Lumina and Nixie exchanged sidelong glances.
“Why do you ask?” Lumina asked.
“I’m curious, mostly. What kind of remarkable woman meets then convinces a siren king to build all of this for her?” But more importantly, how did she get here, and did she leave here alive?
The pair remained silent as around us, sirens enjoyed the glade, their strange coloring more vibrant here as they walked or lounged on blankets in clusters, relishing the sun.
A pair of red siren children, one a tall, gangly boy and the other a slender girl, both with matching glossy black hair, ran past our blanket in fits of giggles.
“Little is known of his mother,” Lumina said in a dismissive tone.
“Was she made as you were?” I asked.
“No, she was human, and remained human from what we know.”
“Let’s start with some siren basics. The birds and the bees as they say,” Nixie said, splaying a finned hand in Lumina’s direction.
“What?” Lumina asked.
“Well, tell her.”
“Why do I have to explain everything?” Lumina scoffed.
“Because you knoweverything,Lumi,” Nixie said as she stuffed another sweet in her mouth, a bit of powder left on her rose-colored lips.
“That is absurd, I do not know everything. That would be impossible.” Lumina rolled her big brown eyes. “But I will, as long as you do not interrupt me. Ihatewhen you and Morvyn interrupt me when I speak.”
“Of course. If you keep it short and sweet. No rambling on about too many particulars.”
“Fine.” She let out a huff that shook her long brunet braids. “But the complexities of siren genetics and mating especially in relation to other species isn’t exactly a simple topic to cover, considering—”
“You’re already doing it,” Nixie interrupted.
Lumina looked at her flatly, then continued, “I’ll start with those like Nixie and me, the made sirens, created by siren invocation or magic as you know it. When you’re made, you may no longer have children. Sirens call this the sacrifice. We areessentiallysterile.”
Nixie fidgeted at the statement. The topic of children seemed to make her uncomfortable, as it had when Calypstra brought it up in the grotto as a sort of dig at Nixie.
Lumina realized her unease too, and placed a gentle hand on her knee. “Sorry,” she said softly.
“It’s fine, keep going,” Nixie said, and tried to smile.
“We relinquish the creation of life to Nymphaea for our new life below the sea.” Lumina continued, “Then there arethe sirens who are born, like Raylik and Morvyn, their parents both sirens. They’re believed to be the most pure of our kind, often Circle leaders or influential members of inner circles.” But not Hylos’s inner circle, I noted; they were a mixture of made and born sirens. “And on exceedingly rare occasions, our kind come from the love of humans and sirens.” Lumina looked at the children with me.
“The children of human and siren relations often perish before they quicken in the womb, especially if the mother is human, as Hylos’s was. We don’t know her name; it’s not written anywhere, and Aegir was careful to keep it a secret. He referred to her as the queen of Naiadon. The first human toeverbe given a title below the sea in written history.”
Lumina paused and looked up.The scales on her cheeks shone in the sunbeams as she lifted a finned hand to block out the rays. “Which upset many. Aegir had already united the sea, which was a new thought in itself, and then he essentially crowned a human, refusing to be with apuresiren, or forge a worthy match with someone of his status like a Circle leader’s daughter or sister. It was very contentious. Many assumed unfruitful. Until of course one day, Hylos appeared here as a baby.”
Lumina let out a breath and Nixie sat up, crossing her legs before her and pulling them in as if for protection.
This story made them uneasy.
“But only Hylos appeared here in Naiadon, out of thin air, and his mother was never seen again.”
“Aegir was devastated,” Nixie added.
“There is no written account of his feelings,” Lumina stated factually, “but some state he searched for her on land for years.”
Nixie interjected, “Hylos grew up without a mother, and with a father who was absent for most of his life.”
