The Lighthouse

Mariana Pov

The next day I am woken up by my father. It's still early in the morning and no one else is awake yet. I rub my tired eyes and look at my father. "What's going on?" He puts his finger on my mouth to keep me quiet, he then mouths to me to hurry up and then he leaves my room.

I get dressed and meet my father in the living room. He takes my hand in his and then we leave the house. My father moves quickly and quietly, almost stealthily as he tries to avoid every city guard, like he expects them to attack us. He leads us all the way out of the city, away from the border and to a small island near the mainland.

I have noticed that we are being followed but I don't tell my father. I have a bad feeling about who ever it is. My father stops us a few feet below the surface and then he turns to me. He looks at me with a pained expression, something I have never seen on his face nor thought something like that would be directed at me. "I want you to go up to this island and look around, then come back and tell me what you've found, okay?" I have no idea what he's up to but it is no different than the other times he and I have gone on these little trips. They started around the same time William showed up out of the blue and asked for my hand in marriage. This is all connected but I don't know how and trying to figure something out while I am partially kept in the dark about my heritage and my ancestor, I can't really start anywhere. The only thing I am certain about is that each time we leave the house, we were being followed. I look up at my father and see the pain on his face, so I just nod my head at him and swim to the surface.

I see an old building on the island. It's a lighthouse. It's withering away from age and most likely the exposure to the ocean and the weather. I make my way to the edge of the little island and push myself out of the water. I start to shift into my human form, and once I have my legs, I stand up and my dress falls to my feet.

The lighthouse is really old. It must have been standing for more than fifty years, if not longer. As I near it, I can see the rusty colour of the old metal, it's shades of red and brown, almost bronze. There are little pieces of chipped paint, indicating the original colour, I would say it was blue, but the paint could have been faded over the years in the sun. There is a staircase leading to the light on the very top of the old structure, but the stairs aren't accessible. The debris of the decaying structure is blocking the path and even if you could make it to the stairs, you would only make it half way up, the rest has already fallen away. I walk closer to the lighthouse and inspect it from the bottom to the top. It really is amazing what human beings have done even all those years ago.

I see an entrance to the lighthouse and walk towards it. There are seagulls flying overhead and making noises. They are distracting me from what I'm supposed to do but it also gives me an eerie feel towards this place. We never hear them from the depths of the ocean. Our kingdom isn't too far below the surface of the ocean, it's just the water doesn't always allow all the sounds from above us to filter in, so we can't always hear what happens above us. I look at the white bird and I think that they are quite beautiful.

As I enter the lighthouse, I immediately smell wet wood and look down at my feet. The whole thing is floored with wooden planks. I'll have to watch where I step and avoid getting splinters in my feet. I look around the place. There's a large chimney with an extra fireplace attached to it, old rotting logs lay strewn across the floor. There is another staircase, spiraling to the top floors, probably housing rooms and other areas. There is a kitchen, or rather what is left of the kitchen, to the far back of the place, a small dining room with a flimsy table still standing upright and then the living room, which I am now standing in. I look at the floor for holes and cracks and I then notice some strange markings on the floor in the middle of the living room. I go to take a closer look and see that it's a very old rune forged with ancient magic. I step into the rune activating it and as I step into the circle, I'm overwhelmed by an incredibly strong but familiar force. A memory starts to play out in my mind like it's happening all over again.

I focus on the memory, forcing my mind to connect with the rune, which happens to be a time rune, the purpose of it being able to replay past events, and things start to clear and I see my grandfather. He's standing in front of a woman. A woman with the same hair and eyes as me. She's talking to my grandfather and I focus harder, to try and hear what they said.

"You have come to see me again." She says to Neptune. "I've told you, many times, you're important to me. I'll always come back to you." She looks at him with so much love, it overwhelms me. "You put yourself at risk." She tells him and he smiles at her. "I'll risk everything for you and our children to come."

Just like that, the memory is over and the rune fades away. I realise that this is where Neptune had found his mate, my grandmother, Ellia. I run out of the lighthouse with speed I did not think I possessed with two legs. Once I'm close enough to the water I jump and dive into the water. I find my father not too far away from where I left him.

I rush up to my father with incredible speed. "I saw a memory. A memory of grandfather. This is where he met Ellia." I rush it all out hastily. He nods at me, "This is where she stayed, with her father. Her father was the keeper of the lighthouse. After a terrible storm, caused by an argument between Neptune and his father, Neptune's father threw him out of the sea, crushing him on the rock wall of the lighthouse. That's when Ellia and her father found Neptune, they helped him back to health. He in return told them the truth of what he is and so discovered his bond with Ellia." The new information sinks in. How my father knows all this is beyond me, but it is simply amazing learning of my family and the man I directly descend from.

Before I could say anything more, William appears from behind a reflective shield. So he's the one who has been following us this whole time. He's also wearing his armour, which surprises me a little and it dawns on me that he's not here for a friendly visit, he wants something.

My father looks at him and he must make the same assumption as me because he moves in front of me in a protective stance. "What do you want, William?" William smirks at my father. He has only evil intent in his eyes. For the first time since I met him, his eyes frightens me and I start to panic. As my panic rises, so does my power.

I can't fully control it yet and my panicked state has a huge effect on my environment. The waves above us become violent the more I panic and the ocean below and around us makes it hard to stay in one place and all of this makes William laugh. "Dear, Anna. I've waited a whole year for you to fall under the spell of control, but it seems that I have underestimated your power." William says and he comes closer. He points his long, clawed finger at my father. "Are you prepared to die for your daughter, Marius?" he asks my father. Suddenly, my father releases the most powerful blast of power I have ever seen come from him, and it pushes the prince away by at least half a mile.

My father turns to me, "Go to the mainland and find your mate. Protect yourself against the people of the kingdom and trust no one. I'll protect your mother and sisters." I want to protest but I'm hit with a much stronger force. We turn to see what it was and we see that William is coming at us with such force, it separates me from my father. He tries to disable my father, but he is too quick for William and manages to push William away and pierces his side with his own spear. My father mouths to me that he loves me and he uses his power to push me further away from them and towards the mainland.

I'm moving incredibly fast when my head makes contact with something really hard. As I slowly lose consciousness, my last thoughts are of my family. The worry in my heart steadily grows with the fact that William just tried to kill my father and intends to harm me. I just hope my father makes it out of the kingdom with my mother and sisters. My eyes slowly drift close and I feel weightless. My mind shuts down and I succumb to the darkness.