Mermaid's Cove

17

Moria

Something stirs me deep in the night. A cry that wrestles me from my rest. My son.

I stand , worry drowning me. It was so tangible, it was like he was in the room with me.

"What are you doing up and about?"

"I swore I heard my baby," I murmur. "My baby."

He crosses his arms. "He called for you. But he is fine. I...made sure."

I purse my lips. "I need to see him—"

"You will," he assures me, crossing the room, taking me into his arms. "I promise."

"Why must I be separated from him? We can be together, all three of us—"

"Not yet," he murmurs.

I pause him away. He doesn't protest sits on the edge of the bed as I pace.

I whip around. Why did I let him talk me into this? As usual, I surrender my thoughts and he takes hold of them. Frustration mounts in me.

"And why not yet? I cannot be away from him any longer. I will not. He is a child. He needs his mother," I stand. "I am going to get him."

"There is a scar on my soul."

I pause and turn around. Youin looks down, his fingers tinted his long blue hair hiding his face from me. "What?"

He purses his lips looking away. "I...I am not what I once was. Part of me is missing. I no longer have as much control I used to."

I swallow roughly edging forward. "Oh?"

"Being imprisoned that long...the void sorcery that bound me...it—"

I narrow my eyes critically as he pauses, his gills flapping open. "Harmed me."

It's quick. He spits it out—shoots it out really.

"Harmed?" I breathe out.

Youin says nothing for a moment, his head is down, his large body crumpled on the edge of the bed. "I lost my mind in there, Moria. I lost my mind and then I lost myself. He...split off from me."

I have never seen him look so human. The emotion on his face, for once is so clear to read and it isn't anger. He's in despair.

"My memory is fragmented. My soul is scarred. My power diminished. And my body..."

He stands and I watch as the porcelain flesh I'm used to melts away, revealing blue skin, broken up with red cracks like magma flowing, splinting him.

He looks up at me his pale blue eyes filled with tears. They bubble at the corner of his eyes float.

"Look what I've become. Look at what they made me. What they...what they did to me, Moria. How can I protect him? I couldn't even protect myself."

He turns around, lifting his cracked fingers to his eyes. "You're immortal. You have some of my power. You will live if anyone attacks me. But him? It is why I did not protest you leaving him with Slade. He can protect him."

"You split? So whenever you flipped that was the other part of you?" I ask crossing the room to take his hand. He pulls it away from me, changing his form, wincing as he does.

"He's younger. From before I met you. The Youin who despises humans more then I do. He is...he is who I was when I was at my best."

"And he's around my baby? You hated half breeds! We have to—"

"He won't harm Calder." Youin says with certainty, tapping his fingers along the window's sill as he looks out.

"How could you possibly know that? We must return! I must—"

"He may be an older version of me, but he's still me. He will not harm Calder. He can't."

I pause.

"The same way, although he may say harsh words, he will never harm you either. Or, for that matter leave either of you alone."

I swallow roughly, cross the room, take his hand again. "Whys that?"

"He's me. I...I love you two. Although he's never met you, the presence of that love is too overwhelming now. No part of me has been left untouched by it." He smirks in defeat. "Like this, in a way," he motions to his hand though he does not reveal his cracked form again.

I'm surprised he even showed it to me. That's he's even mentioning this. I thought nothing had changed. I see now, that everything has.

Youin has been felled.

"Let me see it again, Youin."

He closes his eyes tightly, shakes his head. "I cannot bear to look at it."

I touch his back. "Where is he?"

Youin smiles. "He's holding our son. Calder is trying to convince him to take him back here. He...wants to say no, but doesn't know how. He doesn't want to let go."

I smile. "And he feels that way because of you?"

He hangs his head. "I wanted him. I really did. I wanted to...have someone. You and me. And I knew I would love them. And I knew it would change me. But I...I kinda wanted to. And I missed it. I missed...everything and now I'm this."

He looks down at his hands, the cracks flicker, as if he's losing control over it. "No one can love this." He looks away from it, from himself, his eyes closed. "I don't even love this."