Chapter Text
The Siren and The Sea Witch
"Pandora," Lori called swimming through the reef. Drawing back as she saw the dark little orbs, writhing in a corner. "Pand--- oh, there you are."
The sea witches eyes glowered in a where she appeared to be nesting upon another glimmering pile. "These all yours?" Lori cooed.
"But of course,"
"I haven't seen Hyrule, in some time……"
"He annoyed me, so I set him free of his…..obligation."
"To a brood such as this? Pandora do you not struggle……"
"Lorelei, dear friend, you know I thrive on family…..tis no burden to me, at all." She'd reached down and picked up an orb then, shimmering black and purple with a tiny swirling life. Though to Lori's eyes it had been impossible, or perhaps hard to believe that it held merely, a young mer. "There is nothing greater than loyalty," The seat witch continued. "Nothing greater than family, and our ways. Preserved for generations. We are superior, fantastic creatures, shunted and hiding away……but soon, soon Lori, we will reclaim the world we lost…."
"……What you speak sounds like rebellion," Lori teased, easing down on a slab of rock.
"It is time we planned to take back the shore, Lori. Don't you see? Never have we been in a better position to do it."
"But….how…."
"You will marry Ezra, and you will be Queen, and I, your advisor, yes?" She outstretched her hands, inviting, and Lori went to them, fitting their fingers together.
"We are friends, of course."
"When you marry, You will have his ear, and favour, and you will tell him, it is time to take back the world above."
Lori's grip went soft, though the sea witch barely noticed, instead increasing pressure to hold more firm.
"We will sing, Lori," her face wreathed in smiles. Eyes shining with hope. "We will sing the song of limbs and----"
"The wars," Lori uttered as a reminder. "Pandora, the wars, our kind was lucky to survive-----"
"But there will be more of us, this time,"
For the first time Lori's eyes focused on the crevices and ridges lining the cave wall behind Pandora. The rows upon rows, thousands of those same orbs, bobbing and rolling among each other. In a few she glimpsed golden slit eyes and flashes of teeth. Those are not mer, she thought with a chill. All around, she realized she was surrounded by them.
"This time," Pandora assured. "We will win---oh, Safira," she'd snatched her hands back then, beckoning to her first daughter, the apple of Pandora's eye.
Safira looked more like other merfolk than she did her mother anymore these days, but there still lurked a sort of cunning edge to her gaze that could only come from Pandora. "Mother, Siren Lori,"
"Ah, oh, tell me you have not come and not brought my grand children---"
"I should go, Pandora," Lori rose, raising a hand to greet Safira and Safira bobbed her head respectfully in turn.
"So soon, we still have so much to discuss,"
"Visit with your daughter, nothing is greater than family." She echoed. Their gazes held and Pandora's lips curled into a conspiratorial smirk.
"Absolutely nothing."
Sophie shrinks back from the sharp tone and Pandora relaxes her hold. "Come, pet, I served her mother, not so long ago."
Long enough, niggles in the back of Sophie's mind. For many leagues she had to come out here in the outer depths to visit her grandmother. She never got up the nerve to ask why Pandora had chosen to make her home out here.
Though there were enough whispers in the kingdom that it hadn't really been her, choice.
"She is my princess, too, you know. The heiress to the deep. I worry for her, just as you would."
"She….she is nervous about her engagement. I think nervous enough to do something, stupid. I…..I just want her to be safe, and to remember, to embrace, what's right in front of her. Everything she has, here. I know she'll come around eventually, she has to, but she's adjusting very badly to having things, decided for her."
"Oh ,dear," Pandora croons, "heavy is the crown," her grandmother murmurs sympathetically, caressing Sophie's hair. An eel, one of her grandmothers glides over then, wavering it's head to and fro suspiciously as it gazes on them. "Oh stop being jealous, Auggie, it's not often I get to spend time with my grandchild…..the last of the line." she trails off, tilting Sophie's head up by the chin. " I see the eyes of Safira in you," she sighs, her voice vaguely mournful. "I see myself, in you too," she presses on, and her grip tightens. "I see how much you love this kingdom. The loyalty in your heart, it sings to me, you would do anything to protect your people wouldn't you. Your friends, your family."
"Yes," Sophie squeaks dutifully, the pressure beginning to hurt.
She holds Sophie another moment before dropping her and rubbing her arms. "I'm sure the Princess will make the right choice in the end Sophie, but if you are worried for her, I am always here to help."
"What, what would you do?"
