Chapter 7: Witches

Alurel swam towards another location. It was one far enough away that the city of Atlantis was just barely in view. It was the “Grotto”, as all called it, and it was there the sea-witches lived and worked their magics.

Although their home was technically a grotto, it was a recess in the sea floor, rather than any mountain hole or other form of cave. Indeed, it was a large indent in the ground basically, complete with flat, somewhat elevated stone circles which the sea-witches used for their rituals and castings. A sea-witch had no quarters: they worked and rested out in the open, knowing no other seafolk would disturb them.

None but Alurel, at least.

She quite liked their home, as to a 500ft great mermaid like herself, it was not dissimilar from a wide bowl in the seafloor. It made it easy for her to look down at them.

And chastise them when need be.

The sea-witches felt the currents shift at the great mermaid’s arrival. Alurel had a dour expression on her face, which loomed above the coven. They curled their tentacles in anticipation of her wrath.

“Gather, hags.”, spoke Alurel. They obeyed, clustering on the main stone circle which was as wide to Alurel as a plate.

“I’ve heard you talked to the king about missing eels. Do you seek to tattle on me? Do you seek to sink our arrangement?”

Alurel batted her tail against the seafloor, kicking up some sand as well as making a jolting noise.

“N-no Alurel, please. We did not know it was you who ate them. I mean, that’s what we presumed you did to them-”

“You’re sure right I ate them!”, said Alurel. “And I’ll gobble you all up too if you ever snitch on me again.”

“F-forgive us Alurel. We didn’t know, we couldn’t know!”, said another one of the sea-witches.

Alurel was silent. She squinted at them, gently bobbing her tail. She took a good gander at their forms.

A sea-witch was a special kind of seafolk. They were actually octopuses from the waist down, usually with a purple color so dark it was near black. Other colors were heard of as well, such as lighter shades of purple, or even a dark red on rare occasion. Their human halves were typically pale or pink in skin-tone. Their hair was always always black or, rarely, white. This meant they had something of a ghastly look overall. Despite that, and their lack of natural eternal youth, they kept their skin fetching and bodies healthy as ever with their sea magics.

It was this same magic which earned them the trust of King Poseidon, and made them a target for Alurel.

Alurel watched them all cower in her gaze. Every sea-witch known was roughly human in size, so that meant they were also the size of game dice to a great mermaid like herself.

“You are all lucky I’m in a good mood.”, said Alurel. “Going forward, if any of your eels or reagents or whatever go missing, you come to *me* first, understood, hags?”

“Y-yes of course.” said one of the sea-witches. She had a slightly pink shade of pale for her svelte and fetching upper-body. Her raven hair stopped at her shoulders. Her octopus-half was dark-purple like most of the other sea-witches.

“Also, as an apology, you’ll set some eels out here tomorrow for me to feast on.”

“Of course.”, said that same sea-witch. Alurel knew her by name: Maris, the acting matron of the coven. She did not deign to speak it often, though.

“On that note.”, said Alurel, looming above them all in a leisurely float. “There’s something else you’ll have to do for me tomorrow. Aside from being on your best behavior, I’ll need you to help me weaponize dayshade. That’s right, I found another to harvest the plant, and I have a good feeling they’ll succeed this time. That means, the time to claim the Trident for myself is near.”

“Dayshade.”, muttered Maris. “You think you’ll actually manage to get some?” She spoke with a feared reverence for the plant.

“That’s right.”, said Alurel. Her teeth were flashed in a grin. “The dreaded dayshade, a plant that can be used to make a poison fatal to even the most powerful seafolk. This strength was balanced by the fact that it only grew on land, too deep for any seafolk to reach normally. But, I found the perfect, charming man who’ll get some for me.”

“No...”, muttered Maris.

“Yes.”, repeated Alurel. “That means you are gonna need to prepare to help me. I’m sure your knowledge can help you break it down to its poisonous form. You need to help me make a weapon that uses it. A dagger I think, big and fit enough for me to hold.”

“That is awfully short notice Alurel.”

The great mermaid furrowed her brow. Her smile faded.

“Do you dare to deny me?”

“N-no.”, said Maris. “We can do it.”

“Good.”, she said. “I’m sure your magic will make the tasks easier. There’s plenty of iron and other metal laying around from all the ships I’ve sunk over time. I’m sure you’ve scavenged a few for materials and reagents. Whatever you don’t have, I’m sure you can find. The day’s not nearly over yet, after all, and I probably won’t be back tomorrow till around the afternoon at the earliest.”

“Yes.”, said Maris. “We will work all night if we must.”

“As you shall.”, said Alurel. “The time has finally come for me to kill that stupid king, and claim what is mine.”

Maris started to speak. “We will do all we can to-”

“No!”, came an interruption. The voice was female, like the rest of the coven. It came from a thin sea-witch near the corner of the group.

“Be quiet Beatrice!” hush-shouted Maris.

“No!”, said Beatrice. “I will not take part in this. I refuse to kill our king.”

