THE WRATH OF THE SEVEN SEAS

C12 MEMORIAL SEAL

Ezra was restless. He couldn't bring himself together to realised that what he had been working on since almost eighteen years ago is about to be a thing of the past. All he ever wanted had to be instilled in Emmett but the story had taken another turn. It remain the memorial seal of the seven kings and that seal belongs to no one but king Mateo, Anthony's late father. When Ezra realised this, he called on Logan to his palace.

"I want you to take your able-bodied men and ransack the palace of Mateo for me. I need the memorial seal of the first seven kings of the sea." He rattled.

"My lord, only those with blood bearing with the seal can take it without any repercussions. I'm afraid if not, we will all perish." Logan said rather pleadingly.

"Then die. Didn't you tell me you are ready to die for your people?" Ezra fired.

Logan face fell. He looked at the empty seat beside Ezra. He had taken Emmett away for almost sixteen days now in fortification. Nobody seems to be aware of the little girl's absence.

"I will do as you wish my Lord." Logan said bowing respectfully.

Now that Leo is gone, Logan knew he had caused alot of problems for himself. The Memeorial seal is not something someone like him can posses or even hold.

Logan without complaining in furtherance went ahead to summon his soldiers and headed to the palace of the late king where had indirectly became a forbidden place for other kingdoms in the sea. They believed that a kingdom without a king will be full of different atrocities since there will be no one to judge their behaviour.

When Logan got to the kingdom, he went straight to the palace and ordered his men to start the search till they lost their breath. As he stood watching them, with his tail twisting in anger, Ava, the oldest mermaid in the whole second sea swam up to him while others stood outside the palace looking in disappointment and anger.

"What did his majesty want from us? Besides, he had casted us and named us. What did he want from the palace of our king? Mateo had done nothing wrong to us when he was alive. It was his son that betrayed us. We still hold our king in high regard." She muttered.

"I don't have an idea of any of this Ava. The king had restricted me from seeing my own child. What havoc did I know he is about to cause? This was his order not mine. And as for Leo, maybe he had his own reason for not staying. Even I that stayed had began to realise the length of my stupidity." He bawled.

"Is there no conspiracy against him?" Ava whispered.

"Don't say that Ava." Logan warned.

"The king had done more harm than good. We should do something. Look at those people over there, " Ava said pointing at the standing people, "we were not allowed in any kingdom even to cut leaves for medicine. Some of the people are dying. Yesterday, Ella lost her child. It was painful. We cannot live like this Logan." Ava cried.

"I wish there is something I can do. But there is none. The protection of my people is no longer in my power. I have nothing to do to it Ava. I'm so sorry. My condolences should be sent to Ella."

"What did he want in our palace?" Ava asked.

"I'm afraid, he is up to something very bad. I still don't know what. He wants the memorial seal."

"What?!" Ava exclaimed.

"I wasn't aware of what he wanted to use it for."

"You can't take the seal Logan. It's forbidden."

"Can you tell that to the king? I know what the seal means Ava, but who am I to stop him?" Logan lamented.

Soon, the men came out with no faint idea of where the seal is.

"We have to head back to the palace. Catch up with you later Ava." Logan said as he led the troop back to the palace of Ezra.

When he got there, luna was sitting with the king in the throne.

"Devil." Logan muffled.

He walked float towards the King with his head of soldier, Maka.

"Give me good news Logan." Ezra said.

"I'm sorry my lord, but we couldn't find anything at the palace."

"What do you mean Logan? Are you saying there is no seal in the palace?" Luna asked angrily.

"Yes." Logan hate it when Luna is on seat, she is worst compare to Ezra himself.

"Then you will have to go back and search thoroughly and never return if not found. "She threatened.

"No." Ezra said stopping Luna in her tracks." Mateo wouldn't be so careless with seal to have kept it in the palace.He must have kept it somewhere else. Somewhere ordinary people cannot reach." Ezra pointed out, standing from the throne and floating towards Logan.

"Tell Luis to call the other princes to my chamber. They must know where. Their father must have mistakenly told them especially you Logan. Didn't Asher your father tell you where? Maybe Mateo informed him where he kept the seal?"

"He never did my Lord."

"You better confess. If we later found out about it, you will lose your head." Luna threatened.

"Your highness, I have nothing to do with it. I will never betray my Lord." Logan said steadily.

"Take Maka with you and deliver my message." King Ezra said.

