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00:00:00I taught a merman how to flirt, but he grounded me because he thought I was proposing.
00:00:04My professor did warn me, but by then, I'd already done something very stupid.
00:00:08How could I watch the strongest, most beautiful male on Emerald Atoll fail to find a mate?
00:00:14He could take down prey that weighed hundreds of pounds, but he'd never once shown up to a courtship dance.
00:00:19Poor thing grew up alone. No one ever taught him, so I played him courtship songs on a speaker,
00:00:24put on a prosthetic tail, and showed him the dance myself.
00:00:27He learned fast and performed it right back to me.
00:00:31Thrilled, I shot the whole thing and sent it to my professor to brag.
00:00:35He called me back screaming.
00:00:37You idiot! Didn't you notice the razor-sharp teeth?
00:00:39The long claws? The powerful tail? That's not a merge.
00:00:43It's more like a siren out of mythology.
00:00:45It could slice you open and rip your heart out without breaking a sweat.
00:00:49The only way a creature like that courts a mate is by hunting them down,
00:00:53dragging them somewhere no one will find them,
00:00:55and keeping them there until they're pregnant.
00:00:57Get out of there!
00:00:59Get out! Get out!
00:01:02But it was already too late.
00:01:04He was already swimming toward me.
00:01:06Ah!
00:01:09Two months earlier, a new male had arrived at Enel of Atoll, settling alone on the far side of the
00:01:15island.
00:01:15Merfolk live in family groups, but young males often leave the pod they grew up in to seek mates and
00:01:20join new colonies.
00:01:21It promotes genetic diversity, a smart evolutionary strategy.
00:01:24The merfolk were soft-featured, almost doll-like.
00:01:28This one was all edges, looked like a fallen angel.
00:01:31His teeth were pointed, his claws significantly longer than any shallow-water mer's.
00:01:35Black hair, green eyes, a black gold tail roughly eight feet long.
00:01:39This was clearly a powerful, deep-sea mer who had left his pod and come to Emerald Atoll seeking a
00:01:44mate.
00:01:45I usually observed the merfolk through underwater cameras stationed around the island.
00:01:49But once, while boating near the atoll, I spotted him.
00:01:53I sent my drone after him and watched him cut through the waves, chasing down a marlin doing nearly 70
00:01:58miles an hour.
00:01:59He caught it effortlessly, slicing the fish open with his claws.
00:02:03The blood drew sharks and orcas from the surrounding waters, but none of them dared approach him.
00:02:08Deep-sea mer were clearly the unchallenged apex predators of the ocean.
00:02:12When he drifted past my boat, I couldn't help staring.
00:02:14You're amazing!
00:02:16Of course, he couldn't understand me.
00:02:18After humans discovered this planet, there had been a brief surge of interest in merfolk research.
00:02:23But the excitement died down fast.
00:02:27Merfish intelligence was only slightly above orcas.
00:02:30They were omnivores, living mostly on kelp and seaweed, occasionally supplemented with crabs, oysters, and small fish.
00:02:38And there was zero chance of crossbreeding with humans.
00:02:41Most researchers moved on to studying beast folk.
00:02:44As for me, I'd originally studied beast folk, too.
00:02:48Isla. Isla. Isla!
00:02:52I have to attend a university conference and we'll probably be away for a week.
00:02:56Again?
00:02:56Yep.
00:02:57You're running out of time, Isla.
00:02:59Isla, your graduate thesis deadline is fast approaching.
00:03:01But...
00:03:01You better have your topic settled by the time I get back.
00:03:04I believe you can do it.
00:03:06I'd been alone on Emerald Atoll for three months.
00:03:09If not for my cleaning drone and internet access, I'd have dropped out long ago.
00:03:14But after hearing me speak, the mer stopped.
00:03:17Those cold, piercing eyes locked onto me.
00:03:19A chill crawled up my spine, even though I was perfectly safe on the boat.
00:03:23He sliced off the choicest cut from the marlin's back with one precise sweep of his claws and tossed it
00:03:28onto my deck.
00:03:29I'd just been fed by a mer.
00:03:31He was different from the others.
00:03:32He's smart and powerful.
00:03:34I could see my thesis writing at home.
00:03:36I might graduate early.
00:03:37If this mer could find a mate during mating season, he'd stay with the Emerald Atoll colony.
00:03:43By next spring, there could be two or three intelligent, powerful mer pups born, and I could study hybridization traits
00:03:49between different mer subspecies.
00:03:52I named the deep-sea mer opal.
00:03:54His black gold tail shimmered like a black opal under moonlight, flashing with iridescent fire.
00:03:59Mating season lasted three months, but two months in, opal still hadn't found a mate.
00:04:04He hunted massive prey every day, often tossing the best cuts onto the dock, giving me a meal of fresh
00:04:10sashimi or pan-seared fish.
00:04:12He only ate the belly meat himself, discarding the rest.
00:04:15Before long, young males from the colony would slink over and drag away the leftovers to present to the females
00:04:20they were courting.
00:04:21He'd inadvertently helped several pairs get together.
00:04:24Merfolk were drawn to strength.
00:04:26A male who could bring down enormous prey easily won female attention.
00:04:29But this idiot fish had never once attended the underwater courtship dances.
00:04:33I consulted my professor, who said merfolk were social animals.
00:04:37Males typically left in groups of two or three brothers.
00:04:40A solitary mer had likely been separated by accident, or abandoned.
00:04:45Forced to grow up alone.
00:04:46That would explain why this one was such an exceptional hunter.
00:04:50Without a family's protection, he'd had to become powerful to survive the ocean's dangers.
00:04:57It also meant he probably didn't know the courtship song or dance.
00:05:01Without performing the courtship ritual, none of the young females would even know he was available.
00:05:06Of course he didn't have a mate.
00:05:08Once mating season ended, opal would leave Emerald Atoll with nothing to show for it.
00:05:12I could feel my thesis slipping away.
00:05:15I had to do something.
00:05:16It was just a song and a dance.
00:05:19I'd teach him myself.
00:05:20I pulled up recordings of merfolk courtship songs and waited at the dock.
00:05:24Opal arrived, dragging another massive tumor.
00:05:27The warm light softened his cold features.
00:05:29I knew he was dangerous.
00:05:31But merfolk had no recorded history of harming humans.
00:05:34I approached him slowly.
00:05:35Opal.
00:05:39Opal, that's the name I gave you.
00:05:41Merfolk could only produce simple tones.
00:05:43They had a basic language, but communicated through ultrasound.
00:05:47Their vocal anatomy didn't support complex human speech.
00:05:51Neither did their intelligence, for that matter.
00:05:53He opened his mouth.
00:05:54Opal.
00:05:55Clear, precise, perfectly pronounced.
00:05:57He could speak.
00:05:59Research on deep-sea mer was scarce.
00:06:01Perhaps some subspecies had this ability.
00:06:03My thesis was going to shake the entire field.
00:06:07Opal.
00:06:07I pointed at him, then pointed at myself.
00:06:11Isla.
00:06:11He immediately understood that Opal referred to him.
00:06:14Opal.
00:06:14And Isla, to me.
00:06:16Isla.
00:06:16Remarkably intelligent.
00:06:18I turned on the speaker I'd compared.
00:06:20I'm going to teach you the courtship song.
00:06:23Once you learn it, you sing it for whichever mate you choose.
00:06:25He seemed confused, but I knew he wouldn't hurt me.
00:06:28Soon, the lilting melody of a merfolk courtship song floated from the speaker.
00:06:32I had to admit, merfolk singing was beautiful.
00:06:35The next instant, Opal's expression changed.
