Chapter 34: Chapter 31: “Nerea”

The same pale blue eyes, blue hair and blue tinted skin. The only difference between them was that Nebule’s hair was long while the other siren, Ai didn’t know what to call her now, had messy chin length short hair that looked like it was crudely chopped with a rusty blunt knife.

Gently, Nebule reached up to touch the uneven strands, brushing behind the other siren’s ear. From there, her hands touched her cheek, then her neck, then her shoulders.

“How...that day I saw you..I clearly…”

The short haired siren gripped Nebule’s hand and gave her a gentle smile, her face growing in similarity as Ai looked at her closely.

“And you thought that I was just going to leave you behind?” There was a tingle of bittersweetness and sadness in that gentle smile. “We’re twins. Your life is mine and mine is yours.”

“Nerea…” Nebule’s tears had dried from the emotional meltdown she just had, but her face still twisted in immense pain as she looked at her twin sister. “But why are you h-”

Her words were cut short when her face morphed into one of physically pained. She groaned and gasped as she once again clutched her head, feeling head pains seemingly much stronger than before.

“Nebule!” Naela worryingly shouted, rushing to her lover’s side. “What happened, what…?”

Ai rushed after Naela, as he got near he once again saw Nebule’s eyes. This time, the color changed every time she blinked. From those pale blues to the intricate ocean color that Oceana had. He realized that the two consciousnesses were battling one another for control but seeing her beloved almost getting killed managed to let Nebule have temporary control.

But no one knew how long that would last.

“Let’s go somewhere else for now.” Ai suggested, his eyes focused on the entrance to the room. The actual guard could barge in through those doors at any moment with more guard in tow, and none of them would be able to fight those many weaponed guards. Ai was barely a fighter anyway and the lovers weren’t in the best condition. Ai assumed that Nerea would be able to put up a resistance, but even ten plus guards would be too much for her to deal with, even if she was related to the priestess.

Nerea took Nebule’s arm and placed it on her shoulder while Naeya did the same. She pointed at a door just near the entrance, small and unappealing. It looked incredibly plain compared to the grandeur of the throne room. Ai looked at Nerea confusedly, but she simply continued on without a word.

The room was something unexpected. Though the door leading to it was overly simple, the room was a grand bedroom fit for someone important like the priestess. In the middle of the room was a king sized bed with many comfy pillows and thick blankets. The one wall facing the foot of the bed was entirely glass that you could see the coral garden through. Between the bed and the glass window was a table set with fancy chairs and table. 

Nerea and Naela set Nebule down on her bed. The pain seemed to have lessened quite a bit but it took a toll on her. Her eyes were closed as she fell unconscious. Though it lessened, her brows were still furrowed and her fists gripped the bedding tightly. Naeya stood by her lover’s side while Nerea dug through the shelving and bedside tables to search for something.

After a while she found what she was looking for and returned to her sister’s side with a fancy looking dagger.

Naeya eyed the dagger suspiciously and stared at the siren with her lover’s face. “What are you -”

Without letting her finish her sentence, Nerea held her sister’s hand and slashed her palm quickly. Blue blood flowed through the wound and dripped onto the floor. Shocked and angered, Naeya pushed the siren away and bared her sharp talons.

“What are you doing?!” Her eyes were wild and sharp  like the predatory avian that she was as she glared at Nerea.

“Oceana is a queen who dislikes pain. Any sort of mental or physical pain helps elevate her control over your mind.” Nerea gestured towards the bed.

It was true. After she slashed her palm, her expression slowly relaxed and her other hand slowly let go of the bedding as well. Ai rushed to her side and took out an HP potion from his inventory, but Nerea shook her head.

“Heal her after she’s awoken.”

Ai glanced at the wound and the flowing blood but retreated nonetheless. Naeya also backed off and covered her talons. Her eyes were still glaring at Nerea but her lover’s state was much more important. With care, she gently wiped the flowing blood and touched Nebule’s uninjured hand.

Nerea on the other hand didn’t seem as worried about her sister. She put the dagger down on the bedside table then sat herself down at the living seat at the foot of the bed. 

Ai followed her lead. His shoulders felt empty as the owl was stationed just outside of the room for safety measures.

