Mermaids - Truths and myths

~ Part 5 ~

 

 

by Elante of Alinor,

Mermaid

 

 

 

Volkihar Castle is inhabited by vampires. Some of them as old as my sister and mentor.

 

 

This I do not doubt, both because she told me so on our way from Solstheim to Skyrim and because I spied on them from the ocean one night. Still, it matters little, they live in their castle, we live in our shipwreck as the best possible neighbours: those unaware of each other. Rather than worrying about anything, I keep learning about my new life as a true mermaid, my mortal body being nothing more than a bad memory.

 

 

The local fauna can be aggressive, from slaughterfish nibbling on my tail to sharks mistaking us for prey, but it was clear enough that no shark tooth was sharp enough to break through armour spells, leading to frustrated fish and a couple of amused mermaids. Or to nothing more than some remains surrounding a couple of recently-fed mermaids. Shark soup is, after all, a delicacy both on land and in water.

 

 

With no need to protect me anymore from fauna, mortals or time, my mentor gave me my freedom even though the both of us knew I would not leave for long the one who gave me everything I was. For days and weeks, I swam and walked as a mermaid and a siren, looking at the scurrying of mortal men and mer like I would have observed deer and boars in the forest, with curiosity but little interest.

 

 

I was seen a handful of times by wanderers and travellers alike, although never from close enough that they could have been sure of who they saw, and the few times I walked on two legs inside a mortal inn, I barely heard more tales about my kin than I did in Dawnstar. Thinking about the town, I felt now and then curious to see how it went since we left it, but it came to my attention one day without warning.

 

 

I went to Solitude on a semi-regular basis to study under the Bards' College for even if the mortals had no hope to match the natural harmony that a mermaid's voice would achieve without effort, my teacher told me they had a good enough grasp on theory that even I could learn from them. I was sure that the humans in charge of this College would have been amused and honoured that a mermaid recommended them, but the only thing they knew was that a new student with a divine voice had graced their halls and was learning eagerly.

 

 

Studying in such a setting brought me back to my College of Magic days, albeit with much more raw talent now than I had then, which led me to some avoidable mistakes and well-needed humility as some mortals did outdo me in song when I relied too much on my siren voice rather than applying what I was taught. But I learned nonetheless, until one of the students eventually took me aside and called me by my old name, the one I wore as a mortal.

 

 

I did not pay attention to individual mortals and it came close to be my ruin, as I eventually recognised the daughter of the innkeeper from Dawnstar, who evidently recognised me under my perfected traits and posture. She confronted me, accusing my sister and mentor of having destroyed her family as the gem left for payment attracted thieves of all kind, first among them the Jarl who would not allow a lowly innkeeper to be in possession of a jewel worthy of the High Queen.

 

 

The innkeeper's entire family ended up dying or jailed under trumped charges and the Jarl in possession of a stone worth the entire town. Only she had escaped by chance, and ran away from the Hold until reaching Solitude and working her old job in a new inn until now, her savings spent to learn a trade that could ensure her living. She never forgot nor forgave, however, the mage's regal friend who stunned all with her body, nor me, who brought that queen to her family and who somehow surfaced again years later under a glamour of sharp beauty.

 

 

Her hatred for me and my mistress seemed to run deep, but somehow, I felt detached from it, from her, as I would be of a growling pet. I even started thinking on how distant her pain felt to me, how the past few years had changed me for the better and set me aside from her petty drama. It was hard to take her tears seriously when she would be forgotten by all in a few decades at most.

 

 

I could have acted as if I had no idea what she was talking about, or ignored her from my status as the rising star of the student body, but instead, I smirked at the absurdity of it all, of this mortal pretending her emotions or struggles had any relevance to who I had become. Unsurprisingly, she reacted badly and screamed harder, grabbing a nearby knife and attempting to stab me.

 

 

What she did not understood about us sirens is that our voice and skin are not the only regal things in us, but also our every move, our posture. Mortals look at us in veneration because we are perfection both still and in movement, standing like a statue of flesh when focused and walking like a dancer with centuries of experience to her trade. Her knife never came close to my skin, not that it would have pierced my wards in the first place.

 

 

The blade did come physically close to me, but each of my moves, of my paces, was such that her hand could have been in Cyrodil the entire time. She slashed, stabbed, yelled and ranted for minutes as a crowd was forming around us. Guards and teachers were witnessing the entire thing, but their desire to stop the one-sided assault was overruled by the graceful spectacle I was offering them, dancing around my assailant without a single wasted move, a show of perfection that not even the Dark Brotherhood's best assassins could have managed.

