Chapter Text
Considering that he was supposed to die on this ship, Yeosang felt relatively calm. He should be screaming and thrashing because as it stood he had been doomed to be ripped apart by siren teeth however he wrapped his arms around his legs, pulling them closer to his meager body while trying to contain his body heat as much as possible. Dying wasn't something he necessarily wanted, he knew that but he felt at ease. So strangely at ease, like there was hope when there wasn't. As a child, he hadn't known that it was all just a game and his calmness had been the wrong move.
They were brought on to a fancy ship and were somehow still sitting in the dirtiest place Yeosang had ever been in. It was cold and wet, two words that often brought death with them.
He sat surrounded by two other children, both of which hadn't stopped crying for the entire way they had been sailing. Now their cries had turned into something more muffled and held back, yet when they had first started into the blue waters they had been inconsolable. Loudly sobbing, wailing, pleading for their parents and other loved ones to take them back into their arms, to save them. Not just these two, but also from the other cages he had seen a lot of them break into tears. Begging for help that wouldn't come, crying for people who had long turned their back on them.
Some however were like Yeosang. Sitting in silence.
It made him feel not completely left out yet he didn't understand. Why did no one complain? Had a child been crying on the street, be it for falling and scraping their knee or their lost mother, maybe one would've come to help calm them down yet it was certain for another to complain. Yeosang had witnessed it several times. The drawn-in eyebrows, the lowered voices and the crossed arms. Especially children did it. He thought they maybe felt more grown up doing so. Or maybe they just felt entitled enough because they were exactly that: children.
He wasn't sure.
Now, however, no one complained. Everyone was dead silent besides the sobs of those lost at sea. It felt a bit eerie yet he also had this careful tethering connection filling him with happiness. Did the others not feel it? It was new but old somehow and made him a little fuzzy, something blossoming inside of him.
He let his gaze wander over them once more.
There wasn't anybody he recognized all bar one, the haggard butcher's daughter. She had given him a piece of bread before. Back then the skin around her eye had been beaten blue and green yet despite that she had smiled at Yeosang. He remembered so clearly because the smile had surprised him. It was friendly and almost a bit shy.
He had asked her back then if she wasn't in pain if she didn't hurt. But she had not answered, just given him the bread and patted his matted, dirty hair before leaving him, saying quietly that she had to help at home.
Home. He hadn't been there for a long time. How much did the king offer his parents? How much did he promise the girl's father? Would it be enough to rid themselves of the guilt that they had sold their children to certain death?
Now the bruise was but a faded yellow, barely visible in the dark hold they were sitting in. When her eyes met Yeosang's he held his breath. But she didn't smile. There was a flicker of recognition and something he couldn't understand before she turned away again. Mirroring Yeosang's pose, she leant down, putting her forehead on her knees, her shoulders trembling.
Yeosang didn't call out to her, as he didn't even remember her name and it seemed like they weren't allowed to talk anyway. He had learned there were these moments where people just agreed to be silent. And he knew this must be one of them.
The ship rocked, making all of them tumble against each other. He grabbed for the bars to steady himself however the two around him were older and heavier, easily making him fall with them as they collapsed to the left. Once, twice. There were screams and the wails grew in volume again. At the third shake, someone came downstairs.
"Stand up!", the man had shouted before starting to roughly drag the children upstairs. They went almost frantic trying to get away, however, there wasn't much they could do as more grown men, honed by the life at sea and trained by the king's military, came to get them.
Yeosang's shackles had been connected to those of the crying boy before him who was promptly yanked up by one of them, Yeosang following suit as the iron cut into his wrists, breaking the brittle flesh and little trails of blood oozed out of the wounds.
He stumbled after them, his heart was in his throat as he didn't even feel the damage done to his wrists in his rush of adrenaline.
The sun shone brightly down on them as they found their way on deck.
Enough kids to fill the little town square Yeosang had been plucked from stood shoulder to shoulder. Some were too scared and had fallen to their knees yet the men mercilessly pulled them up again making them stand in lines behind one another.
Orders were being screamed around as Yeosang's eyes almost naturally found the waves. The fuzzy feeling got stronger as he watched on, the sea seemed to be meeting his gaze. She was looking back at him. It was gentle, so full of warmth. Yeosang felt like smiling but just then he blinked his big eyes in astonishment as something glittery shot through the water and that's when another rough tug on his handcuffs made him slip forward, crashing into the back of the boy before him.
