The Butterfly Effect

Perhaps it was part of siren nature to travel upstream, to find a little portion of water to claim her own. Her mother, so long as she came back before dark, never cared where she went. After all, Loraena needed only follow the river, and she'd find her way back home.

Of course, that didn't mean she liked going far. Which meant that, when she wandered out much further than she'd intended and got herself lost, she was an utter mess.

Which is to say, uncontrollably crying on the side of the road, too afraid to ask for help. She didn't talk a lot to humans, not at that point. She was more familiar with the Old Tongue spoken by her mother and aunts, and she'd gotten the impression most humans weren't…

But luckily for her, she didn't have to stay there, crying, until one of her aunts or her mother went to find her. Because a little boy—with his mother behind him—walked right up to her and plopped down beside her.

"Whatcha crying for?" he asked gently, tilting his head. "Can I help?"

She tried her best to muster the words, unfamiliar with most of them. "I—I got lost…"

The boy's mother walked up to her, too. "Well, where are you from, dear? If we don't know where it is, there's another town nearby—someone there will know. Perhaps we should share names, too. I'm Ms. Kadnekh and this is my son, Ragnis. We both come from Yllvamel, though we're on a short trip right now."

"I'm… Loraena o-of Clymei"—she paused, desperately trying to remember what the word was, before simply defaulting to the Old Tongue—"River. The River of Clymei."

Ragnis's mother considered it for a moment, then nodded. "You aren't too far from it, then. We'll go ahead and show you back."

Loraena managed a smile. "Thank you."

…

The funny thing was, she started to realize that she'd never actually been to a town before. She'd passed by them, yes, but she'd never entered. A part of her had been afraid of her own powers, and another of what humans would do when they met someone like her; those were fears she always had, really. But it was when she first met Ragnis and his mother that she realized that her fears didn't have to be her reality. And, once she made that first step, she could see that they weren't nearly as big of problems as she thought.

A couple of weeks after the whole situation, Loraena brought the possibility up to her mother. She said she'd recognized the town, though it had been a bit further away than what Loraena had imagined. But, together, they decided to make the trip there.

"You'll have to introduce me to your little friend, Loraena," her mother remarked as they entered the town. She knew the modern language, but she preferred the Old Tongue, and she likely figured it didn't matter what the humans thought they were saying anyway.

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"I will," Loraena assured her. "I've just got to find them. He told me what his house looked like. He said he often played near it. Ms. Kadnekh also mentioned where the church was, so maybe we could—"

Then, suddenly, she saw Ragnis round the corner and enthusiastically rush up to the two of them.

"Loraena! You did come! Is this your mom? Hi, Loraena's Mom!" He turned back around. "Mama, Mama! Loraena and her mom came!"

Ragnis's mother walked up to them, too, smiling. "It's good to see both of you! Would you like me to show you around? I promise, the people here are pretty friendly—a couple of sirens live off the coast, so we know you're not really that different from us."

Loraena's mother nodded. She spoke with careful deliberation, giving the impression of being wiser than she was. "I believe we'll both like that. It's been a long time since I stepped into a mortal settlement. Perhaps you could show us something we've never seen before…"

…

Loraena liked Yllvamel even more when she realized it had people like her; those who belonged to two worlds, inheriting a little piece of both. She liked Ragnis more, too, when she learned that he was one such person. He was a half fairy, just like she was a half siren. It made her feel a little less alone, honestly.

"Maybe you can show me sometime!" Ragnis remarked, taking a big bite out of one of the cookies his mother had made for them. "I bet it'll be super cool. It'll be like whoosh and then ooo and ahhh."

She let out a nervous chuckle. "I don't think I actually have that much talent… Besides, I don't want to accidentally hurt someone. This is practically a coastal town. Messing with the water could be serious…"

"I guess you have a point…"

Something else caught his attention, though, and it was obvious he tried not to make a scene out of it. "Hey, look, it's them! Or I think it's them."

She tried following his gaze, but she saw nothing more than the average townspeople of Yllvamel. "Who is it..?"

"Those weird friends of Ms. Eme! See them? They're right over there. I think Mom said the broody-looking one is Ms. Jasmin, that one wearing green next to her is Ms. Kiara, and that fancy lady is Ms. Brynn! I think they've been here a while but I never get a good look at them. They usually only go out at night, or stay with Ms. Eme—that's what Mom told me, at least. They're even more mysterious than Astyu! You haven't met him yet, right? Ms. Eme never brought him along on any of her trips to town while you were here." He kept talking, but she started to tune him out.

Now, Loraena knew better than to judge others based on their appearances. But there was just something about those three that she didn't like. They possessed such powerful airs of magic that she—despite being pretty far from them—could still sense it. Even among the other children of Fleyw Bresh, they stood out. And it was different than most others, too, for more than just its strength.

All three of them… they seemed to emanate a kind of danger or disaster. Like a siren who couldn't, or didn't bother, to control her song. Like a powerful storm at sea that was just waiting to pull any unsuspecting boat under the water.

"Loraena." Ragnis poked her. "You're just staring off into space, come on, get a cookie before I eat the rest of them."

"O-oh. Yeah." She hesitantly took it, forcing herself to look away from those three strange women.

"Something wrong?"

"No, it's fine. You know, I was just thinking—I could probably show you a little bit of my water magic. With an adult watching, of course. But I realized that you might not be the only one who wants to see it."

That seemed to be enough of a distraction. "Ooh, that sounds great! Let's do it sometime!"

Meanwhile, she just resolved to stay away from those women, if they ever did cross paths again. She knew enough about fate and how it liked to tangle up anyone who got too close to know that, whatever they did, it was best to avoid them…