00:06:38He drove his claws through the speaker in one violent strike,
00:06:41shredding it until the song went silent.
00:06:45Could he actually understand human speech?
00:06:47I'd been listening to the colony's courtship songs through underwater equipment for weeks.
00:06:51I knew them by heart.
00:06:53I sang the first line, ready to sprint,
00:06:55the instant his claws came from my head the way they'd come for the speaker.
00:06:58When Opal heard me sing, his eyes lit up.
00:07:00He repeated the line back.
00:07:02I sang the full courtship song, and he echoed it perfectly.
00:07:05I'd expected to need a dozen repetitions,
00:07:07but he reproduced the entire song flawlessly on the first try.
00:07:10His eyes never left me.
00:07:11He didn't even blink.
00:07:12It made me uneasy.
00:07:13Opal, you're incredibly smart.
00:07:15When you meet a merm you fancy someday,
00:07:17you may sing this tune for her.
00:07:20Consider it tuition.
00:07:21That night, deep in sleep, I was jolted awake by a familiar melody.
00:07:24Furious, I threw open the window and locked eyes with Opal.
00:07:29Shut up!
00:07:29I snapped at him.
00:07:30The singing stopped.
00:07:31I finally got a good night's sleep.
00:07:34But days later, Opal still hadn't found a mate despite knowing the courtship song.
00:07:38Was I really going to have to teach him the dance too?
00:07:42I was a strong swimmer and certified diver.
00:07:45When I was a child, trips to Thalassa were all the rage.
00:07:48My parents brought me here on vacation.
00:07:50After visiting the shallow-water merfolk,
00:07:52the next day, we boarded a cruise ship to search for deep-sea mer.
00:07:55But the waves were particularly rough that day, and I fell overboard.
00:08:00Over ten days later, my parents found me unconscious on the shore, burning with fever.
00:08:05The fever wiped my memory of that entire period.
00:08:07The assumption was that a shallow-water merfolk pod had rescued me.
00:08:10After that ordeal, once we returned to our home world,
00:08:13my parents enrolled me in swimming and diving lessons.
00:08:15I never imagined that years later I'd end up back on Thalassa,
00:08:18and that those skills would actually prove useful.
00:08:20When you see a female you like, have you tried singing the courtship song for her?
00:08:24He nodded.
00:08:24I was furious.
00:08:25He'd already sung the courtship song and still got rejected.
00:08:28These females had no taste.
00:08:30Opal was the most stunning mer on Emerald Atoll.
00:08:32Do you know the courtship dance?
00:08:35I'd barely peeled off the wet tail when my professor called,
00:08:38and his furious voice erupted from my comm device.
00:08:41You idiot!
00:08:42You told me you found a deep-sea mer.
00:08:44Didn't you notice the razor-sharp teeth?
00:08:46The long claws?
00:08:47The powerful tail?
00:08:49That's not a mer.
00:08:50It's more like a siren out of mythology.
00:08:52It could slice you open and rip your heart out without breaking a sweat.
00:08:56The only way a creature like that courts a mate is by hunting them down,
00:09:00dragging them somewhere no one will find them,
00:09:02and keeping them there until they're pregnant.
00:09:04Get out of there!
00:09:05Get out!
00:09:06Get out!
00:09:07So my gut had been right all along.
00:09:09I'd always known Opal looked different from the mer folk.
00:09:12He wasn't a deep-sea mer at all.
00:09:14He was a new species.
00:09:15An extremely dangerous new species,
00:09:17which meant the Emerald Atoll Research Station,
00:09:19with zero physical barriers, was a death trap.
00:09:22Until my professor secured funding and the station was reinforced,
00:09:26I had to leave immediately.
00:09:27I grabbed the essentials and launched my yacht.
00:09:30As the island shrank behind me, I let myself breathe.
00:09:33I hadn't said goodbye.
00:09:35That thought sat heavy in my chest.
00:09:37Whatever he was, he'd never actually hurt me.
00:09:41My professor called to make sure I'd gotten out.
00:09:43I'm well clear of the atroy!
00:09:45Thank God.
00:09:46I thought the worst you'd cost me was my academic reputation.
00:09:49I didn't expect I'd nearly have to attend your funeral.
00:09:51But I had no appetite for his jokes.
00:09:53My voice was shaking.
00:09:56It's here.
00:09:58Opal's black hair billows in the wind,
00:10:01his sleek tail cutting through the water like an arrow.
00:10:03He caught up in seconds.
00:10:04His expression was colder than anything I'd ever seen.
00:10:07I told myself it was fine.
00:10:09The hull was metal.
00:10:10I was safe.
00:10:11Then five-pointed claws punched through the cabin wall.
00:10:14The metal tore apart like paper.
00:10:16I fell backward.
00:10:17The clumsiness on the dock had been an act.
00:10:20The moment he boarded, his tail split slowly into two human legs.
00:10:24He walked toward me step by step, like something out of a nightmare.
00:10:27Don't run.
00:10:28All that friendliness had been an act.
00:10:29From the day he appeared, he could have slaughtered me and the entire colony anytime he wanted.
00:10:35But he hadn't.
00:10:36Had it all been a game to him?
00:10:37The moment his prey tried to run, the mass came off.
00:10:40Don't leave.
00:10:42My Isla.
00:10:44And then his lips pressed against mine.
00:10:45He was kissing me.
00:10:47Why?
00:10:47He pushed a smooth, hard pearl from his mouth into mine.
00:10:50His tongue forcing it to the back of my throat until I swallowed.
00:10:54Only then did he pull back.
00:10:55A satisfied smile spreading across his face.
00:10:58You can't escape now.
00:11:00My mate.
00:11:03The instant I swallowed the pearl, everything went black.
00:11:07Opal took me like prey.
00:11:08His tail reformed, and he held me against his chest as he shot through the ocean, heading
00:11:13somewhere unknown.
00:11:14My comm device lay abandoned on the deck.
00:11:16My professor's voice still coming through.
00:11:18What do you mean it's here?
00:11:19Isla, talk to me.
00:11:20A long silence.
00:11:22Then a sigh, and the sound of another call going out.
00:11:24Hello, is this planetary security?
00:11:27I woke up in iron shackles.
00:11:28I was inside a cave on some island.
00:11:30The only exit was submerged.
00:11:32Even if I could somehow dive through it, I'd face nothing but open ocean on the other side.
00:11:36A few meters away, he was slicing a massive fish into fillets with a poker face.
00:11:41Blood ran into the water.
00:11:42The metallic smell was everywhere.
00:11:44It looked like a scene from a slasher film.
00:11:46Was I next?
00:11:49He looked up.
00:11:50That cold expression was even more terrifying than before.
00:11:53Liar!
00:11:54You can't escape.
00:11:56Before, he'd only ever said a word or two at a time.
00:11:58Now he was speaking in full sentences.
00:12:00Fluent, precise.
00:12:01Like he'd know how to talk all along and had simply chosen not to.
00:12:05An animal would just kill you.
00:12:07But something intelligent enough to take hostages was something you could reason with.
00:12:10What exactly did I lie about?
00:12:12His expression grew angrier.
00:12:14You courted me first.
00:12:16Me?
00:12:17I accepted, and you ran!
00:12:20You always lie to me!
00:12:22I'd sung the courtship song to him.
00:12:24Danced the courtship dance.
00:12:26From his perspective, I'd been proposing, and he had accepted.
00:12:31I softened my voice.
00:12:33This was all a misunderstanding.
00:12:35I'm a merfish researcher.
00:12:37I thought you were a male mer who'd come to join the Emeril Attor colony but didn't know
00:12:41how to court.
