Into The Unknown

Chapter 1

A week later.

“Odine!” Rysah shouts from far away.

I tie the net skirt around the model's waist. Her red tail shimmers brightly against the green net material.

“Odine, Odine, Odine!” she continued, getting closer.

“Yes, Rysah?” I instruct the model to twirl as she bursts into the room.

“You would never believe this!”

“Yeah?” I finger the shells draping from the bottom of the skirt, wondering if I should add a few more.

“Remember whenever I told you, you were going to be famous?”

“Rysah, I’m in the middle of something; could we talk about it later?” I thought she was going to tell me about another critic's uplifting words.

“You're going to want to hear this.”

I decided to add a few more shells to the bottom. “Okay, let's hear it?” pulling out my needle and thread I grab a few more shells and begin to sew a few on the bottom.

“Well,” she pauses for dramatic effect, "You've gotten a royal summons!”

The model yelps as I accidentally poke her with my needle.

I give her a sheepish grin, “I’m so sorry!”

She waves me off grinning, “That's exciting news to anyone!”

I turn to Rysah, “what?

Nodding her head she rushes out, "Princess Sloan has invited you to the castle after receiving your last issue! I told you, you were going to be famous!”

The model nods her head along with Rysah.

“When is she expecting to see me?”

“In a week. She knew you'd be busy, but in her note it said it was urgent.”

“What could the princess possibly want with me?” I blew out a few bubbles to show my frustration of the summoning.

“Obviously she wants to be styled by you on her big day! Maybe she’ll extend invitations for us to attend the royal wedding!”

My breathing begins to increase, the water around me bubbling, “And She wants to see me? You can’t go in my place?”

Rysah nods her head enthusiastically, “The letter clearly states it is a royal summoning for you! It's even hand written by the princess herself!” She twirls about the room ignoring my morbid expression of the otherwise happy news.

“I don't know if I have the time to take any more orders, we're already booked for the next six months.”

“Non sense,” Rysah continued to twirl about, “we’ll make room.”

“We? I’m the one coming up with the designs. I don't even have any on hand to show.”

“You have the white iridescent set still in the closet. The one you used the rare starfish on. It’s white I’m sure she’d love to see your capabilities in person.”

I look down at my pink tail. Fingering a few scales at my waist in an anxious type manor. The white set in the closet is supposed to be mine; but this is a great opportunity.

“Okay, maybe we can fit her into our schedule.”

Rysah stops in front of me, “yay! In a week we head to the capitol! Oh I just love the capitol!” She takes me by the hands and we swing around.

However I can’t help but feel like I’ve made a grave mistake.

.

.

.

The next evening Rysah hauls me out to a celebratory dinner. Just her and I.

“I can't believe you have all these great things to celebrate and yet you haven't yet celebrated,” she scolds me at the restaurant table.

I shrug and uncap the cork on my drink. Rysah had insisted on some pricey drink wanting to go all out on all the amenities. I let the drink wash away some of my nerves.

All the glances were spared as the entire room tried not to stare at our table. It didn't help that we are in the middle of the room at the highest point table for two.

Of course my best friend ignored them all, filling our table with chatter. She was currently talking about who would accompany us to the capital. I didn't care too much about the details as long as I wouldn't have to go by myself.

My eyes drift around the dimly lit room. The tables were grouped together in various sizes and circle around the room ascending up. A bar laid to the right with a bar top and its own floating tables arranged in a square descending down.

This is one of the biggest buildings in town chiseled out of orange coral. It has a golden hue making everything in the room sparkle.

Rysah’s blonde hair shimmering under the light reminds me of the gold, which is why I styled her in a gold net piece covering her stomach with a baby blue cupping underneath to match her tail. Gold swirl sea shells lined the bust of her top in clusters, each shell individually hand painted with gold swirls.

I loved to style my friend. She is gorgeous with a sharp upturned nose, deep set dark blue siren eyes and the prettiest blue mer coloring ever. She has the perfect soft Cyan coloring of the capitols people, while I have the pale foam coloring of the deep dwellers.

She looked great in all the expensive colors while they washed me out and never quite fit with my coloring. Which is why I’m always in the same color.

