It had already been weeks without having any news of her sister and her friend. Numi couldn't stop regretting letting them go by themselves, even though it would have meant defying the chiefs and risking being expelled from the tribe, something that had never crossed her mind in her life.

  The sirenians of the Lake Tribe were free to come and go as they pleased, nothing bound them, but now strange happenings were occurring along the eastern fringe and the chiefs had decided that no one would leave the lake until it was time to migrate back in the autumn. To Numi that seemed like a ridiculous decision even though the chiefs insisted it was to protect the tribe. They had done everything in their power for the chimera. They could not continue interfering.

  Since she was a child she had accepted, like her mother, her grandmother and the rest of her sirenian family, to live with her heart broken in two. One piece of love for the wide ocean and another for the human family settled on the lake, from which she had to say goodbye every autumn to meet again at the beginning of spring. Although in her case she had to add two more pieces for that father who had to remain apart from her and a sister who had lived unaware of her existence until recently.

  The nomadic tribes that roamed the Freedom Sea could not understand this attachment to a land dominated by ridiculous human and elven laws. They wondered what the point was, and Numi always gave them the same answer as his mother: love. Love that could be as immense or perhaps even more than all the oceans on earth.

  However, at that moment her heart was not big enough to contain the anxiety that consumed her. She couldn't stop questioning herself as she imagined a myriad of different scenarios. Had they reached the island yet? Were there any obstacles in their way? Had they been captured?

  Like all sirenians, she had learned to accept that life was like the flow of the sea. Nothing could break it, one had to learn to follow it and adapt to its changes, moving with it without resisting. In the end, everything would find its destiny. You just had to be patient.

  Numi believed especially in the latter, as she had always believed that if she was patient enough one day her parents would get back together and she would no longer have to be separated from her sister.

  Yes, she had been a good girl. The proof was in the fact that she had finally met Olivia, and now she knew the whole truth. But the joy was short lived, and her patience was challenged once again as never before, leading her to act behind the backs of the chiefs and her own grandmother.

  After saying goodbye to Olivia and Silas, she had sent a message across the waters addressed to the Wandering Herald trusting that Bronto, whom she had crossed paths with on several occasions during her migration, would not ignore a request for help. She did not dare to reveal her identity, because if the pirates sent her a reply she feared it would be intercepted by someone in the tribe before it could reach her.

  Despite being Mantok and Thalassa's granddaughter, Numi had no authority to communicate with the pirates, especially because of a matter involving the chiefs who for the time being had decided not to involve the League in the whole incident of the fire.

  Moreover, Numi doubted that the Lake Tribe would ever call upon the pirates again, for to do so would mean breaking the balance that the sirenians, servers of the Blue Dragon, their creator, so faithfully continued to protect at all costs. A great misfortune, such as the massacre of the chimeras, would have to occur for the sirenians to turn against the Council. Although the chiefs had always avoided revealing this to the wizards, trusting that they would refrain from the threat of a war that suited no one.

  She didn't want to do anything that would lead to war, but doing nothing was drowning her, an expression no sirenian would ever use.

  Every spring she had returned, eager to be reunited with her grandfather, her father, her cousins. She was happy to join in the celebrations, to dance to the sound of the drums, to run with her feet on the beach, to tell stories by the light of the campfire. But nothing was the same anymore, not only because of the fire that had devastated the huts that were just in the process of being rebuilt, but also because her beloved home was becoming, to her distress, a prison.

  She had never found herself in such a situation.

  She didn't want to wait any more.

  “Numi!” a shout reached her from afar, and she poked her head over the rock where she had lain under a warm sun that did little to ease her worries. Zaagic and the rest of her cousins were running along the shore towards her. “The chiefs are callin' for you!”

  Numi jumped off the rock and went to meet them. Without stopping running they continued together towards the big hut where all the chiefs, sirenians and humans, had assembled.

  Inside the hut there was a significant number of people, among them her grandmother and mother who were sitting with a serious expression and their hands folded on their legs. Her grandfather Mantok was still recovering from his wounds and still in those days he was too tired to participate in the meetings.

  One of the chiefs soon approached her.

  “Sister Numi.”

  She lowered her head in respect and held her breath, as she waited for the answer she had been waiting for several days since she had come to the hut to ask to be allowed to leave the lake.

  “We have been discussing very carefully your request, and after long reflections we have decided not to grant you permission. Like the rest of your brothers and sisters, you will have to wait until autumn to leave for the ocean.”

  “But– ” Numi was about to protest, but then she saw Thalassa standing up while shaking her head. The decision had been made. The rest of the chiefs stood up and left the hut in whispers. Numi felt she was running out of air and went outside, followed by Yaritza and Thalassa.

  “Numi!” her mother called as her daughter began to stride as far away from them as possible.

  “Throwing a tantrum won't do you any good,” Thalassa snapped at her.

  Numi swallowed hard, her throat hurt.

  “It's not fair! It's not fair!”

  “No one is forcing you to stay, Numi,” her grandmother replied.

  “Mother!” Yaritza's voice reflected surprise.

