Skin Deep
by Zoe Storm

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Part the Fourth: Part of Your World

In Which the Villain Makes a Mistake,
the Magic Is Undone,
and a New Life Begins

“Let go of me!” I said for the hundredth time. “Let go!”

“Quiet!” Chief Haf ordered, as I struggled uselessly against his firm grip – despite being thin as a stick, the merman was surprisingly strong. “Don’t make this any worse for yourself. And get in there!”

Pulling me by bound hands, he dragged me into an underwater cave, which I was surprised to recognise as the one where Ursula lived.

“Do not say anything,” the merman warned. “Do not speak or, by Neptune’s tail, I will wring your sorry neck! Understand?”

I gulped, and nodded; Chief Haf kept looking at me for a moment, and then turned around, his back to the entrance of the cave. “Ursula! Sea-witch! Are you here?” he called out.

His question was met by silence.

“SEA-WITCH!” Haf shouted at the top of his lungs. “I order you to come here AT ONCE!”

Again, silence; then, after a moment, I heard heavy footsteps approaching, and the creaking noise of an opening door.

“Neil? Is that you? By the fathoms, what is–” Ursula said, walking towards us from the depths of the cave; when she spotted us – when she spotted me – she blinked in surprise, and stopped short. “What is this?”

“I have a job for you, sea-witch,” the merman said. “I am willing to pay handsomely. Thrice the usual.”

Ursula kept looking at us for a moment, then nodded and walked closer. “Thrice the usual is quite a lot of money,” she said. “What is so important that you’re willing to pay that sum?”

“This girl,” Haf said, gesturing at me, “has seen something she shouldn’t have seen. She knows something she should not know. I need you to work your magic, to cook up one of your concoctions, to make her forget what she’s seen and what she knows, and make her believe what I want her to believe.”

“Hm. And what would that be?” Ursula asked.

“That…” Haf began, and then hesitated. “Never mind that, just make the potion.”

Ursula shook her head. “I’m afraid I cannot do that. I require the exact details of the memory to be removed, and of the memory to be implanted, to be able to make the potion successfully.”

Haf was silent for a moment; then he nodded. “She has seen my face, and she knows I have masterminded a plot to force Chief Flyde to step down from his position as Chief Paramount,” he explained. “That plot involved having her kidnapped. I want you to make it so she thinks someone else is the mastermind of the plot, and that I have heroically rescued her from captivity.”

“I see,” Ursula said. “Yes, I see. Of course. You know what, Neil, I have a better idea. Do you want me to tell you?”

“…Of course,” Haf replied.

Ursula nodded, and knelt on the cavern’s floor, close to the water. “It’s better if I whisper it to you. This way she won’t be able to hear. Come closer.”

Haf didn’t move.

“Come closer, I said,” Ursula said, beckoning at him. “I’m not gonna bite, I promise. Come closer.”

With visible hesitation, and dragging me along with him, Haf floated closer to the edge of the pool.

“No, closer,” Ursula said, beckoning again. “Come on.”

Haf swam closer still: he was now right at the edge of the water, inches away from Ursula. “Is this close enough?” he asked irritably.

“Yes.”

The sea-witch’s enormous fist smashed into the merman’s face, knocking him out cold.

“That’s for tying up my niece and threatening to hurt her,” Ursula said, shaking her hand; then she turned to me. “You alright there, kid?”

“I am. Thank you.”

She nodded. “So, which one are you?” she asked.

“Meryl,” I replied; then, seeing her draw a blank, I said, “Blair. Meryl’s my new name, for when I’m… like this.”

“I get it,” Ursula said, nodding again. “Been there, done that. Turn around so I can untie your hands.”

I complied, and she deftly untied the ropes.

“Think you’ll be okay going back on your own?” she said.

“Um… I don’t think so,” I said. “I don’t know my way around these places, to be honest. And I’m not strong enough to drag him along.” I pointed at the unconscious merman.

“Why do you have to bring him along?” Ursula said. “Just leave him.”

“You heard what he said, Aunt Ursula,” I protested. “He can’t get away with it.”

