The Eldest Sister

"Queen Attina!" one of Atlantis's royal messengers yelled, hurriedly swimming into the castle. Attina looked up, and saw the messenger rapidly heading towards her. "Queen Attina," he said breathlessly. After rashly bowing, he began talking at an extremely fast speed.

"There has been word, my queen, of a huge fight amongst the humans- a war, it seems. Ships from all over the realm are sailing into our seas at this very minute."

"A war?" Attina said, gripping her staff. "Yes, my queen- we do not know a lot of it- the only information we managed to get was that pirate captains- dozens of them, have joined forces and are attacking the sea witch's kingdom in the world above. The sea witch has also called upon her kingdom's allies. If this war inflates, there is no telling what sort of damage could be done to our waters. We're not sure yet, but it seems the sea witch isn't the only one who has the power to wield magic in this war."

A war in itself was bad enough. But this was a magical war, and it was common knowledge that adding the word 'magic' to anything would inflate it by a hundred times.

"Send scouts up to the human world- I want them to report back on every tiniest thing they see," Attina said to her royal court, rising up from her throne. "I will be leaving for a short while to... to check on something. While I am gone, I leave my sister Alana in charge. Do not take part in this war, and do not get spotted. This is a war in which two of Atlantis's worst enemies- witches and pirates- are partaking in. I repeat, do not engage."

And with that, Attina left the castle, along with her staff. She swam down towards the deepest of the seas, until she arrived at the cave. The cave in which Ursula used to live in, before she killed Attina's father. It was dangerous, being here, and Attina knew it. But she had to do something- a war amongst the humans, right above their underwater city, was nothing but bad news.

She concentrated the power of the sea into her staff. The orb at the tip of the staff glowed in a purple shade. It began harnessing all the dark magic floating around in Ursula's cave.

Attina had considered doing what she was doing right now for a very long time. For the past four years, she had fought it out in her mind- whether to cast this spell or not. Last year, when Attina's youngest sister, Ariel, had disappeared, Attina had been tempted more than ever to cast the spell. But she hadn't, for this spell was dangerous.

This curse that Attina was enacting could allow whomever was holding the staff to level entire civilizations with the flick of their wrist. And although it couldn't defeat Ursula, Attina was sure it could destroy Ursula's kingdom. With no subjects left to rule, Ursula would have to move somewhere else, right? Then the people of Atlantis would finally be able to live in peace.

Of course, Attina didn't have as much power as Ursula or Ursula's sister, Morgana. Unlike them, Attina couldn't enact the curse right away. She would need to do something beforehand. This 'something' had been the main reason Attina hadn't cast the curse until now. In order for the curse to work, Attina would have to kill a lady of the sea- which ranged from mermaids to nereids to sea wtiches.

If Attina managed to kill either Ursula or Morgana, she would be able to enact the curse and drive the remaining sister out of the lands of Atlantis. The thing was, killing either sea witch was impossible. Due to Ursula's poisoning Atlantis's waters, the city itself had grown weak, along with its inhabitants. It would take a great effort to kill a simple human, much less a powerful sorceress.

BOOM. Attina looked up, and raced out of the cave. She swam straight back to Atlantias, where pandemonium had erupted.

"What's going on?" she asked to whomever she could find. Finally, one of the mermen replied that twelve huge pirate ships had just crashed onto the docks, right above their city.

Without another word, Attina shot up towards the surface. Her five sisters joined her, each of them with a weapon in hand.

BOOM. Two more ships.

The six mermaids surfaced at the sea. There, they saw fifteen huge ships with black sails and a white skull drawn on each of them. 'Pirates,' Attina thought.

The sailors were all on board the ships, but the pirate captains were nowhere to be found. "Over here!" Arista, Attina's third youngest sister gestured, pointing at the sixteen humans crowded over by the beach- twelve males and four females. The pirate captains. But why were there sixteen humans, and not fifteen?

Gripping her staff, Attina gestured for her sisters to quietly make their way towards the captains.

"You brought us here, Hook. Why?" one of the men said. "As I recall, you owe me a favor," the man named Hook replied. "As for the rest of you, I've all called you here because this kingdom is full of magic-" Immediate groans of complaint. "Enough with your magic, Hook!" one of the women groaned. "You may be able to control it, but for us, it's a liability!" "Don't be so sure, love," Hook said. "That compass I gave you last time we met- it worked, didn't it?" he asked. The woman shrugged. "Maybe."

Attina moved a little closer to try and see the pirates' faces.

"My point is, this kingdom is ruled by a sea witch. Wipe her out, and all of this kingdom's magic is ours," Hook said. "And what type of magic are we talking about here?" a man asked. "Everything," Hook said. "Maps, curses, wands, potions- but that doesn't matter. What matters most is not what lies on this land, but what lies beneath it."

"What are you going on about, you senile bastard?" one of the women snapped. "I should warn you, love, the ring I'm wearing has the power to wipe you out of existence," Hook said, clearly on edge. The pirates all stopped complaining. "What do you mean, 'beneath' it?" the man from before asked.

"A castle made entirely of gold," Hook replied. That certainly got the pirates' attention.

"A kingdom of merfolk called Atlantis. Though it's not what it used to be, its kingdom walls are made of shining gold and silver. Its people have gems worth millions all braided into their hair. Its streets are filled with glittering jewels, and its floors are lined with marble stone."

Attina stared at her sisters in horror. How did this pirate- Hook- know all of this? Who was he?

"That's amazing and all, old friend," an older man said, "But how exactly are we supposed to get all that gold when its underwater, and more importantly, if its protected by vicious and fowl mermaids?"

"Leave that to me," a woman standing right next to Hook replied with confidence. For some reason, the woman's voice sounded familiar. "With the magic in the sea witch's castle, I'll have enough power to raise the riches buried deep within the sea."

"And who's this wench, Hook?" said the man from before- the man who owed Hook a favor. He placed his hand upon the woman's face. "Some sort of seductive sea witch you pulled out of your secret hideaway- Aargh!" the man screamed out in pain, for the woman had taken the man's hand and had twisted it around his body, whilst placing her foot on the kneeling man's back. "I'm a woman whose actions are being fueled by the hunger for revenge," she said in a deadly voice. "And you should know better than anyone that revenge can make people do unspeakable things," she said while yanking the man's arm sideways, causing another scream to exit his mouth.

"So, captains," Hook said smugly, "Do we have a deal?"

Attina didn't even bother to listen to the captains' answers, as she already knew what they were. "Come on," she said quietly to her sisters. The six mermaids swam down into Atlantis. "Change of plans," Attina told her guards. "The humans want to take our home from us. And we will not let that happen, even if it means we have to rip apart every single one of those pirates, bit by bit."