Considering the journey

Mera tried to distract herself as she kicked her way back to the palace in desperation, hurtling through the blue of the sea without even a single scale for modesty. Her red hair streamed behind her, straight against the pale of her back.

One month. Maybe more, if it was needed, there were stories of past potential queens being delayed for one reason or another. They'd had to still be nude, of course, but the journey could be slowed; Atlanna came to mind, she'd heard that diplomatic issues with the Kingdom of the Brine had delayed the ending of her own ordeal by a week.

Which... Mera prayed to Poseidon that wouldn't happen.

There was Atlantis, of course. She had to swim through this while city as she was. Then the Kingdom of the Fishermen, probably, which made her nervous; it was known for its artwork, and she'd seen depictions of previous queens there. Aesthetically beautiful, of course, but that was before she'd imagined her nudity becoming immortalized.

She didn't know what to make of the Kingdom of the Brine. The crabs that inhabited it probably had no sexual interest, but that wouldn't change the fact she was exposed to them. And on that note, she supposed the Trench was technically counted as a Kingdom again after Arthur's powers had let him communicate with the locals. She hadn't wanted to go there again at the best of times, but nude? She shuddered.

And then sooner or later she'd have to face Xebel. Her home. Her father would see her...

Mera hastily **** her thoughts to another path, blushing as she finally made it back to Arthur's palace. She swam inside, kicking her way past some surprised staff, her boobs slipping out of her grasp for what felt like the hundredth time and coming into view. It was hard to keep hold when rocketing along horizontally.

Panting, chest heaving, Mera made it back to her room. The exposure that awaited her was... there weren't words for how the prospect made her feel. This had been going on less than a day and already she was bright red and shaking, despite her best attempts to stay firm.

"Mera?"

At the sound of Arthur's voice, she immediately adjusted her posture, standing up perpendicular to the floor before making sure her arms were in place. It was all she'd be able to do to cover up for a while.

"Arthur," she said. She hated how her voice shook.

"You're back already?" he said.

"Had to," she said. "My horse ran away. I'll have to go again in a bit with a new one. Atlantis is big and it's just one of the kingdoms."

"Oh," Arthur said. "Do you want some good news, at least?"

"I doubt there's anything good enough," she said, and sighed. "What is it?"

"I was talking with a couple of the bigwigs," he said. "My mother said the land and the sea are one. Turns out that because I've got the trident I can just declare that, and we're on better terms with the surface, so..."

Mera stared at him. It was not a good stare.

"You what?" she said.

"I know you don't get on with the surface, but-"

She slapped him, not even caring how that gesture made her boobs look. Her hand was shaking too much, which did interesting things to the rest of her as she stood there.

"Um..." Arthur said.

"You coudln't have waited?!" Mera said.

"Why? I could just say it, and..."

"Because you just made the surface equivalent to one of the kingdoms!" Mera said, her voice shooting up embarrassingly high. "I have to go around all the extant kingdoms! Like this! Because of you! Remember?!"

Arthur blinked slowly, gaze only briefly distracted by how her boobs gently jiggled in the undersea current. Mera followed his gaze, and quickly crossed an arm over them again, underboob still visible.

"Ohhh," Arthur said slowly.

"Oh?!" Mera echoed.

No. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, and started to pace slightly. That was a whole other place she had to visit now before tradition would permit her clothes again. A lot of other places.

"Ok. The surface," she said slowly, trying to convince herself. "How bad could it be? Only a third of the earth's surface, and limited to one place. How many could there be? Just a few thousand."

She'd dash through a few ramshackle villages, one or two big cities, it would be as humiliating as everything else but it hopefully wouldn't drag the journey out too long. All the kingdoms of the sea could be visited in twenty eight days after all, and that was with some leisure time. The Trench wouldn't add much time, and the surface, what, maybe a day or two to visit all the major cities?

Arthur was looking at her strangely. Mera felt her heart plummet.

"More than a few thousand?" she said nervously. "Please tell me there aren't millions."

"Um. Seven billion last I heard," Arthur said.

Mera stared at him. That had to be a joke, right? Maybe not every individual would see her, but that said a lot about how many cities, towns, major locations there were, and that was somewhere without the kind of rapid travel they had below the sea.

She was going to be exposed to every inch of the ocean, and then to seven billion people more?!

How long would it be before she ever got her clothes back? It might almost be preferrable to give up clothes for good, forget any hope of completing the ritual, just stay on it indefinitely, stay nude but not have to expose herself quite so much.

If it was a choice between that or being seen by so many creatures and people... she had no idea which she preferred.