Marlow shivered. She felt cold and numb like ice was slowly creeping through her veins, freezing her from the inside out. The sensation was coupled with weightlessness. Though she still could not move, the feeling of floating would almost be pleasant if she was not freezing to death.

Darkness swam all around her, lethargically settling over her like a thick blanket. She could not even tell if her eyes were open or closed. Was this what death was like? Would this be her new eternity?

“Taking…time.” As a faint voice drifted through the murk of Marlow’s mind, she felt her heart rate increase. A voice meant someone was there. That would be comforting; she had no desire to be alone.

“Patience.” The new voice was louder and clearer but still echoed as though someone was speaking behind a door.

Regardless, Marlow was filled now with the desire to move, to open her eyes and see just who it was that was speaking. She knew that death had ripped her from everything she had once known and loved, but she did not want to be suspended in a dark emptiness for however long the remnants of her consciousness would linger.

“Might finally be beginning to rouse.” The voice got clearer with every word spoken, and Marlow felt a hand press against her face. It was warm and smooth as it stroked her cheek. “Open your eyes, little one; you have lingered in your void long enough.”

Marlow groaned softly and – with immense effort as though her eyelids were weighted shut – peeled her eyes open. She had not even realized they had been closed. Instantly, the cloying darkness vanished in favour of a dazzling twist of swirling blue lights.

As her vision came into focus, the blue faded and was replaced with a pair of large inky eyes staring into her own. The irises were massively enlarged, with hardly any eye-white visible. It was like staring into an abyss. They were framed by a dark brown skin mottled with splashes of sandy speckles, including one right around the left eye that looked like someone had dripped pale ink onto parchment. Long brown locks flowed from the scalp, blocking Marlow’s view of the rest of the world as they fluttered into her peripheral on both sides.

When the woman smiled, her lips pulled up to reveal pearly teeth and a set of wicked incisors that glistened in the watery light. Marlow flinched as realization set in. She was still in the water, somehow still alive, and this was the creature that had held her before. Panic lit in her chest, matched only by the intense pressure. She needed to breathe, but her body felt heavy and strange, and she could not move to pull free of the monster’s grip even if she wanted to. It did not seem inclined to intervene with her drowning this time either. Why had they not killed her yet?

The siren’s smile faltered, and her head cocked to one side as her free hand came up to cup the other side of Marlow’s face. “Human born always freeze. It is strange, yes, but you can move and breathe, youngling,” she said with a foreign warble in her tone. “Swallow some water and exhale in unison.”

Marlow did not quite understand what was being said to her, or why, but her lungs were screaming desperately now. Without thinking, her lips parted and she sucked in a mouthful of salty-sweet water, and immediately began to cough. Her wheezing grew louder and she found the ability to move, doubling over until she remembered to exhale. Instantly she felt better as a foreign feeling crawled over her neck as slits lifted and she felt the small current over her skin as the water was voided from them. The burning in her lungs lessened, so she did it again – remembering to exhale immediately.

As soon as her head cleared, Marlow shoved away from the siren, ripping violently from her grip. She did not expect to get very far, but she had no desire to sit meekly and wait for them to decide to tear her apart.

The siren made no move to lunge for her, and instead merely looked amused. Marlow got a better look at her body. Her dark, mottled skin continued down the entirety of her form, though it faded to the pale of her speckles across her belly. The tail that stretched below her hips was thick and corded, and it swayed in the water to keep her upright. Her fins reminded Marlow of the seals that often lounged on the beaches near her home. They were thick and spiked and twitched out of unison. The siren’s fingers were long and thick, with a thin webbing woven between each digit.

Marlow’s heart flipped in her chest as her stomach knotted deep in her gut. These creatures were not natural and – though she still did not understand why or how she was still alive – she wanted to flee as far and fast as she could, but her body felt strange and heavy, and she doubted she would get far.

The siren before her began to chuckle and tossed her head. “It is curious how the reaction is always one of horror and distaste when we have done nothing but save lives.”

