The Fairy King

“I bid you a good night, Aglaopheme.” He sang softly, her name and his words strange to his own voice, but clear in his head. She did not respond at first, and he thought she was already asleep, so he turned back to the sad-faced raw fish …

“Since you’ve just had a long nap yourself, you take first watch while you eat. Wake me once you're done and settled.” “What, you’re just going to sleep…here?” “We have no place better right now. Do not worry, most creatures down here are…

Oliver looked at the fish’s dead eyes staring back at him, and slowly went to bite at the end of the seaweed, only for its rubbery texture and bitter taste to make him spit it out. “You wouldn’t happen to have anything else, would you?” Ol…

He was alive, then. The “kiss” had worked. His hand traced quickly to his neck, frightened but unable to forget the bloody holes that’d had to have been torn through. Instead, they lightly brushed up against soft flaps of skin, opening and …

His eyes flashed open in panic, feeling the siren’s grip cinch around his waist and his head. He could barely make a thing out in the commotion, especially underwater, but he was certain of one thing: her teeth were at his neck. Oliver mad…

Not knowing exactly what to do, he meekly mirrored her actions and brought his shaking hands up to her cheeks as well. Of course, he couldn't bear to actually touch her, so his hands simply hovered around her head, and again she looked at h…

“My…my name is Oliver William Shaw, son of Edward Shaw! Accountant, linguist, and amateur author. It’s a… a pleasure to meet you. Now, would you do me the honour of telling me yours?” He raised his hand to shake, but with the siren still h…

“I mean to say we have only just met! It’s not proper! I do not even know your name, or if you are promised to another! I should die of embarrassment if we should do…such a thing, and then your family should find out upon rescuing them!” “…

She simply yanked him up again, impatience overtaking the slight amusement of him making another fool of himself. “Look, I…I’ve heard tell of something like that.” Oliver sputtered out, his face red, not just from almost drowning himself, …

Oliver opened and closed his mouth a few times. The offer to fix his mistakes was a great one, his heart soared at the chance for redemption, but his brain politely reminded him of some possible complications. “Of course! I would love to h…

“...I…um…yes.” “What does it say?” With his judgment seemingly postponed once more, Oliver's vocabulary slowly returned to him. Though at this point, he was tired from all the hard work of perpetually dreading imminent death and then not …

Agonizing moments passed, as he awaited the inevitable pain. The mermaid's breaths were steady against his throat, his arms bruising under her continued grip. Any second she would strike, but nothing came. No teeth or claws at his throat or…

“Many eyes!” She bellowed, before speaking–or singing he supposed–a word he could not parse. “It was you! You woke them from slumber! It has slept here forever, a danger we were well aware of! That book of yours spoke lies to you. It brings…

“You say ‘a book’? I have heard that word before, but its meaning is unknown to me. What is a book?” That she hadn’t just torn out his throat and made a meal of him right there was enough of a shock to bypass the confusion that she did no…

“You will answer my question!” She snarled, raising him out of the water, the piece of wreckage he’d been clutching onto slipping from his grip as he raised his hands in alarm. “A book! It was in a book, one I was foolish enough to transla…

“Why did you come here? I’ve searched this wreck all night for reasons why landfolk like yourselves would come here. But dead men do not answer me, and if you do not, then you are as good to me as any of them.” She raised herself above him…

His melancholy flooded his perception until it was as soaked through as his socks. A misery so blinding, he should be easily forgiven for not noticing the menacing figure approaching him through the waves. “You. You’re not dead.” Spoken li…

Rolling on his back, Oliver squinted faintly at the noon sun and tried to take stock of his current miserable stake in life. The ship, the Dulcina, was beyond saving, its wooden corpse rent into thousands of pieces. A scant few undamaged cr…

The storm, and whatever manner of beast it had heralded, had long since gone, but the cries of the dying had only just stopped. His mind was overwhelmed, and he long ago might have passed out if not for their cries keeping him awake, but no…