Chapter Text
It’s Naomi who stands before him, a stern look on her face and a distinct lack of emotion behind her eyes, not even her tail twitches. “Your punishment is banishment to No Man’s Waters.”
Castiel can’t stop the noise that leaves his throat, somewhere between a choke and a sob, he knew that banishment would be the punishment for his treason, but hearing it aloud fills him with a dread like he's never experienced. Castiel quickly reins himself in and resists fighting against the two merfolk holding him in place in front of Councilwoman Naomi. “One hundred years of banishment. There will be no return for you.”
Despite being warm-blooded, Castiel runs cold suddenly and shivers wrack his body all the way down to his tail. He does his best to hide his emotions but inside he’s a wreck. No Man’s Water is no place for merfolk - there’s no escape. The soldiers who escort him there will make sure he has no way to return.
The grip on his upper arms tighten as he’s pulled backwards and out of sight of the Councilwoman. He’s being dragged from the room but before he crosses the threshold, Castiel uses all the strength as he can muster and forces the guards to turn him around. They grunt at the action, but Castiel holds firm against them. “Do I get to say goodbye to my brother?” he asks, keeping his voice level.
Naomi turns back towards him, and with a few flutters of her tail, she’s closer to him. Still, she doesn’t soften. Castiel expects her to decline his request but she sighs and he doesn’t miss how her eyes flicker towards the other council members in the chamber, one of them being her son. “You have ten minutes.”
Relief floods through Castiel. Ten minutes isn’t much and Gabriel is going to be angry, but at least Castiel will get to see him one last time before what is essentially his death sentence is carried out. He doesn’t bother to thank her,even though he’d disobeyed orders, Castiel would forever believe the actions he had taken were right. He turns away and lets the guards lead him out to a smaller room.
He perches on the bench as the door closes and he’s alone again. Only days after his initial arrest, and he’s already been given his sentence. It hurts. There were others like him too, and yet, they’re still free. They’re not weak, they just know when to keep their mouths shut.
The war against the other territories for the sole purpose of gaining power is cruel and unnecessary. There has never been a threat, their territory is stable, thriving even with enough food to go around and an even population count. Yet, the King wants more for the sake of having it.
Their army is strong, Castiel knows that, he was part of it, and the King wants to flaunt them. Still, many of his kin have been killed, Castiel has even been wounded himself, in the early days, but it was the loss of his twin that had pulled him up short. Hannah had been beautiful, full of life. She hadn’t even been part of the Garrison, but through the fault of war had been killed, after one of her medical patients had gone rogue. Collateral damage, the King had told Castiel, when he’d been given the news. So Castiel had taken a stand, and the rest of his team alongside him.
Gabriel swims in a short time later, rushing him and wrapping his arms around him. It’s unexpected and Castiel is thrown against the wall. He expected anger, not this.
“You’re stupid. Stupid!” Gabriel hisses in his ear but it’s drowned out by the comfort of the hug. “Cassie, please,”
“There’s nothing to be done now,” Castiel replies quietly and hugs his brother back tightly. If they spend their last ten minutes like this then that will be fine by him.
“I can’t fault you for doing what you thought was right,”
“This war…” Castiel pulls back just a fraction. “It isn’t right, it’s killing us,”
“I know, for the love of Poseidon, I know,” Gabriel says, exasperated, tucking a finger under Castiel’s chin. He just looks at him with big hazel-gold eyes, the odd one out since the rest of their family had blue eyes. It feels invasive but Castiel lets it happen. Their time is nearly up, he can feel it.
Gabriel’s lips come to his forehead and rest there for a few seconds before he hears a mumbled, “I love you, little brother,” and emotion wells up inside him. This is it. This is really it.
Guards come to the door, barging in and swimming to them. Castiel recoils on instinct but allows them to take him, looking back at his brother until he can no longer see him. He goes lax in the hold of the guards.
The water becomes darker and colder the further they venture into No Man’s Waters. Despite being a creature of the sea, it feels uncomfortable to be so deep in the ocean, a nagging pressure in his ears and lungs. The guards taking him further down also seem to be twitchy. He could make a break for it, but he knows it won’t be worth it. The guards will alert the council members and there’d be a merhunt for him. A life on the swim isn’t a good one to lead. The ocean may be vast but there are only so many places to hide. And going ashore, that’s a different ball game altogether.
He feels one of the guards shiver and below Castiel finally sees what’s waiting for him. A shadowy reef tumbles into the depth of the darkness but there’s a glint from the last of the light against the chains he knows they’re going lock him into.
Castiel wants to struggle, instinct is telling him to, he doesn’t want to die down here. He’ll be alone. He resists with all his might, closing his eyes against the darkness as each of his wrists are cuffed and then a larger band around his tail. Automatically, as the guards swim back, he tests the restraints and he knows he’s not going anywhere. He’d never break those chains in a thousand lifetimes.
The guards retreat and the ocean around him seems to feel colder as their silhouettes fade into the minimal light far above him. Castiel shivers violently, and the chains rattle against each other.
He’s alone. It’s dark. There is nothing here but himself.
Castiel cries out loudly, a great roar of anguish before slamming his eyes shut and curling his body up as much as he can. The tears he knows he’s shedding are lost to the ocean before they can even fall.
He’s in pain everywhere his stomach, his arms pulled into an awkward position where he’s curled up and his tail itching where the cuff catches against his delicate scales. But his heart hurts the most. He doesn’t want to hurt. He doesn’t deserve this.
For his crimes against war, he’s ended up here. In the darkest part of the ocean between territories that have barely even blinked an eye at one another. Castiel’s mind drifts, thinking about his sister and his brother. The three of them had been a riot growing up, their mother barely keeping up with them after their father left. They helped their mother with anything she needed, Castiel had been good at that, even if his brother wasn’t. He was more interested in studying but in the end it had turned out that had helped them all to find their way. Gabriel had landed himself on the pre-council in a position that brought their small family more wealth so that their mother didn’t have to live so frugally. It had made the last few years of her life comfortable, until she succumbed to an illness, for which there was no cure.
The three of them had stuck together after that, looking after one another, Gabriel bringing in the money as Castiel trained with the Garrison and Hannah studied to be a doctor so that no one else had to go through what their mother did. So, when Hannah died, part of their mother died with her and it brought a sadness upon Castiel that he never expected to feel.
He’ll be next to die, Castiel realises. Gabriel will be alone and while he can hold his own, he hopes his brother won’t wait for him to come back. There’s no coming back from here. What Gabriel will do without him just hurts him to think about, he hopes that he doesn't get into his usual trouble, Castiel's no longer there to dig him out.
He knows that Gabriel loves him and the memories of their last conversation come to mind, a lump forming in his throat as he begins to weep.
He sleeps as the last of the light disappears from above. Day one is over. Just forever to go.