Chapter Text
“Yerin-unnie, tell me about the surface?"
"Didn't your sisters tell you before?"
"Well yes, but that was years and years ago! You just went up there not long ago!"
"And you'll be up there yourself in a few months..."
"Unnie~~~"
"You gotta do more than that.”
“Unnie!!!"
"Kekekeke alright alright I'll tell you."
Perhaps if I had not spun such a beautiful tale, she would never have lingered so long on the surface. Never to lose first her heart, then her way back home.
I don't know. I never will know now. My dear, foolish girl. What I would give to turn back time, and never let you touch the world above.
All I wanted was a chance to choose my love, but I knew that would never be.
Duty came before all else. But for a time, I can escape, if but briefly.
Goddess above, if you hear me, let me choose.
And I was heard.
For my baby sister, I would do anything.
We were the closest in age, among the many daughters of the sea. I would protect her from the world, but I couldn't protect her from herself.
Time was a cruel mistress. It came and stole my baby sister's heart, before I knew it was ever gone.
And by the time I found out, there was only so little time left. I had no other choice but to bargain with the devil, and I knew that even if my sister were saved, her innocence would forever be tainted.
But better her alive and well, than taken well before her time. We had centuries ahead of us before reuniting with Mother Sea, and she was still but a child. Blood on her hands would be a small price to pay, and I would pay it for her gladly if only I could.
I would sink a thousand ships and more to spare her the pain, but my hands were tied. The enchantment was bound to her word; it had to end by her hand. And so I waited restlessly, under the ship ablaze with festive light. The landwalkers made merry under the starry skies, even as time rippled away with every rise and fall of the tides.
I was ill at ease, and yet I could do nothing, except pray to Mother Sea that my sister would be able to do the deed.
Right before the dawn, the humans released their own lights into the sky in celebration. The flamework bloomed like a dozen flowers across grey skies, drowning out even the sound of my own heartbeat. The wind mingled the salt of the waves with my rising dread. Grief waxed as moon waned into harsh dawn.
The sun came, but my sister never did.
There would be no body, for as we were born of the sea, we returned to it as foam across rolling tide.
I could not even take revenge, for I had promised her not to touch her beloved.
The sea as my witness, I would have brought the storm down upon them. But I could not, for was not my little sister part of the sea? She watches me now, though she has no eyes left to see.
In sorrow I sank deep beneath waves. I would never surface again, not to the air in which my naive sister breathed her last.
She was so young, even as I once was.
No, I was younger then. Once, before.
There is a price to be paid for all things. I learned it myself, each turn of the season carving that lesson a stroke deep. Every deal made, a chain tightening like a noose. Never ending, the snake eating its own tail.
I am bound. For every favor, I must demand something in return.
I had thought to stop her. Briefly, almost.
She had the same name. I saw history repeating itself. The wheel turns.
A name I had long since discarded. I named my price high, so high that only a fool would take it.
She was that fool. I was that fool.
There is no turning back on the deal. I cannot stop them from making it, I cannot reverse my end of the bargain once sealed.
I am honest, in that alone. Pay the price, and I give you exactly what I promised.
Her lost voice echos in a tinny whisper, trapped in the bottle she gave over to me to seal the bargain. A beautiful voice. I might keep it longer, to remind me of better times.
When her kin came to me, I held back nothing. Was that not part of the deal? I do not lie. I never do.
A price for everything. Even one such as I could be merciful, in my own way.
Fools needed a painful lesson to mind the error of their ways. A knife I traded for hair and scale. Far too low a price, the deal whispered. You need to demand more, the magic insisted.
But I have, I have. There is a price for the magic. Blood for a life returned. The dark contemplates this, and loosens its hold. I breathe, and watch the sister go.
Perhaps I would make a little puppet out of what I traded for. I might even make it sing.
A little music would allow me to remember what it was like to dance again, a lifetime and more ago. When I was young, gay and free.
The dawn comes. Which would be the bargain complete?