But I ignored Arlo’s plea and jumped into the sea.
Deeper I swam, with everything in me. The world above was muted and distant. The familiar glow of my bracelet haloed me, warming the water. The strange feeling of being able to breathe the harsh salt water set in uncomfortably.
I would swim to Naiadon if I had to.
A prayer passed through my mind, for Hylos, Nixie, Raylik, Lumina. Guardians, I would even take Morvyn right now. Any of my friends to help me. Infernum, I’d try my luck with a random siren if I had to, and explain who my brother was, invoking the fear of Hylos’s name.
My muscles fought against the buoying of my body, the ocean rejecting me, trying to return me to where I belonged. But I would not accept it. I wouldn’t go back, not without my family. Nor without knowing my brother was safe.
Nymphaea brings those to the sea to be saved. How many times had they told me that in Naiadon? And I needed saving. But perhaps it wasn’t clear enough.
Maybe mortal turmoil was needed to be saved by the sirens. By Nymphaea’s children. It was a dark thought, but I was desperate.
The prayer bracelet, the only token of my mother remaining, embraced me. Protecting me from this foreign environment’s effects on my body.
The siren saved those near death. As they saved Lumina.
Unclasping the bracelet that still glowed with its sanctuary around me, I dropped it into the void.
Slowly it sank, taking its aura with it.
The cold hit me first. Then the need for air. I trudged deeper, swimming hard into the depths of the sea. That way there was no chance to return. I would die trying to get back to Naiadon.
Panic set in, but I ignored it. My heart raced in my chest, but I only listened to its beat. Its tempo. It slowed and slowed. The burn in my body, desperate for air. To the beat of my heart’s slowing cadence, I tried to find my music on the wingspan of wild-crafted song, to call any siren in the sea nearby.
Find me. Save me.
Right as my vision faded, I heard it, a myriad of voices formed into a singular musical composition, resonating on rays of white light that rang proudly.
Oh child, how many times must I save you?The light engulfed me in a sphere of warmth. The ability to breathe returned, just as it had with the prayer beads.
A giant forefinger reached for the orb I was in, as if I was within a marble, and plucked me, bringing me up to its owner’s face. I stared up in utter reverence, frozen in unthinkable fear and joy. Guardian of the ocean. Holy Mother of the sea. Nymphaea herself stared back at me. Holy shit, she was real.
Tendrils of white-gold hair danced above her head as she stared back at me through blinding white eyes like beams of starlight. It was as if she was made from starlight. She was glorious, and I could have looked upon her in awe for centuries.
But I was running out of time.
So, I thought in song—a minor mode with a slow, measured tempo. The notes played, and my fingers moved as I envisioned the music as it would fly from a virginal, like birds through the trees.
I need to stop Hylos. Please help me.
You wish to save your brother, she proclaimed, hearing me.
Thank the bloody Guard—well, thank her!
You also wish to save your people too. Her words echoed through her rhapsodic melody.But the only thing I may offer you, my child, is the gift of the sea. But with it comes sacrifice.
Her music blared as a dream unfolded before me, revealing a man with dark hair—it must have been Arlo—and myself walking through the countryside, hand in hand. A small red-headed child toddled in front of us.
The vision glittered in gold and green. The sun was setting, lighting that easy life ablaze, like Arlo’s warm eyes when they were on me below the sea. Resplendent and heart-shatteringly beautiful.
But it would be a life built on lies.
I was almost shocked at how easy it was to say,I forsake it all.
It was a beautiful dream. A lovely thought. But it was never meant for me.
As you wish, child. I shall make you in my image.