"Of course my Lord." Logan answered obediently before walking out.

"I don't trust Logan my Lord. I have the feelings that he will eventually betray you." Luna pointed out irritably.

"I always have faithful men Luna. Maka will find out sooner or later what he is up to."

"Do you think Maka can be trusted? He is very loyal and dear to Logan."

"Not when I promised him the throne. I promised him that he will succeed Logan if he can find me any clue that he has been betraying me."

"Better offer." Luna commented smiling satisfactorily.

************

Jocelyn was lost, she cried till she reached the entrance of the gate. But from afar, she sensed the hardened security at the entrance that she had to turn back abruptly. With her heart in her mouth, she swam very hard to find her way up to the sea only to be faced with Lucas who had jumped into the sea after her. She struggled with him as he grabbed her hand with surprise written all over his face while sighting the glistening tail. Upon seeing the scenario, Anthony swam to their direction, he placed his hand in Lucas head and rescued both of them to the up river.

Lucas was panting heavily as he started looking around. Anthony had made his escape just before he got to the sea top. Lucas was flabbergasted. He is sure something had happened but he didn't know what. He looked at his side and found Jocelyn who was pretending to be drowned.

"Joce?" Lucas called affectionately. "Did something happened to you?" He asked curiously.

"No....I'm totally fine." She said reassuringly.

Lucas was trying to get the incident back in his head but all he could remember was all faint.

"By the way, do.....you live around....here?" He asked.

"No.....not at all." She lied.

"Well, if you can come sometimes, my father happens to be the head of the workers there at the marine site," he said pointing."you should come and visit one day."

"I .....urm..I....."

"It will be good to have you around Joce. I will be glad. But.......I really don't know what caught my attention to......have gone after you......I mean...you're a great swimmer and of course you should be fine out there in the sea but....."

"But what?"

"I don't know. It all seems weird. I mean.....I don't understand ......why?" He suppressed his smile into a deepened frown. "It will be nice to have you around Joce. At the marine site I mean." He added.

"Yeah, it will be good."

"You should get going." He commented.

"Yeah sure." She replied getting up.

She didn't know why she had always wanted to satisfy Lucas by all means. She is the angry type and she knew she is not an approachable person. But, she seems confused how Lucas had managed to keep up with her. Probably he is not like some other guys. Or maybe he just wanted to pass the time like she had always been willing to do. Or maybe he is just who he is. Or some kind of "I care alot dudes." The thought bring a smile to her face.

She headed home. She knew she had betrayed her mother. She had promised her that she will never go to the sea no matter what. Now, she had breached her promise.

By the time she got to the back of the house, she opened the door and the six eyes stared at her. Gwendolyn turned back angrily to go in.

"Gwen?" Joce called calmly.

Gwendolyn stopped on her tracks and looked back.

"I'm not sorry for what I did because you're no longer the sister I knew. I'm just sad that I had breached my promise to Mother." Jocelyn pointed out.

"And it's sure I was angry because you did breach your promise to her. You cannot be trusted either." Gwendolyn fired as she made for the room.

Layla just looked on. She knew she had to settle down with the Anthony or go out and be hunted as a game like some wild animals. Also, she knew the family also had a secret. A secret she had decided to find out.

"What have you done to Lucas?" Joce asked angrily.

"What I need to do before you used your stupidity to sell us off." Anthony fired.

"Stupidity? Now, I'm stupid? Huh? Stupid is the word now? I will wait here Leo. I will wait and see how things turns out between you and your beloved Gwen." Jocelyn flinched before going in.

Anthony sat on the chair exhaustedly.

"I'm sorry for the havoc I might have stirred up here." Layla apologized.

"You did nothing wrong my dear. It's fine. Just fine." He sneered.

The next weekend, Jocelyn had gone out as early as possible to Olivia's house to spend the day. As for Gwendolyn, she didn't want to talk about the just-revealed-secret. It might probably not did them any good. And Jocelyn had already been having bad impressions printed on everything. What is she to do?

She walked briskly into the Marcellus' compound with Ethan closely behind.

"She will be back in a minute." Ethan said leaving her at the sitting room.

Gwendolyn stood looking at the portrait. Soon, she is going to be looking exactly like that figure in the portrait. But what if the owner came back? The owner of the face. Maybe she had to tell Madam M that Charleigh is still alive. But, what evidence did she have? And she can't possibly because of an evidence, make the secret of her family known. Nothing seems to have change except the space of the portrait broken by Madam M and one more. There is one more portrait missing.

