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The water on the day that they meet is dark, gloomy, and still, a mirror reflecting the overcast sky, and yet somehow Gem has managed to crash her boat. She’ll chalk it up to being overtired, or the rocks being hidden beneath the (nonexistent) waves, and not distraction, when talking to Etho as he counts the damages, sees just how much fixing will have to go into making it operational again.
She’s sitting, pouting, on a log by her beached boat, waiting for Etho to pull up to tow it away, when a flash of movement catches Gem’s eye, over by where the river meets the sea. A woman walks up the bank, fully clothed but seemingly drenched in water. Her long blonde hair is plastered to her face, something green clinging to it at the ends–seaweed, maybe? She raises a hand in greeting and Gem, a little stunned, raises her hand from her lap to wave pitifully.
“I would tell you to be careful,” the woman says, voice smooth and strange, an accent that Gem’s never heard. It’s pretty. “But it seems you’ve learned your lesson.”
“Yeah,” Gem says, mouth inexplicably turning up into a smile. “These waters are no joke. My friend’s coming to get me, though, and my boat. He’ll fix it up.”
“Oh? He will, will he?” Gem nods, confused. The woman just smiles, picking the green out of her hair. “Well, it’ll be a bit, so I might as well keep you company.” She plops down on the sand next to where Gem is sitting.
“Oh!” Gem straightens, suddenly remembering the manners her mother tried desperately to ingrain in her. “Sorry, I forgot myself. I’m Gem, what’s your name? Do you… um… need help?”
“You may call me False. This is my home.” Her home? As far as Gem is aware, none of the islands on this side of the cove are inhabited by anything besides crabs and the rare sea turtle nest. Maybe False just moved in, though. It’s not uncommon for artists and writers to search out plots of land here, to be one with nature. She does look a lot like an artist would, with a cream-colored button-up shirt and brown pants, with what might be paint splatters covering them.
“That’s cool, um, it is really pretty out here… I don’t come out this far much, mostly because of the rocks. If you can’t tell, I have a history with being clumsy behind the wheel.” She’s a little flustered, embarrassed at saying all this to a stranger, especially one as pretty as False. Gem looks at her lap to hide the flush on her cheeks, the pink that’s come on too quickly to be called sunburn.
There’s a split second of silence, only broken by the small waves crashing along the shore, the creaking of Gem’s boat settling on the sand. False clears her throat. “It is… lonely, out here with just the water, as much as I love it. It’s been nice to talk to someone other than myself.”
As she says that, there’s the sound of an engine in the distance, and Gem snaps her head up to see the familiar shape of Etho’s boat coming around the bend. Well, it’s not his boat, exactly, instead one borrowed from Grian (who doesn’t even leave the dock anymore when fishing so it’s just sitting unused anyways), but it gets the job done when Etho has to leave the small town of Greater Hermiton. It’s usually only for Gem, anyways.
“There’s my friend now,” Gem says, not breaking her eyes away from the fast approaching boat. “Took him long enough.”
Etho pulls up, looking very done with Gem’s antics, and jerks his head towards her boat. “Come on,” he says. “Let’s get this home so it doesn’t deteriorate any more.”
Before she leaves, Gem turns to say goodbye to False, thank her for keeping her company. False has vanished, not even leaving footprints in the sand to mark her presence. “Where’d she go?” She yelps, feeling very confused. “The lady that was with me just now, did you see her walk off?”
Etho shakes his head, clearly thinking that she’s seeing things from heatstroke or lack of sleep. “You were alone when I pulled up.”
Gem returns to the island, where they met, more times than she can count. The first time she has to call out for False to get her to come out. The second time, False is waiting for her, sitting on the broken log that Gem was sitting on when they first met. She is still perpetually sopping wet, somehow never drying off and never being bothered by the cold. False smiles, and for the first time Gem notices that her teeth are slightly sharper than should be normal.
After that it’s as if they’ve known each other their whole lives. Gem tells False about how she wants to go back to school, get a marine biology degree, once she finally pays off her debt. She has a place waiting for her at a school on the mainland, a scholarship lined up. False tells her about the paintings and sculptures she likes to make sometimes when the tide goes out. She has nothing to show for it, blaming the tide.
The final time Gem returns to the island, after weeks of making the long trip over just to see False, False is standing calf-deep in the water. “Excited to see me?” Gem asks, dropping the anchor and leaping off the side of the boat into the water. Her bare feet sink into the soft sand and the water splashes up to her thighs, splattering her shorts with droplets. It’s a little annoying, but nothing she can’t handle.
