- 10 hours ago
She Stole My Curse
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Short filmTranscript
00:00My sister poisoned all ten of my children, then she pushed me into a deep rift current tear.
00:05I died in the dark water below, and I woke up on the morning of the Tidebond raid, staring at
00:09the same sky, breathing the same cold water.
00:11I lay still for a moment, let it settle. We'd arrived on the abyssal realm together, my sister Sela and
00:16I.
00:16Two women dropped into a world that ran on Tidepower and Bloodwake.
00:20The clan chief had lined up every unmated male in the corollary. We were supposed to choose.
00:24In Last Life, Sela told me to take the lionfish birth.
00:27Lionfish lay soft eggs, easier than giving birth.
00:31She smiled like she was doing me a favor. She took the great white shark, the only A rank male.
00:36What she didn't tell me was that she already knew lionfish eggs hatched in large clutches.
00:42I chose Cole. I got pregnant fast. One clutch, ten hatchlings. All A rank.
00:48In a coral clan that had seen maybe five A ranks in a hundred years, that was enough to make
00:52Cole the next clan chief,
00:53and turned me into something the coral elders called Abyss Chosen.
00:57Sela got one B rank from the great white shark. Then another. Then three more. Nothing better.
01:02She couldn't accept it. She crept into Cole's reef den.
01:06He threw her out in front of the whole coral clan.
01:08The great white shark ended their bond and drove her and her children into the dead current.
01:12In less than a month, all five of her offspring starved.
01:16I was the one who took her back in. I gave her food. I gave her warmth.
01:19She killed my ten hatchlings one by one, and then she pushed me into a deep rift current tear.
01:24I still remember weightlessness.
01:26So this time, I was not choosing Cole.
01:29The tide bond right was already moving. The clan chief stood at the front, arms folded, watching the males line
01:35up.
01:35Sela was beside me, her shoulder just barely touching mine.
01:38I felt the exact moment she decided to move. A small shift in her weight. A breath she didn't finish.
01:43She crossed the water toward Cole like she'd rehearsed it. Pressed herself against his arm.
01:47Tipped her face up to the clan chief. She looked back at me.
01:51Clan chief. That smile.
01:53I choose Cole.
01:54I looked at Cole. Cold current blood. No warmth from the dry tide.
01:58Three months of tide sleep every year. Leaving whatever female he'd chosen to manage the reef den alone in the
02:04collapsing food chain.
02:05No hunting skills. Without the coral clan around him, he couldn't even feed himself.
02:09She thought she'd taken the prize. She didn't know what she would pay.
02:12I turned and looked at what was left. A B rank whale merfolk.
02:15Two C rank sea turtle merfolk.
02:17Near the back, a manta ray merfolk who had been watching me since I swam in.
02:21Brow creased. Expression difficult to read.
02:23I started toward him. The crowd shifted.
02:25I thought about my ten hatchlings. Quiet. Good. Never any trouble.
02:29A rank every one of them. And felt something cold and settled move through the grief.
02:33Not this time.
02:34I was about to open my mouth. A palm hit my face so hard I bit my cheek.
02:40It's you!
02:41The female in front of me was bonded to the coral clan's tiger shark merfolk.
02:45She was shaking. In her hand was a white jellyfish tentacle filament that she said she'd found in her mate's
02:49reef den.
02:50Her tide shifted form was a white jellyfish.
02:53The crowd turned around. One voice at the back. Then three more.
02:57I looked past her shoulder and found Sela near the middle of the crowd.
03:00She'd practiced that expression. I was certain of it.
03:03Last life she hadn't needed it. Last life I hadn't stood in her way.
03:06Oh Lyra. I didn't want to say anything.
03:09But I did see you swimming with Leo that night.
03:12One sentence. Every door in the room closed at once.
03:15The manta ray merfolk stepped back. The clan chief's eyes were already on me.
03:18I tide shifted on the spot. White jellyfish. Clean tentacles. Full circle. Every angle. Nothing hidden.
03:24The crowd went quiet. I shifted back.
