Seas of Affliction

“It was a few days after my 100th year of passing, my scales had finally started to turn over to their permanent color. I was beginning to think that I was going to be going with my mother and father on their seasonal migrations to visit allies and extended clan members, to seas I've dreamed of visiting. I was so optimistic during those years. I was nothing more than about ten years old in your rate of aging.

My day of passing, like a birthday I suppose but we don't celebrate such an occasion, falls a week before the official start of spring. During that time my father travels east and my mother west. It wasn't safe enough for me to travel with them. It was a time where a treaty between us and the humankind was nothing more than a superficial list of agreements. Spring brings on new hunting seasons, trade routes open up by almost double-- it is very much one of the busiest times of the year.

My father left before my mother. Before she left, I remember her picking out the dying scales on me. That has a terribly lasting sting, I wouldn't do it myself so she would always hold me by my tail and pluck them.”

“This is all very touching, but none of this is of any use to anything current.” I interrupted, not wanting her life story. She scowled at me though, eyes almost darker than the shadows that lived within others. Her features had softened despite her current condition. There was an inhuman quality, a type of beauty that no human could achieve, lying just below the surface.

“I can't tell you the reasons of my being here and so forth without defining the reasons for those. If it is all really so painful for you to sit through, then you can leave until you muster up enough gumption to just sit back and be silent.”

I rolled my eyes behind my lids, sinking more comfortably into my chair, motioning for her to continue.She picked up where she had stopped, going on about her mother and her leaving. Then her composure shifted to a heartier level of bottled sorrow.

“They had been gone longer than anytime before. My father had sent a message that he was meeting my mother in the west. I worried too much when I was younger, so I could only assume the worst of things. When my father did return, all he had was the polished sea glass that my mother wore around her neck as a sign of marriage. He smashed it with a rock, letting the shards of it settled down into the sand. I knew she had been killed. If she had died of natural causes, the necklace would've been passed down to me. But if she was murdered by outsiders, it was destroyed as it was no longer a fitting representation of her memory. It's frowned upon to speak of dead relatives or loved ones. Only on the rarest occasions should they be mentioned. I grew up much too fast after that, I didn't have a choice in the matter.

My mother and father most likely did love each other. Couplings first and foremost are to strengthen alliances or to be beneficial for everyone's future beyond your own. Things are passed down through a matriarchal order, there is never a doubt that a mother's children are hers. When a death happens, offspring are promoted to the vacant ranking. If it were my father who had died, I would've had an option to adopt his ranking since my mother was still present. But I didn't have a choice with her death.

I learned how she died when I had gotten a little older and more mature. She was ambushed essentially, caught up on a fisherman's net. She struggled to get free but she was killed, stripped of her scales, hair, and blood, then thrown back into the water. My father got there too late. With corpses, you weigh them down by tying something heavier like rocks or coral to them and letting them sink down into the nearest abyss. It was around that time that things started to unravel.”

“Hunting of your kind increased?” I asked.

She nodded blankly. “I've lost count of how many friends I've lost. And by the time a treaty of agreement was made, we were barely able to hold together a well enough clan. Things were well until about my 170th year of passing. Slowly we started hearing of illegal trade picking up again. It was so minuscule to be verified properly though. I was pulled every which way for the next 50 years. Many things came and went. Our territories, our allies, our clan numbers, and at one point I was arranged to be coupled with the son of a clan in the north. I declined though, much to my father's displeasure, but I could do that. He didn't have any rule over more than I him. The man I was coupled with was killed a few years later. It would've been a brief partnership, probably with an offspring.

These last ten years have been fighting and battling traders. Our alliances with not only other clans but sea folk was as far and wide as it has ever been. I never imagined seeing the places I wanted to see out of the duty to shed blood and sink entire ships out of necessity. Our longest standing alliance is with the Krakens, such quiet creatures--,”

“I'm sorry. Krakens? Huge, death bringers?” I tried imagining a kraken doing anything helpful for another being.

“They are quite deterring when you first meet one but you learn they are quiet beasts of great power. Their eyesight is close to blind but that leaves room for their other senses to be remarkable. They can smell potent blood, such as mine, up to ten miles away. Human blood, something from the land mixes quicker with the water, so at most they can smell it up to five miles away.”

“So, if you were to drop some of your blood over the edge of the ship right now, a kraken would show up?” The things you could obtain with that ability; to be feared by others?

“Why, yes I suppose. I wouldn’t hail him for no good reason though. That would be a waste of trust.” I hummed in response. I would still call them over every now and again to reassert our alliance.

“Continue on with your story then, I guess.” I waved, knowing I wouldn’t benefit much more from talking about the krakens.