 

 

The spell broke eventually, as she was too exhausted to continue flailing around aimlessly and fell on her knees, crying like a possessed woman. Suddenly recovering themselves, the guards ran to her, kicking her in the sides before carrying her away while the headmaster apologised profusely for the assault and their delay in rescuing me. I accepted gracefully his apologies and asked if he could see to it that this poor rambling woman would not be jailed, for madness is its own punishment.

 

 

My legend grew ten-fold on that day, for the student with a divine voice showed herself to be a supreme dancer with a dash of mercy for the one who assaulted her without cause. Over the following weeks, my studies resumed and the competition among students was clearly done without me as none deluded themselves to consider me as within anyone's range. Neither the teachers, for the matter, who were thankful enough to have glanced at artistic perfection through me. Meanwhile, the homeless former student, daughter of a now-dead innkeeper, was glaring at me every day as I came and went from the college.

 

 

The evening of the day before graduation, I silently incinerated all my belongings and sneaked in the College’s archives, doing the same with all documents carrying traces of my passage. Mortals would remember me, but unlike words, this was a self-correcting issue given enough time, so I did not care. I should have, however, as the innkeeper's daughter surprised me as I left the College in the middle of the night. She was seething with hatred, yet perfectly calm.

 

 

"You are a demon. A Siren using her charms to have your way."

 

 

I did not care about the knife she held and I walked to her, grabbing her other hand. She was smart enough to not try to stab me again, remembering the futility of it on the day I ruined her life a second time.

 

 

"Come with me, innkeeper's daughter," I told her without bothering to remember her name. "It is time for us to leave this city for good."

 

 

During a few instants, I felt her struggle until she relaxed, accepting her fate and dropping the knife on the ground. My hang on her shifted as well, moving from her wrist to her hand, and we walked together as lovers towards the gates leading to the harbour. I would have liked to pretend it was in pure silence, but I was the only one graceful enough to walk without making a noise, her footsteps being audible as well as her soft sobbing.

 

 

I wonder to this day whether she was sobbing because of what she expected her fate to be or because she had the grace of holding the hand of a perfect being, but in reality, this did not matter. We walked through the harbour and left Solitude behind us, reaching the moonlit shore with no prying eyes. I left her hand and told her to disrobe while doing the same. After a few seconds of hesitation, she obeyed and I soon incinerated the two piles of clothes before holding her hand again and leading her to the sea.

 

 

As we walked in the waves, I felt my legs stirring, the scales quickly growing over my skin and my bones twitching as they started the transformation that would give me my tail once again. By the time we were both chest-deep in water, I nudged the shift and felt my fish half come to life again while she looked at me in terror and awe. Before she said a thing, I put a finger on her lips.

 

 

And I started singing.

 

 

With my voice, my magic and the College's teaching, I sung for her, looking at her emotions and her psyche collapsing in the face of a mermaid's most famous power, until she was entirely mine to do as I wanted. She desired me more than anything else in the world, her worries and attachments gone for nothing came close to the goddess she was looking at, and when I dived underwater, she followed me awkwardly with her mortal legs.

 

 

We embraced, our arms, legs and tail forming but one body in mutual ecstasy, and then I kissed her. I felt her entire body climaxing, her eyes showing panic and bliss at the same time as I started taking her body, life and soul inside me, until she was nothing more than bones slowly dispersing under the moonlit waters. I was still panting when I heard my sister's voice.

 

 

"You are ready."

 

 

I followed her back to our shipwreck, basking in her compliments for my song and how it reflected all that I had become, how I now was almost one with my new bodies. When I asked what she meant by almost, she told me that my soul was still tainted by my mortal birth and that it was time to make me perfect, for me to be born anew.

 

 

She told me about the vampire mage who once inhabited the castle, who experimented on souls and who left centuries ago for another plane. She told me how they both experimented on each other, the vampire and the mermaid, apex predators of land and sea respectively. And she told me how, like a mortal could become a pure-blooded vampire in body and soul, a mermaid could do the same.

 

 

So this is the end of my tale, I am leaving these written memories here for you to find, my sister-in-being, as in a few hours, I will join my mentor in being complete. My soul will become one of a perfect mermaid, my mortal memories will no longer be mine and I will embrace the eternity that awaits me, with no beginning and no end. I wonder what millennia of memories I will inherit, but I know millennia of wonders await me.

 

 

And I know why no written trace remains of mermaids. We will be waiting for you.

 

Fin