03:27No damaged tentacles. That filament isn't mine.
03:30A damaged tentacle root scar on my inner thigh. Small. Deliberate.
03:34Someone in the crowd saw it. That was enough.
03:35I had spent this entire second life thinking I understood what Sela was capable of. I had underestimated her.
03:41Out.
03:42I looked at Sela one last time. She was holding back a smile. I turned and swam. No argument. No
03:47appeal. No tears.
03:49I swam through it with my back straight and I didn't stop until I was outside.
03:53Sela came to see me off. Like a female who had already won.
03:56Don't worry Lyra. There are powerful males out there.
03:59Hm. Maybe you'll find the right one. Thanks for the encouragement.
04:03Cole has a lot of stamina. Lionfish nature is what it is. Once or twice a day is just recreation
04:07for him.
04:08I watched the warmth leave her face.
04:09You should build up your strength. Wouldn't want to disappoint him.
04:12I turned and swam. Didn't look back.
04:15The Coral Clan's current line was a boundary of cold and warm curtains meeting in the water.
04:19I crossed it without slowing. The dead current ahead was dark and unmapped and the water was cold.
04:23She thought she'd won. She hadn't thought about the dry tide.
04:26Cole would enter tide sleep. Three months. Maybe more.
04:29She'd be alone in the reef den. No warmth. No provider.
04:32No idea how to feed herself when the food chain collapsed.
04:35She'd spent her whole life letting other people manage the hard parts.
04:38She had no idea what she'd actually chosen.
04:39I had swum this path before. Last life I swam it in grief.
04:42With nothing to my name except a tide healer's knowledge I'd spent years building.
04:46This life I knew where it ended. At the far end of it there was a rift.
04:49Something inside that the Coral Clan had never seen and wouldn't know how to measure.
04:53Something that had been alone so long it had forgotten what trust looked like.
04:57He'd been close to dead when I found him. I was the one who pulled him back.
05:01I didn't make it far before I heard it behind me. Heavy strokes. Low and deliberate. Closing fast.
05:06A tide shifted without thinking. Dropped into jellyfish form and fled.
05:09The water rushed past and the dead current blurred at the edges of my vision.
05:13Behind me the blue shark merfolk wasn't bothering to be quiet.
05:16He knew what a lone female outside clan borders meant. He knew how it ended.
05:20I fled until I saw the rock fade. A narrow opening in the coral. Dark inside. Barely wide enough to
05:26turn sideways and fit through.
05:27I went in. Behind me the blue shark merfolk stopped.
05:30He circled the entrance twice. His strokes slowed. Then stopped entirely.
05:34He cursed once. Low and ugly. And I heard him leave.
05:37I didn't understand why. I shifted back and stood still. Breathing hard. The rift went deeper than I'd expected.
05:43The water inside was stale and cold. And underneath that, something else. Rot. And infection. And the dense animal scent
05:50of something very large.
05:52I took one more step into the dark. Something in the black moved. I stopped. My heart was loud in
05:57my ears.
05:57The smell hit me harder now. Animal. Enormous. Close. Whatever was in here, the blue shark merfolk had known.
06:04Whatever was in here had made a predator who hunted lone females turn around without a sound and swim away.
06:09I stood in the dark and didn't move. I already knew what was in there. Last life, it was the
06:14same rift. The same darkness. The same smell.
06:17I took one more step forward. The sound that came out of the dark was not a roar. It was
06:23bigger than that.
06:24It hit me in the chest before it reached my ears. A pressure through the water. Through my ribs. And
06:29for one full second, my body simply stopped.
06:32Every instinct told me to turn around. My feet didn't move. The dark shifted. And then I saw it. Light.
06:38Enormous.
06:39His fin crest caught the faint bioluminescent light from the rift entrance and held it. His mouth was open wide
06:44enough to swallow my head whole.
06:46The sound still rolling out of him bounced off every wall and came back from all directions at once. He
06:52hadn't moved.
06:53I stood where I was and looked at him. The roar faded. The rift went silent. He still hadn't wounded.