“They’re our longest standing alliance. When our numbers dwindled, they sent some to us for protection, just until our population grew strong enough once again. That, if I remember correctly, lasted about twenty years. We had become weak during their stay, not wanting to waste any life, I couldn’t find sense to send people off to die a possible death. We’ve been slowly building up our strength again. Now, we’re as right as a straight wind. I find myself watching the shores of land, studying humans to try and gather anything helpful.”

“That’s why you were there that day?” I asked, remembering how uncharacteristic it was for someone of her kind to be in the close distance she was to shore.

“Yes. It was all fate I suppose. I didn’t think of you after that moment. I honestly didn’t remember you until I was in my somnolence.” I could see the scales shimmer against her throat as she swallowed roughly. Part of me felt like I had to reach out and touch them but every part of me knew that she’d have my hand if I did.

“Which reminds me of something. You kept calling me a sea witch. That term is mislead. A sea witch is someone who has powers and shifting abilities, manipulations that are specific to them. They live for sometimes thousands of years before they reincarnate themselves into a new form. I’m merely a mermaid, also not to be confused with a siren. Sirens are almost the other side of the coin to what a mermaid is. They’re cunning, manipulative, untrustworthy, and very dangerous. I don’t know if even my ranking would stop one from attacking.”

“You’re transforming back.” I finally noted aloud, it had been an unsaid happening that was hardly less that blatant.

“Technically not. I won’t as long as I don’t put myself on a deathbed. If by some reason that time were to come, I would need to cast myself overboard into the sea. Chances are I would survive fine but my quest would no longer be. This is my natural response to injury, not even sea witch magic can cloak it.”

“A sea witch did this to you?” I was struggling to find many humanistic features beyond her legs and most features. Her scales were crawling in numbers over the shell she wore, eyes were brightening to a silver liken to a sterling sheen. They took my right back to my darkest day.

“Of course. Did you think I just decided to turn myself into one of you just like that,” she snapped her fingers. “A friend and I struck a deal, we are both benefiting from my current form.”

“How so?” I was too curious not to ask.

“I can’t share that with you I’m afraid. Telling you could alter future fates into different ones. It’s best if you are as ignorant to it as possible.”

“Then why tell me all that you just did?” My arms rested against my knees as I leaned forward with interest.

“Because I need trust more than pride.” Her answer threw me for a loop. Could I really trust her?

“Even, hypothetically, if I did trust you. It wouldn’t matter, if my crew unanimously found you guilty of impersonation and ration thief, I would side with them any day.”

“Do they know the truth already?” She asked, stress weakly overtaking her expression.

“Yes. Reactions are mixed to say the least. Some are wondering how they were sleeping in the same room as a woman and never sensed it, like something were to come of it if they did know. Other’s spit on the name of mermaids, viewing you as some sort of glorified fish. And then some have respect or are simply too afraid to admit anything else.”

“Bring them in then. I will let them see for themselves what you see now. Do they know why I am abroad?” I felt a pit form in the notches of my stomach.

“Bringing them in wouldn’t be the best idea in your current state. You are rather defenseless.” A brow perked at my words.

“Are you worried for my safety, captain?” I snorted, wondering inwardly if that was what it was but she would never see that.

“Nonsense. Do you know how hard it is to scrub blood from wood?”

“I can imagine it’s quite porous.” I watched a micro-expression of pain twitch at the corner of her eye.

“When you are better enough, then I’ll let the hounds loose on you. Until then, Mr. Burke can bring up a bowl of water and a cloth to clean your shoulder wound,” I nodded towards it. Blood was beginning to reveal itself through the bandages.

“There will be no need. He’s lucky he’s still standing. Verdana’s blood is exceptionally potent. To a mere human, any chance to avoid direct contact with an infected area is highly advised.”

“Then you clean it yourself?” I asked, not knowing if she wanted it cleaned at all.

“No. It will be no use. Clotting is spotty with how corrosive the venom is to a body. When it begins to smell, then I will drain it.” I grimaced.

“I’ll be sure to not be around for that.”

“Even if you weren’t squeamish of it, again, much advised that you keep your distance of it.” She seemed to get some sort of amusement thinking that I was squeamish about bodily fluids.

“If a situation of spoiled flesh and blood can be avoided, I take it.” I stood from the chair, the movement of a dangling scale catching my eye. I reached forward, snatching it from her skin before she could object.

“Curses!” She rubbed the spot. “That still had a root to it, I’ll have you know!”

“You’ll survive, right?” I asked her tauntingly as I examined it.

“Can’t say the same for you.” I heard her mutter. I let it roll off me, letting her have the one verbal jab.

“I’ll show this off to the crew mates, they’ll be interested to see.” It felt silky between my fingertips, the small ridges as existent as a fingerprint. There but barely felt.

“It’ll turn them greedy, surely. It won’t bring them anything but that.” She huffed.

“I’ll be sure to pass those words of wisdom on. Until then, try not to turn into a fish out of water.” I was out of the room before she had a chance to respond, meeting the curious glances of my awaiting crew.