Smoke swelled up in the suite and out of the circular window just above Venus’ head. Her eyes glowed red as she chanted spells and incantations as if her life depended on it. The boat swayed rougher with every word until an earth-shaking jerk gave way to her efforts. Quickly reaching to the scar, it felt just as crusty as it did 5 hours before she started trying to heal herself. Pushing back away from the dimming flames, the waves outside of The Anastasia calmed to sail the ship into the horizon.

She threw the pillow she kept from the fire across the room in anger and yelled, “this shouldn’t be happening!” Huffing and puffing, she racked her brain for any other enchantments her sisters had taught her but none came to mind that she hadn’t already tried. “Where did this damned thing come from anyway?” She cursed herself for not noticing it sooner but even when she tried to think of it, her head would spin into other directions. ‘What’s going on that makes me unable to even think straight? I’ve never forgotten anything before, not even the face of my mother when I was first cultivated. It’s the same feeling as having withdrawals.’ She surmised that it could be just that. She missed the ocean and with the waves pounding against her ears 24/7, it might have finally gotten to her.

Running from her room, Venus ran out onto the deck with the sun crawling up from behind her just after waking up. Jumping up onto the railing, a flash came across her eyes. Lightning on a clear early morning like this made no sense. She looked around to see a boat crumbling around her that wasn’t The Anastasia. Her head throbbed as she rubbed her temples trying to get the mysterious pictures out of her mind. Memories and real-time mushed together as she looked down to her arms before losing all strength in her legs.

Warmth surrounded her as she somberly opened her eyes to feel her head lighten as well as the weight that rested on her two feet. Looking up, Scotty held her close with a panicked expression with a lick of worry etched between his furrowed brows. His usual blush was dimmed to be more of a rushed and panic-induced blood-red sweeping under his sleep-deprived eyes. “Are you alright? I don’t mean to step over any boundaries but I didn’t want you to fall in.” He slowly and almost reluctantly let go of her but she didn’t step back.

“Thank you. I think I’m just having trouble staying out of the water for so long.”

“But you swam to the boat, you’ve been out for a longer time,” he thought about how long the times have been before and figured she might just not be used to going back and forth.

“I didn’t even think about that…”

Scotty stretched out his hand and asked, “may I escort you to an early-bird breakfast?”

She didn’t hesitate in letting him lead the way. Something about him warmed her up inside without rocking her seas. They walked together in silence to the kitchen only for her to realize that she’s never had human food before. She’s mostly ever had raw fish from the hunts or even pant life but never something from the surface. Looking around the room, pots and pans were stacked high with seasons stashed away in creaky cabinets. Dust wafted through the air as if they’d walked into an abandoned room. “No one ever really comes in this kitchen anymore since we had a second upgraded one installed,” Scotty chuckled to himself as he pulled different ingredients from the shelves.

“Kitchen…”

He didn’t explain anything he just smiled to himself as he struck a match and threw it to the burner. Filling up a kettle he asked, “tea or coffee?”

“What is that?” She tried her best not to let her curiosity get the better of her but the smell of chamomile wafting around them mixing with her natural lotus aroma. She bathed in the two dancing in harmony as Scotty described how boiling different leaves and plants can make an amazing drink for any time of the day. “Mmh, then I’ll have that.”

“Have you ever had scrambled eggs? Captain said they’re fresh from the market.” He cracked two eggs, in one hand and had them sizzle while listening for her answer. The dark circles he once brandished disappeared with every word they spoke between each other.

The boat rocked back and forth as Venus described, “I’ve never had any of what I’ve been smelling since I came here. I didn’t even know that people cooked fish! They don’t even est the scales, did you know that?” She slammed her hands on the table in disbelief and laughed, “you people are so strange, you know that?”

He placed her cup of tea in front of her and chuckled, “I bet it seems strange but you’ve never tried it before so, I’d say to at least give it a chance. Two different worlds can collide at any moment you know.” He flipped the eggs in his pan while leaving his thoughts at just that.

“Give it a chance…”

‘I wonder if the kind of Arla gave my people a chance when they went up to the surface for a treaty.’ Venus stared at the back of his head trying to read what was going on inside of Scotty’s head as he whistled along to a sea song he’d learned on the water. She asked, “what made you want to be a sailor or even serve under Captain Caspien? He doesn’t seem to respect you as much as he should,” she mumbled the last bit as she leaned her elbow on the table to rest her head on her palm.

The silence weighed for a moment maybe even two before he chuckled softly and answered with genuine fondness dripping from between his words, “we’ve been friends for years. I know he respects me even when he doesn’t show it. A captain needs to be a captain in front of his crew, yes?”

“I see…”

Scotty lifted the cooked egg from the pan but paused before slapping it on the plate, “I wouldn’t accept any amount of bribery to leave his side. I trust him with everything I have.”

