Melusine Ch. 01

It was cold down this deep. The slow rush of temperate water from the vents of the volcanoes did not do anything to improve the frigid temperatures all the way down here. Warm water rose, and the caverns at these depths did not retain the warm water very long. Melusine hurried along the old corridor, shivering in the chill.

There it was, just a narrow fissure in the rock. She was just barely able to squeeze inside through the gap. The fissure widened a few feet inside the rock face and then bloomed into an expansive vaulted atrium. A natural cathedral, still hidden in the lowest depths of the city after centuries of habitation. Melusine had found the beautiful place when she was just a child. She had spent the majority of her youth exploring and hiding in the various nooks and crannies of her home. In an attempt to avoid her studies, she would evade her nurses and spend hours exploring the winding mazes of cave systems. One day she slipped inside that crevice while avoiding her nurse and stumbled into the massive cavern. It had become her secret home, and she felt more comfortable here than she did with her family. She was undoubtedly an introvert, and the cavern gave her the privacy and quiet that she could not get at home in the courts of the royal palace. Her treasures were kept here, and no one had ever discovered her hiding place.

Once inside, Melusine released a pinch of powder into the room. The plankton lining the walls and ceiling of the places hated the mineral and showed their displeasure by emitting a faint blue light. However, when millions of them were collected and grown together they could brightly illuminate a hundred-foot dome. Melusine ascended into the glowing blue dome of the room and fished a small, waxed scroll off of the natural shelf the ringed the inside of the dome. The rim was covered in books, tablets, scrolls, and exotic objects that she had "collected" over the years. In reality, her "collection" was mostly pilfered. A great number of the documents were stolen from the storage room in the great royal library. Once things were selected for storage, they were generally never seen again. Her items were not missed, and often presumed destroyed or already put away in boxes. Melusine took great advantage of the librarians' complacency. She had stolen well over one hundred texts from the storeroom. However, recently, her sticky fingers had gotten her in a nasty bit of trouble.

Melusine had always been fascinated by humans and the world far above, even as a little girl. Humans were considered a myth by her people, and anything to do with them was considered heresy. Her race was the beloved and chosen race of the gods according to the elders who taught theology. No other intelligent life existed in this world according to their teachings. Unfortunately for her, her curiosity had gotten the better of her the last time she was rifling through the books that were meant for storage. Several well cared for books had been set aside to be destroyed, along with the normal damaged texts that were normally selected for shredding. Upon closer inspection, the texts were written on a variety of taboo topics. There were seven texts in total, three small books, three scrolls of varying size, and one massive tome that looked to be quite ancient. Melusine could not resist the haul, and she had quickly scooped them into her satchel and made off with them. Apparently, those texts were official and dangerous contraband meant to be destroyed. The entire guard was on the hunt for them, and the punishment for stealing them would be swift and painful. She had considered dumping them somewhere less incriminating, but after reading them she knew that she could never part with them. The greatest of the texts was well over three hundred years old. It was the original work of a very famous historian, and entitled "The Myth of Atlantis." The text told a story about the origin of her people that Melusine had never heard before.

The story the book told of the birth of her race was quite different from the one that she knew. The book told the story of a mighty city called Atlantis that was perched high atop the waves. The people of this city were human and insulted Zeus, the god of the air. Poseidon favored the people of Atlantis, and before Zeus could raze the great civilization, Poseidon turned the people into sea creatures and dragged the city deep down into his realm. According to the book, the people of Atlantis were the ancestors of all Meridians. Melusine originally chalked the story up to crazy ancient mythology until she began reading another scroll sometime later. This scroll was a beautiful thing on fine green seaweed entitled, "Royal Genealogy and the Kings of Man". This scroll was fairly recent and well used. Her father was the current ruler of Kerling, and the scroll traced his ancestry all the way back to one of the founding families mentioned in "The Myth of Atlantis". Melusine had stumbled onto something secret, and that secret was big. The more she read, the more the evidence piled up. She was harboring a deadly secret, with a cave full of evidence. She was an addict, she knew she should destroy her hideaway and all of its contents, but she couldn't bear the thought of it. She was engrossed in the scroll she was reading when she heard the commotion outside. She heard a child's voice. "Down here mister, it's in the rock over here".

Melusine had nowhere to hide as the guard tried to cram himself into the entrance to her cave. Panic set in, but she was saved! The guard couldn't fit inside! He left to get someone smaller to squeeze in. Her foolish error was that she didn't think to hide the scroll in her hand. She swam out of the cavern, scroll in hand. She was sure that she was in the clear until she heard a guard call "you there, in the name of the King, stop!" She froze, he wrenched the scroll out of her hand and then realized who she was. "Lady Melusine, I am going to have to arrest you" he said tersely. Numb and terrified, she was shackled and hauled away. She was presented to her stepmother Queen Neria, with the incriminating evidence.

Melusine was heir to her father's throne, and the Queen wanted her out of the way so that her vile stepbrother Atrius would inherit. Melusine had by her very own hand, delivered exactly what the queen needed to have her killed and out of the picture. Her father could not save her from this very public crime. Laws in Kerling were strict and completely unyielding. Once and an edict was passed, not even the King himself could change it. The punishment for possession of the texts had been a death sentence, and she was going to die.