Drowned Sorrows: The Secret of Ursula’s Betrayal

They tried so hard to bury me, hiding me in the coldest trenches of the sea, but shadows do not drown, and sorrow does not die. I have rotted in the dark, torn from the world I once ruled, the world that once whispered my name with reverence. But secrets do not sleep forever, and now, before the tide rises to carry me to war, I will tell you the greatest secret the ocean has ever hidden:

King Triton loved me.

Yes, the mighty ruler of the sea once whispered my name with trembling lips. Before they called me a witch, before they saw my tentacles as curses, I was a mermaid—beautiful, strong, and unafraid to love deeply. In the twilight beneath the waves, we found each other, hidden among the coral gardens, beneath moonlit ripples where only we could hear the sea’s lullaby. From that love came a child, a daughter with brilliant vermillion hair that glowed like a firefish under moonlight.

Ariel.

But the sea is cruel to those who love what they should not, and Triton was already bound to his queen, Elaina, who ruled at his side with a gentle smile and a trusting heart. Ariel’s birth was meant to be hidden, another secret in the deep, but fate has ways of revealing betrayal. Beneath Ariel’s crimson waves of hair was a single, inky-black strand, a piece of me within her that the ocean refused to hide.

In the sea, it is the mermen who carry children into the world, who endure the tides of creation, who birth the future with the agony and wonder of the ocean inside them. Triton held Ariel in his arms, and the queen wept tears of joy beside him, seeing only love in the child’s face. But Triton saw the strand of black hair, and it pierced his heart with guilt and fear.

He tried to erase it. He summoned the sea’s magic, wielding his trident with trembling hands, weaving spells of concealment to hide that single strand only he could see. The magic drained him, setting ripples of imbalance across the seas, creating storms that lashed against distant shores, while he desperately tried to bury his sin.

And he grew to hate the child he once loved, for every breath she took reminded him of his betrayal. Elaina, blinded by love, thought Triton’s distance was the weariness of fatherhood, but deep within, Triton’s fear twisted into resentment. And in the dead of night, he came to me.

“Ursula,” he called, his voice carried on the current, heavy with regret.

“Yes, my love?” I answered, foolishly hopeful, unaware of the doom in his eyes.

“The child is born. I am sorry.”

I felt the sea quiver, a darkness moving within the currents as he raised his trident. The water around me shimmered with deadly light, slicing through the shadows as pain erupted within me, searing my spirit as his power tried to crush me. The sea boiled, steam rising around us as my screams echoed through the deep. But in that agony, I found something inside me—a spark of power I had never known.

As his magic surged toward me, I pushed back. My hand rose, and the light dimmed, the trident’s glow faltering as Triton staggered. I saw fear in his eyes, the fear of a king who had unleashed something he could no longer control. I could have ended him then, could have taken the trident and shattered him like coral beneath a crashing wave.

But I loved him.

That was my greatest mistake.

In my mercy, I lowered my hand, and in that moment, his fear twisted into determination. The light returned, brighter than before, searing into my soul as he whispered words of ancient, dark magic. My body shattered, torn apart, twisted, and reformed as darkness swallowed me whole.

I awoke in the cold, damp silence of a cave deep beneath the sea. My arms were gone, replaced by black, slimy tentacles, each a reminder of what I had lost. The walls dripped with salt and shadow, and I screamed, but no one heard me. I had been erased, hidden from the world, cursed to remain in darkness while the tides carried on above.

Days turned into years, each moment stretching like an eternity as I learned the depths of isolation. The sea was my only companion, and my mind was a storm of regrets and rage. I saw Ariel in my dreams, her laughter a song that burned like salt in my wounds, reminding me of the love I had lost, of the life that had been stolen from me.

I could have given in to despair, but despair breeds something stronger: vengeance.

Slowly, I learned the edges of my prison, found the cracks in Triton’s spells, and felt my power return, drop by drop, like the slow filling of a tidepool before a storm. The darkness became my ally, and the sea whispered secrets to me, feeding the rage that grew like a storm in my chest.

Triton feared me. That day when my power met his, I saw it in his eyes. He knew what I could become, and that fear is what drives him still. He would keep me hidden forever if he could, but magic weaves and unweaves itself with time, and the tides are turning.

The woman who loved him is gone now, drowned in the dark waters where I was left to rot. In her place stands something new, something stronger, something the sea will learn to fear. If love is a burden, then let it burn away, leaving only power in its place.

I will rise from these dark waters. I will take the trident from the hand that betrayed me and crush the kingdom he built on lies. Ariel, the daughter he tried to hide, will know the truth, and the sea will tremble beneath my power.

If I cannot have him, then no one will.

Let the Caspian Sea and every ocean beyond it hear my vow: I am Ursula, the sea witch reborn, and I will reclaim the tides.

Lesson / Moral:

Even the deepest love can become the deepest betrayal, and mercy without wisdom can birth darkness. Power grows in the shadows, waiting for its tide to rise.