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