"One after the other you will walk up there and stay until the count of thirty!", the man in front of them barked at them making Yeosang's ears buzz and he tried orientating himself as the man freed one of the children in front of him.
The kid was confused, unsure of what exactly was happening as it looked around, probably unaware of the gruesome things the world had to offer.
Maybe it was better like that.
Yeosang and the other children watched with rapt attention as the girl stepped slow unsure steps towards the plank, a crew member pushing her to walk faster. One of her shoes was missing, he noticed offhandedly. Her right foot was dirty while the other was still somewhat clean. Her hands clenched and unclenched around the fabric of her relatively pricey shirt. It was worth more than what most of the other children had probably ever worn.
What did she do to deserve this? Her family surely wasn't balancing along the brink of existence. Did she not use the right cutlery? Did she step on someone's foot during her dance lessons one time too often?
That was the last thing he thought about the girl not much older than himself before something jumped out of the water and took her with itself. She didn't even get to make a noise before she vanished from sight, never to be found.
Around him, they screamed again. The bitter cold of raw fear bit into their soft hearts, easily bringing them to bursting as the men just worked on. There wasn't a glance of empathy or understanding for the children's achings in their eyes. There was nothing. For them, they had already ceased to exist the moment they had been handed over to them.
Yeosang felt something bubble up inside of his small body. Something he couldn't quite grasp yet, something too big – his tranquillity was disturbed by a ripple. It rang in a constant rhythm as the drums played on. A drum that searched for its voice as no song reached their ears and he was handed the quiet understanding of the wrongness of the situation. There was no chant? How could this be?
His little brows furrowed in confusion as a slow drizzle started to rain down on them. It splashed onto his face and soaked his clothes, matching the thudding of the drums.
His chains were roughly jerked onward as he was suddenly given free sight of the sea.
He stumbled when the man behind him gave him a push, he sat his foot down on the plank.
There were some red stains on it from the children before him, gently washed away by the rain that increased the further he went. It felt... safe. The fact collided with the logic of what he had just seen. Of how untrue it was yet his heart had deemed it real anyway.
The sea only kept smiling gently welcoming him and when he was at the edge a single note answered his song.
If Yeosang had turned around he would've seen the children stop crying, the men whipping their heads around in bewilderment and irritation before they too looked calm.
If he had listened he would've heard the cries stop and a sailor ask the heavens 'why'.
But he wasn't paying attention to any of it. He stared out into the blue vast wishing to be taken into his mother's hold. All he got in return though was this smile. And naively he thought it was in love, an expression of kindness and warmth. But his mother wasn't kind. Not to anyone, not like that.
She was free and greedy. Selfish. She took what she wanted because she could. She was unashamedly herself. Her lips turned into a grin.
Yeosang backed off, for the first time scared by the tender feeling in his chest.
Looking back he witnessed the utter, all-consuming chaos she had conjured up.
Some men had been fast enough to plug their ears as they ran towards him. They screamed and fought as they tried to capture him but to no avail, as the sweet song morphed into something that Yeosang would hear often in the future.
It scratched on his insides like he was trying to break out of his head, banging his fist against his eyeballs, blocking his nose and mouth. He fell to his knees, the water underneath him swirling as he shuffled back to the deck of the ship.
Weirdly shaped creatures, humanoid yet where their legs were supposed to start, a strong fishtail had replaced them as they jumped in a beautiful arch on their ship.
Sirens, Yeosang's young mind supplied in awe.
The storm now contained the rumble of thunder that was approaching loudly, the sky coloured ink black as though it was night. And he heard the thuds of corpses, the cracks of skulls, teeth ripping through flesh. Yeosang trembled the cold rain feeling like scalding fire as he froze.
Humans were fighting against the creatures Yeosang had been told about their cries high-pitched and deafening as they didn't differentiate between the men fighting back and the children that were still standing in the open. To be slaughtered as they had been told to be.
Butchered like lambs.
None of the sirens attacked Yeosang though.
It was unfair he thought. Unfair that he was brought here and survived, unfair his mother smiled at him in peace yet she brought war.
And then someone grabbed his arm, dragging him with them. It was one of the sailors, something in his ears blocked the noises of death as he tried to rush Yeosang towards the safety boats however before they were even halfway there a creature attacked them.
A precise hit to the man's legs made them crack awfully. Yeosang winced as he collapsed next to him, his grip bruised his arm before it went completely slack and crimson splurged from his throat where the siren had buried her teeth. He got some in his face and on his shirt which he wiped away too slowly before more reached his shirt.
