Mermaid's Cove

2

Youin

"Isn't it pitiful?"

The darkness that surrounds me cuts me off from the void. From my power. From the sea. I am...nothing. All I am now is an immortal human who can breath underwater.

Much good it does me.

I'm nearly as useless as a human. I'm cut of from prayers—from my divinity. For years now...who knows how long it's been.

"Isn't it pitiful what you've become father?"

And then there's this child. Blathering on in my ear with a sense of self righteousness.

"I do not recall creating you," I murmur. "But if I did, I sorely regret it now."

"I had a small sister," he says, turning on the lights. The circle I'm in, stained by blood stays the same. I cannot truly move.

"Oh? Do you think I fathered her too?" I muse.

He smiles ruefully. "She is a small sister. She was younger than me but now...she never grow up. She died small and she will stay small."

Does he think he'll get sympathy from me? Do I care about the death of a child I've never met? How many creatures die inside my depths every day for centuries? Water is life, and I feel the ending of every being. Does his personal feelings for one child make her worth more than anyone else to me?

Of course not. It's the folly of humanity.

"Did you hear me?" He edges forward, sitting at the edge of the blood that binds me, careful not to smudge it.

"I am powerless but I am not deaf," I inform him.

He scoffs and falls onto his back staring up at me. His golden eyes shimmer. He's nothing a child. How he knew about something like void magic is beyond me. I hated him at first. He demeaned me. A god. Tore me away from my wife. But...he's just a pawn. A lonely child out on a board he does not understand and left alone to fend for himself. And usually I would just find that annoying. But part of the reason, I've to find out, that I can do easily ignore others suffering is because I'm drenched in it. The sea is life, water is life I am life. And I am also death. I feel it all. I hear it all. To the point where...it all blurs together. And suddenly, all the suffering just fades to silence.

And now...in the silence, in the face of true silence—his cries for help are piercing.

It's beneath me of course. But what can I do?

I am powerless.

"Youin?"

I raise my brows. "What is it?"

"When I die...even if it isn't now, if...you somehow escape. Will you know?"

I smile and nod. "I'd know."

He smiles at that, this child. Who knows why. Moira...

"I have a...loved one. The one I have," I whisper. "I have been away from her for a long time. It may take time but I'm sure I can manipulate him into letting me go.

It's a lowly thing for me to have to do, but with no other options...all I need a smudge. If I can get a smudge in this blood I can get out a message.

"You do?" His eyes light up. He sits up and grins. "Who is it father?"

Father...that again. If I had ever touched a woman before Moria I may question whether I had impregnated a woman and forgot about it. It wouldn't be a first among the gods. The word father is not equal to the word creator. I created his kind. But I am not his father. It does me no good to tell him that though. Better to let him labor in his delusion.

What an understanding Moria has given me of human kind.

"My Goddess. I am sure she sails the sea, aimless...searching for me."

It's more likely she's abandoned me, honestly. My Captain Moria was never one for sentiments. Before I left her, she would not admit she loved me. It was cute.  Her warm cheeks glowing with embarrassment.

"Even after all these years?"

"My eternal maiden...the only priestess I recognize...my Goddess. If only...I could speak to her again."

He leans forward, not even noticing the blood on his hand. I lean forward too, reaching out, until the boundary of this curse stops me. He urges closer to his...father.

"What would you tell her?" He whispers, entranced.

"That...if she let another human touch her I will drown this entire world until nothing exists just to punish her."

He stared into my eyes. "You are the definition of a cruel god."

I smile and chuckle. "Is it cruelty? You poor boy. You cannot see through eyes of a god because you are not one. What humans call cruelty...gods call purpose."

He stumbled back, dragging a bit of the void curse with him. I smile and close my eyes. I feel it. Water. So close...

Moira...Captain Moria...

Where is she? They will be back and when they see this smudge they'll close it. I don't have long.

"It's not wonder they hate you," he says softly. "You're..."

"Inhuman? It always seems to shock humans, the difference between them and gods. We are not an image of you. You are an image of us. How can we objective if we were as soft as you are?"

Atlantis...come into the water.

Is she in a temple? Oh...truly Balance fights beside me.

I wish I could see her. I'm not even sure my message will get through. But I have to try.

Go into the water.

Captain Moria...I'm sure by now she's itching for a battle. She's the kind of woman who only eats when her hands are wet with blood after all.