Mermaid's Cove

6

Youin

Her eyes dart about as she crosses her arms. There really is something different about her. I've committed my wife to memory. I could remake her form from memory. Her gait is different. Her hips are wider. Her scent has changed. Her breasts are larger. Everything about her seems slightly different. Even her eyes.

I cock my head. "What is different about you?"

Moria heaves a sigh and crosses her arms. "What do you mean? Don't you have anything else to say to me, Water God?"

I purse my lips. Anything else? She is different.  Of course I recognize her. It doesn't matter what she changes—no matter what form she takes. I know her soul. But even that...has shifted.

She paces in front of me, her head down, her hat missing. I narrow my eyes. Captain Moria seems softer. She is here in the flesh but she has not released me. She wants to barter. If I had not missed her insolence so much I'd be enraged.

Her hands clench her arm. I want to taste her lips. I want to hold her in my arms. Mine.

"It is...good to see you. Different or not. I missed you. Your touch. Your taste. I missed you, Mine."

Her eyes flash at the name. "Do you remember when you cursed every where my foot touched to dry up and die?" She whispers shakily, kneeling at the foot at of my cage, careful not to smudge the spell that keeps me in.

"I do," I whisper, I slip my hands through the bars cupping her cheek. The barrier is beginning to weaken. Her dark brown eyes widen, almost in fear. Her skin...so warm. "What of it?"

Captain Moria licks her lips and shakes her head. "Children died."

I nod. "They often do, my dear. Are you wanting me to express remorse in exchange for your assistance?"

Her eyes flicker along my form. "You've lost the humanity I gave you. You're...different too."

I smile. Am I? I don't feel different. I've never cared about humans. Only her. Perhaps she had forgotten that.

"Release me from this hell Mine," I murmur. "I shall return by your side, where I have longed to be. We shall once more sail the seas and tangle in love."

And instead of her praise, her gratitude I am met with her fear. Moria—no, Captain Moria, the one true priestess of Youin, my wife she is not afraid of death. She is not afraid of me. The worst, to her knowledge, that I can do is kill her. So then, there is someone else she worries for.

"You've taken another," I nod softly, stroking her lower lip with my thumb. "And you worry about what I will do when I escape?"

She mouths the word when. I feel it. I want to taste it. She was human, wasn't she, this woman, this goddess—my wife? I suppose the years have been long without me. And of course, whoever he is, I will kill him in front of her and curse his land of origin for next hundred years. But she should've known that, shouldn't she?

Isn't that something...my Captain Moria knows about me? She's shaking. Oh...

"Whether I'll kill him. No...you know I will kill him. But not you. You're safe, Mine. My blessing is so strong in you, even though we haven't been able to meet."