A Weapon’s Serenade

Serena had gotten up early and was picked up by Famine not much later, who teleported her to into the kitchen she had spent a lovely few hours in last night. Melody was just getting done cleaning up after breakfast.

“Ah, hello there. Looks like Famine got you?”

Serena nodded. “Yea, hi. This was weird, teleporting is weird. Sorry, Famine said she is quickly making sure everything is going as planned before she teleports us to some tiny uninhabited island near Hawaii. Also told me some rules and stuff, all things you are familiar with. No photos, no recording anything, no littering, all makes sense.”

“That’s good then. Since we got a moment until Kuria and Anne are dressed, I am happy to answer any questions you have.”

“So many, so so many. Where do I even begin…”

“Anywhere. Here, maybe?”

“Okay, so, about Kuria… you live with a demon who visits the same university as us boring humans. That’s just bonkers. How did that happen?”

“That’s a very long story. Kuria was created as an artificial symbiote thousands of years ago to enhance select humans. She grew a mind of her own and when some… people killed my biological parents, Kuria implanted herself in me to save me. Eventually the demons made her a body and since Anne and I will only be turned into demons once we are done with university, Kuria decided to go to uni with us, just as she did school with me. Oh, and because Kuria and I were sharing a body when Anne met us, she gets us both as girlfriends. There you go.”

“Wild shit, like the plot of a novel or something. Crazy. If Kuria was made by the demons, that would explain how you got involved with them.”

“Yup.”

“And Anne is just someone cute you met at school?”

“Pretty much.”

“Neat. So, uhm, have you met a siren before or this your first time too?”

Melody shook her head. “Never met one, today is a first. It’s possible Kuria has met one back when she wasn’t a person yet but she never talked about it if she did.”

“Today is going to be amazing then.”

It was late in the evening on the island Famine had taken the girls to. Not that a little bit of darkness would stop an inquisitor. She made sure there was enough light for everyone to see but no one outside this little group and the siren would notice anything.

Beside the massive siren, someone else was waiting on this island: Tiny. The hell cat who had accompanied Melody for almost her entire life couldn’t just let her humans and demons have a little adventure unsupervised, so she had come here too and was currently sitting in front of the siren, looking up at the massive fish woman.

The siren was almost thirty metres long from head to fin-tip, the fine scales covering her entire body shimmered in the moonlight with a gentle azure. Just as Serena had described, her upper body had the shape of a human woman with the lower half of a fish. She had crossed her arms on the beach and rested her chin on her hands.

As the girls approached, the siren whispered a few notes. It was a lovely little tune, clearly a greeting and clearly her best attempt at lowering her voice. It was still louder than any of the humans normally talked.

“Hello.” Famine waved and then sat down in the sand beside Tiny.

The siren drew something in the air, a line with various flowing shapes crossing through it. Famine did the same, with different shapes crossing her line.

Kuria tilted her head. “That is Asuran script. I can read that.”

“I had hoped you could.” Famine returned a smile

Melody frowned. “Yea, but we can’t.”

“It’s okay, I’ll translate. The siren just told us she is happy to see us and Famine returned a thank you for coming.”

Famine nodded. “That is correct. I should narrate what I write, apologies.” She drew another sentence into the air. “They are Melody, Anne, Kuria and Serena.”

Kuria chuckled. “Mewody. Asuran doesn’t have a syllable for Lo, Wo is the closest approximation.”

The girls chuckled, Famine translated the joke for the sirens who smiled in amusement. She drew another sentence.

“She is a bit sad that we cannot pronounce her name and she can’t either above water.” Kuria drew a sentence, the siren pondered for a moment and returned a short phrase. “I just asked her if she could approximate something close to her name or just tell us something we can call her. The single word she wrote is Isha.”

Famine wrote a sentence, the siren returned a nod. “Yes, she wants us to call her Isha.”

Serena had just been silently smiling and taking everything in, but she had questions. “Can you ask her something for me?”

“Yes.”

“I have way too much I want to ask, let’s just do the most important one. Are you happy?”

