With a flick of his hand, Vastarael's form shimmered as he morphed into a tall, regal woman. Her eyes gleamed with the same look. The siren who stood before her froze.
He was two meters tall. He was humanoid but scales shimmered along his forearms, legs and across one half of his face. Long black hair spread on his shoulders. He was handsome, beautiful even. Vastarael, now in her female form, casually summoned two chairs made of sapphire crystal, one for each of them. The Control Circle pulsed once and fell quiet. The screams stopped. She crossed her legs.
"Sit."
He hesitated, then did.
"You want to know why I destroyed your entire clan with zero hesitation?"
He didn't respond.
"Let me guess, you think it's punishment for what you did to my kind. But they're not my kind. Far from it."
He frowned. "What—"
"You know, the Hydroborn are meticulous historians. They keep record of every birth, every death and betrayal. I took a stroll through their archives. Your story is one of the most twisted I've read. And trust me, I've read some ugly things."
His fists clenched.
"You were once adored as The Golden Siren, beloved by your people. Your father ruled the reef city with dignity. You had admirers from every corner of the ocean."
His eyes darkened. "That's not—"
"But you fell for something forbidden. A Hydroborn woman. A creature created by the Nexus of Oceans, the very sea-mother your people owe their existence to. And guess what? All sea creatures share a Bane, do they not? Never bond with a Hydroborn. Never crave them. Never love them."
The Chief Mutated Siren stayed quiet.
"She washed ashore on this very island. You saved her, nursed her, even protected her from other sirens who wanted to take advantage. You fell in love."
"She loved me too."
"Maybe she did. But she knew that the bond between sirens and Hydroborn was doomed. It was a contradiction. She tried to leave when she healed."
The air grew colder. The siren's eyes dimmed.
"But you wouldn't let her. You trapped her here. You isolated her and told yourself it was for love. You forced her to marry you. You slept with her before and after that. You claimed her body and will. You called it yours."
"I—"
"You raped her."
The siren froze.
"You told yourself it was love. It was nothing but pure obsession. You had children with her. Two of them, actually. Half-Hydroborn, half-siren. Do you know what that did? The Nexus of Oceans cursed you and everything you were."
He turned his head away.
"She erased the woman's memories and took her back to the Inexpelcae Islands. She was given a new life with no knowledge of you or the horrors you forced on her. But you? The Ocean Nexus compelled you to kill your own children and your entire family. It drove you mad with grief, pain and guilt."
The Chief Mutated Siren clenched his fists until his knuckles cracked.
"And when it was over? Your people were exiled from the ocean's grace. They were no longer recognized by the sea. They were hunted by Hydroborn and despised by other sirens. That's who you became the Mutant Sirens."
He looked down.
"You are not a sea creature anymore, You're a cursed mistake, born of love turned toxic. And your people? Every one of them swore to protect your legacy. That's why they died. That's why they screamed. You brought the wrath of an entire clan just for your stupid obsession you called love."
The siren spoke quietly. "You still tortured them."
"I did because they didn't stop you. Not when they could have. Not when they should have. And I don't forgive that kind of silence. And also, you know they suffered under the curse more than you have. Death is simply a mercy to them."
"You don't have to lecture me about mercy when you annihilated innocent men, women and children!"
"Hah! Innocent you say? You know the worst part about you? It's not your actions. It's not the children. It's not even the way you let your cursed bloodline rot into something unrecognizable. It's the cowardice."
The Chief Mutated Siren's eyes flickered but he said nothing. Vastarael gestured lazily to the smoldering horizon.
"You could have stopped them. One word from your throat, and they would have stopped eating the innocent and ripping through the throats of sailors. But you didn't. You let them become monsters."
"I am not responsible for what my kind does—"
"You were Chief. You could have said, 'Enough.' Instead, you watched the blood spread. You watched the curse warp your people's minds and thought, 'Ah well.' You let them sink into the filth, thinking if you got low enough, if you stayed dirty enough, maybe the ocean would take you back."
The Chief Mutated Siren clenched his fists. His nails dug into his palms, drawing blood.
"It's been, what... five thousand years? Five millennia of silence, hiding in fog no other being could pierce. And you thought that was mercy? That was cowardice disguised as atonement."
She began to pace now, circling him like a shark around a drifting corpse.
"The Hydroborn couldn't find you. The Nexus of Oceans cursed you sure, but it didn't stop you from living and choosing decency. You were given a small chance. A terrible one, but still, a chance. And what did you do? You let your kind become a plague on the tides. You let your cursed bloodline eat and devour and mutilate everything in the sea that still had love in it."
The Alpha Mutated Siren opened his mouth but nothing came out. His eyes darted toward the Control Circle and the thousands of souls inside.
"You thought hiding meant safety. You thought if you stayed in your misty little haven, justice wouldn't reach you. That maybe the ocean would forget what you always do."
She laughed.
"But it didn't."
Her form flickered then, shifting back into her male body. The glaive Calimostria sparked behind his back.
"I'm not some vengeful hero from a fairy tale. I don't care about redemption. I don't care about your tears, your loneliness, or your self-pity. You were born from a god, weren't you? Like me. I see it in you. You're no ordinary siren. You've got divinity stitched into your soul."
He leaned in, inches from the siren's face.
"Your mother was a sea goddess. Mine, too. Which means I found your fog not because I'm lucky but because divine blood calls to divine blood. And I was born to end yours."
The Mutated Siren finally spoke.
"You mean… I'm the last?"
Vastarael leaned back and sat again, crossing one leg over the other, resuming a conversational posture that made the whole scene even crueler.
"You are. Every siren tied to your bloodline was bound to this island. I waited and learned your migration cycle. I tracked you guys for thirteen months. I waited for the one day every last one of you would be here. You can't stay away from this island for too long. That's part of the curse, right?"
He gestured to the scorched remains of the island with a flick of his fingers.
"And then I cleansed it. You are the last of your kind. Well, you'll be extinct anyway."