00:12:42I was teaching you.
00:12:43His fist slammed into the cave wall, punching out a chunk of solid rock.
00:12:47I didn't want to imagine what would happen if that had been my skull.
00:12:50I should never have accepted that reassignment.
00:12:53Shut up.
00:12:56You wanted me to court those stupid, weak merfish.
00:12:59It took a long time for the rage to subside before he spoke again.
00:13:02His voice was calm, but with something unhinged underneath.
00:13:04It doesn't matter.
00:13:06Only stupid merfish court that way.
00:13:08My inherited instinct tells me this is how we do it.
00:13:11We take our mate and hide them away.
00:13:15Everything my professor said had been true.
00:13:18Why couldn't he have told me sooner?
00:13:20He pushed the raw fillets toward me.
00:13:22Eat.
00:13:23I was about to refuse, when hunger slammed into me like a wall.
00:13:26I wanted that fish more than I'd ever wanted anything in my life.
00:13:29I devoured every last piece.
00:13:32He watched with a look of satisfaction, entirely unsurprised.
00:13:35As if he had known this would happen.
00:13:38After eating, an overwhelming drowsiness hit.
00:13:40I slept again.
00:13:41When I woke, he was slicing fish.
00:13:44I ate again.
00:13:46Days passed before the hunger and exhaustion finally faded.
00:13:49I demanded answers.
00:13:51What did you do to me?
00:13:52He took my hand and guided my fingers behind my ears.
00:13:55On each side, I felt openings, developing gills.
00:13:58My skin had changed too, smoother and slicker, like it was no longer meant for land.
00:14:03I could probably stay underwater for hours now.
00:14:06The pearl.
00:14:07Am I going to turn into a creature like you?
00:14:11Yes.
00:14:13You'll become a siren like me.
00:14:16You'll never go back to the human world.
00:14:18I was going to turn into one of them.
00:14:20Never see my family again.
00:14:22Trapped with this monster for the rest of my life.
00:14:24Monster.
00:14:25Even if I'm not human anymore, I'll never be with you.
00:14:27I hate you.
00:14:29I'd rather spend my life with a pot of murphine.
00:14:32His jaw clenched.
00:14:33Eyes went bright with fury.
00:14:35But underneath it, just for a second, I saw something great.
00:14:38Then I'll keep you chained here forever.
00:14:41You won't see another human.
00:14:42You won't even see a mur.
00:15:12From that day on, my body kept changing, more and more like a fish.
00:15:17He just lay down and closed his eyes.
00:15:20I walked over and checked his breathing.
00:15:24Too bad I didn't die.
00:15:26You must be so disappointed.
00:15:28Obviously.
00:15:29I wish you'd drop dead.
00:15:31What happened to you?
00:15:33A pot of orcas.
00:15:35About 30 of them.
00:15:37Tried to take my territory.
00:15:40I won, of course.
00:15:41Just a scratch.
00:15:45Orcas.
00:15:46The ocean's roaming thugs.
00:15:4730 of them.
00:15:48And he won.
00:15:49I died a little inside.
00:15:51I truly provoked something terrifying.
00:15:53I kicked the grouper he brought into the water.
00:15:56I don't want grouper.
00:15:57I want salmon.
00:16:00Tomorrow?
00:16:01I want it today, you useless fish who can't even land a mate.
00:16:05Either let me go or go catch some right now.
00:16:15He hauled himself up and swam back out through the entrance.
00:16:19After a long while, he returned with several salmon.
00:16:22The wound on his tail had turned white and waterlogged from the salt.
00:16:25Actually, I don't want salmon anymore.
00:16:27Too rich.
00:16:28I want something lighter.
00:16:30Sea bream.
00:16:30He dragged himself back out to catch sea bream.
00:16:33He brought the bream back.
00:16:34Before I could say another word, he collapsed.
00:16:37With his eyes closed, he looked completely harmless.
00:16:41The wound had gone raw from the seawater.
00:16:43I cleaned it.
00:16:44I sat beside him and closed my own eyes.
00:16:47I should hate him.
00:16:50I was floating in the ocean, but I knew I was dreaming.
00:16:53I turned back into a child.
00:16:55I saw another child about my age.
00:16:57Was I dreaming?
00:16:58I reached out to him.
00:17:00Please, help me.
00:17:01He swam toward me, and I saw that his lower half was a slender tail.
00:17:04A mare.
00:17:05He rescued me, set me on a reef, and caught food for me.
00:17:08A good myrrh.
00:17:09I wanted him to take me somewhere with people.
00:17:11I want to go home.
00:17:12My parents would be worried.
00:17:13But he couldn't understand me, so I taught him to speak, word by word.
00:17:17He was smart.
00:17:18In just over ten days, we could communicate.
00:17:21I learned he wasn't a myrrh.
00:17:22He was a siren.
00:17:23Sirens were solitary.
00:17:25The unchallenged apex predators of the deep.
00:17:27Sirens never raised their young.
00:17:29From the moment a hatchling broke free of its egg, it faced the dangerous ocean alone.
00:17:33Only those who survived earned the name siren.
00:17:35I was very innocent as a child.
00:17:37Innocent in that way only children can be.
00:17:39The kind that cuts.
00:17:40So you don't have family or friends?
00:17:43You've always been alone?
00:17:44Not even a fish friend?
00:17:46Don't you get lonely?
00:17:49What's lonely?
00:17:52Lonely is when there's no one to play with you.
00:17:54No one to talk to.
00:17:55No one who misses you.
00:17:57I didn't know what lonely was before.
00:18:00So I wasn't lonely.
00:18:03Now I will be.
00:18:05I'm sorry.
00:18:06After I go home-
00:18:07I'll come back every summer to play with you.
00:18:09I'll talk to you.
00:18:10And I'll miss you.
00:18:12Let's make a pinky promise.
00:18:13I swear.
00:18:14He copied my gesture solemnly, extending his little finger, careful not to nick me with
00:18:18his sharp eyes and hooked it around mine.
00:18:20Cross your heart.
00:18:21We're best friends.
00:18:23I'll never forget you.
00:18:25Best friends.
00:18:26I'd planned to stay a few more days before having him take me home.
00:18:29But the sea wind and the monotonous diet made me sick.
00:18:32A fever set in.
00:18:33Everything blurred.
00:18:34His face went white.
00:18:35It's my fault.
00:18:36You don't belong in the sea.
00:18:38I'll take you somewhere with humans.
00:18:40They'll help you.
00:18:41He carried me on his thin back, racing through the ocean, trying to keep the waves from soaking
00:18:45my hair.
00:18:47When I'm better, I'll come back for you.
00:18:52Isla, I'll wait.
00:18:53He slipped back into the water, and only after people found me and carried me away did that
00:18:58small shape in the distance finally disappear.
00:19:01But I never kept my promise.
00:19:03I forgot all of it.
00:19:06If I hadn't been reassigned to my professor years later, I might never have returned to Thalassa in my life.
00:19:12And Opal had come to Emerald Atoll not for the merfolk.
00:19:15For me.
00:19:16And what had I done?
00:19:17I'd made him think I was courting him.
00:19:20He accepted.
00:19:21I ran.
00:19:22He thought I'd betrayed him twice.
00:19:24In his fury, he took me.
00:19:28Liar.
00:19:30I hated you.
00:19:31You are a monster.
00:19:33I'd never be with you.
00:19:34Sirens heal with terrifying speed.
00:19:36Within hours, the vicious wound had closed.
00:19:38Opal opened his eyes and saw me still obediently shackled.
00:19:41Only then did he relax.
00:19:43Opal, you're awake.
00:19:44Does anything still hurt?
