CHAPTER FIFTEEN
My mother’s deranged eyes opened before me in a flash, but I narrowly threw myself to the side, dodging the clawed hand flying through the water inches from tearing off my face.
Bubbles floated from the wild merfolk’s mouth as she screamed, frosted blood trickling through the water.
Her eyes bulged, crimson rings around the irises.
My back collided into a jagged bulge, my tail swishing vigorously to escape. Each piece of exposed flesh from peeled scales stung in the salty water, a sharp twinge of agony across my once full and beautiful tail.
I fought so hard every day to be what my parents needed, even going as far as to offering my own blood at the beginning of their addiction. But now, all my mother wanted was to drain my very essence. And I allowed it, as long as they stayed away from Evelyn.
“You, my darling—” My mother’s hoarse voice was riddled with malice. “—are leaving soon, so just let me get my fix!”
A desperate, weak cry escaped my mouth. I was so exhausted… so drained. Weak and frail. In the past weeks, I’d lost weight along my bones, each one peeking out as if announcing its existence.
“No,” I wailed, but a cracked smile spread slowly across my mother’s face.
“You cannot say no. The deal is done.” My mother feverishly picked at the sores marring her arms until they bled, phantom blue ribbons drifting upwards. “Your blood does nothing for me anymore. The Ocean Mother demands it. What she wants, she gets.”
“This isn't right. I've done nothing to deserve this!” My bellow rippled the water.
“It’s how we take the realm, my darling. You know this.”
My mother raked her thin, fragile fingers through my tangled hair, her arms shaking with withdrawals. It had only been hours since she sliced my skin last.
My blood did not fully fuel her needs anymore, so it was time for my sacrifice—except my parents kept their first born far later than most merfolk.
It didn’t matter that I had aged older than the normal sacrifices, since my parents couldn’t cut off their addiction long enough to send me off.
All of it for my blood. For something I had no control over. For a ritual they blindly followed.
I dreaded the day, knowing I would soon be wrestled by the Maelstrom Command and dragged to the depths of the Ocean Mother’s trenches. Just like they did to every merfolk traded by their parents.
The merfolk honors the sacrifice, believing each chosen soul of a first-born must be sent down the leyline to wake Thal’Maruun, the Abyssal Crown—an ancient goddess who is said to one day rise and drown the sunlit world.
But then, the shadows disappeared, replaced by a white glow. A new memory resurfacing.
A white glow and Noctis. I watched another version of myself, my crooked, above-ocean legs crouched in a field of grass, leaning too far left for a decent attack position.
The god found my weakness quickly, hooking his leg around mine and flattening my body to the ground.
His flexing arm caught my fall right before I crashed.
We laughed, and it was such a melodic tune.
My eyes prickled at the sound. At the beauty of the memory that flashed before me.
It was us. The same us he fought to bring back, and for some beautiful reason, that memory came back.
He had dimples. And even as I knew it was just a dream, my breath hitched at the sight of them.
At the sight of him. His black tunic lay thrown in the grass, exposing his abdomen, rigid as he stood strong, waiting for my next attack.
His soft, ruby wings drifted in the breeze, and I watched from the ground as his eyes closed at that contact.
I swept my leg out in a wicked movement, catching his ankles. He flipped sideways, landing with a groan on his elbow in the grass. I had never felt so alive, even watching it unravel before me in unconsciousness.
My vision blurred around the edges until I saw nothing but void.
My mind took me elsewhere, but I couldn’t see to make out where exactly.
Ripples in water surrounded me. I was beneath the waves.
Slowly, figures approached as I hugged my knees in a grimy, locked chamber.
My back hit the stone as I rocked, screaming until my traitorous body began to silence itself in the abyss.
The gauntlets that tore into my ankles and wrists pulled me to the ground under their weight.
They had captured me when I returned for Evelyn. Noctis would be devastated when he found out I stormed in for revenge without him, but I just couldn’t endanger him for my own mission. I wanted him to live. His life had been stolen from him for far too long, and I yearned to earn it back.
I eyed the iron bars as shadows lurked closer, hovering and haunting.
Cowering in the corner, I tried to hold back the whimpers, but they escaped anyway.