She looked ahead and realised that the door to the terrace is opened. She walked quietly down to the entrance and stood staring at Marcellus' back. He was definitely holding a portrait. He was wearing a hat with blue strips. He is bare chest and had a navy blue shorts on. He had a chilled wine glass in front of him and a glass cup with half filled wine in it. The calmness around him make him look less opposite of what he is. Gwendolyn look on as she leaned on the pole adjacent to the door that led to the terrace. She watched in awe. She didn't know maybe love can make someone like him the fool that he is. If his mother can offer such huge amount of money to get him his live back, then, probably he had died once in love and he is ready to die again. To her, love doesn't mean much and she hadn't felt anything like that ever in her life. Now, to pretend to be what she is not, she had to face a lot of challenges. Just because of a fool who doesn't want to see life as it looks except for the fate of love. He is probably using his own fate to bedridden others. And her too.

Soon, his phone rang.

"Hello Wesley."

"Hi Marcellus." From the other side.

"You've been avoiding me lately Wesley." He said peevishly.

"Yeah. I'm glad you noticed. But I think it's time you hired another person in place of Charleigh."

"Charleigh is coming back Wesley. I don't know how I have the faith. I feel like she used to speak to me all the night. I feel her in every steps of mine Wesley. Charleigh will soon be back. I have the faith."

"She is my family and I love her like you do. But you have to come out of this hallucination Marcellus. Let's take the girl."

"I hate Gwen,Wesley. I don't know why. I just hate the girl."

"Is it because she isn't Charleigh? Nobody else can be like her. Nobody else."

"I heard you Wesley but I'm not taking that purple iris b***h!" He snorted.

Gwendolyn sneered where she was standing. She hate him too. But she had to do it anyway. Whether her father is in support of it or not. She has to do it anyways. She wanted to turn away angrily only to collide with the candle stand and it smashed to the ground.

Marcellus in shock dropped the phone and it smashed to pieces. He stood up abruptly and walk towards the fallen candle. Gwendolyn hide behind the curtain.

"Charleigh?! Are you there Charleigh? Please talk to me. I know you're in there. Just talk to me. I missed you. Didn't you miss me Charl? Charl?" He called moving towards the curtain which Gwendolyn had held in total nervousness as she clutched it hard.

"Charleigh? It doesn't matter if you don't want to talk to me. I just....want you to know how much I missed you. I didn't allow anybody to sing with me. I still have all your photos. I still have you in my heart Charl. Just come. We have another concert on the way. If you can come, it will be fun all through. Wesley also missed you. And Lucas and ....Owen. We all did. Tell me a secret,, how have you been?" He was moving towards the curtain and drawing it gently. And his mother emerged from nowhere.

"Marcellus?"

"Mum?!" He answered in shock as he dropped the curtain.

"Your father is asking of you."

"Where is he?"

"In the chamber."

"Okay." He said abruptly as he made for the chamber.

"You can come out now." Madam M called when she realised Marcellus is at large.

Gwendolyn gently pulled the curtain off and stepped out.

"Milady." She called bowing in respect."You know I'm the one?"

"No one else in the house has the ability to spy on my child." Madam M said rather boastfully.

"Cool Ma'am."

"Why are you here Miss Gwendolyn?"

"I am ready for everything Milady."

"Your decision is so abrupt Gwendolyn. Have you think it through?"

"There is nothing else to think about."

"Good then. Now, I'm going to choose a date for the surgery. Till then, I don't want you near my son. This is the most crucial part of it all."

"But.... I have a condition Ma'am."

"I don't give you the chance to have an objection Gwendolyn."

"I have to make this decision anyways. "

"Let me hear it."

"I don't want the money. I want something else."

"What do you want that is so important to a wretched like you than money? Do you know why I chose you? Because I know you're more in need of money compare to those that I've met. Unlike your sister who happens to be the exact opposite of who you are. You are the perfect match of who Charleigh was."

"I need something else Milady. Only that can move my motive."

"You're stepping beyond your boundaries young lady." She sneered.

"I'm sorry Ma'am. It's what I must do."

Madam M look on for some minutes before talking.

"Tell me your choice."

"I need that goddess of water in your custody. The mermaid." She blurted out at once.