VIOLET'S POV
The hourglass glowed once more.
A smile tugged at my lips as I channeled my power into it.
As much as I hated to admit it, I had been waiting days for this moment. Whenever the hourglass glowed, it meant Lydia, my ever-faithful servant, had news for me, whether good or bad.
I prayed it wasn't bad.
Still, ignorance was far crueler than unpleasant truths.
My thoughts drifted to Zoah.
I wondered how he was faring on Earth. Leaving the world he had ruled for centuries to search for the five legendary herbs could not have been easy.
Humans, aside from being deceitful, were arrogant, unpredictable creatures. To succeed in his mission, he would have to blend into their world and adapt to their customs.
He was wiser than most gave him credit for.
That must have been why he sought the help of a human girl.
What was her name again?
...Silver.
Yes, Silver.
She was guiding him through the human world, helping him locate the herbs and teaching him how to navigate human society.
Zoah might understand their language, but language alone was never enough. He knew nothing of their customs, traditions, mannerisms, or the subtle rules that governed their lives.
Silver filled that gap.
With her by his side, no one would find him suspicious.
No one would imagine that the man standing before them was not human... but a god.
Sometimes, I found myself wondering what Silver truly thought of him.
Lydia once mentioned that the foolish girl saw Zoah as her knight in shining armor.
How laughable.
But beyond that childish admiration... what did she really believe?
Did she think he was merely an unusually handsome man?
Or had she somehow uncovered the truth?
Did she know that he was no mortal... but a god from another realm?
A visitor.
Someone who would disappear the moment he obtained what he sought.
Once he left Earth, he would never set foot there again.
Not because he feared humans...
But because he had sworn never to help the one person fate might place before him.
A young girl.
A girl living somewhere on Earth.
She was no human.
She was a mermaid.
A cursed one.
Her powers lay imprisoned deep within her soul, locked away where no spell or healer had ever been able to reach them.
Her misfortune began with a curse cast by a wizard, a punishment earned through the sins of her mother, the Queen.
She was no ordinary mermaid.
She was the lost princess of the Kingdom of Osiranea.
A princess condemned by fate.
Yet the most fascinating part of her tragedy was not the curse itself...
It was the one who cast it.
The wizard was no outsider.
He was one of their own.
Lord Lugard.
Guardian of the Osiranea's Kingdom.
For reasons known only to himself, Lord Lugard abandoned his home beneath the Pacific Ocean shortly after the Princess of Osiranea was banished to Earth.
No one knew where he had gone.
No one knew what he was planning.
But in a world where nothing happened without reason...
His disappearance was far from a coincidence.
If anyone were to ask me, my answer would remain the same.
This was no coincidence.
Lord Lugard must have regretted allowing his anger to consume him. In a moment of rage, he had cursed the Queen's daughter, and now he was paying the price for his own actions.
The cruel truth about curses was that once cast, they could never truly be undone.
Fortunately for him...
He had left behind a single exception.
Only one being in existence possessed the power to break that curse.
The Fifth Most Powerful God.
The Dragon God.
Zoah.
Ironically, he was the sworn enemy of the Kingdom of Osiranea.
When Zoah was young before his power had fully awakened, the mermaids' slaughtered his parents and nearly executed him as well.
I was the one who saved him.
I took him in.
I paid for the finest master to train him.
And he surpassed every expectation.
He became extraordinary.
Lord Lugard's journey to Earth could not have been accidental.
He had gone there to watch over the very princess he had condemned.
To protect her.
After all, he had been the one who transformed her into a human.
He was the reason she had been exiled from the only home she had ever known.
He was the reason her memories had been erased.
He was the reason she had been adopted by human parents.
Protecting her was the least he could do.
Remorse had driven him there.
At least...
That was my theory.
Still, one question continued to haunt me.
What crime had the Queen committed that provoked such a merciless curse?
What could possibly justify a punishment that only Zoah himself could undo?
I knew Zoah would never lift that curse.
Not after swearing to wipe the Kingdom of Osiranea from existence and avenge his murdered parents.
Why would he save their princess?
No...
She was the very reason he had refused to return to Earth for centuries.
Only my illness had forced him to go in search of the five legendary herbs.
I placed my hand upon the enchanted hourglass once more, channeling my power into it.
The shimmering sand swirled.
Moments later, Lydia's face appeared within the crystal glass.
"Greetings, my lady."
She bowed respectfully before lifting her head.
Excitement radiated from her face.
Something had happened.
My pulse quickened.
"Has Zoah obtained Herb D?"
I asked immediately.
She shook her head.
"No, my lady. The trio have not yet returned from their mission."
The trio?
Since when had there been three of them?
"Natasha," Lydia explained.
"A woman of remarkable knowledge. Zoah saved her life during the quest for Herb B, and she has joined them ever since."
I nodded slowly.
"I see."
Then I asked the question that mattered most.
"Is she a threat?"
"Not yet," Lydia answered without hesitation.
Good.
Then Silver remained the only obstacle standing in my way.
Silence settled between us.
Lydia hesitated.
"My lady..."
"There is something else."
Her expression turned unusually serious.
"I discovered something about Silver's mysterious necklace."
Every trace of my composure vanished.
That necklace held the key to Silver's true identity.
"It once belonged to the Queen of the Kingdom of Osiranea," Lydia said carefully. "Before the princess was banished to Earth, the Queen entrusted the necklace to her."
The words struck me like lightning.
My heart skipped a beat.
No...
It couldn't be.
Then again...
The clues had always been there.
We had simply failed to connect them.
A slow smile spread across my lips.
How ironic.
Zoah had unknowingly placed his trust in the daughter of the very kingdom he despised.
Silver...
Was no human.
She was the lost Princess of Osiranea.
The cursed mermaid.
The one destined to remain trapped by a curse Zoah had sworn never to break.
How wonderfully amusing.
This changed everything.
Now that I knew who she truly was...
I finally possessed the perfect weapon.
I would use her identity against her.
I would make certain Zoah never gave his heart to her.
His heart belonged to only one woman.
Me.
Yet...
For the first time in a long while...
A single, unwelcome thought crept into my mind.
Had I already lost him?