"I am the sea witch, my child." With a rapid blink her eyes flash slitted and yellow. "I can do anything,"
"Abbie?" Crane calls fretfully from where he waits on the shore. He has been able to set a clock by Abbie for the past week, she's only a few minutes late but it makes him begin to worry, glancing skeptically over his shoulder before he hears a splash and heaves a sigh of relief. He stands and all but staggers into the water to greet her and Abbie laughs, catching him in her arms as he throws himself at her and holds her tight, a hand passing reverently over her wet hair. She found another silver strand this morning, she'd tried not to think on it too much as she braid her hair.
"Crane, Crane," she laughs, embracing him back. She's surprised by the abrupt intimacy of it, but it's certainly not unwelcome. Their visits have been tentative and tender, not much more beyond hands being held and stolen chaste pecks on each other's cheek. "Crane, I'm here"
"I know I know thank God above, I…." he composes himself enough to pull away and look into her eyes. "I started to worry,"
She frowns, reaching to touch his cheek. "I was held up by Sophie, but that's all," she takes in the skittish flickering of his eyes and draws back. "Cra---"
"I was eager, that's all, Abbie," he blinks hard several times and draws her close again. She feels her scales warm and glow.
"You're going to turn my head," she warns, sighing into his shoulder. "And then what would I tell my parents," losing herself she turns her nose toward his neck and inhales the warm musky scent of him. His arms tighten about her waist and she enjoys just the solid weight of him there, beneath her hands, wrapped around her. What would I tell Andy,she murmurs, her stomach beginning to roil.
"Would it be very awful for me to admit, I feel my head has already been turned?"
Her tail ripples scarlet and Crane gives a soft chuckle as he notices. He's caught on that the shifting colours of her scales reveal her mood and emotions. And he's figured out that these variations of red are essentially a mermaids version of a blush. "Is that too soon to say?"
"No," she breathes softly. "I…..I would you say it again?"
"…..I think I could fall for you, if I haven't already." he trails a hand lightly along her back,up and down. "Abbie, what…what would be the end of this?"
"End!"
She reels away in shock and he has to grab her quickly, trying to calm her down. "this, here, our worlds…."
"They were one, once," she entreats. "They could be so again, I believe it."
He glances pointedly down at where her tail sways back and forth.
"There is….there was a way around that. A song, to sing."
"A song?"
"Much of our abilities is rooted in song."
"Magic," he concludes, feeling only slightly wary. "And this magic would, let you come up here? To me?"
She's about to eagerly answer yes before the weight of that answer slams into her. Could she go to him? And what would that mean? For her, for her kingdom? Instead she counters, "You did not ask, if you could come to me,"
He regards her tenderly. "If there is a way that that could be true, of course Abbie I would come to you. But can it be?"
"I do not understand what you are asking me," uncertainty makes her voice waver. His tone and the conversation seems to be asking her for choices, decisions, and how can she know what is right and wrong in a position as impossible as theirs?
At last, Crane's hands release her and drifts back, putting distance between them. When he looks up again and meets her gaze, that earlier nervousness flits in his eyes afresh " My Uncle Henry has plans for me….if….if I cannot give him sufficient reason why I must stay, or even a reason or way to take you with me,"
"Ichabod?"
"He has made arrangements for me to board an expedition soon. A family name to uphold, there is business that he wishes for me to conduct and….upon those new shores he assures me…." he bites his lips together and swallows. He'd wanted to wretch at the idea when Henry had told him that morning but he'd hardly had reason for a proper rebuttal. "He assures me that there awaits a bride…..my bride."
Darkness, cold and cloying seeps into her heart. No, not this, not him too. How can they both be pulled and tugged so.
"It is why I must know, Abbie, if there is any hope to be had for us, what must we do, to fight for it?"
Her eyes dart, cataloguing his features, already memorizing him, "I do not want to lose you, this, what we have is so new----"
"Then can we be, Abbie," he pleads. "Is there a way,"
You are not free, to make this choice, the thought cuts cold and clear across her mind. Crowns and legacies lock and twine like shackles around her fins. "Ichabod…..I can't….."
His heart starts to break, crestfallen. He suspected, of course, how dare he hope, but it pains him still as he reaches to gather her in his arms again. "Please we must try-----"
"Ichabod I can't." she rasps, her whole being feeling raw. "I'm…I should have told you sooner but…..I….I never wanted it…..it was decided for me…."
"Abbie----"
"I'm betrothed."