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Esmyra

E smyra trailed Syrena up the tower’s stairs, her mind whirling as she contemplated why she wasn’t being led to the crypt.

As she ascended the steps, all she could picture was racing up them in her ghostly form as she tried to run back to Kaelypso’s body as Maerinys sank, and then falling to her knees as the runes burned themselves into her flesh.

When she opened the door, the faint glow of merlight orbs hovered through the tower's room, reflecting on the surface of the basin’s water.

Esmyra’s stare instantly lifted to the wall their goddess bodies had been chained and bound to by velsinyte, and found the restraints had been ripped from the stone.

That must be where they got Draevyn’s cuff.

Syrena stood before the Veil of Visions, the water swirling like a mini whirlpool as her hands lightly brushed the stone rim. The silence between them stretched, heavy with unspoken words, and Esmyra’s anticipation threatened to tear her apart from the inside out.

“I didn’t want to burden you with this before,” Syrena began, her eyes fixed on the gently rippling surface. “But you need to understand why I’ve kept this from you until now…why I’ve hidden the truth.”

Syrena met Esmyra’s gaze. “The Veil of Visions…it allows me to se e things. Not just the present, but the past. I can look deep into the past and see all that transpired, even things that were concealed.” She paused as she watched Esmyra, but she made sure her face showed no emotion as she listened.

“And I saw it, the truth about us. About what we were…and what we are now.”

She stepped closer to Esmyra, her fingers skimming the water's surface, as though trying to stir something from within it. “I saw us . Goddesses of the sea, together, bound by power.”

“Goddesses.” Esmyra swallowed. “You knew this, and yet you’ve kept it from me.”

Syrena huffed through her nostrils, not in irritation, but as if she were thinking of how to choose her next words. “Not keeping it from you. More so, just waiting for the opportune moment. Yet, I must say, you’re not as shocked as I was anticipating.” She gave her a knowing look.

“Because I saw it too,” Esmyra admitted as she walked up to the Veil of Visions, standing on the opposite side.

“And what did you see?”

Esmyra sucked in a breath and glanced down into the swirling pool. “When we first arrived here from that tunnel, there was a rune-marked bowl of stone that matched this one. When I touched it…”

“It showed you something, didn’t it?” Syrena tilted her head to the side.

“The fall,” she answered. “I was standing in the center of it, feeling as if I was truly there.”

Syrena’s lips curved. “We were there, Esmyra.”

“There was something else,” she started. “A crypt.”

Syrena’s eyes widened, her lips parting. “The crypt,” she echoed.

“Aye, so you do know of it.” Esmyra’s eyes narrowed on her.

“We were the strongest, you know,” she stated, not confirming or denying her question. “ You were stronger than any of the other gods, and they were afraid of you. They feared what we could become. Together.”

A calm fury washed over Syrena, emanating from her. “The people of Maerinys were adamant that our remains had to be hidden— that our power was fragile and sacred, tied to the kingdom itself.” Her sister’s gaze shifted, wary and weighted. “The bones in that crypt…”

“They’re ours,” Esmyra finished for her.

Something mimicking pride flashed across Syrena’s face.

Her chin lifted high, accompanied by a closed-lip smile.

“Yes. They hid them away in case the gods who betrayed us returned for them. But at that time, we were unaware that the gods above no longer walked the soil of Rymelle among their subjects, and it’s because of the betrayal of us that they hide —their shame of it. ”

“But why? Why would the other gods betray them?” Esmyra swallowed. “Betray us . What did we do?”

“We did nothing ,” Syrena hissed. “They killed our goddess forms in a fit of jealous rage.”

“But why would they be jealous? All the gods have their own lands—their own people to rule over and worship them.”

Syrena pursed her lips. “They believed it to be unfair that they each only possessed a single kingdom while we ruled over the entirety of the realm’s seas, which is a world of its own.”

“Unfair,” Esmyra echoed, the veins in her neck straining. “We were held down and murdered in cold blood out of envy.”

Power. Jealousy. Greed. It was at the forefront of all beings in their world, and it was at that moment Esmyra vowed to herself she would put an end to it, no matter the cost.

Syrena placed her hand atop Esmyra’s as it rested on the edge.

“The magic of what remains in our goddess forms is what keeps Maerinys safe in the depths. They cannot access us, and we cannot leave. They damned our people that day. An entire civilization—wiped from the map in their greed, claiming the greed was our own. You see, Esmyra, the power held within them, within us , is what’s needed to bring our people back to the surface—to lift our kingdom from its watery grave. ”

“So, you plan to break our curse,” Esmyra guessed. “And with that… ”

“Our godly powers would return to us. We could raise our kingdom and take our revenge.”

