The Sacrifice of Love

~8~

It had been two weeks since the sirens feasted on the sailors, and Enid had not moved from her place in the corner of the cave since. "The first of your kind." Asherah's ominous words echoed loudly in her thoughts, making Enid cover her ears and lower her head as she trembled.

I didn't ask for this...I didn't ask for any of this! she thought to herself. She bit her lip when her eyes stung with tears, and she willed herself not to sob. The sailors' screams were forever burned in her memory, as well as the smell of blood and the sight of the glowing blue souls.

The closer that she and Asherah had gotten to the moon, the more her sorrow and grief for the dead men had melted away. Once they reached the great waterfalls did the souls disappear into thin air and joined the stars, and Enid was no longer plagued with their agony.

How could this have happened to me? What could I have done to possibly deserve this fate? "My child?" Enid flinched at the sound of Asherah's sweet voice, and the older siren swam into the cave. "Are you alright?" she asked, stopping a few feet away from the girl.

Enid did not meet the siren's gaze, instead she stayed curled up in the corner. "No..." she whispered softly, shakily. She heard Asherah sigh, and her shadow was casted over the cowering girl as the siren approached her. "Enid...look at me," she asked gently.

Reluctantly, the girl looked up at her mentor with a fearful gaze, making Asherah purse her lips. "You must not be afraid of this, my child. This is who you are," she told the young siren. "But what even am I? What are you?!" Enid demanded, sitting up suddenly.

Asherah was taken aback by the small outburst, but Enid did not stop. "I have been sentenced to this life in the sea after being sacrificed to the Kraken by my own fiancé! Now, after learning to live like one of you, I find out that I am not a siren, but an...an ABOMINATION!!" she cried.

She lashed out angry with her arms as she spoke, and more tears welled up in her eyes. "I suddenly have a duty to these pitiful souls that...that are murdered and eaten by my own kind! And suddenly, I have wings! And I'm able to fly as close to the sun and moon as I please! All while guiding these damned souls to Hell!"

Asherah did not speak, nor did she react as Enid screamed and lashed out angrily again. She openly cried in front of the older siren as her burst of confidence began to die down. "Banshees...sirens...Krakens..." she mumbled out, leaning back against the wall.

She buried her face in her hands as she now wept, her body trembling with each sob. "I was supposed to find love...to be married and make my father proud of me. But even the man I loved betrayed me..." She looked up with bloodshot eyes and met Asherah's eerily calm gaze.

"...how am I meant to trust any of you?" Silence fell over the cave as Enid's words hung in the air. Neither woman broke eye contact as they each processed that moment, and Enid's vision had grown more and more blurry with hot tears.

Asherah's red eyes were blank, however, and her face was emotionless as she thought. "You...were in love?" she echoed quietly. Enid looked down and nodded, hugging her tail to her chest as she tried to comfort herself. "And your husband was slain...by the Kraken?" she continued carefully.

Enid nodded once more, holding herself even tighter as the memories of that day replayed in her mind.

"I do not want to die! Please, my beloved - find us a way out of this!"

"There is no way out of this! The Kraken will kill us all, and that, my dear, includes you, as well!"

"NO!!"

She shuddered at the memory and buried her face once more in her tail, trembling. "I hope he went slowly, and painfully..." she hissed out bitterly, her jaw clenched. "Oh, my child...my poor little one," Asherah cooed, reaching a hand out towards her. 

She touched Enid's shoulder, and surprisingly her hand was warm against the young girl's skin. "I did not know..." Enid uncurled herself slightly and looked up at Asherah with tearful eyes. Her face remained stoic, but her eyes were now dimly lit with a distant look, as though she too was remembering something. 

"I was in love once, as well...to none other than a pirate," she confessed. Enid's eyes widened, and she completely uncurled herself as she listened to the older siren speak. "He was a devoted captain, that man, to his crew and to the sea...oh, did I love him so," she said, her voice lowering to a mere whisper as she looked down.

"But I made the choice to leave him with the duty that I bestowed upon him - to guide the souls who died at sea to the afterlife." Enid furrowed her brows, fixing herself so that she was sitting comfortably with her tail as a cushion. 

"But if you loved him...how could you possibly choose to leave him?" she asked innocently. Asherah simply smiled, not even a hint of sadness or regret was detected in her face or her voice. "It is my nature, my child. He will understand, but if he does not...then he does not have a choice," she said bluntly. 

Enid frowned at the siren's words but did not comment any further. I would never do that to the man I love next...I would stay by his side, no matter what. "The notion of love, little one...that be something delicate for you," Asherah continued, seemingly moving on from the subject. 

"How do you mean?" Enid asked, crossing her arms. Asherah chuckled at the young siren's curiosity, and her long tail wrapped around Enid protectively. "Yours is a special kind...when I rescued you that day and healed you, I bestowed upon you the ability to do unimaginable things. And some of those things were what you witnessed not too long ago," she explained.

Enid shuddered once more and shook her head, preventing any haunting thoughts from entering her mind. "I knew my father's stories were true...I cannot believe that I have now become a story myself," she muttered to herself bitterly with a frown. 

"It is important that you listen to me now, little one. No tale will prepare you for the life that you must now live," Asherah said sternly. She took hold of Enid's chin and turned her head so that she could look up into that blood red stare. 

"You will be given the same task, of mourning over and guiding dead sailors to the afterlife. That is your duty as a banshee," she told her. "But what of the siren in me? If I must bring these souls to the afterlife, how can I do so if I am the one who also kills them?" Enid shot back. 

Asherah shook her head at Enid and sighed, lowering her head from the girl's chin and sitting up straighter. "I thought you were ready to partake in the hunt with the rest of us...but it seems that your banshee abilities were too great to bear. But as for your sea-dwelling abilities, little one...you saw the way those sailors came crawling to the sirens, yes?" Asherah told her with a smirk.

"Yes...the sirens sang to them, and the sailors believed they were seeing their wives and children," Enid replied with a nod. "Precisely. You will be able to persuade any man you so desire to do your bidding, all at the sound of a song."

Enid nodded slowly as she drank in every word Asherah had said to her, but one thing puzzled her still. "What do my abilities have to do with love?" she asked. Asherah clicked her tongue in disappointment, taking the young siren by surprise - what had she said wrong?

"Don't you see, my dear? You cannot fall in love, not with any man. Love is immaterial, and most certainly a distraction to your true purpose." Enid leaned away from Asherah in bewilderment, her jaw dropping. "But...but if I am able to bend any man to my will, does that not mean - ?"

Enid was quickly cut off. "It is best...that I show you rather than tell you, little one. It will be easier to understand..."

~~~~~

Hmmm, what could possibly be in store for Enid~