As he sat across from Nerea, he saw that she was not only unbothered, her face was completely blank. Not a single shred of emotions that told him that she was worried about her sister’s condition showed on her face. But surely she must be concerned to some degree, right? After all, she was so desperate to free Nebule from Oceana’s grasps.

In the end, Ai still had not a single clue about how they were going to complete this. Nebule was still very much being controlled for the most part. Though it looked like she managed to break the control a bit, it was very clear that she wasn’t separating from Oceana anytime soon. Their plan so far had covered getting into the castle and getting Nebule to wake up, but it didn’t cover how to free her completely.

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Even watching her lover almost get killed only managed to let her gain control for a little while. Not that long after she was back in a state of fighting for her body. Naeya couldn’t be on the brink of death constantly and sooner or later Oceana would know that it was all an act. Hurting Nebule constantly wasn’t a good idea either. No one should live while getting cut over and over again for the rest of their life. Even the toughest soldiers break under physical torture.

Ai subconsciously rubbed the skin of his inner wrists and winced internally.

“How did you know that pain helped her gain more control?” Ai asked, trying to divert his mind elsewhere.

Nerea picked on the threads of the living chair while she spoke. “I also once lived here. For many years of my childhood. We were both raised to be a priestess.”

 

***

 

The birth of the twins baffled everyone in the castle. Twins! Two beautiful siren children and both of them sang beautifully. The castle was filled with joy.

It was a sign! A sign that the curse was lifting! A miracle!

Yet it was only joyous for everyone but the twins. As soon as they were born, they were ripped away from their mother’s embrace. They were much too young to remember the wailings of their parents as the castle guards took them away to train them as priestesses. No one knew what happened to the parents afterward. Some say that grief overtook them and they quietly died.

The twins were carefully raised at the castle. They were served hand in feet, their every need fulfilled and more. They were never hungry or lacking in materials, but happiness escaped them.

The grueling training to become a priestess tortured them. Everyday they had to sing and everyday their throats would hurt and sore, but there was no rest for any of them. For the people considered them a miracle so expectations were placed on their tiny shoulders. Too much for them to handle.

Not only that, the twins would also frequently get splitting headaches that caused them immense pain. Though they discovered that pinching themselves or even scratching their hand arm with a fingernail lessened the pain greatly. They didn’t dare tell anyone but each other of the pain, because they knew as long as they could still sing, no one cared.

One day one of the twins got struck with fever. The next few days her throat was sore and she was unable to speak for days. Twas a simple fever that would go away in the following week but for the believers in the castle, it was enough for them to start speculating that the twin was cursed.

She is unfit to be a priestess! This is not a miracle, it is another curse!

That day, the believers, the most devout followers of the priestess made their decision. Soon, the twin would be sacrificed in the name of Oceana. 

To strengthen the other twin’s singing.

It was at this moment that Oceana’s connection to the priestesses of the sirens became even stronger than before. She was already ever present in their souls but this oath for a sacrifice allowed her to take complete control over the priestesses. But it didn’t take a sacrifice. Only a simple belief and devotion for Oceana and the bond was set.

Little did the believers know that the other twin had heard every single one of the words spoken. Fear grew in her heart for her beloved sister. The only person in her life that loved her and cared for her.

That night, the twins visited a seaside cliff together. It wasn’t that tall and the sea below was deep. As they spent time together and watched the stars reflected in the surface of the dark ocean, a hand reached out and...pushed.

Nebule watched as Nerea fell down the cliff and disappeared under the waves. She was a siren so Nebule knew that she was going to stay alive, but the heavy current should take her somewhere far from Oceanus. So she could be safe and be happy.

As she made her way back, her head suffered great pain. Greater than any of the pains she had ever experienced. That night, she took a kitchen knife and slashed her hands until blood terrifyingly covered them. She sighed in relief as the pain in her disappeared. She barely felt the pain in her hands. 

When the maids found her, they didn’t scream or cry or run away in fear. They cleaned the blood and bandaged her wounds robotically. 

The castle life moved forward. Everyone assumed that Nerea was killed by Nebule. Soon, they forgot about the priestess’s twin sister. They moved on, as if she had never existed in the first place.

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