Death And Water

Born in the darkness that is the underworld, taught to behave as a helper to those who expedite death, I wonder what it will be like to be here for centuries more, even though nearly one has passed, and I have not aged past my 21st birthday. My name is Kalliope. I work for my lord Iacchus, ruler of the shadows, who just happens to be my father. I help my mentor, Asklepios; bring death to those who are near. We bring the shades down, although I do most of the work.

My name means "beautiful voice", which is how I lure the shades to the entrance of the shadow world. The souls are unable to not follow my voice, and so Asklepios takes the last breath of life from them once their shades have left their bodies. I am one of quite a few handmaidens who are able to see the living world. There are teams who go all over the world to bring the souls down to the world below.

The Shadow World is where all good souls go, and the others go below, constantly to be working in the pits; I do not know the pits' function. I was born down in the Shadow World. Iacchus is my father, and my mother was named Astraea, a handmaiden to the goddess Selinas, keeper of the moon.

I have been working with Asklepios for nearly seventy-five years now, since I turned 21. My life down here is rather boring. Every twelve risings, I get a day to myself. Equivalent to about six human days (we count the sun rising and the moon rising as two different days), I get one day off per "week". Being not of the human race, we don't need sleep. So I work all day and night for six "days" and get one off.

Usually then my father gets me to meet those young men who also are here- they are courtiers for his palace. All of them are strong, but all of them are dull. I find myself attracted to the son of Nereus, god over the waters. Krios is his name, and he is much like the human concept of a "merman". Being more like the human concept of an "angel", you can see my father is protective of me. My father said that "Never will you marry him if he was the last god on earth!" What he really means is 'I don't like him- so I am telling you no'.

Saying he doesn't like Nereus would be an understatement actually. Iacchus and Nereus had a great friendship at one time, but they fought over my mother, Astraea. Nereus eventually married a sea witch, a nice one, named Ianthe, who passed onto the next realm, Shadow World, after a large storm broke out in the Carish Sea.

Now I am promised to a dull god named Alecto, and he is as "unceasing" as his name describes. Alecto is the god of thunder and lightning, and all other weather. He wants a marriage into my father's family, and seeing as I am his only child, it's a match made in "Heaven", right? Wrong. Our only meetings have been very "stormy", and I don't mean his powers. I mean I have made it clear that I dislike him, and he doesn't care. Alecto can be very stubborn, and although he is the same exact age as my father, it is me that he wants for a bride. Never mind all the other women who begged to be his, he wants the reluctant one!

Perhaps it would be intelligent to tell you what I look like, in order for you to get a mental image on me. My red hair falls down to my knees, although it is kept up in a braid or some other updo so I can fly clearly. My wings are like my fathers, a dark bluish-black color, with my eyes a dark hazel leaning towards blue. My cheekbones are high, and I often dress in a simple black gown, with a low back so my wings are not encumbered by cloth. My handmaidens say I look like a dark angel, so it must be so.

It is one Earth cycle (one year) until I am to marry the bore known as Alecto, so I ask my father for my last year off, as I am no longer going to be fetching souls in the above world. He complies, and I leave, choosing to roam the Earth and see the sights.

I roam the continents for the first two months, listening to the earth music, and meeting the earth goddesses. Next, I decide to live on an island, somewhere far away from the entrances to Shadow world. I look around, and spot a place- a light filled island, with palm trees and plenty of space, deserted of human life. I arrive there very soon, and build my own abode for my remaining ten months unattached. The last ten months of my free life. My Shadow clothing I swap for some light colored wear I got from Artemis, who I visited while in Greece. I take the afternoon swimming in the ocean, naked and free, swimming with dolphins and sunfish in the shallows of a reef.

My long hair covers most of my body, the long braid I put it in though, did not. I didn't expect any visitors, none-the-less, so it was much to my surprise that I was in for company.

A young man swam up to me. "Hello, haven't seen you around here before."

"I live on that island over there," I reply, "I just arrived this morning, and decided to explore."

He laughed, and I knew I remembered that from somewhere. Suddenly I placed it.

"Krios?" I questioned, "Is that you?"

The illusion melted off. "Yes, Kalliope, it is indeed. You have not contacted me in a while. Anyone else enter your life?"

I frowned. "Sadly, yes. I am to be married to Alecto in ten months. I am savoring my last few months of freedom. I was forbidden from contacting you, and father took away the necklace you gave me."

"I know." He frowned too, sad.

"I wish I could be with you- honest- but I was locked up in my room when my father pulled that threat from my mind. He didn't let me out until he chose a husband for me. It took months, and Asklepios had to take Minerva along with him."

Minerva was another handmaiden. She had a very big crush on Asklepios and everyone knew- except Asklepios. Sadly for him, with me being away, Minerva became his partner for the soul lure.

"I believe you. And I have a plan. Come with me." He swam deep; I followed him, nervous but excited, and thankful that I am able to breathe underwater. He brought me all the way to an underwater cottage- a few miles away from my island home.

"Here we are," he said, excited. "Come in- make yourself at home."

I entered; surprised to find myself in his mother's home, where she lived before she met Nereus. He showed me around the small cottage, and brought back an emerald locket.

"Where did you find it?" I asked, surprised- it appeared to be the same one he gave to me years ago.

"This is a new one- the old one was destroyed. Put it on, and your father will not be able to track you. I warn you though; there is one other thing that will happen. While you wear it, your wings will disappear, and you will gain a tail, much like my own."

