old ship swayed gently again, as if none of it had ever happened. But where the flowers once grew, only blackened sand remained.