📚 Short Stories From The Immortal Quill – Issue #34
New Day at The Immortal Quill
"Seashells, Sass, and Siren Drama"
Guest: The One, the Only, the Original Public Domain Mermaid - Ariel of Atlantica's Ruin
The crew had barely arrived and poured their questionable office coffee when a glittery bubble the size of a pumpkin popped in the center of the lounge.
Inside stood Ariel - not the sanitized Disney version with a dinglehopper obsession and big-eyed innocence - oh no.
This was the real deal, the public domain princess of sorrow, saltwater, and spectacular side-eye. Her seafoam-green hair shimmered with enchantments, her eyes gleamed like sunken treasure, and her dress? An absolute aquatic serve that dripped elegance and heartbreak.
Red leaned over to Goldi. “Oh fabulous. It’s Sad Song Barbie.”
Tink, still slightly glitter-high from her Glimmerthorn triumph, sipped her latte and whispered, “Who invited the sea-witch’s ex-client?”
“I HEARD THAT,” Ariel chimed, with a wave of her pearl-laced sleeve and a not-so-subtle flick of magic that rusted the corner of Tink’s clipboard.
Dorothy, not one to be outdone in drama, stood up like she was auditioning for a tornado sequel. “Oh, hi. Welcome. We do storytelling here and passive aggression is the ink we bleed.”
Ariel gave a smile so graceful and sharp it could slice a schooner in half. “Perfect. I brought my own tea.”
Snow: blink blink “We have rules.”
Ariel: “I read them. Unlike some people.”
Cue Rapunzel, dramatically flipping her hair. “If you’re going to monologue, just do it. I’ve got braids to condition.”
Ariel smiled, stepped forward, and began:
ARIEL’S TALE: “The Bones Beneath the Waves”
(A tragic myth from the ink-drenched sea)Long before ships sliced the sea and mortals stole salt for their soups, there lived a kingdom beneath the waves where voices were more valuable than gold. The Mer-Kin ruled there - not with spears or crowns, but with song.
Ariel was born of the Coral Line, a bloodline gifted with a voice so potent it could lull whirlpools to sleep or raise the drowned from the deep.
She sang with the stars.
She sang with the sea.
But one day, she sang for him - a mortal prince with shadowed eyes and a storm in his heart.
You already think you know the story, don’t you?
She gave up her voice, not for love, but to spy.
Her deal with the sea witch was simple: infiltrate the surface. Learn their secrets. Report back. But the longer she walked among them - silent, observant - the more tangled her soul became in their broken, beautiful world.
She didn’t fall for the prince.
She fell for their stories.
Their heartbreaks.
Their books.
She fell in love with paper.
But betrayal has tides of its own.
The sea witch, impatient, cursed her to bleed saltwater forever. Every step turned to pain. Every silence turned to rot. She was to be nothing more than a footnote in a sailor’s tale.
Until Ariel broke the curse - not with a kiss, but with a pen.
She wrote her own ending in the ink of kraken’s blood and bound it in seaweed runes. Her voice returned in pages, not song. She became a Keeper of Ink & Lore - the first of the Sea Scribes.
Now she travels between worlds, collecting sea myths, rewriting lost legends, and whispering truths no sailor dares dream.
Her kingdom fell, yes. But from its bones, she builds stories.
And she’s never given her voice away since.
Silence.
Even Red blinked. “Okay. That was... salty.”
“Stabby and sad,” Goldi added. “I like it.”
Tink muttered, “Still not Glimmerthorn level, but decent.”
Ariel curtsied with a flourish that sent sea-salt wind whipping through the scrolls.
“I’m available for Tuesday slots,” she said, completely ignoring the glares.
Snow: “You’re not staff.”
Ariel: “And yet here I am.”
As the bell chimed to end the day’s shift, Ariel shimmered into a splash of bubbles, leaving behind one perfectly bound seaweed-wrapped book labeled:
“The Lore of the Drowned Archives, Volume I.”
Rapunzel held it up, impressed. “So… does this mean mermaids are in the rotation now?”
Tink: “Only if they bring snacks next time.”
Red: “Or cursed sea tea. I need some kick in mine.”
Tomorrow? Who knows who’ll bubble up next.
🔥 🖋 📚
The Immortal Quill Short Stories
🩸✨ A Bloodthorn Publishing™ Original
From the twistedly magical minds of the Immortal Quill™ Storytellers, welcome to the World of 4EverMore™ - where fractured fairytales wear combat boots, myths misbehave, tea spills itself, and chaos is couture. ☕️
Featuring your immortally iconic favorites:
• Goldilocks (paranoid and perfect)
• CindaSpy™ (that’s Cinderella with a security clearance)
• Red (badass in boots)
• Snow (soft goth apple queen)
• Dorothy (click it and rip it)
• Beauty (rose-stem sharp)
• Wendy (shadow-slick rebel)
• Alice – Queen of Ink & Lore™ herself
• Loki (divine trickster snack, taken 😘)
• Ivy (Rumple’s sister, lethal in Louboutins)
• and Rumplestiltskin (unhinged, unmatched, unstoppable)
✨ Guest appearances may include sentient teacups, tragic ballgowns, questionable prophecy scrolls, and one flirty, possibly dangerous Elven stranger...
🪄 Storytime just got a whole lot more immortal.
Bloodthorn Publishing™ • The Immortal Quill™ • World of 4EverMore™ Universe 💋🔥
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