Mutante: Chapter 33

Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs

After the Nadirs had been reunited and Mrs. Nadir had sobbed all over her husband, Robert, Grandma Essie, and Rosie, thanking the witches profusely, and Thomas had been introduced, they were treated to a late lunch. Rosie was ravenous, and quite glad for the chance to eat. Not to mention the joy that leaped in her soul every time Robert stared at his father, his eyes filled with delighted wonder. It had definitely been worth all the adventures to get them to this place. Her dearest friend deserved to have his father back.

“Well, we should really be going if we want to reach Atlantia by nightfall,” Grandma Essie said regretfully.

“Are you certain you don’t wish to stay the night?” Mrs. Nadir said, her reservations about them now apparently put to rest.

Grandma Essie smiled and shook her head. “As much as I would love to spend more time with your lovely family, I imagine you have much to catch up on and I would like to see my daughter.”

Mrs. Nadir’s lips twitched in a grimace. Rina and Mariya had only tolerated each other before the curse. Had that feud extended to their friends?

“Well, I insist you come back sometime and allow us to prepare you a real thank you dinner,” Mrs. Nadir said firmly.

“Yes, you must,” Mr. Nadir added.

Grandma Essie’s smile widened. “We would like that.”

Rosie had known they would leave, but somehow, facing the reality of separating from Robert was far worse than she would have expected . . . of knowing the adventure was over and they would have to go back to their regular lives . . . . They would see each other again, but it wouldn’t be the same.

“I’m going to miss you,” she told him shyly. “Thanks again for all your help.”

Robert pulled her into his arms. “Pretty sure we’re more than even. How about next time we rescue someone else’s family members instead of our own?”

Rosie chuckled. “Deal.”

“I’ll—well, I’ll try to come visit sometime.”

“Goodness, me! I almost forgot,” Grandma Essie exclaimed. “I made them for you after you left, Robert. Just in case Rosie didn’t wake up before you had to return home again. I didn’t want you to feel out of touch,” she said, digging through her handbag. “Now, where did I put them?” She frowned into the bag.

“I believe you placed them in your front side pocket,” Thomas said, a hint of amusement in his tone.

“Oh, yes, I remember now.” Grandma Essie opened a side pocket and pulled out two small boxes. “They’re a pair, so you won’t be able to use them with anyone else. Not that I think you’ll be bothered by that.”

Rosie and Robert opened the matching boxes to find the two halves of a mussel shell.

“You made us shells?” Rosie asked, beaming at her grandmother. She’d never had her own shell, but had used the one her mother had to call her grandmother.

Robert merely sent a questioning look to Grandma Essie.

“They’re communication devices. Here, let me show you.”

Robert obediently handed the box back, and Grandma instructed him on the use of the shell. Once he understood that they would be able to converse whenever they wished, Robert beamed at Grandma Essie nearly as widely as he had after his father had awakened. “Thank you. Truly.” He floated closer to Rosie. “I guess I’ll talk to you soon?”

She nodded. “Definitely.”

He pulled her into another hug. “Don’t forget: no matter what your mother says, your tail is just as wonderful as you are,” he murmured into her ear.

“I’ll do my best. Good luck here,” she whispered back.

Then, before she could lose her composure, she thanked Robert’s parents once more and moved towards the door.

Grandma Essie followed her out, carrying Thomas, and then called for volunteer seahorses. “I think we’d better use the path again. I’d rather word of my cure wasn’t public just yet. However, Thomas mentioned an interesting theory: I would like you to tweak the path to simply keep us invisible, rather than have the walls opaque, if you are willing to try.”

Rosie blinked at her grandmother, thrown out of her meditations on how much she would miss Robert. “I—I don’t know. But I can try.”

“You are more than capable of such a feat,” Thomas said warmly.

Grandma Essie nodded. “Instead of imagining your path being opaque, simply imagine it showing everything inside except us. And I believe it would be better to do our journey in stages. Set a destination near the outskirts of town for now. We don’t need the path hindering your mother’s movements until we reach the house.”

Rosie grimaced and closed her eyes, focusing on the image. What would that be like from a practical standpoint? She drew up several visualizations, discarding them one after another before finally happening upon one that seemed to work. Her eyes still closed, she said the spell for the path, altering the destination to be near the outskirts of town.

“It certainly looks different,” Thomas remarked.

Rosie opened her eyes. The path in front of them was quite different. As they were no longer in the forest, there was little vegetation to displace, but the path had instead chosen to curve upward. And rather than the solid walls with a mouth of darkness, only a slight shimmer and the glow of magic showed where the tunnel ran.

“Can you see us?” Grandma Essie asked, swimming a tail-length into the tunnel with Thomas.

“From here, yes.” Rosie shifted to one side. It was so odd—she knew exactly where her grandmother was, could even see the reddish tinge of her own magic outlining the path, yet not only was her grandmother not visible, but she could see a sea anemone clearly through the path. “No. Not from here.”

Grandma Essie emerged. “May I look now?”

With a mental shrug, Rosie entered the path and watched as her grandmother repeated the experiment.

Grandma Essie returned to the path’s opening. “Well, this will certainly make getting around easier,” she said with a chuckle.

“Indeed,” Thomas said. “Perhaps you ought to attempt the experiment yourself at a later date, Madam Essie.”

“I believe I will.”

Before they could continue the conversation, two seahorses, this time a coppery brown male and a dark purple female, arrived. Once Grandma had spoken to them and magicked up saddles and a harness for Thomas, they set off down the path. Only once did Rosie glance back. Robert stood in front of the house now, looking off in their direction, though he appeared unable to see them. It really was too bad that you couldn’t bottle invisibility and take it out whenever you wanted—there were plenty of parties she’d wanted to disappear from.