Yeosang scrambled away from them. Lightning lit up the sky as he stood up again. He was dizzy, his head not fast enough to keep up with the things happening around him as he stared right into the eyes of another human stomping over. The beat of his heart constricted and he turned to run. Whatever the human's goal was, it would do him no good.
He didn't dare to look back as he sped through the chaos, his small body nimble enough to duck under a jumping siren or escape a sword cutting the air. What he didn't look out for was the blood mixed with the rain on the floorboards as he slipped and fell on his face.
Quickly wanting to keep running he tried to find his balance again and move up when he heard a young voice speaking in a language he didn't understand. For once it wasn't laced into a song but a string of words and sentences, the melody without power. His gaze almost magnetically singled out the owner of that voice.
A sea creature, a siren who was about the same age as Yeosang – if he could even compare it to human growth – was backed against a wall while a man looked over him with his gun raised to the creature's eye level. Savouring the moment of success over the other, he was taunting him. The brutality in it should've been fully undermined by the savage things going on around them yet Yeosang didn't miss it. In fact, for him, this was even worse than any of the other things he had seen that day.
A surge of protectiveness and raw fear overcame him. Later he would question whether the fear was what the children felt when they had been put in those cages, rabbits on silver tablets. The storm around him escalated but he strangely wasn't as affected as the people around him.
The wind was not tugging on his shirt as harshly, the raindrops didn't feel as cold as he bent down to take hold of a gun, ripping it from the hands of one of the men that was being torn apart by a preoccupied siren. He moaned in pain, half his lower body gone, his heart no doubt slowing down as he rapidly lost blood.
Yeosang barely heard it through the single voice his mind had focussed on and the only thing he cared about. He had forgotten his own pursuer. There was barely anything apart from rage and the urge to correct a great wrong as he took the weapon intended for death and suffering into his young innocent hands and raised it to the man in front of the creature. His creature, his siren.
How dare he threaten him?
Yeosang's small body shook in rage and he felt something pulsating through his veins. Something that felt like second nature and like the sea.
He grabbed for it before he even understood what it was and easily pressed down on the trigger.
His ears rang and he fell from the weapon's recoil. The shadow in front of him tumbled over as the man gurgled around blood his nails scratching red marks into his neck and Yeosang held his breath. The man's dying eyes fixed on him as he slowly halted moving altogether.
However, the creature in front of him noticed how distracted he was and jumped at him.
His back hit the wooden floor as the siren pressed down on his small shoulders, young claws intended to harm, intended for the kill dug into them. Yeosang's eyes grew wide as he gazed up at him.
Time seemed to slow as he found the snow-coloured eyes. The young siren bore his teeth, pieces of flesh stuck between them, as he hissed at Yeosang yet something had him halt and his expression shifted to something – familiar.
His heart began beating in this single, terrifying moment – the hour of his execution that birthed him anew. And shall he meet the creature once more it would happen again, every single touch and shared breath felt lifechanging, felt so powerful it could move mountains across the face of the earth, could whisper for stars to change their order.
Yeosang felt something warm drip onto his face as the siren above him trembled and cried?
It overtook his bones – scarlet turned transparent and he felt himself dip into something dark which swallowed him whole as he joined the siren's cries. They were two young souls alone in the world, unknown forces trying to rip them to bits and this – it loosened something in him, something that dragged him with it.
He felt the water as it slithered up the sides of the ship and searched for its victims, for his victims. He let it flood down their throats and organs, fill up their mouths and noses as they choked around it. The men trying to catch him easily fell under the sea's spell as Yeosang turned his death into theirs.
He cried and begged at the black sky mimicking night when it was day as the horrible agony was fully unravelled.
The siren still hanging over him noticed the change of Yeosang's wonder and sadness to sheer suffering as he let out an ear-piercing scream before he ripped himself away from Yeosang who upon being left, immediately passed out.
Yeosang eyes flew open. He couldn't move as his body was frozen, clinging to the ground. Goosebumps stretched upon his skin and every single cell was mutating.
Wooyoung.
His siren had bent over him, holding his face in his unbound hands while he was worrying over Yeosang, strangled and desperate noises coming from around the gag in his mouth.
Yeosang tried to differentiate between dream and reality while the ship shook violently and there was a loud crash next to them before a groan. He could barely move his eyes as he tried to see what happened. Seonghwa had fallen down the stairs and crashed against the wall as the ship rattled again.