Ursula held my gaze for a few moments, then sighed. “Okay, alright. Fine, I’ll come along too. Just let me get my seaskin.” She turned around and walked back into the cave, muttering, “I’m gonna regret this,” under her breath.

 

---

 

We were halfway to the underwater city, following a shining road traced on the ocean floor, when we were met by Aine and an entourage of merfolk, including her father.

“Meryl!” Aine shouted, swimming ahead of the group and embracing me; we hugged tight before separating.

“Are you alright?” I asked. “What about those two goons? What happened to them?”

“No clue,” she answered, shaking her head. “I managed to shake them pretty quickly, and I haven’t seen them since.”

“You said Neil’d already paid them, right?” Ursula interjected; when I nodded, she continued, “Yeah, they’re not going to show up again. Most likely scenario is that they’ve decided to cut their losses and cut Neil free. Speaking of which.” She pushed Chief Haf’s inert form, wrapped up like a present with lots of rope, towards the group. “Here, this is for you.”

“…What happened?” Aine asked. “Why is Aunt Ursula here?”

“It was the craziest thing,” I said. “He tried to have her make a potion to change my memory and make himself the hero. Turns out they knew each other.”

“Did some work for him a while back,” Ursula nodded. “But there are some lines I won’t cross, no matter what; especially if they involve someone I care about.”

“Thank you, Aunt Ursula,” Aine said, smiling widely at the sea-witch.

Ursula chuckled. “You’re welcome, kiddo.”

“Aine?” a voice said, and I looked past my sister to look at Chief Flyde, who was approaching us, a wide-eyed, disbelieving look on his face. “What’s going on? Why’re there two of ye?”

“Uh,” Aine said, and she visibly gulped. “Um. It’s a funny story, actually. You see…”

She drifted off; I could almost see the gears turning inside her head as she tried to think of a way to explain the current situation.

“Alright,” Chief Flyde said carefully, pointing at Aine. “Ye must be my daughter.” Aine nodded. “Okay. And who are ye?” he asked, pointing at me.

I gulped, too. “Meryl,” I said. “I mean, Blair.”

If at all possible, the Chief Paramount’s eyes became even wider. “Blair of Clan Fraser? Bruce’s son?”

“Um… yeah,” I nodded.

He kept looking at me for a moment, clearly bewildered, then he started looking around, and spotted Ursula, standing behind me; his eyes narrowed.

“SEA-WITCH!!” he bellowed. “What in the name of Neptune’s bushy beard did ye do?!”

All eyes turned to Ursula; she coughed nervously. “Now, Gordon dear, there’s no need to be upset. There’s a perfectly good explanation for all of this. And if you just let me speak for a moment, you’ll understand.”

“…Speak,” Chief Flyde growled out.

Ursula raised her finger, and seemed to think for a moment. “No, you know what? Actually, I got nothing, so this is where I take my leave. Byeeeeeee!”

Her body seemed to tense up, and a mass of black liquid squirted out from between her tentacled legs, enveloping the entire group in a dark cloud which made it all but impossible to see; Chief Flyde screamed in anger and flailed around, but it was useless – by the time the ink had dispersed, Ursula was gone.

“CLANSMEN!” the chief shouted. “After her!”

“Father,” Aine said.

“Get her! Don’t let her get away!”

“Father!”

“Ooh, when I get my hands on her, I’ll–”

“DAD!” Aine shouted.

Everyone froze; Chief Flyde turned towards Aine.

“Don’t blame her,” she said. “It was my idea in the first place. I asked her to do it.”

“And I went along with it,” I said.

Aine nodded. “So please. It’s not Aunt Ursula’s fault. I just wanted…”

She paused, and sniffled.

“I just wanted to show my friend around.”

She put her face in her hands, and let out a wail.

“Oh, no no no,” Chief Flyde said. “Don’t cry, sweetie, please. Don’t cry. It’s okay.”

Aine sniffled again, really loudly. “Really?”

“Really. It’s alright.”

Aine nodded, without removing her hands from her face; when her dad turned around for a moment, though, she moved her hands slightly and looked at me, and I could see she was grinning; she winked at me.

