Mermaids - Truths and myths

~ Part 2 ~

 

by Elante of Alinor,

Wandering scholar

 

 

 

 

Having made my home in Dawnstar, where sailors and traders abound, mermaid tales have been part of life, whether in song, drunken ramblings and bawdy jokes. Being the one witnessing such a creature was not, however, something I had come to expect from my stay in this town. No matter how welcome I had been made to feel, Dawnstar was to be a stop slightly longer than the others, a place where I could build up my resources both material and intellectual before moving elsewhere and make a name for myself.

 

Spying this creature with my own eyes changed everything, though. Even if I was not privy to the secrets held by Arch-Mages, living long enough to graduate my alma mater with my limbs and my sanity also meant I had read much more about magic and creatures than most. Mermaids were a thing of legend, of fairy tales, but even if all in Anvil know and love their statue, noone reputable could ever attest of their actual existence, past or present.

 

Yet one was seemingly resting, her back and tail on the rocks, as if sunbathing. Having learned caution from the fate of too many overenthusiastic students, I kept my distance and ensured as little as possible of my head emerged from the waves, trusting my magically-grown gills to do their job as I followed her every move. After a few minutes, I was convinced to be looking at a sentient being, from a kind that somehow escaped notice and reporting for possibly centuries.

 

Two conclusions came from my observations, one or both having to be right to explain what I saw. Either mermaids appeared and disappeared over the eras and were not present in our world for long enough to leave records, or all reputable witnesses were silenced before they could put their observations to parchment.

 

Or both.

 

A spell used by students to better concentrate and study in common dormitories was to be my first friend, considering what the tales said about mermaids. Becoming temporary deaf could be risky at sea where sound is as important as sight to avoid predators, but if mermaids can truly ensnare mortals with their song, it would be well worth it, assuming such a hypothetical song acted through ears.

 

The truth was that I knew nothing, and any mage will tell you there is no scarier situation for us to face: a mage is only as good as their knowledge of dangers to come. So I left, dived underwater and moved away from the shipwreck then to the shore. For my long walk home, I renewed both my gills and my deafness, for if a mermaid is around, being close to the sea could be dangerous to the extreme until I knew more.

 

I had two hypotheses, and only one could be experimented on, so my path was obvious: it isn't possible to demonstrate that mermaids silenced all those who witnessed them over millennia, but it is possible to prove that mermaids can come and go with the ages.

 

To do so, I would simply have to become a mermaid myself.

 

The conclusion was logical, sensible and absurd at the same time. I would prove that it is possible such creatures do not truly exist as a separate species like men and mer by using magic to turn a human in a mermaid. And hopefully back.

 

I knew such ambitious project, a body-wide alteration matrix to a hitherto unknown species, was the very type of hubris at the core of the cautionary tales that were told at the College, yet I could not convince myself to renounce it.

 

As I write these lines, I know more, so much more, and I like to believe the two hypotheses were right, that proper witnesses were silenced, not by vulgar murder but by the compulsion I felt. As if a geas was set upon me the instant I saw her on the rocks, forcing me to follow the path that I walked to its inevitable outcome. But I also know this theory is just as likely to be an excuse, a denial of my inner desires dating back from before the encounter.

 

Just as I know now that even this could have been the result of the compulsion itself, and this way lies madness. Looking back at things, I have no regret, this path is mine, now and forever, and whether you, reader, follow it, will be answer enough to this riddle I leave behind as I close to the final step.

 

Back in my room at the tavern, I laid down my books, my notes and more paper than most town halls usually have in their archives. And I started working over days and weeks to solve the magical enigma this creature was: half-woman, half-fish, yet in control of her limbs, sentient and most likely at home under the waves. Living underwater meant different body heat requirements and being able to live through a regimen of raw food. I was careful in my studies, defining clearly each of the concepts and functions her body, no matter how mythical, should possess.

 

With each blackened roll of paper, my understanding of the mermaid became clearer, as a problem I would solve through the analytical mind of the College-trained mage rather than any bard song and verse about the lady of the ocean. My anatomical drawings became more and more detailed and simple at the same time, each sketch implying less and less magic to keep the body alive, until I reached an acceptable "design" of sorts, needing little magic after the alteration to remain alive.

 

Exhilarated by the achievement of this theoretical proof of an intellectual challenge that could easily have been given by my teachers, I could have stopped there and taken a cart to Winterhold where the region's College stood. The Arch-Mages are famous for detecting lies and my telling the encounter with my work here would have a good chance of getting through, possibly to start proper studies on this mystery with the help of more experienced mages than I.

 

But as I looked at my sketches of a mermaid, on which, for simplicity's sake, I had put my own face, I convinced myself there would be something even more dramatic as a proof I could do.

 

Not, to be honest, that I needed much convincing to do it.

 

More weeks were spent, dipping in my savings from salvage expeditions, to craft the spell itself, the one I instinctively knew would work and turn my body in the one I drew, until, by the light of the candle, I knew I was ready.

 

Without a sound, I left the tavern and went to an isolated spot near the shore that I found earlier, where I could hide my clothes and belongings with little risk of theft. Disrobing to allow the spell to work without interference on my Self, I looked at the full moon wondering if I would next see it as a dying mass of torn Flesh or as the magnificent Creature at home in the Water.

 

Saying it was pleasant would be a half-lie, for being a mermaid was one of the most pleasurable and fulfilling sensations I ever experienced until then, but the transformation that made my legs become a single beautiful tail was beyond painful.

 

Everything was worth it when I caught my breath and looked at my new body, even more beautiful than in my drawings and my dreams of the past weeks. I confess I giggled like a little girl when this fantasy had become truth, and I confidently crawled on the beach towards the ocean, answering each wave's call to join its misty embrace.

 

Being submerged eclipsed the previous, already overwhelming sensations. I had designed this body well, so well that every sense was yelling a feeling of contentment to my brain and for minutes, I swam as naturally as I once walked, fast enough to reach the Pilgrim's Trench and see the sunken wrecks in a way that I never could with my limited diving spell.

 

But in the middle of my exploration, I felt my reserves of magicka dwindle, reminding me that this body, as perfect as it was, still needed magic to work, and I did not want for it to fail while so deep. Thus, with regret, I swam back to the shore and beached myself, just in time as my reserves exhausted themselves, bring with them another wave of pain.

 

Screeching and twisting on the sand as my tail was burning from the inside, slowly splitting again in legs, I saw between two thrashings a familiar silhouette emerging from the ocean.

 

The mermaid had come back, this time for me.

 

By the time the pain subsided, she had crawled next to me and was looking at me with some curiosity and amusement on her face. My legs still twitching and not yet recovered, I was both aroused and terrified at my vulnerability when she closed her eyes and moved her lips silently. Instants later, her body started shifting like mine did, although with barely a hint of pain showing on her face, and a perfect woman soon stood up, smiled at me and gave me her hand.

 

I was frozen in shock, my eyes trying and failing to find a single defect to her face or her skin while her legs, covered in the same scales that were her tail moments before, betrayed a posture and elegance more at home with an goddess than a mere mortal.

 

"Come with me, sister."