  “It's the truth.”

  Numi turned to them.

  “But they just told me–!”

  “Even though we denied you permission, none of us will make any attempt to stop you, not even your mother and me.”

  “But that means–”

  “It means you won't be able to come back. That is the price for disobeying the verdict of your elders. You are mature enough to understand this.”

  Numi turned to her cousins, from the youngest to those closest to her age. They all listened to their grandmother's words with dejection.

  “Numi no!” groaned one of her younger cousins, grabbing her older brother's hand.

  Numi watched Thalassa's unmoved face.

  “But you don't care?”

  “Of course I care, but I won't be the one to make the decision for you. Each one of us is the master of their life.”

  “But it's an impossible decision!”

  “It's not impossible. You just can't have everything. You have to learn that sometimes you have to give up.”

  “But why do I have to give up?” her granddaughter interrupted her. “Are we not free?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “If you don't want to be expelled, all you have to do is wait for autumn.”

  “By then it might be too late! Maybe it's already too late!” Numi felt a tingling sensation run through her legs. She needed to get back in the water to calm down. “I should have gone with them when I could!”

  “Your place was with the tribe. Your grandfather was about to die...” With each word Thalassa's voice grew harder and harder while Yaritza just listened to them in silence. “The chimera's journey has nothing to do with you.”

  “What about my sister?”

  “You barely know her. You only have snippets of her story. You may think of her as a sister, but I doubt she has the same affection for you.”

  “Why are you talking like this now when you helped them yourself?”

  Thalassa looked at her sadly.

  “Your grandfather didn't tell me much... but I suspect she had something to do with what happened that night.”

  “She would never attack us!”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I just know!”

  Her grandmother looked at her with pity.

  “Numi...”

  “I don't want to listen to you anymore! You have no proof! Just because I'm younger, you think I cannot be right! Fear is blinding you! I–!”

  Suddenly, Numi saw her grandmother fall to her knees and collapse to the floor, followed immediately by her mother. Before Numi had time to understand what was happening her body also collapsed, as a painful current spread through every corner of her body, like little knives digging into her skin. She tried to shake herself, but that only made the pain worse. To her mind came the image of a fish twitching as the cook jabbed the knife into her with a deadly blow. But there was no one else around her, no attacker. Her vision began to blur and she barely had time to see how some of her cousins had also fallen to the ground as well as other sirenians of the tribe standing nearby.

  The only ones standing were the humans who watched the scene in terror as they knelt down to try to help the fallen.

  The stabs turned into an unbearable burning as if she had been thrown into a bonfire. Heart-rending screams enveloped her like beasts being tortured. Her hands ran all over her body to seek relief, but in the end she dug her nails into her own skin with the desire to tear it off. She felt other hands stopping her movements and pinning her to the sand. She could no longer see anything other than shadows. Among the screams she later recognized as her own, she heard the cries of some of her cousins pleading with her to stop hurting herself. A salty tear slipped between her parched lips. She wanted to beg for water, but all that came out of her mouth were sounds similar to the squawking of seagulls. Her beautiful singing voice, that had so often chanted in the middle of the ocean under the light of the full moon, had broken like glass crashing against a wall.

  It was not even noon, but it was as if the sun had been swallowed by a dark tide that was coming to carry her into the darkest depths never before crossed. As everything became blacker and blacker, she became unable to hear her own screams burning in her throat.

  This time, truly, she was drowning.

  And then she heard it.

  A deep, reverberating voice, like the trembling of a storm on the ocean.

  Someone has crossed the forbidden path,

  blind to the abyss that calls their names.

  A pact was broken in the silent dream

  the sky unravels, drunk with pain.

  Those who crave more they can bear,

  who pursue hidden truths with reckless desire,

  awaken ghosts of frozen graves

  and raise the winds of dust and fire.

  What the mind cannot remember,

  the blood will never forget.

  Old ashes will burn again like embers,

  bursting through the innocent flesh.

  Heed now, my children, this needed warning,

  for fate is a wheel that turns with spite:

  some doors must never be opened,

  lest darkness return and chaos arise.

  Overwhelmed by an indescribable agony, Numi was unable to fully understand those words, only that she and her tribe were being punished for an unknown reason and there was no way to defend themselves. She was no longer even able to feel the sand beneath her body, as her vision blurred into patches of light and shadow. Unable to resist any longer she surrendered to the darkness trusting that unconsciousness would ease the fire burning inside her veins.

  But far was her dream from being peaceful. Once that terrible voice ceased, it was replaced by screams and cries, mingling together and creating a gigantic wave. The young sirenian's head was spinning, as she was swept along by that unstoppable force. Flashes of light exploded in front of her, showing her glimpses of cruel landscapes: gray branches groaning in dust storms, rivers as black as coal, skies as crimson as blood, bodies crumbling into ashes.

  Until suddenly everything stopped, and her body was suspended in the void, swaying like a leaf pushed by the breeze until her back slowly rested on a cold and soft surface.