06:59I had heard roars in the world. The great white shark merfolk in the coral clan. The whale males during
07:03mating season.
07:04Those roars said, I am here. I am dangerous. Come closer and find out. This was different.
07:09This roar said, go away. I looked at his tail fin. Even in the dark I could see it. The
07:14flesh was wrong.
07:15Swollen and dark. Pale patches crawling through the wounds. The torn fin crest was infected at its root.
07:20He had been lying here a long time. Too long to hunt. Too long to do much of anything except
07:24wait.
07:25He opened his mouth and the sound hit me again. I took one step toward him. The roaring stopped.
07:30Gold eyes in the dark. Very still. Watching me cross the distance between us one step at a time.
07:35I didn't stop swimming. I turned and fled again. I made it two strokes before I noticed something strange.
07:42The sea dragon was roaring. But he wasn't moving. He hadn't even shifted. It felt like he was just trying
07:49to scare me off.
07:50Then I smelled it. Rot and infection. I looked closer and saw the flesh of his tail fin. The wounds
07:57were deep and crawling with white.
07:58The fin crest was torn at the root. I stopped. I turned around.
08:02Hey, you're hurt. I know deep sea medicine. Will you let me stay?
08:07The sea dragon looked at me for a moment. Then he slowly unfolded his injured tail fin toward me.
08:12The wounds were bad. I gagged and got to work anyway. Opened my pack and found the wound powder.
08:18Before I'd arrived here, I'd studied tide healing and coral toxins.
08:22Once I was in the coral clan, that knowledge had made me the settlement's tide healer.
08:26I'd treated half the coral clan at one point or another. Not one of them had spoken up for me
08:30today.
08:31The bitterness sat heavy in my chest as I worked. When I finished, the sea dragon's aggression faded.
08:35He nudged his head against my sleeve. A thank you. Then his stomach growled. Twice.
08:40He'd been injured too long to hunt. He was starving.
08:43I'll go find food. Wait here.
08:46I turned to go. His tail curled around my ankle and pulled me back.
08:51Then he exhaled a low temperature deep current that enveloped me entirely. The dragon current mark.
08:57His power on my skin would keep most predators back instinctively.
09:00I thought of the blue shark merfolk from earlier. This sea dragon's rank had to be extraordinary.
09:04That was the only explanation for that kind of deterrent effect.
09:07I didn't go far. I stayed close to the rift and gathered what I could find.
09:11Small crustaceans. Some edible reef plants.
09:13By the time I got back, the bioluminescence had dimmed to night cycle. No fire needed.
09:17The sea dragon's body put out a constant gentle warmth that filled the rift. I stayed.
09:22During the day, I changed his bandages. Foraged for water and food.
09:25At night, he curled around me in dragon form. His body warmth wrapping me like a second skin.
09:29And we slept together. Half a month passed. Then one day, I came back to the rift and stopped dead.
09:34A man lay where the sea dragon had been.
09:36You're back.
09:38White hair. Gold eyes.
09:40You're the sea dragon?
09:43My name is Vayne.
09:45With the wounds healed, Vayne could swim. He couldn't do anything strenuous yet.
09:49But the first time we went out together, he showed me what he was made of.
09:52A deep sea giant crab. Under a minute!
09:54He seared it with a short burst of breath, and it was done.
09:57That night, I ate real food for the first time in weeks.
10:00Crab shell crackling. Fat hissing and popping from the dragon breath heat.
10:04I ate until my face was greasy, and asked Vayne whether he was A rank.
10:08Are you A rank?
10:10No. I don't have a rank.
10:11I stared at him. Every male merfolk had a rank.
10:14But the tide power I'd seen from him was beyond anything the great white shark merfolk in the coral clan
10:19could manage.
10:19But your tide power...
10:21Vayne shook his head.
10:22No rank. Never had one.
10:24That was why his own clan had driven him out. They'd called him a monster.
10:28Abandoned him as a hatchling in the dead current. The memory clearly cost him something.
