Chapter 398:

Lorelei

It hurts.

But I am accustomed to pain. I have been accustomed to pain for a very long time.The wounds on my back are deep, angry, bleeding....they... will heal. They always heal.

I lean on my elbows, my tail trailing in the water of the small cave. The salt stings the cuts, but I do not flinch. I have stopped flinching years ago.

The egg is more active than usual.

Pulsing. Glowing. Thrumming with something that feels like anticipation.

I watch it.

Could it be?

No.

For many moons I have been waiting for the human.

I am tired now. But still, I wait.

For over a hundred full moons, I have waited. My anticipation was once eager,bright and hopeful, like sunlight on the water. Now it is only disappointment. Heavy. Cold. Familiar.

I do not remember the memories of the forbidden waters. Not clearly. The memories are fragments, shards of something broken. A laugh. A hand in mine. The feeling of being held.

I remember being happy.

The human made me... happy.

More than I can quantify.

I do not remember their face. I cannot see it when I close my eyes, no matter how hard I try. Their features have faded like footprints washed away by the tide. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

But I remember their touch.

The warmth of their palm against my cheek. The gentle press of their lips on my forehead. The way they held me like I was something precious, something worth protecting.

They loved me.

I am certain of that much.

They loved me.

One day, after falling ill, I came back from the forbidden waters...I found myself with an egg.

I did not know how. I did not understand. The elders said it was punishment. The elders said it was wrong.

They wanted to destroy it.

They wanted to kill my child.

I would not let them.

So I left. I swam away from my clan, from my family, from everything I had ever known. I took the egg and I did not look back.

They banished me.

I did not care.

Let them call me outcast. Let them whisper my name like a curse, like a warning, like a shame. I would rather be alone in the vast, hungry sea than stand among them while they plotted to destroy my child.

This is my baby.

My child.

My only fragment.

My proof that what I felt...those fleeting moments in the forbidden waters, those fragmented memories that slip through my mind like water through fingers...was real.

I do not remember the human’s face.

I do not remember their name, their voice, the color of their eyes.

But I remember this. This warmth. This hope. This small, glowing proof that I was not dreaming. That I was not imagining the happiness, the love, the rightness of being held.

They loved me.

I hold onto that.

I held onto that.

I still hold onto that.

They loved me.

The way their fingers intertwined with mine. The way their thumb traced circles on the back of my hand.

They loved me.

I flip my tail sadly, the movement slow and heavy. The action disturbs my healing wounds—the harpoon marks, still fresh, still bleeding. Pain flares through my back, sharp and bright.

I do not cry out.

I have stopped crying out years ago.

I shift again, leaning my head on my hands. The stone is cold beneath my elbows. The water is cold beneath my tail. Everything is cold.

It hurts.

Not the physical wounds.

My heart is tired.

*

There have been tales—whispers carried on the currents, stories told by elders to frighten young merfolk. Humans are wicked. Humans are ruthless. Humans are evil. They will use you and discard you. They will take what they want and leave nothing behind.

I did not believe it.

Not at first.

After all, in my fragmented memories, my human was not like that. So certainly they were not all bad. Even among merfolk, some are cruel. Some are kind. Surely humans were the same.

I was wrong.

When I first left the clan;young, hopeful, desperate—I searched the waters for humans.

The first humans tried to sell me and my egg. They brought nets and cages and talked of prices. I escaped with my child, but barely.

The second humans tried to kill me for my blood. They said it had magical properties. They said it could heal any wound, cure any sickness. How ludicrous.

The third humans stole my egg.

They took it while I slept. While I was weak. While I was trusting.

I found them, of course. I always found them.

After that—after the fourth, the fifth, the sixth attempt—my belief in humans was gone.

I became what they feared.

Only then could I keep my child safe. Only then could I stop being prey.

I became the predator.

I did not want to be this.

I did not choose to be this.

Now I wait.

This sea lane is often used by humans. It also leads to the forbidden waters, where I found happiness, where I found my human.

So my human must have passed through here. Must have sailed these waters.

It is why, moon after moon, I wait.

It is why, year after year, I search.

I do not have affection for the human anymore. Not the way I once did. The hope has faded. The longing has dulled.

But I need them.

If my baby is ever going to be born, I need them.

The egg cannot hatch alone. It needs the essence of both parents..the spark from both souls,or it will wither. It will fade. It will die.

Actually, my baby being alive is nothing short of a miracle. By every law of nature, every rule of magic, every expectation of my kind, they should have died years ago. The egg should have gone cold. The pulse should have stopped. The light should have faded.

But it has not.

My baby is still alive.

So that means something.

That is why I still wait.

Moon after moon. Year after year.

Even when hope seems cruel.