00:19:46Even if you've changed tactics and you're trying to soft me up, I won't let you go.
00:19:50Honestly, I wasn't entirely opposed to him.
00:19:52Interspecies marriage laws between beast folk and humans had already passed.
00:19:56Plenty of humans were into it.
00:19:57But carrying an egg was beyond anything I'd mentally prepared for.
00:20:00Can we just date first?
00:20:03A purely platonic relationship?
00:20:05I explained what platonic meant.
00:20:07He got angrier.
00:20:09You're lying again.
00:20:10I'll never believe you.
00:20:11But when I asked him to unlock the chains so I could swim, he agreed.
00:20:15Just as I thought.
00:20:17All bark, no bite.
00:20:18But impossible to convince.
00:20:20While Opal was out hunting, I dove into the water at the cave entrance and discovered small bioluminescent fish.
00:20:27I caught a few and snacked on them.
00:20:29When I surfaced, my body was burning.
00:20:32Especially there.
00:20:33I tried to deal with it for a long time, but the relief wouldn't come.
00:20:36Opal returned and saw the remaining bioluminescent fish.
00:20:41Merfish eat those during mating.
00:20:43You ate them?
00:20:43How was there something like that just swimming around?
00:20:46Humans really had studied this planet nowhere near enough.
00:20:48It kept getting worse.
00:20:49My face was burning.
00:20:50And not just from the effect.
00:20:52I couldn't believe I was about to say this.
00:20:54I reached out to Opal.
00:20:55Can you help me, Opal, please?
00:21:00He just stood there, looking like a kicked puppy despite being a creature that could kill 30 orcas.
00:21:04You always do this.
00:21:05You asked me first, then you took it back.
00:21:08Every single time.
00:21:09I pulled him closer by the wrist.
00:21:11I like you.
00:21:12I want you.
00:21:13Now.
00:21:13You really have to help me.
00:21:15I need you.
00:21:16He didn't move.
00:21:17His eyes were fixed on me, wounded and wary.
00:21:20You're begging me now.
00:21:22But tomorrow you'll hate me again.
00:21:24I don't believe you.
00:21:25Those green eyes looked so lost, like he was already bracing for me to disappear.
00:21:29So I kissed him first.
00:21:30He froze.
00:21:31Then his arms came around me so tight I thought my ribs would crack.
00:21:34He was gentle at first, trembling even.
00:21:37Like he was afraid I'd break.
00:21:39Then not.
00:21:40By the end I was breathless, clinging to him, telling him that was enough.
00:21:44I couldn't take any more.
00:21:45He didn't stop until my body gave out completely.
00:21:50Next morning, clear-headed, I processed the fact that I'd slept with a fish.
00:21:53It had actually felt pretty good.
00:21:55I might genuinely be in love with Opal.
00:21:57When Opal saw me awake, he handed me a knife made from shell.
00:22:01You hate me even more now, don't you?
00:22:03I forced you last night.
00:22:04I'd been on the bottom, but I knew full well who'd been forcing whom.
00:22:07You must despise me.
00:22:09I've unlocked your chains.
00:22:10You can use this knife to fierce my heart, then leave this place forever.
00:22:14Go back to the human world.
00:22:15And then what?
00:22:16He'd dissolve into sea foam?
00:22:17He was pure-hearted and soft underneath it all, playing at being a captor when he didn't
00:22:21have the constitution for it.
00:22:23I really like you.
00:22:24If you don't believe me, let's do it again.
00:22:27So we did.
00:22:28Many, many times.
00:22:29In the cave at the bottom of the sea.
00:22:31But he still didn't believe him.
00:22:35He was convinced I was trying to lull him into dropping his guard so I could escape.
00:22:39I could only keep repeating that I loved him.
00:22:40That I'd take him to meet my parents.
00:22:42That I'd marry him.
00:22:43He just looked at me with sadness.
00:22:44You'd even lure me to the human world so they can capture me for research?
00:22:48Your thesis means that much to you?
00:22:50Enough to endure all this and seduce me?
00:22:52I had no way to defend myself.
00:22:53So I seduced him again, easier than arguing.
00:22:56Until one day, I couldn't stop vomiting.
00:22:58The color drained from my face.
00:22:59Opal panicked completely.
00:23:00Remembering the night over a decade ago when I'd nearly died of fever.
00:23:03I'll take you back to the humans right now.
00:23:05After this, you'll never see me again.
00:23:08Didn't you say I'd become a siren like you?
00:23:10He kissed me with desperation.
00:23:11I lied.
00:23:12The pearl only changes a mate's body a little.
00:23:15Enough to adapt to prolong life at sea.
00:23:17Enough for your body to handle me and to carry my egg.
00:23:20But you're still fundamentally human.
00:23:22I know you've wanted to leave this whole time.
00:23:24I imprisoned you.
00:23:26You hate me.
00:23:28Just like ten years ago, Opal carried me on his back and tore through the ocean.
00:23:32Until I spotted Emerald Atoll's research station in the distance.
00:23:35The station had been renovated.
00:23:37It looked completely different from before.
00:23:39He set me down on the dock, took one last long look at me, and turned to leave.
00:23:42I called out to him.
00:23:43The next instant, a metal trap crashed down from above, caging a powerful siren inside.
00:23:48Who said you could leave my test subject?
00:23:50So this was your plan all along?
00:23:52For your research and your thesis?
00:23:54You go as far as seducing me?
00:23:56All to capture me alive.
00:23:58You win.
00:24:00That's right.
00:24:01I was exactly the kind of person who'd do anything to graduate.
00:24:04After I discovered a new species, my professor secured a massive research grant.
00:24:08The Emerald Atoll Station was expanded to several times its original size.
00:24:11Additional researchers were brought in, and my professor took up permanent residence as
00:24:15Project Lead.
00:24:16He chewed me out beyond all recognition, but had no choice except to clean up my mess.
00:24:20But the siren refused to cooperate with any experiments.
00:24:23He wouldn't eat.
00:24:24Wouldn't drink.
00:24:24Wouldn't speak.
00:24:25His aggression was extreme, so researchers couldn't collect so much as a blood sample
00:24:29or a strand of hair.
00:24:31Finally, I went alone to the cage holding the siren.
00:24:35You'll die if you don't eat or drink.
00:24:37What a shame.
00:24:39You'll only have a siren corpse to study.
00:24:41In a few months, we'll have a living siren.
00:24:44Right here.
00:24:47You're carrying my egg.
00:24:48It's your child, too.
00:24:50Do you really hate sirens that much?
00:24:52Aren't sirens supposed to just dump their young in the ocean any, don't we?
00:24:56Pretend you don't know.
00:24:59When you said you liked me before, it was real.
00:25:04If I didn't love you, why would I sleep with you?
00:25:07Why would I carry your egg and actually want to keep it?
00:25:09We took your blood exactly once.
00:25:12The only purpose was to test which medications would work on you.
00:25:16Nobody's doing illegal research with it.
00:25:19If you hadn't gone and written yourself into some tragic drama,
00:25:22you convinced I hated you, ready to swim off and never come back,
00:25:25I would have taken you to meet my parents the next day.
00:25:27You'd apply for personhood yourself, and we'd be married within a month.
00:25:30You idiot.
00:25:31You forced me to lock you up so you wouldn't leave.
00:25:35The egg hatched into a human child.
00:25:37Dark hair, round ears.
00:25:39He had Opal's green eyes, but aside from that, he looked nothing like a siren.
00:25:48Is this really our child?
00:25:50Did someone swap him out?
00:25:52The next instant, Opal casually tossed him into the bathtub.
