Into the dark past of allegory, lies the shadow of a truth.
The lost city of Atlantis, the ultimate mythical city that once been the most stunning of all, trapped in a lifetime curse made by the Greek goddess of Wisdom, Athena. It was over 11,000 years when an island existed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Peace reunited the whole city and lasted for centuries, but in the end, they became victims to mortal desires and sins. Swallowed by the sea, the world thought that their people and memories were gone along with the city. But they were wrong. They lived. They still lived in the bottom of the ocean; barely surviving, forever hiding, but they still existed.
No one knew. No one should ever know.
Forever must be a clandestine.
And so was she…
Minerva, the Queen, watched their god's temple, which was covered with silver, and the pinnacles with gold, right across the glass window of her chamber. Same with the temple, the roof of her assembly room where her throne was located, made of ivory, adorned with gold, silver, and orichalcum. Orichalcum was a gleaming metal, considered second only to gold, believed to have been a brass-like alloy of zinc, charcoal, and copper. They used brass to cover their dwellings, tin and orichalcum to cover the outer walls of their cities.
From the outside, the kingdom's oval-shaped barrier had a mysterious crystal, The Tuaoi Stone, which was huge in size, cylindrical in shape, used to concentrate incoming rays of energy; solar, lunar, stellar, atmospheric and Earth energies as well as unknown elemental forces. It was the same energy used to rejuvenate their bodies and were able to live a hundreds of years while maintaining a youthful appearance. And small piece of this crystal was on Minerva's neck.
Atlantis.
It was a hidden paradise. But to the Queen, it was her beautiful prison. It ached her to know that her crown was like an invisible chain, wrapping her soul. She couldn't run off, or even break out. This was her life that she had to take.
She dressed in a mermaid styled blue gown, a form-fitting at her perfect bodice, and the long skirt highlighted with silver linings was designed to resemble a mermaid's tail in silhouette. She sat quietly on her throne, wearing her crown. It would be two days or more before she could sit this chair after this.
"Your Highness," a deep, cool voice coming from an open door, woke her consciousness. She blinked for a couple of times, and had her eyes fixed at the edge of the temple's balcony, before she looked around and saw her trusted friend, Adolfo Hidrifa, standing few meters away from the throne. Two Atlantean guards were there, too, along with their new enslaved creature – another human.
They bowed their heads instantly.
A warm smile plastered on his handsome face, revealing his white teeth, and he looked so ravishing in his new Atlantean outfit. The black color suited him, highlighted her blue eyes.
"We saw this old human in our territory." He began to speak when Adolfo caught her eyes onto the old creature, next to him.
Minerva took a glance with a blank expression at another human that was been captured by their Atlantean guards, three hours ago. It was male, not more than in his sixty years of existence. At least, that was she assumed, hence they were immortals living at the bottom of the sea. She couldn't figure out the difference without having difficulty.
His wide forehead had numerous lines. His skin tone was a product by warmth sunlight that kissed his skin. His deep wrinkles seemed to carve a map of his life on his still agile and moving facial features. He was too old in doing an expedition all by himself. And she began to think that finding their city was really worth the risk.
She flinched at the thought of walking there and touched this man's poor skin. He looked so fragile. There were bruises on his both arms and feet. There was a huge scar too, on his neck. He was there, speechless yet his round green eyes were so heavily lidded and weighed down with wrinkled folds and it was almost like talking to someone asleep, yet he was quite alert. These eyes wondered in every corner of the room, amazingly took a sight of a place that should have been a myth in the first place. His twinkling eyes were framed by thick white eyebrows and on his stubbled chin were white whiskers. He looked at her without fear, and that made her façade a bit colder than usual.
Humans should fear them, not amused. That kind of glance was a bit familiar to her, the same expression she had seen somewhere in her past to a man for the first time.
Another intruder.
"Queen Minerva." Adolfo held the captive a bit tight.
But the human seemed more amused when he heard her first name, "Queen Minerva of Atlantis. Are you familiar with the Roman goddess of Wisdom? Or Athena?" His voice was slow and he almost stumbled on his words.
"What is your name, human?" she asked, not wanting to take another move on her throne, or even answered his questions. She used English as her language to communicate with humans that they took as prisoners, and over these centuries, they used English in Atlantis more than their native language, the Juralic.
In order to survive, they had to adapt to the changes, as well as learning new ways, discovering new ideas, and inventing a lot of modern technologies.
"You must be a descendant from Cleito and Poseidon's twins" he gave her an astonished look but what he just said made her eyebrows furrowed. Where the hell did he take those rubbish ideas?
"Descendant of the ten princes of Atlantis, who are your great grandfathers? Are you related to the twin brother of Atlas whose name is Gadeirus , who once ruled the Pillar of Heracles, which is still called the region of Gades? Are you even familiar with the five twins? Demigod sons of Poseidon from his mortal love? Are Atlantean royals still having twins like the history said so?" he continued, asking her and her mind hardly absorbed what he just meant.
Minerva arched her eyebrows and gave a signal to the guards to make him shut up.
Those human researches weren't true and whoever did that was purely brainless. Poseidon had no connection with them. The Greek god of the Sea had no lover named Cleito. Those were just humors to cover the real one. The god of the Sea fell in love to that mortal gorgon, Medusa. After all these centuries, he still was. No one bothered to know the existence of the gorgons. Just like them, they survived.
"We have no Greek blood," she stated in a hard tone and with a solid face. "We are Atlanteans."
She wasn't related to any of them. The late King gave her that name to remind him that he was once fallen in love to the goddess who cursed their kind. And having such name, counterpart to their great enemy, she lived her life with fear that someone might kill her for no such reasons. His father was selfish. And so was everyone else.
The old man stared at her more than he had done. His round eyes were still fixed at her. Humans were the same, pathetic creatures. They craved for something that they knew they couldn't have from the start. Wanting more means they had to break their lives…their beliefs.
"This human is an enemy," Adolfo said. "My Queen, we have to put this human into execution. It's our Law."
"I need him here."
"We don't need more of them to study their kind. This human is too old."
"It is not yours to decide, General Adolfo."
"Very well." Adolfo's tone was more solid. "You are the Queen. And I never fail to trust your words."
She saw his disappointed look but he still managed to give her a smile. They all bowed in her presence again, before leaving her all alone.
This was the third time for this year that humans did actually have entered their Atlantean premises. For her, it was horrifying. It wasn't been like this for years. So she taught that maybe humans' knowledge nowadays was advancing, too.
And besides, she had no time for this. There was something that she had to do. It was now or never. This was a one-shot chance to find his brother. Whatever the consequences, she must take it before opportunity would finally end, in a rapid blink of her eyes.
She never thought of actually going out into her haven but she had to.