As he handed her the plate she grabbed his arm and asked in a low tone, “even with your life?”

There was no pause nor stutter in his answer. His clean and swift single word answer was enough to make her realize how much they mean to each other. From Caspien personally saving him from the Murilian navy to Scotty going out to find Venus for him, the two trusted each other with more than she could ever know.

She thought for a minute but something just didn’t resonate with her, “Then why doesn’t he treat you as his equal? You’re both humans in the same navy and you both trust each other with so much.”

“Because I’m nowhere near as capable as the Captain is,” he chuckled. Cracking another egg in the pan, he watched it sizzle against the oil and cook from the out, in. Digging deeper and deeper into the yolk of the egg until the edges were burned and the yellow hardened. He scoffed and took it off to his plate. He sat across from her as she stared between the two eggs. One perfectly cooked to sunny side up while the other bathed in charcoaled edges and burnt yolk. She switched the two plates without a word.

‘They’re so similar it’s scary,’ she thought to herself. ‘He used to always give me the better of the two as well.’ She smiled and confessed, “you remind me of someone I love.” She cut into the overcooked egg to take a bite and savored the flavor of the overcooked egg. It made her want to try it raw, straight out of its shell.

She didn’t notice his wavering smile after she said what she did. He looked down at the sunny side egg perfectly shaped just for her and sank ever so slightly in his seat. Looking up though, his eyes bloomed at the sight of her enjoying every bite she took of the burnt disgrace to chefs everywhere. It made him shove the foreign feeling of lovesick down into his stomach to ask, “a person you love? Hopefully not your brother.”

“Though all of my people were brothers and sisters to me, I didn’t have any immediate brothers, only sisters.” She laughed at the thought of Vulcan being her brother.

“Really? I always assumed you were an only child until now. I hope you raised them well, yes?”

“What do you mean? They practically took care of me. Being cultivated last always had its downsides.” She picked at the remaining egg on her plate as she remembered all that she missed out on in the years that Demia and Mercy shared together without her. “I missed so much yet I’ve lived for so long.”

“Well, that’s true for everyone isn’t it?” Scotty patted her shoulder and reassured her, “everyone has missed something before they were born and if you keep longing for it, you’ll never feel better. You had no control over something before your time, there’s no point in dwelling on it now.”

She thought about how she wished she could find the source of why the humans were hunting sirens or even why Poseidon had created us in the first place only to toss us away. ‘Were we just pawns in a game between him and his brother or did he truly love us at one point? I’ll never know unless I search for the answers myself,’ she looked back to Scotty who was cluelessly chewing on his eggs. “If only they cultivated me earlier. That’s all I’ve thought about since they disappeared.”

He choked on her last word and was about to ask but thought it best not to mention it, “what do you mean when you say cultivated?”

“Well, Sirens aren’t born like fish birth their young. They’re created using magic and three or more mediums. In my case, my mother and father used one scale from each of them then the water surrounding us mixed with their own magic to create my sisters and me. Though we may not look alike, we can always shift to look any way we feel comfortable.” She took a deep breath as her hair lengthened to the floor and dyed a deep brick red. As she breathed back in, it returned to its original short brown.

“That’s amazing! Being able to shift at your own will and be who you desire, it’s extraordinary,” he exclaimed.

“I bet I could shift you as well but I think I’d miss your red cheeks too much,” Venus laughed as she pinched one side of his cheek and giggled.

After she freed his puffy cheeks from her vice, he rubbed the aching spot and comically sobbed, “even a duke?” Just as he said it though, his face dropped as he eagerly retracted what he said. He continuously tapped his forehead on the table in front of them as he thought of an excuse for giving out such a random title.

“What’s a Duke?”

“Ah!” Relief spread over him as he thought, ‘I could just lie my way out of this, she’d never know! But,’ he looked back up at her to see true curiosity for the first time since he’d been a child. “Well to be completely honest, it’s just a title my father was given by Arla’s king after making weaponry for the war. There are different titles you can be born into or given, Duke is the second highest after the royal family.”

“Oh, you must be very proud of him then.”

Scotty shrugged and mumbled barely audible, “I guess you could say I was at one point.”

“Then does that mean you’ll succeed the title of Duke when your father steps down?”

“Well it’s not that he’d step down,” he twiddled his thumbs trying not to be blunt about it. “Humans don’t live as long as Sirens do so after my father passes I’d get the title from him. That’s if he acknowledged me as his own kin.” He picked up their plates and walked them over to the sink letting his words trail off.

Venus sat there trying to make the situation click in her mind faster. ‘His father doesn’t treat him as a son? Can parents do that with such a strong bond from birth? Maybe they never had a bond, to begin with. He did say his father participated in the war.’ She looked back to him to ask but decided, ‘it’s best not to dig up a past I have no business with.’

TBC