Naia

The Siren

Naia had never dared to spend so long in the pools before, well aware of what happened to the creatures that ventured into water so thick with arcane energies, but now they were her last hope

When she dropped the limp bundle she held in her mouth, the fae didn't move, didn't struggle even when she pressed her head down beneath the surface of the water. Not that Naia had expected her to.

Scratching a hurried symbol on the nearest crystal with her claws, Naia held Gaielle's body still beneath the glassy sheen of the arcane pool. If this worked, she'd never return to the surface world. If it didn't -

No, Naia refused to consider the possibility. She wouldn't fail.

She couldn't afford to.

Already the magic of the pools clung to Naia's skin with a sinister sharpness. As she watched, the hand holding Gaielle beneath the water began to shimmer with a lustre mimicking that of the ripples around her as they caught the light. It burned as though she'd dragged them into a lake of fire rather than the crystalline pool, but Naia forced herself to hold her ground. She'd known the risks.

She took a deep breath, forced herself to concentrate, and continued the incantation. Beneath her, Gaielle's body began to take on the same otherworldly glow. Crystals formed along the planes of her wings, piercing through the thin membrane she’d once relied on for flight. A splitting, stabbing pain echoed along the curve of Naia’s thigh. When she glanced down - past the still-lifeless body of her lover - she saw her own hide succumbing to the magic of the pool. It gleamed with the same arcane energies that lit the crystalline rocks surrounding them, pulsing in time with her heartbeat, the glow of it growing brighter with every word Naia uttered.

The pool had chosen its sacrifice. Naia continued, pulling the little fae closer. If this was what it took, she’d pay the cost.

When her wings began to fold under the weight of growing crystals, she didn’t have to look to know what she’d find if either of them made it out of these torturous waters alive.

Pain cascaded down her limbs and burned through her scales. Naia’s tears fell as crystals, splashing her in caustic water as they broke the surface. Her heart felt as though it would beat right out of her chest, pounding against her ribs like a trapped beast in pursuit of freedom, until, with a shuddering gasp, Naia fell to her knees.

She had no more words. No more incantations save for her pleas to the spirits of these ancient pools.

The world went distant, quiet, as though enveloped in dense fog.

From where she held her to her chest, Gaielle’s heart thudded in time with her own. Slowly, the waters surrounding them lost their lustre, charmed surface breaking with a sudden gust of wind.

Beneath the waves, Gaielle’s eyes opened at last, staring blankly up at Naia - unseeing - pupils still glowing faintly with the receding energy. Her face was distorted by the rippling water, mouth stretching into something terrifying and monstrous as she gulped back her first breath.

The sudden fear of what she’d done pierced Naia more thoroughly than the crystalline shards. And then Gaielle smiled to reveal sharp, jagged teeth, too large for the chasm of her grin.




Naia couldn’t entirely mask her surprise at the words forming in her mind rather than being sounded aloud, but she did her best to appear unfazed. “Of course I did.”

Gaielle unfurled her wings, crystals catching the light as she swept them through the water experimentally.


She slipped from Naia's grasp. The stone encrusting her wings did little to encumber her; Gaielle somersaulted in place beneath the surface of the pool, then darted around Naia in a tight, sinuous figure eight. While she'd merely fluttered through the air while she was alive, now her wings cut through the waters of the arcane pool with a power that belied her minute size.

Then, all at once, she came to a halt.




Her eyes were wide, luminescent... And suddenly, mournful.


"I never meant-" Naia began, and then faltered. Of all the creatures she'd slain - dragging them down to meet the fate that awaited them in the deepest, darkest depths of the abyss - she'd never felt such regret. Never cared for them before.

She'd thought that love would save them both from her true nature. But she'd been wrong.

"...Not you."

Gaielle flashed jagged teeth at her once more, reaching out to pull Naia back beneath the surface of the toxic pool.

Her tail twined around Naia's in a crushing embrace, the fae colliding with her in a way that spoke as much of passion as strength she had yet to learn to control. Within the water, her words were clear once more.


She touched their wings together, the crystals embedded in their flesh meeting with a charge like lightning. "And it looks as though you did too."