10:32His eyes went distant and sad. Born without a clan, whatever had made him this strong, he'd earned it alone.
10:37The hard way.
10:38It doesn't matter. You have me now. We're friends.
10:42Vayne went red.
10:44Another month passed. Vayne healed completely. The dry tide was coming.
10:47We started going out early and coming back late to stock up. He hunted.
10:51I gathered deep sea medicines and reef plants. We came back full every time.
10:54I thought maybe it would just stay like this. Then Vayne's heat cycle hit.
10:57I woke up one morning to find his body burning.
10:59Don't leave the rift for a few days. I have to go somewhere. I have to go somewhere.
11:04Then he took two strokes and his body gave out.
11:06When he went down, I saw everything. I understood immediately.
11:09Every merfolk had a regular heat cycle. When it hit, instinct won over reason.
11:13He'd already pushed himself past his limit.
11:14Don't be scared. I won't touch you. I'll handle it myself.
11:18He was fighting his own body. His neck was corded with strain.
11:21The sounds coming from his throat were low and desperate. I watched him. My chest ached.
11:25Vayne. Do you not want me?
11:28How, how could you even ask that?
11:32When his hands came up to hold me, I was scared. What coal had put me through had left its
11:36marks.
11:37He was always rough. There was no pleasure in it. Only something close to endurance.
11:41Vayne was stronger than coal by a wide margin. I braced myself.
11:44But there was no pain. Vayne was gentle in a way I hadn't known was possible.
11:48Like his fin crest against still water. Light enough that I felt like I was floating.
11:52I lost track of time. When I finally noticed the world again, the dry tide currents had shifted outside the
11:57rift.
11:57That dry tide, I was warm. Vayne kept the rift heated with his body warmth.
12:01When the cold currents pressed in, he curled tighter. At night, he wrapped me in his warmth.
12:05His dragon form pulled around me like a second skin. After that first time, he became a little enthusiastic. Eye
12:11contact.
12:11Next thing I knew, I was against the rift wall. Not that I minded. He was good at it. He
12:15never once wanted to pull away.
12:17With that kind of frequency and no precautions, it wasn't long before I noticed something different about my body.
12:22I pressed two fingers to my wrist and checked my pulse. Pregnant.
12:26When I told Vayne, he went still.
12:29Really? You're really carrying my hatchling?
12:33He lifted me straight off the seabed. We were both laughing. After that, he treated me like I was made
12:37of sea glass.
12:38He was at my side constantly. He insisted on doing everything himself.
12:42Lying in the warmth of his arms, I thought again about last time.
12:45Coal was a cold current, blood-tight merfolk. In the dry tide, he gave off no heat at all.
12:49And he entered tide sea. While other males made sure their females were fed through the season,
12:53I was out in the dead current alone, trying to find something edible.
12:56My tide healing skills kept me fed, barely. The merfolk I treated gave me scraps.
13:00But after the ten lionfish hatchlings were born, scraps weren't enough.
13:04Coal entered tide sleep. He could survive on stored energy.
13:07The hatchlings were too young. They needed real food. Constantly.
13:10I foraged alone. A white jellyfish. Small, and not built for hunting in the dry tide.
13:15Who didn't dare go far. I brought back small crustaceans. I brought back dried reef algae.
13:19The hatchlings were good. All ten of them. A rank. And not one of them ever picked a fight or
13:24made trouble.
13:24They helped with the reef den work. Thinking about them, my throat closed. I'd failed them. I hadn't kept them
13:29safe.
13:30Lyra. What's wrong?
13:32I wiped the corner of my eye. Nothing. Just homesick.
13:35He went quiet.
13:35Is being with me not enough? No. That's not it. Being with you is the best thing there is.
13:41I changed the subject. I'd assumed I'd never see my sister again. She showed up at our rift that same
13:46night.
13:46Vane heard the sounds. He went to check. I heard a familiar shriek.
13:49Wait, don't kill me! Sea dragon, please!
13:50I came out to find my sister in the water outside the rift entrance. I looked at her in the
13:54dark and almost laughed.
