“I do not wish to lower myself to pleading on my knees, in a pathetic attempt to win back that which I have been stripped of. One accusation does not warrant such a harsh penalty!”
“The penalty for your indiscretion lies on those you have hurt the most,” Amphitrite informed her gravely. “Themisto believes one year banishment and revocation of your title is fair punishment for your betrayal, and I agree. There will be no negotiations.”
“My own sisters have turned against me,” Keto stated plainly.
“Your own sisters are giving you a chance to make it right,” Amphitrite corrected her.
“And how does my absence make anything right? How does stripping my title make anything right? I am an embarrassment! Something to brush under the rug! I will never regain the status I had before!”
“Our decisions determine our destiny, Keto,” Amphitrite declared; resolve deadening her tone. “Do not make the mistake of thinking you are the victim. You have earned your punishment.”
“No, you’re wrong,” Keto fumed incessantly. “I have earned my freedom. I do not want any part of a sisterhood which turns their back at a moment’s notice.”
“Your sisterhood would never turn their back on you. We love you. We need you,” Thetis explained with kindness. “But you must serve your punishment. You must be held accountable for your actions. You cannot claim to believe we would make an exception for one sister and not for all.”
“This sisterhood is poison in my veins; imprisoning me and sentencing me to a life without power.” Keto stepped towards us, and I felt Amphitrite tense next to me. Her next words were spoken slowly, deliberately, and with unfaltering conviction. “I denounce my place in this prison of sisterhood. I will not subject my descendents to this treachery, nor will I forgive this act of betrayal.”
“Your sisterhood loves you and needs you,” Amphitrite beseeched.
“You’re a liar! A traitor!” Keto bellowed and threw up her hands, but Mom was quicker.
With a flick of a finger she shielded herself and Amphitrite from Keto’s energy. Mom’s bright blue energy swarmed around Keto, tightening and rendering her powerless. Amphitrite nodded her head ever so slightly at several guards standing near the grand door at the back of the room. They swiftly dragged a screaming Keto from the room.
Mom disintegrated back into her chair and a deep sadness washed over her. I felt her love for Keto, and the pain she felt at her vow to break from the sisterhood. She glanced up at Amphitrite, whose head hung down in defeat; a single tear rolling down her cheek.
Chapter 30
“Stasia?” a faraway voice called. “Stasia, wake up!” I rolled over and searched for the source of the voice. Zara peered down at me with concern marking her beautiful features. When I sat up, tears streamed down my face; I wiped them away with the back of my hand as a thrill shot through me.
“I did it!” I exclaimed; consequently opening the flood gates for what I had just seen to come pouring out. “My mom and Amphitrite were talking to Keto - she did something - and they were issuing the punishment - but Keto didn’t agree with it - she told them she was leaving the sisterhood!”
“Hold on, slow down.” Zara sat down on the edge of the bed. “Keto? Amphitrite?”
“They were in a large room arguing about whatever Keto had done. They told her she would be banished for one year and stripped of her title? I didn’t know that Keto held a title,” I rambled.
“She was one of Amphitrite’s prefects of counsel,” Zara breathed, appearing caught off guard by my words. “But the exact events of Keto’s leaving have never been revealed by the Nereids. All I know is that a Tyde - a descendent of Melite - was murdered on Keto’s command. Or so she was accused. Themisto was the prefect of customary law and had gathered the details of her punishment.
But Keto left the sisterhood before it could ever be carried out.”
“Amphitrite and Mom tried to talk her out of it. But Keto couldn’t be convinced that the Nereids had not turned their backs on her. They were so…poised and strong. It was impressive.”
“What’s ‘impressive’ is your ability to access that memory,” Zara raised an eyebrow at me.
“That happened several centuries ago.”
“I was thinking of Mom and Amphitrite and it just kind of…happened.” I smiled, but another question I’d been wanting to ask surfaced. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“I know that the Nereids all have to Choose me before or during my Epiphany ceremony in order for me to become a Nereid, and therefore Leader of the Tydes.” I held my breath. “That being the case, does Keto have to Choose me as well?”
“When Keto left the sisterhood, she left all ties and any input as well. She will have no bearing on your future as a Nereid.”
“Oh good,” I sighed. A weight lifted from my shoulders and I ran a shaking hand through my hair in relief. “The chances of Keto Choosing me for anything other than to be her slave are about as good as the ocean dislodging from the sea floor and floating away.”
“Careful what you wish for,” she chuckled. “You could probably make it happen.”
“So what exactly happens at my Epiphany ceremony?”
“It’s actually pretty spectacular, from what I hear. As you know, once you are Chosen by all of the Nereids, you will become one of them. But the process of becoming a goddess is a little more intense.”
“Intense?”
“Have you ever been struck by lightning?”
“Almost,” I laughed. “That’s how Mom’s house appeared to me on the Fortunate Isle. One minute there was a field of wildflowers, the next - lightning struck the field and a house magically appeared. Now that was intense.”
“You presence must have woken the house up.” She grinned at me wickedly and I got the feeling I wasn’t going to like what she said next. “The same will happen with you. The goddess inside you must be...woken up. Lightning tends to be the way it happens.”
My jaw hit the floor and I had trouble picking it back up in order to speak. “Lightning?
Couldn’t they just use an alarm clock?”
“I’m afraid ‘they’ are not able to choose. Just as weather creates lightning when two forces within the atmosphere collide, your essence will create it when your own internal forces collide.”
“And who’s to say I won’t be burnt to a crisp?” I stared wide eyed at her as her face crumpled into laughter.
“I can promise you that will not happen. You may not feel a thing.”
“May not feel a thing?!” I gasped. “So there’s a chance I will feel the twenty thousand volts of electricity as it fries my insides?”
“It’s only a slight chance,” she mused, as if I was being ridiculous. She didn’t hold back her laughter as I chunked a pillow at her.
“I’m glad that you find it so hilarious that I’m going to be an extra-crispy-fried-Stasia in a month. Don’t forget to bring the honey mustard sauce to dip me in!” I fell backward in a cloud of disbelief and stuffed a pillow over my face.
“I like barbeque sauce myself.” I heard her laugh again, and felt her attempt to pull the pillow off. I held on as tight as I could. Death by smothering sounded much better than death by electric shock at this point. Her voice trailed away as she left the room, “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the lightning strike…”