I nodded, nervous. "Okay... Here goes nothing." I put it on, and felt a strange sensation on my back- when I reached back, nothing was there- a strange feeling hit my stomach, and I felt ill- my legs, which I was standing upon, slipped out from under me, and I fell to the floor of the ocean. He caught me, and pointed down to what was once my legs- Instead, I now had a blue-green colored tail, and small fins jutting out from my forearms. I looked up at him, surprised.

"Wow" I said, not certain what else to say.

"That is not all of the transformations that have occurred." He brought me over to a mirror. My long red hair flowed sleek at my sides, as if untouched by the water. My eyes were greener than the emerald gem that now sat on my neck. My hair was pulled back by two starfish, and my nails were a pearlescent color. My lips, which once were bright red, were now a coral color, and my chest was covered by a simple gilded net, leaving very little to the imagination. My tail, I saw, was a rainbow of blue and green, as I twisted my tail, the scales reflected the light. I touched it, amazed by the muscle beneath my skin, and took my first couple of strokes in this new world.

"Now," he said, "it is time for us to go home." He smiled, clearly glad to have me back.

We swam across several underwater streams, past a few geysers, and over a deep trench, which I nearly was sucked into by the underwater currents. At last, we reached it. An underwater palace greater than any Atlantis one could possibly think of in all their wildest dreams. He escorted me to the outskirts of town, and placed a diadem of pearls on the crown of my head.

"This is for all to know that you are mine, no one else," he said, looking deeply in my eyes, "and nobody will dare hurt you with the mark of the crown prince of the sea on you." I looked at him, remembering indeed that he was prince of the sea. He kissed my cheek and led me down the underwater boulevards that made up Calceaia.

We were welcomed kindly by Nereus, which surprises me to oblivion, because of the obvious rift between him and my father. It turns out he still wishes to honor the vow that he and my father made nearly a century ago, right before I was born, to have Krios and I married when I turned 21. The fight over my mother had long been over by then, but the second fight happened to be when Nereus demanded my release to Krios after he and I had grown up together. My father, being the cold hearted demon of death that he was, refused, as he was using me to work for him. Now, 75 years later, I could fulfill my fathers and Nereus' vow to each other, since the caveat was made that if I put on the necklace that Krios gave me, I would be giving myself of my own free will.

What he did not know, however, and that I did then tell him, was that I was betrothed to Alecto. He carried on like sea gods do, calling up a storm, upon which he then summoned my father to him, claiming he was having problems with people passing over into the next realm.

Krios brought me out of the room, and then the mood changed completely.

"Well, my love, it seems to me like we are going to be together now." He said, smiling. I nodded silently, still worried that my father would take off with me, claiming that the deal was null and void for some reason. He kissed my cheek gently, and I let him hold me as I worried about it.

"Don't worry," he continued after a bit of thought, "it will all be fine. Now let us talk of what we should do for our honeymoon, and where in the ocean we shall live?"

I shook my head. "Let us not count our chickens before they hatch. We do not yet know...."

I was interrupted by some very loud yelling, signaling that my father was indeed here. And he was very mad.

"Trickery! Utter trickery! Fooling a young woman into coming down here? If I do not allow it, she loses her godhood you imbecile! Do you know that, clever god of the sea?" Iacchus bellowed, infuriated.

"That was never my intent, Iacchus, but yes." Nereus sounded calm, gentle in the face of death himself.

"Well of course you know it, you thought up this crazy scheme! You will have to go through Alecto in order to get my ascent. Your son will have to go through Alecto. "

"How do you propose we do such?"

"A battle will suffice. This battle will take place in ten months, and whoever succeeds will marry my daughter that day. Both will be on legs, you hear me? Now let me see my daughter!"

I shivered in fear at the sound of my father's angry voice, his bellow resounding through the entire palace. Krios held my hand, calming me as his voice calmed the sea.

"She is in here." Nereus opened the door, and my father came in on Krios standing in front of me protectively, shielding me from my father's angry glare.

"Kalliope, get that winged form over here before I drag you myself." I swam from behind Krios, to float in front of my father, wingless and tailed.

"What? What! What have you done to her? Where are her wings? Where is her moonstone diadem?" He bellowed loudly.

Nereus replied, "Look carefully at her necklace. Inside the emerald you will see small black spots, which hold her heritage, so that she can travel between the two worlds. Once she fully submerges in water, she becomes mermaid. Once she is fully out, she regains her moonstone diadem and wings. I would not tamper with who she is, Iacchus." His serenity permeated everybody except the one who needed it the most.

Iacchus nodded, satisfied. "Kalliope Starskimmer, you will teach Krios how to walk upon land. You will teach him all you know of fighting. Go to the summer cottage near the Bay of Alsace. Train him there, and then come to the northernmost entrance of Shadow World when the day comes. If he loses, to Alecto you will go, with obedience as a good daughter should."

I nodded, hopeful that my training will be well to Krios. My father disappeared, leaving behind a black pearl necklace for me. A note attached said, 'This is from your mother. She wishes you good luck, and wants you to stay true to your heart but also true to your family.' I put on the necklace, thanking her silently, wondering if the perfection of the pearl was due to lady Selinas herself.

Krios nodded at me, signaling that we should be headed for training, as just over nine months was left until my marriage, although to whom I did no longer know.