[IC] Curse of the Talisman {Charming Devil & c3p-0h}

[CharmingDevil]

Cassius wandered just below the surface of the still waters, the full moon above glittering its lonely glow upon his deep turquoise scales and pale ivory skin. Tonight found him the same as every other night before, pondering his existence and doing his best to deny the soul-deep longing for something more than this. It had been a couple months since he last encountered a fellow siren, an ethereal beauty by the name of Lyra. She had hair as silver as the moon itself and a voice that echoed with the most enchanting melancholy he had ever heard. Cassius had spent a couple hours in her company that night, just floating along the reef with her and listening to her sing. They were both lonely, as were all sirens, and merely prolonged the effects of another’s presence before parting their separate ways. Who knew how long it would be before they found another with whom to share their silent heartache?

The sad truth was that this was the existence of all sirens. Bound for eternity by their shared loneliness but forced to spend their days apart. It never made much sense to Cassius but this is the way it has always been. He wondered often if the other sirens had these same thoughts. He had heard multiple rumors about their origins, ranging all the way from the gods in the days of old placing a curse on a band of traveling gypsies, binding them to the sea for eternity, to as simple as merely being the reincarnations of drowned sailors lost at sea. Regardless of the reason, Cassius held no memories of a life beyond dark waters and sad songs. If he had ever once been human, those memories were lost to him.

Suddenly shaking his head free of his depressing thoughts, Cassius lifted his head free of the water, breaking the surface with barely a ripple. Running a hand through his short black hair, Cassius allowed himself a moment to enjoy the warmth of the night. Slowly opening his eyes, their emerald green color seeming to glow in the moonlight, he was suddenly aware of just how unseasonably warm it was for this time of year. Glancing around at the calm ocean, Cassius concluded that a storm must be coming. It would be wise of him to take shelter until it passed. Taking one last look around at the world above, Cassius dipped back down below the water and sped off into the dark depths.

[c3p-0h]

Malcolm Mondragon, captain of the pirate ship, Seawing, was not having a good day. He was in the process of facing a bloody mutiny. On his ship. He was livid, to say the least.

The trouble began an hour ago when his quartermaster, Cade – a bloodthirsty, ambitious cur, but an efficient and obedient sailor (current circumstances made Malcolm strongly reconsider that description) – had walked into the captain's quarters unannounced. Apparently it'd been of dire importance, because that was an offense normally punishable by tying him to the mast for 12 hours. The captain didn't mess around with privacy.

But as soon as Cade had opened the door, both he and the captain froze, looking at each other wide eyed. The captain was normally very careful about his look. The crew only ever saw him in several layers of clothes, a knee-length, bulky, crimson cloak over it all. A wide brimmed hat over dark, thick hair. An embroidered black and gold scarf tied around his head, pulled low to cover a missing left eye. Scars reached out from under the scarf, jagged and ugly, marring freckled brown skin. The longest one cut straight over his nose, ending under his other dark eye.

But then, Captain Mondragon stood before Cade, long hair tumbling free of its hat, coat thrown across his bed, and only one layer, a thin undershirt, covering the top half of his body. And under that shirt, were very obvious, very feminine curves.

And so, the secret that Maia Mondragon had been keeping for the last six years so carefully, came unraveled quicker than she could blink.

An hour later she was standing on the edge of a deck, back to the churning sea and hands bound tight behind her. Her wrists were already starting to turn raw from them. A storm had been brewing all day, and now had finally come to fruition. The sky was as dark as Maia's eyes, her hair whipping in the harsh winds. Rain poured down, drenching them all. The crew was standing in a jeering mob before her, Cade in front of them like the leader he'd always wanted to be. He'd exposed her to them, whipped them up into a frenzy about the deception, how they needed to be able to rely on each other, and how the recent string of bad luck they'd had had been her fault – punishment for the crime of having a woman aboard the ship. And how quickly they had turned on her.

Cade stepped before her, his expression serious, but the unmistakable glint of victory in his eyes. He reached forward and grabbed the scarf tied around her face, slowly pulling it off and revealing the scarred patch of flesh in place of her eye. The crew shouted and yelled in approval to see their lying captain in full.

Maia kept her head held high and didn't react. She had always been the smallest member of the crew, short and without bulk to her, but still solidly built. She'd always made up for the size disparity with sheer presence, and she mustered up all of it that she could now, as she stood exposed and shamed. Her eye was locked on Cade's, dark and hateful as the storm.

"Sleep well tonight," She finally said. The sound of her voice, higher than they had ever heard it since she was no longer deepening it to keep up the charade, was soft and threatening. A few of the men had the good sense to blink through the haze of their frenzy and actually look worried. Woman or not, there was a reason why their captain had earned the epithet of the Sea Dragon. That soft, almost gentle voice might as well have been a thunder crack in the storm. "This will be the last night of peace you ever know."

She was going to come back for them, rip them to shreds, and use them for bait on her fishing line, like the worms they were. Even if she died tonight, in the churning sea, her rage at this betrayal would find them again.

"And peace to you, my captain," he answered. Then he raised a hand and shoved her back. Maia went tumbling into the ocean below.

[CharmingDevil]

Cassius had swam barely a couple miles in the direction of the underwater caves he knew surrounded the cliffs of a human port town when the ocean around him started fighting against his approach. He knew it was dangerous traveling so close to where humans might spot him but the storm he had sensed earlier was fast approaching and these caves were the closet form of shelter in the area. It was worth the risk as long as he stayed deep enough where light couldn't penetrate the dark water. Cassius remembered with a shudder the last time he had stayed out too long in a storm. The turbulent waters and flashing lights that cracked across the sky threw off his sense of direction so profoundly that Cassius had actually thought he might tire himself to death before he found somewhere safe to rest. Now that he really thought about it, he was unsure if sirens could actually die. He had never been so much as wounded before but he was unwilling to test that theory.

Suddenly something broke the surface above him, startling Cassius out of his thoughts. Whipping his head up toward the source of the huge splash, Cassius actually thought for a moment that the storm was worse than he originally thought if it was throwing debris into the water. But then he realized with a jolt that it was a human drifting sluggishly through the water toward him. He was about to turn tail and make haste before he was spotted but then upon closer inspection he realized the human was tied and struggling weakly against their bonds.

Shit, Cassius cursed silently to himself. It should have been an easy decision to just leave the human to their watery fate. He had heard the horror stories about humans and what one might do upon discovering a siren. However, Cassius had always had a gentle heart and that fact might one day be the death of him. Before he could second-guess himself, hoping that she might actually be unconscious and not notice him at all while he swam her to safety, Cassius carefully grabbed her around the waist from behind and continued his trek toward the caves, only this time with a fervor that caused him to swim faster than he thought he was capable of.