“It’s the highlight of my day,” False says, walking deeper into the water. “The water is wonderful but I think I like talking to you better.” Gem grins, heart skipping a beat, and closes the distance between them, wrapping her arms around False in a hug. It’s the first time they’ve hugged, and she gets the sense that False is not used to it, Gem feels her arms find their way to their rightful place at the small of her back.
“Why don’t you come back with me, to Greater Hermiton?” Gem asks. “That way you don’t have to be lonely and we can be together all the time. The water doesn’t have to be your only friend.”
False’s face falls, smile washing away like writing in sand. “This is my home,” she says quietly. “I can’t leave it, no matter how hard I try.”
Gem leaves the island a few hours later, leaving False just a kiss on the cheek. She has fishing to do, and a mountain of debt to Scar to pay back.
It’s only a week later that Gem notices that her trawl net seems to be dragging, as if there is a weight far over what it should be able to carry in it. Pulling it up, in order to make sure that no driftwood or lost nets have gotten caught in it so that she doesn’t have to take it back to Etho again , so soon after having to have it repaired the last time.
But instead of a hunk of wood, or even a massive fish accidentally gotten caught when it shouldn’t have, what comes up when she finishes twisting the crank is False, pouting with her arms crossed. What’s the most strange, however, is that she seems to have traded in her pants and boots for a massive, shimmering purple and blue tail. Her hair is still blonde, laced with seaweed and coral, and her skin is tinted a scaly blue on her cheekbones.
“Oh,” Gem says, taking a step back. “That’s new.”
“Not particularly for me,” False says, teeth needle-sharp. “Although humans are usually a fair bit more scared than you are currently.”
“I’ve fished up stranger things.” Gem thinks back to the strange things she’s seen when the water gets slightly too deep or the night gets too long, the fish that aren’t quite right. “Um. You’re beautiful.”
She didn’t mean to say it, but it just came out as she’s standing there, staring at False, her button-up clinging to her skin. False gestures for her to come closer, and Gem complies almost without thinking.
Before Gem can blink, she is kissing False as if lapping up water, tasting the salt on her lips and then eventually blood as False’s teeth, slightly too sharp, pierce her lips as they kiss. It’s the most amazing experience she’s ever had, past going out on the sea for the first time, catching her first fish.
“False,” Gem gasps, when the kiss is finally done. “Who-who are you?”
“ Who am I?” False asks with a smile. “You know that. It's what that people usually question.” Gem doesn’t move. “As for that,” False continues, “Well, I’ve been called many things. Siren, mermaid, naiad, nymph. But I prefer the title protector of the water.”
That makes sense. She did say it was her home, after all, that it was where she belonged. “Ok,” Gem says quietly, and leans in for another kiss, before letting False out of the net to sit quietly on the edge of the deck, side by side.
“I am so sorry,” False says eventually. “I-this can’t continue. I have to… you deserve a life and to grow old, die, with someone who will follow you there, with someone who can follow you anywhere you go. You deserve to leave the archipelago, Gem,” Gem’s stomach is twisting in ways she hates, “you deserve a life outside of me.”
“What if I don’t want that?” Gem asks. “What if I want to live here, with you? I don’t care that you’ll live forever, that I won’t. I wanna spend that with you. False, please . I want you .” She’s crying now, although she hadn’t realized that she was crying, tears mixing with the blood and seawater already on her lips. It stings.
“You can’t have me,” False says quietly, voice smooth. “I belong to the water, and no one else. It’s my curse to bear. Gem… tomorrow, you will not remember this. You will not remember me. It’s how it works. It’s how it’s always worked. I’m sorry, love.” She looks over at Gem and places one last kiss on her forehead.
Gem wakes up on her boat by the church bell ringing. She opens her eyes, squinting in the sun, to find that she’s in the wharf of Greater Hermiton. Strange. Last she remembered she was… huh. She can’t remember. Must have been a wild night last night, then. Maybe today she’ll go see… wait. Who was she going to see? She was excited, wasn’t she? Oh, no matter. It can’t have been that important.
Gem stands up to head to Etho’s, pick up that crab pot she left with him to be fixed. As she’s reached his door, just about to swing it open, Gem feels like someone is watching her from the shore. She turns to see a tall, lean figure standing on the dock, blonde hair dripping wet. They raise one hand in greeting and, although she’s not sure why, Gem does the same.