“Oh Asther,” clucked a new voice. Marlow’s head whipped to examine the owner as he drifted into view. His shaggy hair drifted around his shoulders, and his skin was a pale gray that darkened when it reached his ribs and bled down into an equally powerful-looking tail. A thick dorsal erupted from his back and he twisted to weave around the first siren before pulling up in front of Marlow’s face. His single fluke stirred the water. “That is because you always fail when it comes to reassurances.” While his attention had been on the other siren initially, he then turned to look at her, with slate-gray eyes that stared deep. Marlow shrunk in on herself.

“Do not be afraid,” he urged. “We mean you no harm. I was like you once; human born and confused. Things are different now. You are breathing underwater, had you noticed? Look.”

When he gestured at her, Marlow reluctantly glanced down at her body. Her skin had taken on an orange-brown shade, like lightly toasted bread loaves at the market. The flesh was spotted in white dots all across her body. Even her hair had bled to a shade of orange-red that made her think of dying embers in a fire. Instead of the legs she had previously, a long tail overtook the lower half of her body. It ended in one large fluke. There were other fins, however. Midway up her tail, two more fins jutted – one on either side – from the sides of the new body, and two more were up closer to her hips, more centered on her front, just a ways below her belly button. She twisted as she felt her hair brush over a large dorsal on her back, and found another smaller one on the back of the tail as well.

A scream lodged in Marlow’s throat and pain flowered in her neck as she tried. Instantly, the male siren clapped a hand over her mouth and shook his head. “Do not try to speak; you will only harm your voice.”

“Delthor is correct,” the original siren added as she drifted closer. Marlow vaguely remembered the male calling her Asther. “You are no longer human, little one. You are not capable of their speech. You heard us before you slept. Our voices have not changed, merely your understanding of them. You must speak the same way.”

Marlow wanted to ask what they meant, but the words caught in the back of her mouth and the pain grew worse, allowing only a soft squeak to echo past her lips. The siren before her shook her head. “We have lingered here too long as it is. We must go now. You will have to learn from your guardian.”

Both of them turned from her and took off in the water. Marlow squeaked again as more bodies rushed past her, leaving her to float helplessly. Her shoulders and sides still burned with the bite wounds they had inflicted and now she was forced to watch them abandon her. Her mind was reeling. How was it even possible, what they had done to her? And why?

Marlow hung her head and chewed her lip. It felt like a continuation of the worst nightmare of her life. Or her death. She wondered if perhaps this was a torment of the afterlife on her soul.

She bit her lip harder as she felt her eyes begin to sting. It was not possible to cry underwater, but she knew that was what was occurring. Her heart squeezed painfully in her chest. She wanted more than anything just to go home to her family.

Marlow nearly jumped from her foreign flesh when another siren came around to face her. This one had striking blue eyes that sparkled like gemstones set in her skull. Her skin was a dark black-gray shade, except for areas where it peeled away into a cotton white. It tapered off around her brows and framed the white of her face down the cheeks before reclaiming the chin and stretching down her neck and arms. The flesh starting at her collar down to her navel was more white, but was cut in by the darker shades along the sides and then down her tail, which ended in a dolphin fluke. She also sported a large dorsal that parted through her long, free-flowing black hair.

This siren regarded her with a calm dip of her head. She stretched out a hand and pressed her fingers to Marlow’s throat. “Speak higher. Humans speak so low in the chest and throat. You have a new cavity for speech now. It needs to resonate from the chamber,” she trailed off as though considering. “Almost as if you were singing. Try.”

Marlow hesitated before caving and tightening her throat. She had never been much of one to sing, but she would need to communicate eventually, even if the sirens frightened her terribly. She needed answers. “W-w-wh-why?” She finally managed to spit the word out. Her throat throbbed, but she began to understand exactly how the sirens spoke. “Wh-what happ…end?”

The siren dipped her head. “Good, you can speak. Can you move?”

Marlow hesitated just long enough that these siren grabbed her hands and tugged her forwards. Her long black tail swiped through the water as she dragged Marlow along. Marlow tested her own tail and winced at the strange sensation. It was effective, however, and her body seemed to naturally grasp how to swim once she had begun to move it, because it only took a few moments for the dark siren to release her and fall in beside her.

