He crouched in windy darkness,
Away back from the lamp he'd placed.
The kindly crone who'd led him here,
Had scurried home in certain fear,
Not wanting to see what he faced.
Beneath his feet, a rocky tongue that pierced the waves from root to tip.
A place that few had ever stood, and dangerous to passing ships.
The flame was said to draw her forth.
Against good sense his will did harden.
Both grief and wrath helped stay his course.
As with her, he must make a bargain.
He dared not think what price she'd ask.
He must buy back his father's life.
Good men were not hers to take,
And he'd been good, for goodness' sake,
While bad men on the seas were rife.
She took the souls of drowning men, and sold them back to those who cared.
She was the demon of the deep, and all who sailed the seas she scared.
The wind and waves both ceased.
An eerie quiet about him fell.
It gave the scene an air of peace,
But nothing could his heartbeat quell.
A patch of sea began to fizz,
Then from its midst a figure rose.
A slender girl with gleaming skin,
And glassy eyes as black as sin,
Was scantly dressed in kelp leaf clothes.
'Stand before me mortal.' Her voice was high and clear and strong.
'Now tell me why you've sought me out, or take your last chance to be gone.'
'My father has been lost at sea.
You can return him, so they say.
I've come to make a deal with thee.
Tell me what you'd have me pay?'
She closed her eyes as if in thought.
When they were opened, she was changed.
Her glacial visage seemed to melt.
A softening within, he felt.
She even looked a little pained.
'I do not have the soul you seek. I only save the ones who drown.
Your father having won at cards, was killed by shipmates from the town.
They bound his corpse with heavy things,
Before him to the waters tossed.
Then divvied up his winnings,
And lied to you that he'd been lost.'
This news hit like a thunderbolt.
He grasped his head and roared with rage.
Killed by those who called him mate,
His blood was boiling with a hate,
That only vengeance could assuage.
She looked at him and felt his pain. It resonated with her own.
She too had been betrayed by man, before the sea was made her home.
She wished she could step on the land.
But in the sea she must remain.
She reached for him with outstretched hand,
And very softly said his name.
He looked into her onyx eyes,
And wordlessly he knew,
How she had come to be created,
And that the world of man she hated,
For all that it had put her through.
Together they could rule the depths, a fierce and terrifying team.
A legend to make grown men quake and women weep and children scream.
His fate was set by what he'd learned.
He took her hand and gripped it fast.
He knew he never could return.
So took the breath that was his last.