Revenge .

Esmyra thought of all the wretched people above who deserved the wrath of her vengeance. How they did nothing but take and take and take . She had been one of them—learned it from her father. And, unbeknownst to her, she had been stolen.

Syrena’s expression was unreadable, her eyes distant. “They tried to erase us .” Her voice broke, fists shaking at her sides. “Every element and kingdom had a ruling god, yet the sea had two. And they believed it not to be fair, for two is more powerful than one.”

As she listened, Esmyra couldn’t shake how Irah had looked at her with regret and agony in his eyes— Draevyn’s eyes—as he stabbed her in the heart. It seemed that very act was destined to repeat itself in a cruel twist of fate.

The Veil of Visions rippled again, as if responding to Syrena’s words. “You and I were gods. And now, we’re still bound by that power in these mortal forms. It’s the only reason these vessels have survived this long.”

A chill ran along Esmyra’s spine as the word ‘vessel’ was used to describe her body.

Esmyra’s gaze swept over her twin. “And what kills a god?”

Syrena clenched her jaw. “ Velsinyte ,” she spat, as if it tasted wretched on her tongue. “In the heart.”

“And they made Irah commit it,” Esmyra said.

“Now you’re following.” Syrena gave a bone-chilling smile. “From what I’ve been able to piece together, it was ordered to be this way by Asyris themself.”

Asyris . That was the word she didn’t understand as she stood in the memory. “And what exactly is that?”

Syrena tilted her head. “The world no longer recalls Asyris?” When Esmyra subtly shook her head, she continued. “Asyris is the divine being of both life and death. The creator and destroyer of all things. Including us, their first creations.”

Esmyra’s lips parted. So much history had been lost over the last millennia, which included that of another god. But not just any god—the divine. Of both life and death.

“You see, Esmyra,” she started again, “Gods couldn’t be killed until they convinced Asyris we were too dangerous for our world.

And it was then velsinyte was born, bearing the blood of our primal.

Our end-all be-all. Our maker and monarch ordered Irah to stab us in the hearts with those forged daggers and to collect our souls.

” She gestured between the two of them. “Clearly, he never completed the second part.”

Esmyra licked her lips, her eyes darting back and forth as she took in the words. “And why would they make him do it?” She feared she already knew the answer.

Syrena leaned across the Veil of Visions, the swirling water coming to a halt. “ Love , if rumors are to be believed.”

Esmyra blinked. “And you believe these rumors and legends?”

Syrena crossed her arms and let out a small giggle, but there was a menace to it, her entire demeanor changing as the truth of their past came to light. “I believe that if you want something done right, you should never rely on a man.”

A smirk spread across Esmyra’s face. “Aye.”

“And we got lucky. When our souls drifted, they found the newborn Aeress twins in their beds. Maerinys was sinking quickly and our lovely counterparts panicked and abandoned us. Abandoned Rymelle in fear of us finding them again.”

“They fled?”

“It appears that way. They’re the one thing I can’t see ,” she spat the last word as her fists trembled, hanging at her sides. “They hide in a new world, it appears. Velsinyte guards their entrances, and the magic doesn’t allow me to look past it.”

Esmyra’s eyes grew wide. That must be how the mortals are in possession of it .

“None of that matters now, though.” Syrena spread her arms wide. “Because here we are. Alive! Powerful, and ready to raise Maerinys from the depths they damned us to as both goddess and Aeress. ”

Esmyra’s gaze drifted over the water’s reflecting surface. Her sister’s words echoed in her mind, but they only stirred more questions.

Who was she, truly? Was she the goddess, Kaelypso, reborn? Or an Aeress heir born of a thousand years past? Perhaps she was just some fractured blend of them both.

“And who will we be once we break the curse?” she asked.

Syrena grinned. “Whoever we want to be.”

Silence descended on them, the only sound coming from the subtle buzz of the merlight orbs as they hovered.

“Where would we even begin to try to undo what’s been done?” Esmyra wondered aloud.

A cruel smirk crept up Syrena’s face, and it was eerily similar to the one Esmyra wore when taunting her prey.

“This won’t be simple,” she began. “Undoing the curse means unbinding the power of the gods who placed it on us in the first place. It means stripping away every shackle that holds our souls in this mortal flesh.”

Esmyra’s eyes widened. “How?”