"Akia Kenya, this is not about you. We have no problem with you and your kind but your mother took and lost something that was ours. You have to understand that you are not our enemy." The woman, lassandria said and was about to snap her neck when a girl appeared in front of them. Akia struggles against the hold on her body but it's futile. The woman holding her doesn't even budge.

"Took you long enough to make your attack. I waited so long that I ended up winning a crown." Asuka said picking up the gold crown on her and tossing it to the ground.

"This didn't about you snake."Lassandria

Growled voice low and dangerous. She attempts to snap Akia's neck once more but the siren wasn't having it.

A long tail extends from their mouth, extending until it grabs the woman throat, snatching her off the floor and away from Akia who crawls away from the disturbing imagery.

She was about to crawl away into the darkness when a sword appeared in front of her. she gasps and attempts to move away but the sword lifted up getting to ready to slice her in half.

In a blink of an eye though the other woman had slammed into the one holding the sword.

There was a loud growl that left both of the women.

And then they started chanting in a foreign language. Akia felt strange like she was melting into the floor she tried to move her arms and legs but she can't.

"We don't fuck with your kind, but we were fools to think that you'd extend the same curtesy." The woman growled before levitating off the floor. Akia couldn't breathe. Her jaw dropped down and she was finding it very difficult to keep her eyes open.

"You should've known better to expect any kind of curtesy From a siren." The other woman said before elongating her sword and charging towards the siren who sprouted more snake tails on the side of their body. The tail slaps the woman into the brick wall of the throne room. The woman struggles against the tail that was actively crushing her body against the wall.

The woman with the sword successfully cuts off the tail and Asuka's tail retreated and thick black blood gushes out of it. Asuka doesn't even acknowledge pain from the cut instead another tail comes springing out right from the one that's been cut off. This is distracting enough for the woman to look at before another tall heads straight for her head. It wraps around her head and quickly snaps it clean off. Leaving her on the floor bleeding.

Akia gasps softly as the levitating other woman let's out a cry before chanting

Foreign words once more.

The woman who had fallen on the floor with her head on the other side of her begins to hyperventilate with her discarded blood sinking back into her body as well as the skin of her absent head starts to elongate and draw it back to her neck.

The siren acted quickly, picking up the head with its tail and tossing it fair over the palace wall.

"Go fetch." The siren said before their tails begin sinking into their skin.

The levitating woman stops the spell, halls off the body of the other woman and begins levitating away.

Akia falls to the floor. She crawls away from the girl.

"Are you alright?" The siren asked and Akia whimpers in response.

"Lady Akialine, I sensed trouble." The witch doctor appeared from the darkness.

"If it was up to you to save her she would've been dead by now." The siren said crossing their arms and legs.

"I'm an old man, not as agile as I used to be." The witch doctor said getting to his knees and helping Akia off the floor.

"Y-you know this creature?" Akia asked and the witch doctor laughed.

"Calling Your savior a creature is a bit rude don't you think?" The witch doctor said and Akia gives the siren side eye as she's raised off the floor by the witch doctor.

"Were they witches?" Akia asked and the man shakes his head.

"diabolus mulieribus also known as devil women. witches get their power from the moon, the devil women get their power from stealing from the earth. They sacrifice human energies and souls in exchange for magic from an ancient godlike creature know as the malum est or evil one."

"I didn't know that was possible." Akia said and the witch doctor sighs.

"All kind of things are possible in this world."

"thank you for saving her Apollo." The witch doctor said to the siren who's suddenly wide eyed. He never introduced himself by such name.

"But I know what your true intentions are so I think it's best if you leave now." The witch doctor said.

The siren seems to be thinking about it.

"If I were you I wouldn't turn me away."

"We can't give you what you want and I've never know a siren to work without expecting a reward."

"She doesn't need the Stone." The siren said and Akia doesn't know what they are talking about, she's tired and she's starting to get really fed up with being in pain all the time.

"No she doesn't, but you can't have it either. Your kin-" The witch doctor Walter started but he's interrupted.

"My kind what? What do you know about my kind? All sirens are not here to destroy and feed. Some of us, some of us are simply just trying to survive in a world that's rapidly growing stronger against us." The siren said and the witch doctor hesists.

"I know you to be good Apollo, I know but giving you such power could be the end of us all."

"If you know me to be good, trust me to continue to be good."

The witch doctor seems to be thinking about it.

"They'll just keep coming after her until they kill her and take the stone for themselves once again. I can protect it." Asuka said and Akia shivers.

"Give it to him-her just give it away."

"Akialine you don't understand the power that's in that stone. Sirens are incredibly manipulative creatures. This could all be a rouse. Apollo could easily kill us after receiving it."

"Will you kill us if we give you this stone or whatever." Akia ask still shivering.

"No, I have no need to kill you or anyone else." The siren answered.

