[Bonus Chapter] The Prime Warrior's Dilemma

"This is all my fault." Ariana spoke for the first time, her face breaking into tears.

"What?" Anastasia looked down at Ariana's pale face. "No, Darling!" She protested. "None of this is your fault."

Next to her, Daisy started to cry. "It's not Ariana's fault, it's my fault!"

Theodora shook her head and grabbed her daughter into her arms.

"Sweetheart. None of this is your fault and none of this is Ariana's fault." Her eyes grew hard. "The only person at fault is the one who acted violently!"

"Momma, if I hadn't fallen off the bridge, Ariana wouldn't have jumped in to save me." Daisy cried into her mother's arms.

Ariana's eyes were full of tears. "No Daisy, you fell because the bridge broke. I caused all this. If I hadn't transformed, nothing would have happened!"

Jason and Jared looked at each other. They got up and came towards their little sister.

Kneeling in front of her, they reached out and gathered Ariana into their arms.

"Ariana. Don't even think that. Both you and Daisy are innocent in all of this."

Ariana started to cry. "I honestly didn't know I had transformed. One moment, I was treading water and trying to pull Daisy's head above water, and next thing I knew—next thing—I—"

She cried even harder as words struggled to surface but was choked off by her tears.

"Next thing you knew, you had transformed into a beautiful mermaid." Mattheus murmured, his eyes full of compassion.

He had seen the transformation himself the moment it happened, when her tail had flashed above the water surface.

Ariana shook her head, choking back sobs. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

"There's nothing wrong with you, Sweetheart." Mattheus sighed. "You are a beautiful little mermaid, just like your mother and your entire merfolk species."

He smiled gently.

"You realize, in this room, there are four of us merfolk."

Ariana looked up at him. "Four?"

Jason and Jared nodded.

"There is you and Mattheus. He is the King of the merfolk world of Emporia." Jason pointed out.

"And then there is me and Jason, your brothers." Jared smiled.

Ariana's eyes widened. "You and Jason are mermen?"

They both nodded, amidst the surprised stares and slack-jawed surprise coming from everyone except Mattheus and Candace.

"How—when—" Lucas stammered.

"Puberty, I presume." Mattheus smiled.

The twins nodded.

"Luckily for us, we turned into bats first, so Father didn't think anything of it." Jared confirmed. "Half a year later, when we transformed into mermen, no one saw, and we kept it a secret."

"But to hell with that!" Jason snarled. "I'm not keeping this a secret any more. I'm half-bat half-merman. Why do I have to be ashamed of half of myself? Why does my sister have to cry and feel ashamed about being who she is?"

"You don't have to hide it, Love." Candace spoke up. "I've told you that before. Now I'm going to insist you all speak out and tell everyone who you truly are."

Anastasia sighed. "I agree with Candace. It's not as if it's a huge surprise. Everyone knows Royal Consort Fatima is a mermaid."

"Does that mean I get to tell everyone I'm half-lion?" Lucas grinned at his mother Theodora and his sister Daisy.

"Can you turn into a lion?" Candace's eyes widened.

"Sadly no, although I have tried many times." Lucas gave a comical sad face. "Alas, all that happens is my bat wings pop out."

As if to prove a point, his dark wings extruded and began to flap back and forth in a pathetic feeble manner.

Daisy and Ariana began to laugh at Lucas' antics, their tears drying up rapidly.

Mattheus grinned. "Ariana, Jason, Jared. As King of the merfolk of Emporia—I welcome you back into the shoal."

==============

Slate stood at the Command deck of the mother ship Raptor 600 staring out into the depths of dark space.

They weren't very far from Marakaran, hovering above the blue-green world, but for all intents and purposes, they were completely off-world.

As Prime Warrior of Erenveil, he could only act within his powers once he was within intergalactic space.

Had they stayed on Marakaran, he would have had to turn the Emperor over to the King of Marakaran to prosecute and judge.

Ashwyn was standing next to Slate at the time and had pushed him to take the Emperor off his world so he would not have to deal with it.

So now it was in Slate's hands. Lucky him.

He took a gulp of the water goblet in his hand as he thought carefully about what he needed to do as Prime Warrior of Erenveil. The position he held was independent of the ruling faction for this very reason.

If the Emperor or someone wielding the powers of the throne were to commit a heinous crime, he was the single check and balance needed to handle the criminal investigation and subsequent judgement.

It was not an enviable position to be in because he had to judge and sentence his own family members.

He drained the goblet and handed it to the attendant standing nearby.

"More water." He commanded.

Not that it did anything to alleviate the alcohol in his bloodstream, but it was better than nothing.

He, along with all his brothers and his father, had been drinking way too much on Marakaran and now he needed a way to clear out the alcohol, or at least dilute it somehow so that he could think clearly on this situation.

Slate frowned into his hands.

To be fair, this was a personal act of violence that did not affect the galaxy or the world of Erenveil.

In essence, the Emperor was not trying to kill the Crown Prince who would have been the next Emperor. Nor was he trying to kill an heir of the Crown Prince which would affect future galactic governance.

Furthermore, it was completely spontaneous and in the heat of the moment, as opposed to a premeditated action. The Emperor had simply been drinking far too much of the sweet wines and had lost control of his anger.

Slapping at the Royal Consort would have been a terrible act of violence against her but it would not have caused much physical damage—except for the fact that his claws had extruded at the wrong time.

Slate closed his eyes and sighed. He knew how easy it was to hurt the ones closest to him.

He himself had lost his head a couple of times around Candace when they were making love and had nearly slashed her skin to ribbons when his fangs and claws had appeared at the moments leading up to orgasm.

He had tried to keep his hands off her during such times, but he could see how easily it would have been to inadvertently hurt her.

But this was different. The Emperor had reacted with violence, not with love.

Even if Slate's claws had somehow touched Candace during their lovemaking, it would have been gentle touches that might have scratched her lightly. Those light scratches would have been simple and easy to heal with his energy touches.

It would have NEVER gouged her face the way his Father's claws had dug into Mother Fatima's face. That was a forceful slap with claws extended!