“You were changed,” the siren spoke up finally. “You would have drowned otherwise.”

“I th-though that was the p-point. Why I was b-brought here. S-sirens are s-supposssed to…” Marlow trailed off.

The siren pulled up short in her face and Marlow had to pinwheel her arms to avoid smacking into her. “We are not sirens. We are mer. And we do not consume human flesh. You will learn soon enough; human blood is thick and bitter and will make you very sick in large doses.”

“Then why?”

The siren shrugged and continued swimming. Marlow reluctantly followed her. “We cannot communicate with humans. I do not know how that unpleasant tradition of theirs was started or what led them to believe it would appease us, but we want no part in it. We only come to prevent innocents from perishing for a shallow cause.”

“Oh.”

The siren – mer – paused and regarded her solemnly. “What is your name? Many human-born cast off their human names when they join our pod, but you are welcome to be addressed however you please.”

“My name is Marlow,” Marlow responded without hesitating. She had no desire to change her name; she had loved her life.

“Marlow,” the Mer echoed with a nod. “Nix.”

“Nix?” Marlow repeated.

The mer nodded. “Yes. You have been assigned to me. Or rather, I to you. I will help you learn and adjust.”

Marlow nodded. She was grateful that there was someone she could ask questions, but mostly she was still in shock about everything that had happened thus far. She was not entirely certain it was not a dream. Part of her hoped desperately that was all it was. “Nix? Human-born means changed? Like me?”

“Yes,” Nix agreed. Her head bobbed as she swam. Marlow was getting faster, though she had no idea where Nix was leading them. “There are human-born and natural-born mer. There is no elevated status by being one or the other within a pod, we are all equal. It is merely for clarification of upbringing.”

Marlow nodded again as she processed the new information. “Are you…?” She broke off when she realized it may not be socially acceptable to inquire. Nix had been tolerant thus far, but Marlow feared that offence might end with her throat ripped out by the wicked fangs she knew Nix possessed.

“I am human-born,” Nix clarified. “But it does not feel like it. I was very young; five, perhaps six years old at the time.”

Marlow frowned and shook her head. “That is not possible. That is too young. The council would never have selected a child so small for sacrifice.”

“I was not part of that practice, Marlow. I was born far from here. Up north where ice floats on the water and human settlements are more primitive and nomadic.”

“Then how did you end up here?” Marlow’s fears were momentarily abandoned in favour of curiosity. That the water could get so cold that chunks of ice and snow might float in the ocean was unheard of. She wished to learn more if she could. Nix must have travelled a long way and Marlow could not help but wonder why or what made the journey worth it.

Nix grinned. “My tribe moved with the ice and with the fish. I wandered where I should not have, in the summer months when the ice was thin and full of seal dug tunnels. I broke through and fell into the water. The cold was deadly. It sunk deep into my bones in seconds until I could barely move, and my furs dragged me further down. The thing about falling through the ice is that it is very difficult to find the hole you made to even get back up to breathe. I was too young; I should have died,” Nix explained as they swam.

“I would have perished that day if Esthiel had not found me. The Mer up north are just as nomadic as the humans. They do not congregate in pods, but rather far smaller groups of mates and offspring. It is better that way, to feed and support smaller numbers when food is scarce.

“Esthiel found me pressed to the ice, drowning and too cold to resist. I do not remember my change any more than you remember yours, but I know it must have taken incredible strength for her to accomplish alone. One set of teeth is rarely enough.”

Marlow cringed at the statement and her hands came up to rub her scabbed shoulders. Bite and scratch marks littered her torso and they still stung. She imagined it must have been worse for such a small child. Sympathy blossomed in her heart. The mer may have a very unpleasant means of rescuing people, but they seemed to do so selflessly; perhaps they were not the monsters that society painted them as.

“When I woke, I had the markings of the orca, and the cold was gone. I have always been warm since. Esthiel and her mate – Warren – raised me from then on. I learned many great things from them.”