00:25:56I wanted to murder him.
00:25:57What are you doing?
00:25:59What kind of father are you?
00:26:01But Finn rolled happily in the water.
00:26:03His legs fused into a golden tail, and his ears shifted into pointed siren ears.
00:26:08Definitely our little fish after all.
00:26:11Good.
00:26:13We can throw him in the ocean to fend for himself now.
00:26:15My baby is going to be the happiest child in the world.
00:26:19He has loving parents and grandparents, and he'll go to preschool and make tons of friends.
00:26:23You want me to throw him in the ocean?
00:26:25Do you have a death wish?
00:26:26We can throw him in the ocean to fend for himself now.
00:26:28My baby is going to be the happiest child in the world.
00:26:32He has loving parents and grandparents, and he'll go to preschool and make tons of friends.
00:26:37You want me to throw him in the ocean?
00:26:38Do you have a death wish?
00:26:39But that's how I grew up.
00:26:41Never met my parents, let alone grandparents.
00:26:44My only friend was you.
00:26:45And then you never came back.
00:26:47I waited where we said goodbye for over a decade.
00:26:50You have me now.
00:26:52You have all my love.
00:26:54You're already the happiest siren in the world.
00:26:56Then tonight, let's leave Finn with your parents.
00:26:59It's been too long since we were close.
00:27:02I agreed.
00:27:03The next day, my body nearly fell apart.
00:27:05Definitely a supernatural creature.
00:27:07Draining me dry.
00:27:10The changes of my body didn't stop after Finn was born.
00:27:14I noticed it in the shower.
00:27:16Faint, iridescent lines running along my forearms, barely visible unless the light hit them just
00:27:22right.
00:27:23Scales.
00:27:23Or the ghost of scales.
00:27:25I could hold my breath underwater for 40 minutes now.
00:27:29My night vision had sharpened.
00:27:31Food tasted different.
00:27:33Blander on land, richer in the sea.
00:27:36Opal, you said the pearl would only change me a little.
00:27:43I said it would change you enough.
00:27:45Enough for what?
00:27:47I'm growing scales.
00:27:49They suit you.
00:27:51That's not the point.
00:27:52The pearl bonds us.
00:27:53Your body adapts to live where I live.
00:27:55It won't stop.
00:27:56So what's the end game?
00:27:57Will I grow a tail?
00:27:58No.
00:27:59You'll never be a siren.
00:28:01But you won't be entirely human either.
00:28:03Something in between.
00:28:05Something new.
00:28:09Something new.
00:28:10Like Finn.
00:28:11Will it short my lifespan?
00:28:13No.
00:28:14It will lengthen it.
00:28:16How much?
00:28:20Enough to stay with me.
00:28:21I didn't ask how long Sirens lived.
00:28:23I wasn't sure I wanted to know.
00:28:26My parents arrived on the weekly supply shuttle.
00:28:28Mom burst into tears the moment she saw Finn.
00:28:32He's beautiful.
00:28:33He looks just like you, Isla.
00:28:36Wait till you see his other form.
00:28:38As if on cue, Finn's spada got fussy.
00:28:40Golden scales rippled across his lower half.
00:28:44A tail emerged.
00:28:46Thrashing.
00:28:46Mom screamed.
00:28:48Dad caught Finn before he hit the floor.
00:28:50Held him awkwardly.
00:28:52Examined the tail with the calm of a retired engineer.
00:28:55Huh.
00:28:56Flexible.
00:28:56Good muscle tone.
00:28:59You were like this as a baby?
00:29:02I don't know.
00:29:04No one was there.
00:29:05The room went quiet.
00:29:06Set Finn in the water basin I kept nearby for exactly these situations.
00:29:11Well, he won't be alone.
00:29:13Finn splashed happily, tail glinting gold.
00:29:17That night...
00:29:18Isla.
00:29:19Hmm?
00:29:20He must love you so much.
00:29:21I've never seen anyone so terrified of losing someone.
00:29:24He's dramatic.
00:29:25No.
00:29:26He's terrified you'll disappear.
00:29:27I won't.
00:29:28I know, sweetheart.
00:29:29Make sure he knows too.
00:29:32Can I get a few more recording sessions with him?
00:29:35Opal agreed easily.
00:29:36He'd been cooperative with the team since the day I proposed.
00:29:40But I noticed something.
00:29:41Every time Lena entered the room, Opal shifted his body between her and me.
00:29:44Subtle.
00:29:46Unconscious.
00:29:46Maybe.
00:29:47His nostrils flared slightly when she passed.
00:29:50One day, after Finn was asleep, Opal spoke.
00:29:53That woman.
00:29:54Lena?
00:29:55She smells wrong.
00:29:56Wrong how?
00:29:57She has siren scent on her.
00:29:58Old.
00:29:58Faded.
00:29:59But there.
00:30:00You're sure?
00:30:00I know what my own kind smells like, Isla.
00:30:02She touched a siren, and it wasn't me.
00:30:06I ran a background check the next morning.
00:30:08Lena Shue.
00:30:09Born on Colony 7.
00:30:11Ph.D. from Central University.
00:30:13Published 12 papers on cetacean communication.
00:30:16Joined a deep-sea expedition to Thalassa's southern hemisphere two years ago.
00:30:20Everything checked out.
00:30:22Spotless record.
00:30:23I pulled the expedition report, a routine survey mission.
00:30:26No incidents logged.
00:30:28No contact with unknown species.
00:30:30But the mission had lasted six months.
00:30:32And Lena had spent three weeks separated from the main team after a submersible malfunction.
00:30:37The official report said she survived on emergency rations until rescue arrived.
00:30:43Three weeks alone in the deep ocean.
00:30:45I brought this to Opal.
00:30:47That's when it happened.
00:30:48Can't know that three weeks in deep water, alone.
00:30:51When she came back alive, something kept her alive.
00:30:55That's when it happened.
00:30:56Can't know that three weeks in deep water, alone.
00:30:58When she came back alive, something kept her alive.
00:31:01That night, I couldn't sleep.
00:31:03I activated the dock cameras on a hunch.
00:31:062.47 AM.
00:31:07Lena walked to the end of the dock, alone.
00:31:10She stood at the edge, looking out at the black water.
00:31:12Then she raised her hands to her lips and blew a sequence of notes.
00:31:16Low.
00:31:16Haunting.
00:31:17Not merfolk song.
00:31:18Something answered from the deep.
00:31:20A sound that made my bones ache, even through the camera's audio feed.
00:31:24And far below the surface, captured by the underwater sensors, a shape moved.
00:31:29Massive.
00:31:30Larger than Opal.
00:31:31Dark red.
00:31:33I showed Opal the footage at dawn.
00:31:35That's a siren.
00:31:36Male.
00:31:37Mature.
00:31:37Bigger than me.
00:31:38Bigger than you?
00:31:39I thought you were-
00:31:40I'm young.
00:31:40Sirens don't stop growing.
00:31:42That one is old.
00:31:43Maybe centuries.
00:31:44Centuries?
00:31:44Is he dangerous?
00:31:45Every siren is dangerous.
00:31:47But this one-
00:31:48He replayed the footage.
00:31:49He's not hunting.
00:31:51He's searching.
00:31:52For Lena?
00:31:53For his mate.
00:31:54She didn't stay with him.
00:31:56She left.
00:31:57Do you know what happens to a siren whose mate leaves?
00:32:00I remembered his words from long ago.
00:32:02The pearl was part of his life force.
00:32:04Given freely.
00:32:05Irreversible.
00:32:06You said it's worse than death.
00:32:08The bond screams.
00:32:09Every moment apart is agony.