13:55Lyra? Why are you here?
13:57You know her?
13:58Never seen her before.
13:58Vane's intent sharpened immediately.
14:00Lyra!
14:01My sister screamed.
14:02Don't let him kill me! I came all this way to save you! Sis!
14:06That word, sis, it stopped Vane cold.
14:10He pulled back.
14:11Is there a misunderstanding, Lyra?
14:13I sighed. I swam over to my sister.
14:16What do you want?
14:18She put on her most conciliatory face.
14:19I talked to the clan chief. He said you can come back!
14:23I didn't move. She pushed harder.
14:26And Lyra, the Coral clan is in trouble. Two settlements are about to go to war in a current war.
14:30This whole area is going to become a battlefield. You two aren't aligned with either side. You'll get caught in
14:35the middle!
14:35Hearing my sister's warning, I remembered. There had been a current war. Last time.
14:40But last time, the war had ended because of my ten lionfish hatchlings hatching.
14:44Ten A rank merfolk born at once. The opposing clan, the Huro, had taken one look and surrendered on the
14:51spot.
14:51He was the one who declared me abyss chosen. Said I carried a rare destiny. That I had been sent
14:56to the Coral clan as a gift from the abyss god.
14:58But I had no interest in my sister's advice. Vayne and I had built something real out here. There was
15:03no reason to go back. I told her no.
15:06No.
15:07She looked straight at my stomach.
15:10Lyra, you're pregnant, aren't you? Even if you don't care about yourself, think about the child. You two can live
15:16free out here for now. But what about later?
15:19What about your hatchling? Do you really want to raise a child with no clan behind them?
15:23That landed. This world was brutal. Vayne, as strong as he was, had nearly died alone and ripped. What would
15:29happen when our child was born?
15:30And the dead current was full of things that wanted to eat them. I looked at Vayne. He seemed to
15:35read what I was thinking. He came over and took my hand.
15:38Lyra, let's go back.
15:39After I told my sister yes, she let out a long breath. Then...
15:43Is there anything to eat?
15:45She ate like she hadn't seen food in weeks. Her stomach was enormous, but her arms and fins were thin
15:50as coral sticks. She'd had it rough. Not hard to guess why.
15:54Coral had almost certainly entered tide sleep by now. My sister had never worked hard a day in her life.
15:59Nothing short of starvation would have pushed her out here.
16:01After the meal, she lay down in the outer part of the rift to rest. Vayne folded me into his
16:06arms as usual.
16:06My sister glanced over from across the rift. The look on her face was pure envy.
16:12In the middle of the night, I got up.
16:15This life, and she still gets to eat like that? Bonded to some rankless creature, and she still got nerve
16:21to look pleased with herself.
16:23She rubbed her belly.
16:23Come on, little ones. Come out fast.
16:26I stood in the dark and let it wash over me. Even now, I couldn't fully understand where her hatred
16:30came from.
16:31We were twins.
16:32Before we'd ended up here, our parents died in an accident. Left the two of us to figure out the
16:37world together.
16:38I remembered what they'd always said. You're the older one. Take care of your sister.
16:42So I did. I gave way. Every time, on everything. Whatever was best, I let her have it.
16:48Somewhere along the line, she'd decided that was simply how things should be. I was supposed to give her everything
16:53good.
16:54I was supposed to be beneath her. I wasn't allowed to have things she didn't have. By the third day
16:58back in the Coral Clan, I understood exactly why she'd worked so hard to bring me home.
17:02Her due date was close. She was terrified of dying on the birthing ground. She needed me there. I had
17:07gotten her through all three.
17:08There was a second reason, too. She wanted me to watch. She wanted me standing there when she produced 20
17:13A-rank lionfish merfolk and climbed to the top of the Coral Clan. She wanted to see my face.
17:20Life back in the Coral Clan wasn't easy. Even with Vayne beside me, plenty of females still looked at me
17:25with hostility. They didn't want me near their mates, so I stayed close to the reef den. I was shut
17:29out.