  The burning had subsided, but she still felt weak as she had never felt before. She already knew fatigue. Hundreds of times she had ridden out storms in the middle of the ocean and raced against dolphins, but this was totally different, as if her soul was slipping away and the only thing that kept her clinging to her body was a mere scrap of skin.

  Something cold covered her face. Her tired eyelids tried to open, but an intense glow forced them closed again. As she tried to move, a shiver ran through her body. As she regained her senses, her ears were filled with moans and splashes.

  “Numi...” one of her human cousins whispered.

  The sirenian tried to answer him, but all that came out of her mouth was a sort of faint squawk.

  “Numi, you're awake!” shouted her cousin. “Grandpa, Numi is awake!”

  “Cousin!” This time it was Zaagic who spoke, almost sobbing. “It was so horrible, Numi! Your eyes turned white, and you kept screaming. Your mother and grandma too. All of them, all the sirenians fell to the ground!”

  “Zaagic!” her grandfather's voice rose. “Let her rest!”

  Her cousins fell silent at Mantok's words, and Numi gratefully sighed deeply. Someone approached her, and she recognized her grandfather's calloused hand as it rested on her forehead without saying anything.

  Numi didn't know how many days passed before she was able to stand up on her own. When she was able to keep her eyes open, she realized that the sirenians had been placed on the shore of the lake. Not a single one of them was spared from being attacked by that strange disease. Only the humans who had to watch the terrifying scene helplessly.

  Her cousins told her the convulsions lasted for a while and after that they were seized by a strong fever that did not seem to stop with anything. The best idea the humans had was to place the sirenians on the shore of the lake, hoping that their healing powers would be activated when in contact with the water. But this was not the case, the fever did not start to subside for two days. In the meantime, the skin of the sirenians had not even been able to transform into scales.

  This time it was the humans, and not the other way around, who had to take turns as healers using the potions and herbs that were always saved for the arrival of winter while the sirenians were far from the lake.

  “Drink, my dear,” said Mantok to Thalassa, placing a bowl of green liquid to her lips. In spite of his wounds that had not yet finished healing, her grandpa was the first to take care of the sick.

  “It tastes so bitter,” Thalassa replied, wrinkling her lips.

  Mantok chuckled softly. “And then you say I'm a bad patient.”

  “You seem to be having fun with this.”

  “Not at all, my dear. I don't enjoy watching you suffer at all,” he replied, stroking her curly hair. His worried eyes contrasted with the rest of his laughing expression.

  Though Numi felt that the ordeal would never end, she was one of the first to regain movement, yet it took her a few days to be able to swim in the water again. The elders, no matter how much power they had, were the most affected.

  When a significant number had recovered, a new emergency meeting was held in the big hut to try to find out what had happened. The discussion went on for much of the night while Numi waited outside. The rest of his cousins had gone to sleep exhausted from all the work that still remained to be done between the sick and the rebuilding of the huts.

  From a dark corner she watched her grandfather emerge from the hut slowly, leaning on a cane, and make his way to another where Thalassa was resting, still unable to move. She stood close enough to listen without being seen.

  Mantok was the first to speak.

  “Lord Narthoss has contacted us through the waters.”

  None of that was unusual, of the three elven lords, Narthoss had always been the only one willing to maintain a relationship with the sirenians. The incredible thing was the following:

  “What happened to the sirenians, the elves had also felt it,” Mantok continued.

  Numi's eyes widened.

  “But how did they get the disease?” Thalassa asked.

  “It is not a disease, dear, but worse. Someone has violated the Dragon Seal.”

  They both remained silent. Numi's heart was pumping so hard she feared they would both hear it.

  “No one can violate the seal,” Thalassa murmured.

  “Someone has. I don't think Narthoss would lie about something like that.”

  “If he knows what happened, I'm sure he knows who's involved.”

  “Well, he didn't want to reveal it.”

  “Even so, it's not hard for me to imagine.”

  A heavy silence followed those words. Numi understood at once why.

  “Silas could never–” Mantok began.

  “I'm not talking about Silas.”

  Mantok did not respond.

  “Why don't you want to talk about what happened that night?” asked Thalassa.

  “My memories are fuzzy... Besides, I know people's hearts. Whatever Olivia did, others must have forced her, like that wizard.”

  “We never should have helped the chimera...” Thalassa lamented. “He should have gone back to the mountains, and Olivia back to her father.”

  “We acted in good faith,” Mantok attempted to comfort her.

  “Yes, and look what we got... What have the chiefs decided?”

  “They're thinking of warning the sirenians from the Freedom Sea as well as the pirates. From now on, Silas and Olivia won't just be wanted by the wizards.”

  Numi clamped a hand over her mouth to prevent an outburst escaping her lips. Without thinking, her feet moved of their own accord, and she made her way through the maze of huts to the shore. She stopped for a moment, fearful of being seen, but there was no one watching outside. Everyone was either resting or tending to the sick.

  Slowly, she plunged into the water, and her scales soon glowed. Before continuing forward, she turned her gaze back to the silent shore and the outline of the moonlit huts. With that last image she turned around and for the first time in her life she left the lake without saying goodbye.

  Thank you for reading!

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