"See, he said he wouldn't." Akia said before attempting to walk away on legs that felt like jelly.

"Swear your allegiance to the sun king, swear yourself to him." The witch doctor said and the siren's eyes widen.

He thinks about his freedom and how signing himself over to the sun king would take that away.

But then he thinks about the siren in his home who couldn't walk, all the other sirens who didn't want to hurt anyone just feed who were starving away because of the drowning protocol.

"If that's what it takes."

Apollo was afraid but he was also hungry out of his mind.

Akia started walking away when the witch doctor stopped her.

"We need you for this." The man said and Akia groaned. She was a second away from throwing the world's biggest tantrum.

All she's been doing it getting thrown around. All everyone has done is throw her around and she's so sick of it so fed up that a tantrum, something her mother never even allowed her to have started to build up in her chest.

" let's just go." She said quietly.

The siren and witch doctor follow her as she walks extremely slowly.

"Do you want me to carry you?" The siren asked tired of their excruciatingly slow pace.

"I'm alright." Akia said and continues walking very slowly.

Before she knows it she's being lifted off the floor by tight scaly tails. They feel so strange against her waist, she could feel them pulsating, pumping blood through themselves.

The siren wraps another tail around the witch doctor and in an instant they are at the witch doctor's hut.

The siren puts them both down.

"Do all sirens have tentacles?" Akia asked.

"No, I think I'm the only one capable of conjuring multiple tails, most only have one."

"Sirens are snakes?" Akia asked and the witch doctor shakes his head.

"It's much more complicated th-" The witch doctor said but was interrupted by the siren.

"Can we get to it?" The siren asked.

They were sat on a mat in the witch doctor's home. He was brewing Akia a tea that would help her feel better.

"You're not going to hurt anyone if we give you this stone will you?"

"I already said I couldn't doll, I don't go against my word."

"What about feeding?, Don't sirens feed on human souls?"

"Only greedy sirens feast directly from the soul, those sirens are not part of my flock. We only drink blood. It's not the same, not as satisfying but it's easier to do and stay undetected."

"Don't you feed on sexual energy or something too?" Akia asked.

"It depends on compatibly and differs from siren to siren. It's hard to find humans who have anything to give energy wise."

"What kind of humans can feed you?"

"Powerful, violent humans. Sirens are often not very far from battlefields. So what about you?, what makes you special enough to carry the all so powerful sun king."

"The king chose me." Akia said and the witch doctor tsked.

"The king didn't choose you Akialine, the sun chose you years ago for the king. You were created to be the sun King's mother and the bride of the king. You and the king share the same soul."

Akia never really thought about it, she never wondered why she was the one in this position. She always just imagined that it was bad luck and the King's fault.

"Soul mates?, isn't that a myth?" The siren asked twirling a thick strand of hair around they ringed fingers. Akia admires the delicate action.

"Others will argue that sirens are a myth as well. But Akialine Kenya and king Octav are soul mates. He married and used his siren bond mistakenly to bind his soul with his first bride first so he's detached from Akia and unable to properly feel the bond between the two of them."

"That can't possibly be true, soul mates are only in fairytales. Besides he's horrible to me." Akia said frowning at the propsestious thought.

"Octavius has always been a wild card, having so many different beings inside him makes it very hard for him to remain true to himself. Not to mention the fact that he's a ball of energy that he can't ever truly release because he's surrounded by fragile humans."

"He's mean, I don't like him, I will never like him. I want a different soul mate." Akia whined and the siren chuckles.

"You're the only one capable of birthing the sun king. Whether you want the king or not is not up to anyone but you to decide. You don't have to love the king to birth the sun king but trust me your life would be much easier with his affections. I've known him since he was a child. He wasn't always like this, the war stripped him of everything and then the banishment of his family. He hasn't been himself ever since he killed his father. The queen helps, she helps no doubt but she doesn't have standards for him. Doesn't care about how his actions influence his kingdom. She doesn't care about anything but him. She doesn't mind if he acts like evil incarnate."

"they're perfect for each other." Akia said rolling her eyes for the first time in 11 years.

"Together they'll bring down this kingdom, a match made in heaven in fact." The witch doctor said.

"Now let's begin the siren bond ceremony."

-

April walks over to the giant gate surrounded by soldiers.

"I request to see General Kenya." She said.

"GENERAL KENYA ISN'T HERE."

"What?!" She asked.

"He never came back after his trip with you and your husband."

There was a loud thud on the other side of the wall and a lot of dust falls down from the wall.

"WE ARE UNDER ATTACK, GET INTO POSITION." A man shouted from on top of the wall. Everyone pulled out a sword.

Donovan shoves April behind him.

"WITCHES ARE ON THE WEST, WOLVES ON THE EAST. SET THE BOMBS READY FOR LAUNCHING."

April feels a chill run through her as the man giving the orders is flung off the wall by an unknown force.

Where was her father?!