17:29My sister, meanwhile, used her memories from last time to play prophet. She predicted a few major clan events and
17:34a stretch of bad current accurately enough that the Coral Clan elevated her status considerably.
17:39She told everyone she was the Abyss Chosen, sent by the Abyss God, carrying 20 A-rank merfolk. The Coral
17:44Clan believed her completely. Then the current war began.
17:47Vayne was sent to the front. Within days, every fighter in the Coral Clan had noticed that his Dragon Tide
17:52Power exceeded that of the A-rank Great White Shark Merfolk by a significant margin.
17:57His raw strength was in a different category altogether. This world ran on Tide Power. Strength was everything. And yet,
18:03because Vayne came out unranked, the Great White Shark Merfolk grew jealous.
18:07He gathered the other males and turned on Vayne. They sent him alone into an aura ambush. When the others
18:12had what they needed from the distraction, they swam, left him there.
18:15I didn't find out until Vayne came back with serious wounds.
18:19I went straight.
18:20It's fine, Lyra.
18:21Vayne caught my arm.
18:21Even with all of that, they still couldn't touch me. I came back in one piece, didn't I?
18:25I looked at the cuts across his body.
18:27Vayne, I'm sorry.
18:29I shouldn't have brought you back here. This place isn't right for you. Let's go home. Back to the Rift.
18:35No!
18:36He was suddenly urgent.
18:37If we go back, you'll be homesick again. We stay here. As long as you and the Hatchling are safe,
18:43I don't care what they do to me.
18:44Something cracked open in my chest. I remembered what I'd said in the Rift. That I was homesick. He'd been
18:49carrying that the entire time.
18:51You were my home.
18:52He thought I meant the Coral Clan.
18:54Let's go. Just the two of us.
18:56I'd almost convinced him.
18:58Lyra, get to your sister's reef den. She's going into labor.
19:02I heard the screaming before I reached the entrance. I swam inside. Blood in the water. The same scene as
19:07the first time. Last life. When she'd had her first bad labor. Back then it was the great white shark
19:11Merfolk's fault. His build was large. The offspring inherited the size. The head got stuck. But lionfish eggs were soft
19:17and small. They should have come out easily. I got my answer fast. I helped her deliver ten eggs. Then
19:21I felt more inside. I was reaching for the next one when my sister's body seized.
19:27She's convassing.
19:28Nobody here knew that word. I shouted instructions. They found a smooth piece of coral and pressed it between her
19:33teeth so she couldn't bite through her tongue. I used the moment to pull the rest of the eggs out.
19:37I counted. Twenty in total. She passed out when it was done. I mixed a tonic and got it down
19:41her throat. If she makes it through tonight, she'll live. If she doesn't, there's nothing more I can do. I
19:45turned to leave. Cole grabbed my wrist. She's your sister. You should stay and take care of her.
19:51Even now, even with his female unconscious in the water from a dangerous labor, he didn't want to sit with
19:55her through one night.
19:58She's your mate. Not mine. I'm not responsible for her. I've already done far more than she deserves.
20:07I swam out of the reef den into open water and felt the exhaustion hit me all at once. Thane
20:12was waiting outside. My heart twisted.
20:14What are you doing here? With wounds that bad, you should be resting in the...
20:19He pulled me into his arms before I could finish. His voice was rough.
20:24Lyra, we're not leaving.
20:26I started to ask why. Then I felt it. Something warm and wet soaking into my shoulder.
20:30I brought him back to our reef den. Pushed him until he talked. He cried harder.
20:34Bane had been waiting outside my sister's reef den the entire time. He'd heard everything.
20:39He hadn't known that was what birth looked like. He hadn't known it could be like that. He was terrified.
20:43If I went into labor out in the dead current, and something went wrong, there would be no one to
20:47help me.
20:48I felt tears on my own face before I realized.
20:50Bane, not everyone has a labor like hers. Maybe mine will be easy.
20:55Then we're still not leaving.
20:56His voice didn't waver.
20:57Even if the chance is one in a hundred, I won't let you suffer.
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