Pink to match my white tail with the simmering splotches of pink. White is boring to dress in so I’m always in some shade of pink.

My strawberry blonde hair didn't help considering it has a soft hue of pink, the color was obviously meant to be worn by me, but what I’d give to not be washed out by a deep purple.

“Don’t look now but Emris and a buddy are headed this way.”

I tune back into Rysah at the mention of the mer men. Within seconds they were at our table.

“Good evening ladies,” Emris greets us. His broad form towers over the table. His dark tail trailing behind him.

“Hello Emris,” Rysah purrs. She has been trying to get Emris to mate with her for years now.

He chuckles and turns to me, “I haven't seen you out in a while.”

I give him a tight lipped smile and nod.

“You know Odine is a hermit. I of course had to drag her out to celebrate.” Rysah holds up her drink and then takes a sip.

I roll my eyes but follow suit.

“I was wondering when I'd finally see you out, celebrating. I hear you were called to the capitol by the princess.” His deep green eyes are trying to read me but I don't allow them to.

I know his power. We all do by now.

I nod my head wanting to say, ‘and what about it?’ but I keep my lips shut and give an awkward shrug.

“She was asked by the princess herself personally!” Rysah brags matter factly.

I take another big gulp of my drink.

“That’s a big honor, Good job Odine, really.”

“Thank you.” I couldn't just smile at that I would have looked cocky and I am anything but.

“Glad to see she speaks, but my friend here, Ale, is from the capital. He wanted me to introduce you.”

I glance at the guy behind him. He has a slimmer fit but still muscular with lighter features and an orange tail and red hair. His emerald green orbs met mine.

“From the capital? Here just to meet our little ol’ Odine?” Rysah questions.

He casts her a soft smile, “guilty as charged.” His voice is pure silk, “I work in the castle, as soon as the princess heard I have family here she sent me off right away.”

I began to get even more nervous, “any friend of the princess is a friend of ours.”

The waiter comes back around, “the table has been upgraded, if you all could follow me.”

Rysah looks at Emris before we rise, “did you two do this?”

They shake their heads and Emris answers, “To be honest this was all kind of on a whim. We didn't even have a reservation, but we would love to dine with you.”

We all follow the waiter to a bigger table, “courtesy of Mrs.Isabella. She also sent over a bottle of the finest kelp wine and said "enjoy, Ale and Odine.”

“My aunt is very generous and knew of my plan.” he gives us a sheepish grin.

My eyes widen as we take a seat and I process this new information. One of the most influential women in town is his aunt.

“Well this just got a whole lot more interesting! And here I thought dinner was going to be a bust, with everyone gawking at us.” Rysah beamed.

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, “We barely got the letter of summoning yesterday, you arrived quite quick.”

He shrugs, “I didn't intend to get a bite the first night. Your friend is right on the account of no one ever sees you out of your personal studio.”

Rysah snorts from beside me. I bump her with my elbow, “Busy working around the clock.”

He nods, “They also say you hate unexpected visitors, and your appointments were booked up, that's when my friend here happened to mention he knew you.”

Emris nods, “always happy to help.”

He avoided ambushing me at my studio just to ambush me at a relaxing dinner. The logic didn't quite make sense but I nod.

I’m glad we already ate. I had just wanted a glance at the dessert menu, but I can take dessert to go.

“The princess wanted you to know some specifics, but I can schedule a meeting with you. As it turns out it is very hard to get an appointment with you.”

I give Rysah a pointed look. As my assistant everything goes through her.

“That may be my fault. We may need to update our system. I can't tell a spam message from a regular message anymore.” she shrugs looking down.

“Well now that's all sorted out, I should get going.” I begin to look around for the waiter. My usual waiter knows my sign to leave and begins to make his way over.

“So fast?”

“I told you she does that.” Emris butts in.

“Sorry, I have an early morning. Rysah can schedule an appointment, and we can talk about everything there.” The waiter hands me my to-go bag and notifies me that the full tab has been paid for.

“Great job, guys. You scared her off,” she sighs.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” I get up and leave.