Famine translated, Isha wrote some lengthy sentences in response. “She is happy but life has been difficult. She does not want to offend and wants to know if you are aware of the impact humans have on the world.”

“I am well aware.”

Famine nodded and relayed the response. Isha continued writing. “The water is getting worse, harder to breathe, there is a lot of… something?” The old inquisitor asked for clarification, which Isha promptly provided. “Ah, there is a lot of plastic. Her group has to move often to avoid detection by humans who destroy the messages they leave others and sometimes their entire habitats.”

Serena put her hands over her face. “Please… please tell her that I am so sorry. I know about the damage we do but so many won’t listen. I have tried to do something about it but no one listens. I am so sorry.”

Isha reached out to gently tap Serena on the head before writing her answer. She smiled at the human.

Famine once again translated what the siren wrote. “She forgives you. She knows one person cannot change a people for the better and she knows that humans do not live in good environments either. She does not hate them for it, she pities them.”

“Famine… is there anything we can do? We must be able to do something.”

Famine shook her head. “Not without either revealing ourselves to humanity or resettling the sirens to Hell.”

“I hate this world. I hate humans, fuck. How do you write ‘I’m sorry’?”

Famine grabbed Serena’s shoulder. “This is not your fault. This is supposed to be a happy day for you. Once I have brought you home again, I will return here and discuss options. If you insist that we help, I will find a way. But it is not easy. Now, focus. You are here to learn and to enjoy yourself. Understood?”

Serena sighed. “Yea, got it. Sorry. Just knowing that you will talk about a solution is enough for me for now, thank you.”

“Good, let’s get back to conversing.” Famine quickly explained to Isha what just happened, the siren made sure to let the group know she understood.

After a few more questions, Serena had cheered up again. Isha was also getting more and more expansive and flowery with her explanations. She told stories of deep-sea creatures, how the sirens write by inducing radiation in stones, that they learned Asuran from a group of humans a very long time ago and that each siren lived for nearly a thousand years. Isha was only a little over a century old. She shared a sad memory of when she was younger when the humans destroyed an island she liked to play at with some form of radiation bomb. Eventually, she turned the questions around.

Melody nodded at Isha, who had just asked her if she had known about the things other humans didn’t know about. “I got adopted by demons when I was eight, they taught me a lot about the magical things left in this world and the stuff that used to be. There is someone who you might know from old stories. You know about the message your people gave the Asurans, right?”

Isha nodded.

“The Asurans never really understood it but they worshipped it in a way. One of their high priestesses, Atryca, was made immortal. It is a long story, but she is still around.”

Isha responded to Famine’s translation by tilting her head and writing something longer than usual. Famine raised an eyebrow and wrote something in response. A short back-and-forth ensued without letting the girls know what was being talked about.

“Kuria?”

“Apologies. I do not know how much I am allowed to translate.”

Famine simply nodded at her fellow demon.

“Alright. There wasn’t just one stone. The sirens knew that the Asurans didn’t understand their message but used it in a way that improved their lives. So, the sirens provided them with more stones. They didn’t give them officially but provided them to coastal towns they liked. Isha knows of Atryca because one important siren owned a strange rock, one that they found before they even knew about the humans. That rock wasn’t just a message written in radiation that would eventually fade but it was, as humans would say, ‘carved into stone’. It didn’t fade. They all agreed that the stone was dangerous, but no one knows why anymore, and that it needed to be forgotten. Since humans live short lives, the best way would be for a human to get rid of it and just eventually die without telling anyone. They gave the strange stone to Atryca who promised to hide it where no one would find it. Famine just confirmed that the stone in question is very likely the pattern emitter mister Johnson’s people found.”

“And Atryca knew about it all this time. How annoying it must be to bet on someone taking a secret to their grave and then never dying. I wonder if the old Atryca even wanted to fulfil that promise or if she was shitty enough to betray the siren’s trust.”

Famine spoke up. “No matter her past actions, I must speak to her. High inquisitor Azazel is deeply worried about the pattern emitter and made it our utmost priority. She has deliberately not told us everything she knows. That worries me.”

Serena raised an eyebrow. “Not to interrupt, but what’s a pattern emitter?”

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