It had been a october since the mermaid had been in amityville. Though it wasn't a extreme amount of time gone, a lot had happened in the month that she had spent with her sisters in the sea. The mermaid student had changed, lost a piece of herself as she left.

---


“Undine is sick....” Gabriella was tense as she led Amphi around the coral reefs to the makeshift sick bed room. In the pale light's of the FEAR magic around them, Undine laid serenely on her coral reef bed, small minipets surrounded her and scattered at the intrusion of the other two mermaids. Her long silver hair floated around her form, a cacoon for the pale mermaid. Her sister was of fair skin but this....this was too pale. Her face was drawn and tired, her eyes hallow.

“I didn't think it would be so fast...” Undine pushed herself up as Amphi came to her side, holding her sister's hand. A hand that had been vibrant with life not even a year ago. “Do not be sad Child, I knew this day was coming, I just wished it would've waited till you had graduated.”

Amphi looked confused, her gaze slipping to Gabriella. The dark mermaid shook her head and looked sadly at Undine.

“Ah, I would never tell you but...in the time of when I was with my lover from land, I contracted a disease that only mermaids can get with too much exposure....usually it would disappear in our body but...mine was strengthed by grief...and then stress and finally age.” Undine cupped Amphi's cheek, rubbing her thumb over the younger mermaids. “there is no cure and...I only have so much longer to live child. Preparations must be taken, precautions since you will still go to school...and a leader pointed in your time away from the clan...”

“Stop! Just...stop!” Amphi didn't yell, it was said so quietly that the effect jolted Gabriella from her somber expression, eyes widening. “Your talking of dying, dying like its normal and that its okay and that I should just accept it!” Amphi's hand curled in Undines. “Like its okay for me to just move on with my life like-”

“Hush Amphi!” Undine's voice snapped with impatience, silencing the mermaid. It was followed by silence as Undine let out heavy breaths. Heavy breaths from fatigue and sickness. Pain. “We will do what we must to ensure the clan survives. Regardless of feelings....” Undine lowered her head to her sisters and touched her forehead. “We will say our goodbyes child...and then you will take over.”

---


Amphi remembered the slow agonizing two weeks of watching her sister worsen, and worsen. She attempted using all of her healing FEARs, finding doctors on land. She was consoled by the clan of sisters and yet...Undine slowly started to fade as a mermaid. She lost the brillance of life and color in her body, her scales, her tail. And on the first day of the third week Amphi had been there, her sister passed in the night. There was tears, curses to the goddess for taking her sister, anger and pain so raw that Amphi's own heart felt like it was torn.

The memorial for her sister was executed swiftly, her sister's had prepared the ceremony for the mermaid queen's death well in advance, under Undine's orders. The lament they would sing, Ola se thymizoun started out slowly as they lifted the coral bed that held their passed away sister. A soft hum as they circled around their fallen queen and sister, most closed their eyes.... Amphi's voice was the loudest with grief as her blue eyes remained wide...tears filling them. Their melody grew with the magnificence that was only allowed from a clan of mermaids, filling the ocean around them with sadness and loss.


" Όλα σε θυμίζουν, (( Everything reminds me of you ))
απλά κι αγαπημένα, (( simple, beloved ))
πράγματα δικά σου, καθημερινά (( everyday things of yours ))
σαν να περιμένουν κι αυτά μαζί μ’ εμένα (( they seem to be waiting with me ))

νά ’ρθεις κι ας χαράξει για στερνή φορά. (( All our love fills the room ))
Όλη μας η αγάπη την κάμαρα γεμίζει (( just like a song we both used to sing ))
σαν ένα τραγούδι που λέγαμε κι οι δυο, (( faces and words, and the dream that is creaking ))
πρόσωπα και λόγια και τ’ όνειρο που τρίζει, (( What will be true when the dawn comes? ))

σαν θα ξημερώσει τι θα ’ν’ αληθινό. (( Everything reminds me of you ))
Όλα σε θυμίζουν, (( simple, beloved ))
απλά κι αγαπημένα, (( everyday things of yours. ))

πράγματα δικά σου, καθημερινά. (( Everything reminds me of you ))
Όλα σε θυμίζουν, (( and our closest friends ))
κι οι πιο καλοί μας φίλοι. (( one of them is in the tavern, another one's at the cinema ))
Άλλος στην ταβέρνα, άλλος σινεμά. (( Alone here, I'm reading the letter you had sent me ))
Μόνη μου διαβάζω το γράμμα που ’χες στείλει (( before we kissed for the first time. ))

πριν να φιληθούμε πρώτη μας φορά. (( All our love fills the room ))
Όλη μας η αγάπη την κάμαρα γεμίζει (( just like a song we both used to sing ))
σαν ένα τραγούδι που λέγαμε κι οι δυο, (( faces and words, and the dream that is creaking ))
πρόσωπα και λόγια και τ’ όνειρο που τρίζει, (( What will be true when the dawn comes? ))

σαν θα ξημερώσει τι θα ’ν’ αληθινό. (( Everything reminds me of you ))
Όλα σε θυμίζουν, (( simple, beloved ))
απλά κι αγαπημένα, (( everyday things of yours )) "


As the procession finaled, the mermaids silenced, the only remains of their song echoed off the ocean, around to the creatures who had gathered as Undine started to dissipate in serenity, her hands clasped together with a peaceful expression. Her FEAR melted away into the ocean, her body disappearing, absorbed into the sea and into the land that cradled them. Into the coral, and into Amphi's sisters. And into the pendant that Undine had give Amphi before she had left school. The silver star gleamed of what was left of her sister, warm as if alive and yet...not. The only memento that Amphi would have of her sister beyond her title.

She had allowed herself a couple of days to weep, her sisters to mourn before she attended the business of the clan. For now, they would not migrate as they always had during the seasons. Undine had made them a home among the warm coral reefs they were stationed and thus, none of the mermaids seemed to mind the ruling, content with being stationary. Because She, Amphi, was too young and still yet to graduate from Amity, she left Gabriella and their second oldest sister, Fayren to lead the mermaids. Amphi trusted both of her sisters to do what was right...to do what was just and to protect their clan until the mermaid could return. Small matters had been taken care of before Amphi was urged by her family to return to Amity. The sooner the mermaid graduated, the sooner she could resume her post should she want it. It was hard to think she would be replacing her sister, her grief still haunting her.

---


So Amphi had left the cool calming waters that housed her sister's FEAR, had swum almost a day's time back to Amityville and was welcomed by the school again. She sat in her room now, looking blankly at the aquarium that held her minipets and sometimes bed...to the things around her. Only a month had gone by and yet all of it seemed so foreign. So...different.

She opened the closet for her small land minipets, the first to shoot at her was Vaith Jr. Followed closely with Story, her comet Levathia and Este, her Rabu. More followed, but it was one clearly distinct pet she didn't see. Dallas. Her heart had nothing more to feel after the lose of her sister and yet it ached at the thought of going back to school and seeing Roch. She had let him go, and thus would not aim to take him back. No, her heart was already shattered, and she felt the need to build herself anew. She wasn't Amphi the bubbles and sunshine mermaid any longer.

She was now Amphi, The queen of the Pisces clan. A figure for future mermaids of her kind to look towards. Her head burrowed into her minipets fur and scales, their small squeaks the only sound of comfort as she laid herself on her bed.

Her head told her to sleep, to start tomorrow again. To go on like normal. Her soul and heart just wished for more time, more time to let herself heal again.

“Μου λείπεις αδελφή....”