Keys clanked together as the merfolk soldier unlocked my cage and entered.
A predatory grin crawled across his lips, relishing in the torture I would soon endure.
“Let’s go,” he demanded, shoving his chain link covered tail into my ribs.
I screamed as the pain echoed through my body. After so long in captivity, I had hoped the agony would turn to numbness, but I would never be that lucky.
I couldn’t find it in me to take myself right back to misery.
To the clinic where they stabbed me with needles, testing my blood to compare with the others.
I was considered a traitor, so I would be sacrificed anyway, but it seemed as if the Maelstrom Command cared an awful lot about my blood in particular.
The soldier grunted as I refused to move. He lunged and gripped my hair in his clenched fist, leaving no room for pulling away, and dragged me through the water.
I surrendered in his grip, allowing him to yank me further into the depths, even as we turned in a different direction than normal. Darkness overtook the corridors, my merfolk eyesight struggling to decipher anything with my weak, frail body.
I would not be afraid.
The Maelstrom Command guard threw me inside a large room carved into black stone, smooth and ancient, that hummed with the pulse of raw energy.
The room was cathedral-like, its walls etched with sigils older than language, each one pulsing faintly with a sickly glow.
Vast, glass leylines shimmered through the water like molten veins of light.
The merfolk entered the room fighting, their scales dulled, eyes dimmed with the weight of fate.
No farewells spoken. They were offerings to travel the leyline's path and emerge on land, stripped of sea and self.
The Passage.
“Finally, the chance to meet the one who ran off,” a female slowly drawled through the room, her voice leadened with calm nature.
I met her gaze, watching the woman as she hovered above the rocky ground and swam to meet me. She was beautiful, full of life, rosy cheeks, and flowing silver hair that trailed behind. When my eyes caught on the crown that rested on her head, my body trembled.
The Ocean Mother.
“You know, normally, I don’t come to this part of the ritual. But when I heard you swam back to us, I knew I needed to be the one to see you off for sure this time,” the Ocean Mother said gently, her eyes scrunched in a stark contrast to her words.
I couldn’t seem to get any words out. I couldn’t find anything to say to get me out of the goddess’s harm.
She didn’t care about us, and she damn sure didn’t care about me.
But when I looked at her, I didn’t see destruction.
I saw beauty—ethereal and shining. For some reason, that scared me even more.
I could handle monsters. I’d slain them before.
But this? This was worse. This made me want to step closer.
Instead, I forced myself to shuffle backwards, away from the approaching goddess.
“Oh, dear. There is no escaping now. I’ve given you more years than I should have.” The goddess dragged the words as she drifted on a current. “You were the first born over twenty years ago… why is it that your parents did not bring you sooner?”
She waited, halted in her swimming as she stared at me, eyes of fiery ice burning into my soul.
“Go ahead. Answer the question,” she seethed. “Why is it that your parents kept you for longer than they should have?”
I swallowed, forcing myself to think.
“Hmm…” the Ocean Mother hummed, gesturing to me to answer.
“They want my blood.”
“Tell me why, dear,” she chided, moving closer. “Say it out loud. You know the answer.”
“My power… is different.”
The Ocean Mother clicked her tongue, pointing a single finger in my direction.
“Exactly. And they have no self control!” She bellowed the last two words, the chamber shaking under the sound, a vein protruding from her smooth-skinned temple.
“So, now, I’ll make sure you aren’t a threat to my plans.
A royal pain in the ass you’ve been already,” she hissed.
“And when you get to the Terraguard Bound, I can’t wait for your blood to seep into their veins, so when I’m ready to control it,” she lifted her arm, and my same-sided arm shot up with hers, mimicking the motion, “I will take it all.”
The goddess flicked her hands, and I flew to the stone floor out of my own control.
I wrestled with my body to cooperate, but I became the Ocean Mother’s puppet.
Only then did I understand the devastation the goddess would bring to the land dwellers—understood that it was more than only driving the Terraguard inhabitants mad.
She could orchestrate their very actions.
It was all a lie. The rituals. The Passage. The goddess’s lighthearted sense of innocence.
My kinds’ blood fueled the land realm, giving them a false sense of power… and the sea will steal their minds with it when the Ocean Mother demands it.