As soon as those fateful words left Eric's lips, he knew it had been the wrong thing to say. He looked at his wife quickly, and she looked.....stunned. Her mouth was opening and closing, as if the words she wanted to say weren't forming, and her eyes pooled with tears. Eric rearranged his expression to soften the blow, but there was nothing to be done. He had said it; those words were out there in the air for her to hear, and for him to shudder at.

"Y-You regret marrying me?" Ariel's voice was a whisper as she saw Eric's eyes widen in shock of what he had just said. The words echoed in Ariel's mind, over and over, and each time she heard them she wanted to crawl up into a little ball in the deepest, darkest corner of the world.

"Ariel, I'm sorry. That came out wrong." Eric said quickly, taking a step towards her. Instead of embracing him like she usually did, she shrunk away from his offered contact, whimpering like a frightened animal.

"You didn't answer my question." Ariel's soft melodic voice came out broken and strangled, and Eric took another step towards her, reaching out to hold her hand, but again she stepped away from him, this time looking up into his eyes with torture.

"My little mermaid, I--" Eric this time caught hold of her smooth hand and started to pull her in gently to talk to her, but Ariel somehow squirmed out of his grasp, and stood back in the shadows of the room.

"How could you?" Ariel finally whispered, starting to let her tears fall from her eyes and sob. "I thought you loved me...." She sobbed out, running from the room, her hands to her face.

"Ariel!" Eric tried to go after her, but he stumbled over his boots and tripped. He stood up quickly, and then stared at the door, wondering how on earth he was going to fix this. How could a simple conversation go so wrong?

Eric knew that the right thing for him to do was go after her; he was a fast runner, and Ariel barely could run without tripping over air a few times, so that must mean that she wasn't too far ahead. But what would he do once he got to her? Apologize? That hadn't worked. He could drag her back. He was stronger than her....no that would only make things worse! Eric sighed and sat on one of the couches in the library, putting his face into his hands and thinking. He would let her have an hour or so alone, before he made her come back to the castle to at least eat dinner and sleep in a place where he knew she was safe, warm, and sound asleep. Willingly or unwillingly.

Ariel on the other hand had thoughts that rang clear as a bell in her head. But she pushed those thoughts out from her head, focusing on staying quiet in the castle. One servant could tip off anyone where she might be if they even came looking for her later, and then she would be dragged back to the castle where Carlotta would fuss over her a bit, making sure she was bathed and scrubbed head to toe because she had probably caught 'nasty little germs and no one wanted a sick Queen'. Not to mention the fact that Carlotta would use the opportunity to lecture her on 'running off like that'. Then she'd be sent straight to bed, as if she was still a small child, where Eric would hug her and kiss her and say that everything was alright.

But it wasn't alright, and they both knew it. Now wasn't the time to think about that though; now was the time to walk on her toes outside, and then she would run. Barely anyone crossed her way to the doors outside, but when one servant did and inquired why her face was so red, she had just said that she had been at the rooftop garden, and she got sunburn. It was an ugly lie, but it evidently got the servant's attention and he had nodded and then went about doing his business.

Ariel finally got to the doors that lead outside, and stepped onto the first marble step....and then ran down the rest. Surprisingly she didn't trip until the very last step, and that's when she started to sob, letting the pain of her fall mix with the pain of her heart. But she got up and ran down the shore line until she was out of breath. Once in that secluded little area, she did what she had wanted to do. She curled up into a fetal position, and cried.