Aquaris swam out of a portal she made from her palace and arrived in the open ocean. She knew she could attempt to transform humans into her new subjects one at a time but there was a major risk that the humans would attempt to capture her and experiment on her. She couldn’t risk that her species, that the mermaid and merman race died out with her, the avatar of that noble race was something she couldn’t allow.
She knew that she would have to force the change on people, at least the first group, maybe after they had a large enough population she could extend the offer to those who wanted to join but first she needed a population.
She swam up to the underside of a large ship and used her divine magic she sensed the number of souls onboard. Despite the size of this massive ship, it was mostly filled with oil and had so few souls that it wasn’t worth it. She swam away, the wake of her swimming away was powerful enough to cause the massive ship to rock but not flip over.
She journeyed toward another ship she sensed in the distance; this one was full of souls. As she swam under the ship, she sensed almost 5,000 human souls onboard this massive ship. They were of all ages, some new to the world, others not much longer for it.
She surfaced and got a look at the ship, its haul was painted white and she saw multiple decks and what looked to be a slide coming off the side of the ship before going back in.
It was a cruise ship.
It was perfect.
She dove back under the ship and prepared for what she was about to do, 5000 human souls where about to become the first mermaids and merman in her new kingdom.
She reached out her hands as above her the ship stopped moving. The force of her power commanding the very waters to stop the ships movements. She could sense the confusion from those human souls on the bridge, but it was about to be turned to fear for not only them but everyone else onboard.
She pulled her hand down as the very ocean parted and the ship went tumbling down a tunnel of air she had made in the water. It wasn’t fast enough to hurt anyone, but it was enough, so everyone noticed. Once the ship landed on the sandy bottom of the ocean. She formed a doom over it cutting it off from the surface.
She could sense the fear and panic of every one of those souls and it broke her heart.
The waters around the ship began to glow as she infused it with her magic as the dome began to close in on the ship. If she wanted to she could have transformed all the humans at once, but she was restarting a civilization so she wanted certain outcomes for the humans being transformed.
She sensed that of the 5000 souls it was split almost equally between men and women, that wouldn’t due. Mermaids were naturally more common than merman, almost 3 to 1, so to assure that she infused the water to transform the humans to match that needed outcome. She didn't want to force gender transformation on children so everyone under 21 would remain the same, meaning older people would transform more.
Also, she had no use for the elderly, the kids would stay the same age but everyone over the age of 40 would be regressed to around 30’s. She needs them to be young enough to bring new merpeople into the world and of an age to fight if need be. So she had to control the transformation, hence she couldn’t turn all the humans at once so while she didn’t like it the humans onboard would have to suffer the horror of waiting to be changed while attempting to escape.
“Attention humans.” Proclaimed Aquaris as her voice boomed out from the waters around the ship now laying on the ocean floor. “I am Queen Aquaris Goddess of the Sea and the mermaids and Merman who once called it home. I have awoken after thousands of years to find my kind whipped from the world by human hands. I will restore them to this world, you will all become my new subjects. The waters surrounding you have been infused with my magic, they will transform you the moment they reach you. Do not resist and embrace your new life in the ocean as my subjects.”