Kerri.

Kerrigan open your eyes.

I... Water droplets resounded at the back of her mind. Is this Ark Leya?

No.

Water slapped at the cool rocks beneath her limp body.

This isn't the shore, Kerri.

She opened her eyes, wincing. Bright blue, glowing fungi webbed the ceiling. She followed it with her gaze, down the walls to the seaweed-tangled fishing nets, rotting timber and rusted anchors strewn on the cave floor. Several faces stared at their guest from an ocean-filled pool beside Kerrigan. She crawled back with a sharp intake of breathe.

"Wait!" Her captor, the Siren from the rock, emerged from the group and pushed themselves onto the edge of the pool. They raised a hand. Kerrigan backed onto a rusted nail as she tried to retreat. She yelped in pain and turned over. The cave stretched far back, harbouring piles and piles of ship debris beneath a sky of glowing blue lights.

Kerrigan clutched her bleeding palm to her chest. There were clothes, too. And so many tattered leather boots. Belts. Coats. Ornate pouches, thick gold rings, tobacco pipes.

Loot?

The Siren crawled onto the rocky shelf towards Kerrigan, her tail snaking behind.

Kerrigan whirled around. "Stay back!" she barked.

The tip of their tail remained in the pool, where the group had gathered; all of them resembling beautiful human women, staring wide-eyed. One with green eyes and short dirty blonde hair rested their hand on her captor's tail.

The Siren halted. Her gaze dropped to Kerrigan's wounded hand; streams of blood ran lines to her elbow. Kerrigan revealed her palm. The wound had already healed. There would be no poisoning.

"Magic. You see?" she said. She held up the mark of Gemini on her other hand, revealing the fading scar on her forearm from the Siren's grip. The Sirens in the pool tensed. "That's it. Stay back. I can sink this hovel to the sea floor, and we'll all sleep with the fishes."

"If I'd wanted you dead, Wy'khiyen, you would be already," the lead Siren muttered, raising a plucked brow. Her accent was thick, heavily present, but Kerrigan could not tell from which isle it had originated. Kerrigan stared with a level, calculating gaze. The sound of the ocean bounced between the walls.

Why can't we ever just go about life in peace.

Be quiet.

"Alright," Kerrigan admitted. "Tell me your name, Siren."

The Siren gave a scrutinising look. "Undilla."

"Okay, Undilla. What is it that you want from me? Seems awful strange you take me in the first place. So few men really drift by these days?"

Undilla gave her a long, hard look, and said, "I had not imagined that one of your kind would ever wind up here. I feel this has to be fate. Ark Leya? Was that where you were bound?"

"Yes, of course." Kerrigan watched the Siren study the debris, deep in thought. Their long, black hair hung over their shoulder, covering a deep scar over where their left breast used to be.

"Your ship will not make it there, not with this fog, and there's a storm brewing East of here. But we can take you to Ark Leya," Undilla said. "Through tunnels. Your magic, does it help you breathe under the water?"

"Far longer than any human, but not indefinitely."

"Then you stand a chance. We will help you get there."

"Why in hell would you help me?" Kerrigan retorted. "I hardly feel that you dragged me here just to help me on my way."

They're going to bargain, I bet. You watch, they'll do a coin flip, gamble - fish style.

What does that even - can you please be quiet?

"We have no need for the flesh of a Wy'khiyen." Undilla turned back to the pool and made her way to the edge. The Sirens backed away, submerging themselves one by one. "There is something I must see, first. You must rest meanwhile, Marked One." Kerrigan felt a pang in her chest as Undilla began to submerge in the water.

"But why bring me here? You do know I could just find my own way out?"

Undilla smiled somewhat sadly, it was faint and curled at the edges. Several of her teeth were jagged fangs.

"You won't find the way out alone. I feel that we were meant to cross paths, you and I."

Kerrigan jolted forward but Undilla disappeared into the pool. Her tail coiled beneath the surface, then faded into the dark.