00:32:11The instinct to find your mate overweighs everything else.
00:32:13Rational thought.
00:32:14Self-preservation.
00:32:15Eventually, even recognition of the mate themselves.
00:32:19They go feral.
00:32:20Hmm?
00:32:21How long does it take?
00:32:22Depends on the siren.
00:32:23Weeks.
00:32:24Months.
00:32:25The one that old and powerful.
00:32:26He's held on longer than any siren should be able to.
00:32:29But he's close to the edge.
00:32:30The next night, the underwater cameras caught him again.
00:32:33Closer this time.
00:32:34Close enough to see details.
00:32:35A massive siren.
00:32:37Easily ten feet of dark crimson tail.
00:32:39One eye clouded over.
00:32:40His claws were extended gouging trenches in the seafloor.
00:32:43But when Lena's melody drifted down from above, he went still, pressed his palm flat against
00:32:48the ocean floor and stayed there, listening.
00:32:50Until the song ended.
00:32:51Then the dark shape sank back into the abyss.
00:32:55I confronted Lena in her lab the next morning.
00:32:58She was analyzing frequency charts when I walked in.
00:33:01You know why I'm here.
00:33:03Her hand stopped a long silence.
00:33:06How much do you know?
00:33:08Enough.
00:33:09The siren in the deep.
00:33:12You've met him before.
00:33:13During your expedition.
00:33:16His name.
00:33:16The sound he makes when he refers to himself.
00:33:20I can't reproduce it.
00:33:21I call him Red.
00:33:24Original.
00:33:25She almost smiled.
00:33:26I was trapped in a damaged submersible at 4,000 meters.
00:33:30Oxygen running out.
00:33:32He tore the hull open like tinfoil and carried me to an air pocket in a seamount cave.
00:33:39He fed me.
00:33:41Kept me warm.
00:33:43Three weeks.
00:33:45He gave me a pearl.
00:33:47Did you swallow it?
00:33:50No.
00:33:52I didn't know what it was.
00:33:54I kept it.
00:33:56When the rescue team found me, I hid it.
00:33:59Told no one.
00:34:00She opened a drawer and pulled out a small case.
00:34:03Inside, resting on velvet, was a pearl the color of dark blood.
00:34:06Almost black in certain light.
00:34:09I still have it.
00:34:10I couldn't throw it away.
00:34:11It felt wrong to throw it away.
00:34:13But you left him.
00:34:14I was scared.
00:34:15I didn't know what he was.
00:34:17I woke up one morning and the rescue submersible was there and I just...
00:34:22I ran.
00:34:24Tears spilled.
00:34:25And then I read your paper.
00:34:27About Opal.
00:34:28About what sirens are.
00:34:30What the pearl means.
00:34:31I came here to...
00:34:32To find him.
00:34:34To tell him I'm sorry.
00:34:35He's losing his mind.
00:34:37I finished.
00:34:38He pressed her hands over her mouth.
00:34:40It's my fault.
00:34:41He's like that because of me.
00:34:43I took the pearl from the case.
00:34:45It was warm.
00:34:45Almost alive.
00:34:48Opal says he can still be saved.
00:34:50But Lena...
00:34:51I set the pearl back down.
00:34:52If you go to him, you can't leave again.
00:34:55Ever.
00:34:56You understand that?
00:34:57She wiped her face.
00:34:58Straightened her spine.
00:34:59I know.
00:35:00I'm not leaving.
00:35:03I brought Lena to Opal.
00:35:05He didn't look at her with warmth.
00:35:06He looked at her the way he looked at threats.
00:35:09You abandoned your siren.
00:35:10I did.
00:35:11And now he's feral.
00:35:12Barely holding on.
00:35:14If he breaks completely, he'll kill everything in this ocean.
00:35:17Starting with the Merphos colony.
00:35:18Opal.
00:35:19She wants to go back to him.
00:35:20Wanting isn't enough.
00:35:21She needs to understand.
00:35:24If she swallows that pearl and goes to him, there is no coming back.
00:35:29No changing her mind.
00:35:31No second escape.
00:35:32I understand.
00:35:33Opal studied her for a long time, then turned to me.
00:35:38You want to know what I was like after you left me?
00:35:40It wasn't a question.
00:35:42When you ran from the cav took the yacht and I chased you, that was three weeks after you swallowed
00:35:46my pearl.
00:35:47If I hadn't caught you that day, two more weeks, maybe less, and I would have been what he is
00:35:52now.
00:35:52The thought turned my stomach.
00:35:54You never told me it was that close.
00:35:56You didn't need to know.
00:35:58I caught my mate in time.
00:36:00Yours has waited two years.
00:36:01Two years of the bond screaming with no answer.
00:36:04He'll be violent.
00:36:04He won't recognize you immediately.
00:36:06The feral state overroads everything.
00:36:08What do I do?
00:36:09Swallow the pearl.
00:36:10Get in the water.
00:36:11And don't run.
00:36:12No matter what he does, if you run, he'll never come back.
00:36:17The merfolk felt it before we did.
00:36:19I checked the underwater cameras that morning and found the colony huddled in the shallows.
00:36:23Every female, every pup, every elderly mer pressed together in the reef closest to shore.
00:36:28The young males formed a defensive perimeter.
00:36:30Teeth bared, tails thrashing.
00:36:31They were terrified opal surfaced beside the dock, Finn peening to his back.
00:36:36He's closer, I can feel him.
00:36:37How close?
00:36:38The outer reef.
00:36:39Maybe less.
00:36:40He handed Finn to me.
00:36:41Our son squirmed, whimpering.
00:36:43Finn can sense him too?
00:36:44All sirens can feel each other.
00:36:46It's how we avoid territory conflicts.
00:36:47A feral siren broadcasts nothing but killing in Tolt.
00:36:50Finn is scared.
00:36:51I held our son tight.
00:36:52If he enters the shallows, the mermich can't fight him.
00:36:55I can't protect them all and protect you at the same time.
00:37:00A feral siren broadcasts nothing but killing in Tolt.
00:37:03Finn is scared.
00:37:04I held our son tight.
00:37:05If he enters the shallows, the mermich can't fight him.
00:37:09I can't protect them all and protect you at the same time.
00:37:12Then what?
00:37:14All personnel to the safe room immediately!
00:37:17Unknown large marine creature approaching the eastern reef at high speed.
00:37:21I looked at Opal. He was already shifting, his legs fusing back into that powerful black gold's hair.
00:37:25Keep Finn inside. Don't come to the water.
00:37:28Opal!
00:37:28He dove without looking back.
00:37:30I held our crying sun and watched the sea turn dark on the horizon, like something enormous was rising from
00:37:36below.
00:37:39I put Finn in his crib and ran to the monitoring room.
00:37:41Professor Wei was already there, pale-faced, watching six screens simultaneously.
00:37:46What the hell is that?
00:37:48The underwater cameras showed it clearly now.
00:37:50A siren, easily half-again Opal's size.
00:37:53Dark crimson tail, thick with old scars.
00:37:55Claws extended to their full length, almost a foot long.
00:37:58His hair was black, matted, streaming behind him like ink and water.
00:38:02His eyes were open but empty.
00:38:03A predator running on pure instinct.
00:38:05That's him.
00:38:06On another screen, Opal intercepted.
00:38:08Black gold meeting dark red in the open water beyond the reef.
00:38:11The collision was violent.
00:38:13Sound exploded through the underwater microphones.
00:38:15Frequencies so low the equipment couldn't fully capture them.
00:38:18I felt it in my chest.
00:38:19A pressure, like my heart was being squeezed.
00:38:21Opal was fast, devastatingly fast.