“Thanks again for spelling shells for us,” Rosie said.

Grandma Essie smiled. “Robert is a nice young man, and he can understand the changes you’ve gone through in a way that few will. Besides, I like him.”

“I do too,” Rosie admitted.

“Much better than a Wobbegong?” Grandma said slyly.

Rosie laughed, though her cheeks grew hot. “He’s just a friend, Grandma. But yes, if I had to choose between him and Alan Wobbegong, I would choose him.”

“Don’t worry, my dear. Your mother won’t force you to marry anyone if I have anything to say about it. She’s forgotten that she made a love match herself.”

Rosie’s eyebrows went up.

“Oh, your father was certainly on Mariya’s list—that side of the family is very influential, after all—but she was initially aiming for royalty. She settled for a mere councilor’s son because she genuinely cared about him.”

“I didn’t know.”

Grandma Essie grew sorrowful. “I only wish I had been around to tell you all the things your mother won’t.” Her hands grew tight on the seahorse’s reins. “Well, we’ll just have to make up for lost time. How about I tell you about your mother’s suitors now?”

“I’d like that,” Rosie said with a small smile. It was fun to hear about her mother being less-than-poised. Plus, with the way Grandma talked about her, her mother seemed so much more human.

They whiled away the time with stories of Mother’s childhood and then more information about Rosie’s family heritage. Thomas had been passed down for five generations of her family and had several fascinating anecdotes about her ancestors and how things had changed today. Between the current Rosie had included in the tunnel and the entertaining conversation, they reached Atlantia far sooner than she had expected. By the outskirts of town, Grandma set the seahorses free and requested Rosie once more do the path if she truly had energy for it.

It was strange: the spells she’d performed since Mr. Ocean’s magic had all felt so much easier that she almost couldn’t imagine being so exhausted. Even spelling the potion today had been easier than tripping over her own tail. Perhaps fighting Rina’s spell really had taken it out of her? Or perhaps magic just got easier as you went along? Rosie spelled another path, still feeling no more tired than if she’d swam to the market and back.

“Grandma, why is it that I’m not exhausted all the time? Even doing the potion wasn’t nearly as bad as it was the first time.”

Grandma Essie grew thoughtful. “I think it’s because your magic has had time to settle in a bit more. You were using it and then exhausted it, and then you had Mr. Ocean’s magic running around in your body. All that rest allowed your magic to settle in. As for the potion, I believe the settling in allowed you to gain more precision with your magic. Before that, you were likely expending more energy than necessary with each spell.”

“Hmm. So I’m not, um, unusually powerful or anything?”

Grandma Essie shook her head ruefully. “You are unusually powerful—certainly once you are trained, you will be one of the most powerful witches that I know. Not as powerful as a magical creature or a water sprite, but certainly powerful for a merperson.”

“Oh.” She bit her lip, wishing for just a moment that she could be a bit more ordinary. Then she caught sight of the light-reflections her tail was throwing onto the ground. She might not be ordinary, but she was still wonderful.

Grandma Essie clasped her hand. “You’re perfect the way you are, Rosie-girl. Don’t you forget that.”

Rosie squared her shoulders. “Right. Well, shall we?” She gestured towards the path.

“Do you want me to go first?” Grandma asked.

Rosie hesitated. If Grandma went first, Mother might be almost too distracted to interrogate her about where she’d been and might not notice her tail—or at least the magnitude of discovering her mother was uncursed would blunt her reaction to that change.

But . . . . putting it off wouldn’t mean avoiding it forever. And she would have to tell Robert how it went when they talked . . . which meant being honest about her bravery or lack thereof. He believed she was brave enough to stand out, even if it caused talk or disapproval. And, after all, she had faced Mr. Ocean’s disapproval. Her mother couldn’t be nearly as bad, right?

She shook her head. “No, I’ll go first.”

“That’s my girl,” Grandma said proudly.

Without further discussion, they swam down the path, through one busy street after another, all apparently unnoticed, until they reached Rosie’s house. She took a deep breath and opened the door.

“Mother, I’m home,” she called.

“Oh, thank goodness! You wouldn’t believe the number of people who have suggested that something awful might have happened to you,” her mother called back from the other room.

Rosie glanced back at her grandmother, who had remained in the doorway, and then she swam into the sitting room.

Her mother was bent over a tablet, probably working on the plans for some party or another. “You’ll have to—” Her mouth dropped open as she glanced up. “What happened to your tail?” she screeched.

Rosie lifted her chin and smiled. “Something wonderful.”

A/N: We’re to the end! I really can’t believe how quickly this story went by. We all have parts of ourselves we struggle to accept, things that feel clumsy or weird or that get us into trouble. For me, one of those things has been my strong personality (I’m a type four in Carol Tuttle’s energy types). I’m someone who’s designed to stand out even though I spent most of my childhood assiduously attempting to be a wallflower. I have to work on being okay with standing out—and I’m still far from perfect at it. But I have learned that all those parts we reject are often the place of greatest strength and a gift you’re withholding from the world. They’re wonderful. So I hope that, like Rosie, you can accept those parts and pieces, to stop being at war with yourself, and to gift the world with all your awesomeness. You might just find that your tail stops getting you in so much trouble and takes you to some great places 😉 Thanks for reading! As you may have noticed, I set this up for a sequel (where they have to deal with Aunt Rina). It isn’t written yet and I don’t know when I’ll write it. Probably depends if I have anyone interested in reading it. Let me know if you are 😉 Love you guys!