“Are they with this pod?” Marlow asked. She was rather curious to meet them now. Nix seemed pleasant and was quickly becoming a rock for Marlow to anchor on. She wanted to meet the mer that Nix spoke so fondly of. “Why did you travel down here?”

Nix sighed and there was suddenly a wilt to her voice like a drooping flower in a drought. It yanked the reins of Marlow’s curiosity and she glanced over as Nix’s posture sagged. “No. They swim no longer. Not for many, many seasons. I came here in hopes of escaping the guilt; it was my fault.”

Silence stretched for a long while as Marlow fumbled with what to say. Whatever had happened, she could not imagine Nix would have purposefully harmed them.

“I still remember them fondly. Warren was so strong and fast – he would wrestle leopard seals with no fear if required. And Esthiel was always warm. She was strict, though. She used to pinch at my dorsal if I was not keeping up when I was little, and her tail was a mighty bludgeon when I was older. But she loved me. They both did.”

Marlow stayed silent as Nix hugged her shoulders and seemed to sink into a memory. These creatures were not the sirens of myth she had grown up hearing stories about. While she had always felt the sacrifice to be a terrible practice, as a child she had always felt a little safer knowing it was ongoing and that the haunting monsters of the ocean were appeased enough not to appear on their shores. She was quickly learning a lot of those beliefs were wrong, and she was eager to share that knowledge.

Beside her, Nix sighed and tossed her head, and her inky cloud of hair plumed around her skull. “They are fond memories, but still, memories are all that remain. My change happened many seasons ago. Yours is still new. How does your tail fare?” Nix inquired.

Marlow shrugged and glanced back at it. She had almost forgotten she was even moving it and was grateful that some sort of instinct existed to guide her, otherwise she would be struggling a lot more. “It is alright,” she replied finally. She chewed her lip as a question that had been gnawing at her finally bubbled on her tongue. “Nix…do you ever miss your family?”

Nix’s sapphire gaze sparkled inquisitively as she regarded Marlow. “I miss Warren and Esthiel, yes.”

Marlow shook her head. “No, I mean your birth family. Your parents. Do you not miss them ever?”

Nix was silent for a moment and then shook her head. “I do not even remember who they were,” she said finally. “It was so long ago, and I was never unhappy with my life beneath the sea ice. The ocean has always been more of a home to me. We human-born rarely miss our lives on land. Most everyone in the pod was discarded and left for dead; there is no reason for them to miss that feeling.”

“I am grateful to you all for saving my life,” Marlow agreed. “But I would like to return home now.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Nix froze and her gaze whipped sharply to fixate on Marlow. “You want to go back?” She repeated. Marlow shrunk in on herself away from the icy anger dripping from Nix’s tone. “To the people who attempted to kill you? You would have drowned, but they believed you would have been torn apart – alive – by monsters. How can you long for those who would so willingly do that to you?”

Offence prickled along Marlow’s skin and glared back. “My family did not do this to me. I live on a farm outside the city limits. I was in to sell and trade that day when they decided a foreigner would make a better choice than one of their own,” she defended. “My family would never cast me off and it is they I wish to return to.” She hung her head. “They must be so worried. I never got to say goodbye. I have to go back.”

The anger in Nix’s eyes melted and softened into something akin to sympathy. She drifted closer and Marlow tried not to shy away. “I am sorry for your circumstances, but I fear you will have to learn to live with it regardless; you cannot return.”

Marlow shook her head as she felt her heart squeeze painfully in her chest. “You all did this to me, surely there is a way to undo it?”

Nix’s expression was strained as she reluctantly shook her head. “I am sorry, Marlow, but the change is permanent.”

Marlow took a breath and felt the water filter out through the gills she never wanted. “I will go as I am, then. My parents will not care, and I am sure there is a way to live with it.”

Nix was already shaking her head before Marlow had even finished speaking. “They would not recognize you. And you are no longer capable of human speech to communicate with them and they cannot understand us. Your life is out here now, with our pod.”