His breathing quickened as he heard the pained noises but he didn't know what to do or what was happening. The power from his past was too strong as it held him prisoner.
Another voice joined Seonghwa before Yunho followed him, albeit more steady on his feet as the ship calmed for a second. He dashed towards the taller Yeosang's eyes tired from following their interactions as his body felt like it was convulsing around the unknown power that it was trying to host.
Wooyoung suddenly whimpered distressed as he searched his gaze which began to slip again. Beside them, someone collided into the cell bars as Yeosang involuntarily seized up and moaned in pain making his siren more frantic, his jaw clenched around the gag and he... he cried.
Yeosang's pain only inferior to Wooyoung's soothed for a second as the warm teardrops dampened his skin.
The picture of the young and now grown-up siren overlapped as he continued to stare in amazement.
Don't, he thought innocently, please don't.
"You need to separate them!", he heard Seonghwa from where he was still lying on the ground.
Yeosang trembled. He didn't want to be separated from Wooyoung, he couldn't be and yet no one listened to him. Not even his own weak body as Yunho hoisted him up to take Yeosang with him. Quicker than the weakened siren who went absolutely feral and lunged himself at the tall pirate, his claws grating through the flesh of his calf.
Yunho grunted yet he was still fast to kick the cell door close and run.
"What about you?!", the pirate shouted over the wails of the siren while standing on the stairs.
He couldn't see Seonghwa fully as he signed something to Yunho probably not interested in his concern. Yeosang's chest caved as he heard the desperation and anger wrecking the beautiful sound of Wooyoung's voice, his power still held back by the cloth in his mouth. However, Yunho wasn't phased by it, not like Yeosang anyway as he ran back up, more careful than before.
Outside reigned chaos.
The ship was tossed about as the same storm from his dream had become reality, power and destruction terrorizing the waves and their sailors.
"Captain!", Yunho called out in a frenzy as he was immediately drenched by the rain crashing down on them like it wanted to drag them down to the ocean floor.
Yeosang couldn't see where they were running to but he did make out another ship next to theirs, the other crew members nowhere to be found.
"Captain!", Yunho tried again before another figure appeared jumping down from god knows where.
A new face pushing into his field of vision.
"Hello, me hearty.", Hongjoong greeted him good-naturedly almost as if the storm around them didn't exist, or maybe that exactly was the reason for his cheerful mood. Yeosang could hear Yunho sigh in relief as his tense shoulders sagged a little.
"Where's Seonghwa?"
Yunho's head whipped towards the door they'd just emerged from.
Hongjoong nodded curtly his lips a sharp line before focussing back on Yeosang.
"Ye, me darling, need to calm down.", the captain said as they began moving again and they laid him down on the wood planks. Yunho was awfully careful with him it almost made him feel bad as the taller kept his head in his lap.
"Yeosang.", Hongjoong said, grabbing his attention again, "Let go."
He must've seen the confusion in his eyes as he smiled slowly. It wasn't mocking but also not particularly friendly, and suddenly Yeosang realized that it was strain contorting it. It was barely visible yet he magically felt drawn in by the slight, gaut tension in the left corner of his mouth.
Yeosang would've flinched away if he could as someone carefully wrapped his clenched fist into their hands. Just now remembering the rest of his body was still attached to him he for the first time felt his hand and how tense and painful it was to keep it like that.
Another pained moan tore through him as he tried to relax them.
"Ye don't need to fight anymore, Yeosang."
Fresh tears gathered in his eyes looking up at the two pirates. Why were they so nice? Why were these humans, this crew always so nice?
My captain ordered one to be shot.
She had given him the bread yet she herself didn't have any more food than him.
He breathed out. The smile of a young girl flashed before his eyes. Tasting salt on his tongue, he tried to loosen it again.
"Slowly."
Yeosang's eyes flicked through the chaos as he searched for something to focus on that wasn't so frantic, some anchor. He spotted Yunho's eyes above him. Right next to the frightening sky he watched them and remembered how they had pulled him out of his last episode.
He let out another shuddering breath as his right hand, still cradled in the taller pirate's hands, slowly unfolded. His body was drenched in sweat and rain when he finally managed to stretch his fingers. Slowly but it worked. One by one he loosened them taking deep pained breaths.
The pirate above him didn't dare to blink as Yeosang read the hope in his gaze. He squinted his eyes in gratefulness and felt how his body slowly tried to come back to the warmth.
Around them, the storm turned into a drizzle as the water began to leave someone's lungs as it seeped out of Yeosang's veins.