“In any case, it’s getting late,” Chief Flyde said. “Let’s get ye home, Blair.”

“Meryl,” I said; when he inclined his head slightly and looked at me, I explained, “When I’m like this, I’m Meryl.”

After a moment, he nodded. “Alright. Let’s get ye home. There’s a treaty to sign, too.” He gave a side glance to Chief Haf, who was still out cold. “Though I think I’ll sign it instead of Neil.”

 

---

 

The sun was almost touching the horizon by the time we reached land; Aine and I stayed behind in the water for a moment as Chief Flyde climbed up on the pier to talk with my father.

“I don’t know if they’ll let us see each other like this again,” I said, pulling my sister into a hug. “I hope this isn’t goodbye.”

“I hope so, too,” she said, squeezing me tight.

Then we looked up: our fathers were looking down at us, my dad giving us a look of mild reproach – but I could see he had a slight smile on his lips. “Well then. This is unexpected,” he said. “But Gordon told me about how you were very brave today. I’m proud of you.”

I nodded. “Thank you, father,” I replied.

“Now come on, it’s getting late and we have to get to the signing ceremony. We’re making lots of very important and very busy people wait for us.”

“Of course,” I said; Aine and I exchanged another look, and then we pulled ourselves up on the pier. It only took a few moments for us to doff our seaskins – we’d had plenty of practice – and we stood up.

There was a collective sharp intake of breath on the part of the clansmen assembled on the dock; my dad and Aine’s both blinked in surprise.

“Uh. Um…” Dad said. “Blair?!”

“What?” I asked.

“Blair… I mean, Meryl, you’re…” Aine began; when I turned to her and gave her a questioning look, she continued, “You’re a girl.”

“I am?” I said; she nodded, and a glance downwards at my naked body confirmed it. “Oh. Yeah, I guess I am.”

“…Is this supposed to happen?” my dad asked, handing me a towel, and I began to dry myself off.

Chief Flyde shook his head. “No it’s not,” he said. “Never heard of anything like this happening before. I have no idea how this could happen.”

“Wait, hold on,” Aine said. “How long were you wearing the seaskin for?”

I made a quick mental calculation. “I put it on mid-morning and it’s now sunset, so…” I blinked. “Oh, right. The magic.”

“Yeah,” she nodded, and she turned to our dads. “You see, Ursula told us Meryl could wear the skin for five, six hours at most. Any longer, and she didn’t know what would happen.”

“I’d been wearing it for probably ten hours,” I said, and shrugged. “Guess this is the result.”

“I’m sorry, Blair,” Chief Flyde grumbled. “That thrice-damned sea-witch, the kraken take her, next time I see her, I’ll…”

My father raised a hand to stop his friend talking, and gave me a long, hard look. “You don’t seem upset,” he said carefully. “Are you okay with this?”

I shrugged again. “I guess? It doesn’t feel all that different from before, really. It’ll be an adjustment, but I think I can live with this. I don’t mind it, really.” I paused. “Do you mind? I asked. “Having a daughter instead of a son, I mean.”

Dad smiled. “No, of course not,” he said, pulling me into a hug. “As long as you’re happy, I’m satisfied.” He broke the embrace, and stepped back. “Don’t think for a moment that you’re off the hook with regards to being my heir, though. In a few years it’ll be 1800, we’re not in the dark ages any more.”

“And if anyone gives ye shit about it, I’ll give them a stern talking-to,” Chief Flyde said, raising a huge fist.

I laughed. “Right. I won’t let you down, father.”

“I know you won’t,” he said with a nod, and he turned to Aine. “What was that name you used for my daughter, dear?”

“Meryl,” she replied. “It means ‘bright sea.’”

“Goes well with her own,” I said. “We’re sisters, after all.” Aine reached over, and gave my shoulder a squeeze.

Dad nodded again. “Alright. Gordon, Aine. Meryl. What do you say we go up to the manor, sign that treaty, send everyone home, and have dinner together? I’m anxious to get to know my new daughters.” He smiled. “Both of them.”