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Lucinda spoke. “Triton’s realm, you say! By rights it is yours, as well! You are his sister!”
Ursula sighed. “I didn’t know who I was then. Triton didn’t make himself known to me until I blighted Ipswich.
“He is no brother of mine. He didn’t care what those foul humans did to my father! What they did to me! Oh, he brought me to his kingdom and presented me as his beloved sister, but even he wouldn’t let me live among his people in my true form!”
She stood from her chair, knocking over the pillows, clenching her fists, and raising her voice in anger. “This was the face that greeted my new family! And this body, with the exception of a mermaid’s appendage! He didn’t think his precious merfolk could stomach the likes of my true design, so he ordered me to hide myself within a mermaid’s body!” she continued. “He didn’t want me as a sister! He wanted this!” Pflanze understood. Triton had stolen her beauty. He made her hide in a version of her human form, not allowing her to be herself. She had been trapped and made to feel loathsome.
What a sorry brother Triton was, the cat thought. What a terrible brother indeed. Lucinda and Martha listened, fearful of saying something out of turn, but Ruby, as she often did, went against her sisters’ wishes. “You are a very powerful witch and can take any form you like! What does it matter which one you choose?”
“What does it matter?” Ursula yelled, her body now growing taller and more expansive. “What does it matter?” Very rarely did Ursula show her true self while on land. It was painful and made it difficult to breathe, and in the wrong company was possibly very hazardous to her well-being. But for just a moment, just the slightest of moments, she let herself be revealed, as if the anger within her could no longer be contained.
“You’re right! I can take any form I like! This is how I choose to look, and I have nothing to be ashamed of!”
“Of course you don’t!” sputtered Martha, clearly in awe of Ursula’s rage.
“But that wasn’t the worst of his misdeeds, my darlings! Remember, I was in that village for years and my brother never came looking for me! It wasn’t until after my father was killed and I returned to destroy those foul murdering humans that he made himself known to me! And w
hy? Why do you think he came? Not because he loved me! Not because he had been searching for his lost beloved little sister! He sought me out because he couldn’t rightfully take the throne without proving I was dead or unworthy! He abandoned his baby sister and didn’t bother looking for me until it served his aims! I think he used his magic to bring me into my powers so I would transform among those who would hurt me. He must have known I was among humans and how they would react. That they would try to kill me! I would be surprised if that wasn’t his goal. His actions caused my father’s death and he felt nothing for my loss of him! You know how Triton feels about humans. He wouldn’t have bothered with condemning me for what I did in Ipswich if the humans hadn’t been transformed and sent to besmirch his realm—to soil his precious kingdom with unclean human hybrids!
“You should have heard the tales I learned while I was at court! Stories of Triton’s wrath brought down upon humans who offended the sea were legendary! Why, then, would my actions be so offensive to him, do you think, if not to set me up as some madwoman, some evil, vile murdering creature unfit to share his throne? When things were at their worst between us, when he was still making a pretense of wanting me to be by his side, he actually said my father deserved his fate for the countless murders he committed as a fisherman, and for not fearing the gods.”
“Deserved to be torn to shreds by those horrid humans? Your father was protecting you!”
“Triton cast me aside because he feared my power!” Ursula said. “He said he was appalled by what I did to Ipswich, but truly I think he was afraid I would do the same to his kingdom and take it by force!”
She continued, growing more enraged.
“I don’t think he ever intended to accept me as his sister, and I didn’t know why he insisted I come back to his kingdom as such. We fought endlessly, and our arguments have become things of fables only the bravest of his subjects retell. Do you know he has banned all mention of me in court? The youngest of his daughters don’t even know I exist, and the eldest was told her memory of me was a nightmare. He brought me there simply to prove I was unworthy to share the throne.”
“You could have ruled together!” said Lucinda, feeling Ursula’s sorrow for the loss of her father and possibly for the loss of her brother, as well.
“And now, instead, I shall take his kingdom, my kingdom, by force and destroy anyone who stands in my way! He could have been my brother, my family, but that time has passed! Damn him to Hades for what he’s done. Damn him to nothingness!”
And there it was.
Hate.
Hate for the foul human creatures who had murdered Ursula’s father and for her brother, who had treated it like a trifling matter. Hate for the brother who made his sister feel like a loathsome creature to be shut away and never looked upon.
The sisters gathered that hate like a precious gift, because that was what it was. It was the very thing that was going to bring them the power to return their sister Circe to them. Now they just needed to devise a way to kill Triton. Ursula smiled another one of her wicked grins. It was the sort that made you certain she was conjuring a plan. And she did indeed have a plan….
“We will ruin his daughter.” She laughed.
Lucinda cocked her head to the right. “Which daughter? There are so many!”
“The youngest, my precious creatures! Isn’t it divine?”
Ruby twitched with delight and rubbed her hands together. “Princess Ariel?”
“Yes, my dears! She’s made it quite easy for us, actually.”
“Has she now?” asked Martha while casting her eyes about the room, looking for Pflanze, who must have slunk her way out of the witches’ company without their notice.
“Yes, my darlings! It’s delicious! She’s fallen in love with a human.”
“A human? A human!” squealed Ruby. Martha and Lucinda chimed in.
“What do you think dear old daddy will make of that?” Ursula smiled. “His hatred of humans is legendary! He brings down their ships at every opportunity.” The sisters looked at each other in a way Ursula had grown to understand after being so close with them for so many years. They had an idea. “What is it, my darlings? What have you concocted in your devious little minds?”