"Can you speak?", Yunho whispered, recognizing the shimmer of clarity in Yeosang's features.
Yeosang tried to open his mouth to a crack as he rasped out: "A little."
The taller pirate nodded solemnly, uselessly brushing the water from his face as the rain immediately soaked it again.
"Well", Hongjoong stood up and looked to the sky before he called louder, "What are they doin'?!"
From above he could hear San's voice: "They're leaving!", a loud thud resounded as the gunner landed next to them, and up close Yeosang could hear the strange seriousness in his tone, "They will report back to him-"
San was interrupted by the cry of a creature left behind. There was no beauty in Wooyoung's voice as he came up the stairs. Yeosang had recovered enough to turn his neck as his siren erupted in a fury only rivalled by the storm that had nearly ripped their ship apart a few moments ago. But what was confusing him was that... he was walking.
His tail had transformed into the lower part of a human man. Yet his legs were covered in bruises and scrapes as he fought his way to them. Yeosang could do nothing more than barely lift a finger in his direction, not having regained the feeling in his shoulders yet his heartbeat spiked trying to wriggle away from Yunho who still had his head and upper body cradled in his lap.
The moment Wooyoung's eyes found them he let out another high-pitched roar yet no one was affected by his outburst, his voice containing no magic as he forced himself forward.
Hongjoong was the first to step into the siren's way, easily trapping him and taking hold of his arms. This time Yeosang pressed out a sound that reminded him of a wounded animal as he almost managed his body to fall from Yunho had the pirate not secured him with a gentle grip on his shoulders – Yeosang's eyes were ripped wide open under the effort it took him to move at all.
"He's still recovering from the high.", the captain explained slowly for the creature who snapped his fangs after him, "I reckon ye know better than meself or anyone here what that truly means, so I guess it's in our best interest if ye'd settle down, aye?."
Wooyoung's eyes sparkled in recognition as he still struggled against Hongjoong's grip. More so out of the piercing pain in his heart than not believing what Hongjoong was saying.
"The crew is dead.", a voice interrupted them, Jongho, "All drowned and dead. No survivors.", he was wiping a dagger on his trousers as he came closer.
Hongjoong nodded.
"There were more ships though! We need to follow them!", San added distressed making even Yunho tilt his head up in concern.
The captain shook his head: "We're fast but not that fast.", he tugged on Wooyoung's wrists keeping him from moving too much as the siren's knees buckled and he knelt down, "Mingi, go check on Seonghwa.", he interrupted himself before turning back to San, the taller pirate running down the stairs, "We'd just follow them right to his majesty's doorstep."
"They will tell him that he's with us.", Jongho stated calmly, "They'll hunt us."
"Why?", Yeosang interjected his voice raspy from the exertion. Everyone stopped, even Wooyoung calmed down for a second trying to catch what Yeosang was saying, "Why does the king want me, Hongjoong?"
The captain smiled slowly: "It'll do ye no good gettin' agitated again.", Yeosang narrowed his eyes as the other continued, "I had a hunch. Havin' ye on board confirmed it."
"So", he coughed as he wheezed out another breath, "You...", he stopped again and looked around, realising something, "You all knew..."
He blinked perplexed as he felt... pain, the familiar pain of being damaged inside yet it felt foreign – it came from someone else other than himself. Looking at San who wouldn't meet his eyes, the smile of the captain that had seemed warm not too long.
Huh...
"It was better for you, Yeosang. Not all of us knew and it was only a very loose guess.", Seonghwa suddenly said. He was supported by Mingi as they came closer, a limp to his right foot: "Also it might be harsh but you've got what you asked for. You were allowed passage on this ship and treated fairly, even your siren got a chance despite the circumstances which could have been better for sure, it worked out, did it not?"
He searched the taller's expression, letting his gaze wander, he swallowed at the bruise on his right ankle.
"What is it then?", he said slowly, looking for Seonghwa's eyes again which decidedly locked him out.
"You're a guiding light.", Wooyoung spoke softly still in Hongjoong's hold, making the crew stop. Yeosang's gaze immediately zeroed in on him, his newfound form of betrayal by people he believed friends, washed away as he widened his eyes a little in wonder: "What is that?"
His voice had been barely about a whisper yet Wooyoung seemed to understand him as the snowflakes in his sirens eyes melted: "The children of the sea have many names.", he suddenly smiled which immediately made Yeosang want to smile too, "Anîtheria, souls of the damned or under humans they're most commonly known as sea witches."