“Alurel please she doesn’t-”, began Maris.

It was too late though, Alurel had already swam up to the protesting sea-witch. Her face positively loomed, her lips flat in an unamused expression.

Beatrice began to shake.

Alurel spoke slowly, pelting the trembling sea-witch with the scent of her breath.

“Who do you think you are?”

Beatrice stumbled with her words.

“I-, I-, I don’t think this is right-Ahh!”

Alurel pursed her lips and inhaled. Beatrice screamed and flailed her tentacles to try and swim, but Alurel was too big, her very inhaling too strong. Her lower body slipped past Alurel’s lips.

“Maris, help!” she held out her hand, but the other sea-witches could only watch with sorrowful horror.

Alurel bit down, and Beatrice let out a scream. Her form floated back down to the stone, although her tentacles had been cut to stubs by the chomp of Alurel's teeth.

The great mermaid flashed her teeth, showing those limbs there. She chewed them with her mouth open, and swallowed.

“Mmmf, yummy.”, said Alurel. She leaned in closer and gave Beatrice’s body a lick with her tongue. The pinkish muscle could more then easily squish the Beatrice against the stone, and all present knew that.

“Maybe I should just eat the rest of you up right here.”, she said.

“No please!”, said Beatrice. “I’m sorry!”

Alurel giggled.

“You don’t like that idea, do you? See, those writhing little tentacles of yours can grow back, but your upper-body doesn’t. Not if I chomp it into bits, or gulp you down whole, now does it?”

Beatrice whimpered.

“T-that's right. P-please spare me.”

Maris chimed in.

“Please Alurel forgive her, she was just foolish-”

“Silence!”, shouted Alurel. “It’s clear you all need a reminder why you do what I say. It’s not just to protect yourselves like the sniveling, scheming hags you are. Well, tomorrow is very important to me, so if a reminder is needed, then I’ll help you out.

Alurel focused. She shifted her lips and her taut tummy pressed in and out. She found who she wanted in her treasure-gut. Her throat lurched as she brought them up all the way to her mouth.

She moved the tentacled morsel to the side of her cheek.

“Take a good luck everyone, and know that with just a chomp of my teeth, I can crush her brain like jelly.”

Alurel opened her mouth, and the other witches saw their matron. She looked a bit more disheveled than she should be, but was otherwise fine--in general. In terms of her actual current position, the raven-haired sea-witch was in a bit of a bind. Her entire body was positioned between the molars on the right side of Alurel’s mouth. It squished lightly from the pressure, and the sea-witch let out a cry of pain.

The sea-witches shouted out in near unison a variety of sentiments along the lines of ‘stop, no!’. Alurel bounced her teeth a bit, drawing out more screams. She was waiting to hear a particular sentiment in particular.

“We’ll do it, we’ll do everything you say as we have always done. Just please, keep Matron Ugsila safe.”, said Maris.

Alurel swished the revered sea-witch hard against her cheek, suckling.

“Mmmf, there we go. That’s what I like to hear. Still.”

She opened wide, her tongue shifted to put Ugsila back under her molars. One more nudge and just the witch’s tentacles were there.

Alurel chomped down, and all the sea-witches screamed.

Holding Ugsila under her tongue, she gulped what was left of those limbs down.

“Quit your complaining.”, Alurel said, after repositioning Ugsila to her cheek.

“Those will grow back by tomorrow. Consider that your punishment for this outburst. I said I’d keep her alive if you do everything I said, but I never said I won’t hurt her. I need ways of keeping you all in line, after all. Just remember, at any moment, I could move her from my treasure-stomach to my real one, where she’d flip and flop like the ugly little squid she is, till she’d die as an ugly puddle.”

Alurel swallowed Ugsila down, while the matron shouted out.

“Be safe, gals!”

Alurel smiled.

“Don’t worry though, I sent her back to my treasure-gut. I send some fish down there now and then to keep her fed. There’s water there too. Frankly, I think even that level of treatment is spoiling her, but I’m a generous sort I suppose.”

Alurel laughed.

“If you ever want your beloved coven leader out again, you’ll help me take my rightful place as queen.”

“Yes, Alurel.”, said Maris.

She and the others were still shaken from seeing their beloved leader treated so poorly. Though the matron wasn’t a literal mother, they held a very high level of respect for her.

“And one more thing.”, said Alurel. “Refresh your memories on everything about the Trident. Once I have it, I have an idea with it that might need your help too.”

“As you wish, Alurel.”

The great mermaid eyed the gathering of the sea-witches. They were huddled together for comfort. To entertain herself, she lunged at them, giggling. Her ruby-red-ish lips loomed in front of them all as she spoke again.

“Good, I’ll see you sea-hags tomorrow then. Have everything ready, I will not be so kind to another failure.”

“Of course Alurel, please forgive us. We’ll have the dagger, the eels, and all else that’s needed.”

Alurel smiled.

“Good.”

She swam off to her cove to rest and relax. Her paddling tail-fin sent a strong, disruptive current their way as a parting ‘gift’.