00:38:23He struck and retreated.
00:38:24He struck and retreated.
00:38:25Keeping the larger siren away from the reef.
00:38:28Opal was fast, devastatingly fast.
00:38:30He struck and retreated.
00:38:32He struck and retreated.
00:38:33Keeping the larger siren away from the reef.
00:38:34But Red was relentless.
00:38:36Every wound Opal inflicted closed within seconds.
00:38:38He didn't feel pain anymore.
00:38:39That was the feral state.
00:38:41No pain, no fear, no thought.
00:38:43Just the drive to find his mate.
00:38:44Opal slammed him into a rock formation.
00:38:47The seafloor cracked.
00:38:48Red threw him off and kept swimming toward the island.
00:38:51Toward Lena.
00:38:53He can smell the pearl.
00:38:55He knows she's here.
00:38:56Opal caught him again.
00:38:57This time, Red's claws found they knocked.
00:38:59A deep slash across Opal's side.
00:39:01Blood clouded the water.
00:39:02That's my husband.
00:39:04Lena was already moving.
00:39:05She pulled the dark pearl from her pocket.
00:39:07I'm going.
00:39:08Lena, wait.
00:39:09She swallowed the pearl.
00:39:10Her eyes went wide.
00:39:11Then she ran for the dock.
00:39:14Professor Wei shouted after her.
00:39:16I shouted after her.
00:39:17She didn't stop.
00:39:18By the time I reached the dock, she was already in the water.
00:39:21Swimming toward the open ocean with strength that shouldn't have been possible for a human
00:39:25who'd swallowed a pearl 30 seconds ago.
00:39:27But the pearl was already working.
00:39:29I could see it.
00:39:29The way her movement smoothed.
00:39:31The way her body cut through the waves like something built for it.
00:39:34On the monitoring feed piped to my earpiece, I heard the researchers panicking.
00:39:38The large siren has changed direction.
00:39:40He's heading for the surface.
00:39:41Dr. Shun is directly in his path.
00:39:43Opal surfaced 50 meters from Lena, blood streaming from his side.
00:39:47He saw her in the water and his face contorted.
00:39:49Get back!
00:39:52She didn't.
00:39:52She treaded water and raised her hands to her lips.
00:39:54That melody.
00:39:55The same one she'd played on the dock at night.
00:39:57Low aching.
00:39:58Full of an apology words couldn't carry.
00:40:00The ocean went still.
00:40:01Even the waves seemed to quiet.
00:40:03Below Lena, the massive red shape was rising.
00:40:0550 meters.
00:40:0630.
00:40:0610.
00:40:07I could see him through the clear water.
00:40:08Those empty, feral eyes locked onto the small figure above him.
00:40:12Opal tensed.
00:40:13Reddy strike hit the creature so much as extended a claw.
00:40:15Red broke the surface.
00:40:16He was enormous.
00:40:17Terrifying.
00:40:18Lena didn't flinch.
00:40:19She kept singing.
00:40:20His claws were out.
00:40:21His mouth was open.
00:40:22Rows of teeth that could bite through steel.
00:40:23He drifted closer, closer.
00:40:25His claw rose.
00:40:26Opal lunged.
00:40:27But the claw didn't strike.
00:40:28It touched Lena's cheek gently.
00:40:30Barely a graze.
00:40:30And the emptiness in those eyes.
00:40:32The hood.
00:40:34Opal floated 20 meters away.
00:40:36Blood still trailing from his wound.
00:40:37He'd retracted his claws.
00:40:39He watched for a long moment.
00:40:41Then turned and swam back to me.
00:40:42I pulled him onto the dock.
00:40:44He was heavy.
00:40:46The wound was deep.
00:40:47You're hurt.
00:40:49It's fine.
00:40:50Let me fuss.
00:40:51His eyes were still on the two figures in the water.
00:40:53Wrapped around each other.
00:40:55He came back.
00:40:56Opal said quietly.
00:40:57I understood what he didn't say.
00:40:58I pressed my forehead to his.
00:41:00I'm here.
00:41:01I'm not going anywhere.
00:41:02His hand found mine.
00:41:03I know.
00:41:04But say it again.
00:41:05I'm here.
00:41:06Again!
00:41:06I'm here, Opal.
00:41:07Always.
00:41:08He finally closed his eyes.
00:41:11Within three days, Red was unrecognizable.
00:41:13Not physically, he was still massive.
00:41:15But the emptiness was gone.
00:41:16Not like Opal.
00:41:17Whether he couldn't or chose not to, I didn't know.
00:41:20When she was in the lab, he waited in the water outside the window.
00:41:23He'll be like that for a while.
00:41:25Possibly forever.
00:41:28You mean clingy?
00:41:30I mean bonded.
00:41:32A siren who nearly went feral never fully recovers the ability to tolerate separation.
00:41:38I glanced at him.
00:41:39You nearly went feral.
00:41:41Yes.
00:41:42Is that why you still wake up when I leave the bed at night?
00:41:47I wrote it in my research notes that evening.
00:41:49Siren pair bonding observations.
00:41:51The bond, once formed, appears absolute and permanent.
00:41:55Post-crisis sirens display heightened mate guarding behavior.
00:41:58No evidence of bond dissolution under any documented circumstances.
00:42:02Personal note.
00:42:02He checks my breathing four times a night.
00:42:05He thinks I don't notice.
00:42:06Opal red over my shoulder.
00:42:07You notice?
00:42:08He turned me around in my chair and kissed me slow.
00:42:10I've always noticed.
00:42:19Unhurried.
00:42:20Stop writing about me.
00:42:21It's literally my job.
00:42:23Then write that I'm the most handsome.
00:42:25Absolutely not.
00:42:26I'll withhold salmon.
00:42:29I'll consider a footnelt.
00:42:32He said it staring at Opal's tail, slapping it with both hands, shrieking with delight.
00:42:37Fish!
00:42:38Fish!
00:42:39He recognizes quality.
00:42:41He thinks you're dinner.
00:42:43He thinks I'm magnificent.
00:42:45Finn then proceeded to bite Opal's tail with his four tiny fangs.
00:42:48Opal didn't flinch.
00:42:49Strong jaw.
00:42:50Good survival instinct.
00:42:52He's biting you.
00:42:54Affectionately.
00:42:55At eight months, Finn could shift between forms at will.
00:42:57In human form, he toddled.
00:42:59In siren form, he out-swam the research drones.
00:43:01Professor Wei was losing his mind with excitement.
00:43:04His neural development is off the charts.
00:43:07Pattern recognition at eight months that human children don't achieve until age three.
00:43:14And his aquatic abilities far excide what we'd expect even from a pure siren juvenile.
00:43:20His neural development is off the charts.
00:43:23Pattern recognition at eight months that human children don't achieve until age three.
00:43:30And his aquatic abilities far excide what we'd expect even from a pure siren juvenile.
00:43:35Isla, your theological changes from the pearl may have created a sinernistic effect.
00:43:39Finn isn't just a siren.
00:43:40He's a hybrid with the best traits of both species.
00:43:43He could be the bridge between our worlds.
00:43:46Let's maybe wait until he stops putting everything in his mouth.
00:43:49That night, Finn said his second word.
00:43:52He looked at me, reached up with chubby arms.
00:43:53I cried, Opal held us both.
00:43:55He said my words second.
00:43:56He hasn't said yours at all.
00:43:58Fish counts.
00:43:59Fish does not count.
00:44:02The Interstellar Alliance delegation arrived without warning.
00:44:05Three officials.
00:44:06Two guards.
00:44:07What was specialist in non-human sapient species integration?
00:44:10They wanted to assess the sirens.
00:44:12Both of them.
00:44:13Standard procedure for newly classified intelligent species.
00:44:16The lead official explained.
00:44:18Paul, gray-haired.
00:44:19Population survey, capability assessment, and determination of appropriate protections.
00:44:25Professor Wei handled the politics.
00:44:28I handled the science presentations.
00:44:30Opal and red were not presented in person.
00:44:32I'd insisted.
00:44:33But the specialist, Dr. Voss, kept pushing.
00:44:35We'll need direct interaction, cognitive testing, physical capability documentation.
00:44:39You have our published data.
00:44:41Published data can be incomplete.
00:44:42His eyes drifted to Finn.
00:44:44Is that the hybrid offspring?
00:44:46The way he said, hybrid offspring, like Finn, was a specimen.
00:44:50This meeting is about species classification.
00:44:52My child isn't on the agenda.
00:44:53Of course.
00:44:54But you must understand.
00:44:55A viable hybrid between a sapient non-human species and a modified human?
00:45:00The research implications alone.
00:45:01Opal walked in.
00:45:02He'd been listening.
00:45:03Of course he had, in human form, dressed in the simple clothes I'd bought him.
00:45:06He looked almost approachable.
00:45:08Until he stood beside me and those green eyes locked onto Dr. Voss.
00:45:11He didn't extend his claws.
00:45:12Didn't bare his teeth.
00:45:13He just looked at the man.
00:45:15Steady.
00:45:16Unblinking.
00:45:16Dr. Voss took a step back.
00:45:18Opal smiled pleasantly.
00:45:20My wife said my son isn't on the agenda.
00:45:23The room temperature dropped 10 degrees.
00:45:25The delegation left the next morning.
00:45:26Recommendations filed.
00:45:27Protections approved.
00:45:28Nobody mentioned Finn again.
00:45:31The night after the delegation left, Opal took me swimming.
00:45:34No equipment.
00:45:35No cameras.
00:45:36Just us.
00:45:37My body had changed enough that the ocean felt like a second home now.
00:45:39The pressure, the cold, the dark.
00:45:41None of it bothered me anymore.
00:45:43He held my hand and pulled me deep.
00:45:44Past the reef.
00:45:45Past the drop off.
00:45:46Into open water where the moonlight barely reached.
00:45:49His tail glowed faintly in the dark, bioluminescent patterns tracing along the black gold scales.
00:45:53I'd never seen them before.
00:45:55You're glowing.
00:45:56Only for you.
00:45:56Sirens only display bioluminescence for their mate.
00:45:59Of course.
00:46:00Even his biology was dramatic.
00:46:01He spun me slowly in the water.
00:46:03My yellow hair fanning out around us both.
00:46:05If it ever becomes unsafe.
00:46:06If the Alliance sends people who look at Finn the way that man did.
00:46:09I'll take you and him to the deep.
00:46:11The deep as in...
00:46:13Trenches no human vessel can reach.
00:46:15Caves even other shiris don't know.
00:46:17Places where no one will ever find us.
00:46:18Sounds familiar.
00:46:20This time you'd come willingly.
00:46:22You're very confident about that.
00:46:24You married me.
00:46:25Fair point.
00:46:25I let myself float against him.
00:46:27Wrapped in the dark and the silence and the faint glow of his tail.
00:46:30I don't think it'll come to that.
00:46:31Neither do I.
00:46:32His arms tightened.
00:46:33But I want you to know.
00:46:34There is nowhere in any ocean.
00:46:36On any planet where you and Finn won't be safe with me.
00:46:38I know.
00:46:40Far below in the deep trench beyond Emerald Atoll.
00:46:43The underwater sensors picked up movement.
00:46:45Not one shape.
00:46:46Not two.
00:46:47Seven dark shapes.
00:46:48Circling in the abyss rising.
00:46:51Seven shapes in the abyss.
00:46:53Opal and Red left at dawn to investigate.
00:46:55I watched them disappear beneath the surface from the dock.
00:46:58Then I put on my diving gear and went after them.
00:47:00My body could handle it now.
00:47:01The pressure that would have crushed me a year ago felt like nothing.
00:47:04The cold didn't register.
00:47:05I could see in the dark.
00:47:06Not perfectly.
00:47:07But enough.
00:47:08I followed the trail of bioluminescent disturbance they left in the water.
00:47:12Opal sensed me before I caught up.
00:47:14He turned.
00:47:15And even underwater I could read the fury on his face.
00:47:17He grabbed my arm and shoved me behind him.
00:47:19His body a wall between me and the dark below.
00:47:22Red flanked my other side.
00:47:23Claws out.
00:47:24Eyes fixed downward.
00:47:25I pushed past Opal's shoulder and looked down.
00:47:27Seven sirens.
00:47:30Suspended in the dark water at the edge of the abyss.
00:47:33Motionless.
00:47:33Their tails ranged from deep blue to pale silver to mottled green.
00:47:37Different sizes.
00:47:38Different ages.
00:47:39They watched us.
00:47:40Unblinking.
00:47:41Assessing.
00:47:41Nobody moved.
00:47:42The silence stretched.
00:47:43Minutes.
00:47:44My lungs burned.
00:47:45But my gills took over.
00:47:46Drawing oxygen from the water without effort.
00:47:49Then the largest one, a female with a silver white tail easily nine feet long, retracted her claws.
00:47:54Slowly.
00:47:54Deliberately.
00:47:55She lowered her head slightly.
00:47:57A gesture even I could read.
00:47:58No threat.
00:47:59Opal didn't return it.
00:48:00He signed at me.
00:48:00We leave now.
00:48:01I signed back.
00:48:02They're not hostile.
00:48:03You don't know that.
00:48:04We leave.
00:48:04He grabbed my arm and pulled me upward.
00:48:06Red followed.
00:48:07The seven didn't pursue.
00:48:08They stayed where they were.
00:48:09Watching, we broke the surface.
00:48:11Why did she stare at me?
00:48:12She can sense the pearl in you.
00:48:14His hand tightened on my wrist.
00:48:15She knows you're mine.
00:48:21I didn't sleep that night.
00:48:22I pulled up every archived data set on Thalassa's deep ocean.
00:48:2550 years of exploration records, sonar logs, temperature readings, biological surveys.
00:48:29Most of it was routine, unremarkable.
00:48:31But buried in a file from the earliest survey mission, I found it a single entry.
00:48:35Flagged as equipment malfunction.
00:48:37Rhythmic sound pulse detected at 4,200 meters depth.
00:48:40Frequency 14.2 hertz.
00:48:41Pattern appears structured but does not match any known biological or geological source.
00:48:46Equipment recalibrated.
00:48:47Pulse not detected again.
00:48:4814.2 hertz.
00:48:50I pulled up Opal's vocalization recordings from Lina's research.
00:48:53His baseline infrasound frequency.
00:48:5414.2 hertz.
00:48:58Equipment recalibrated.
00:48:59Pulse not detected again.
00:49:0014.2 hertz.
00:49:02I pulled up Opal's vocalization recordings from Lina's research.
00:49:05His baseline infrasound frequency.
00:49:0714.2 hertz.
00:49:0850 years ago.
00:49:09The first humans hadn't even established a permanent outpost on Thalassa yet.
00:49:13They were already here.
00:49:14The composition is exactly what we need.
00:49:15I brought the data to my professor the next morning.
00:49:17He stared at the screen for a long time.
00:49:19We didn't discover sirens.
00:49:20They've been watching us since we arrived on this planet.
00:49:23That's either very reassuring or very terrifying.
00:49:26Both.
00:49:26Probably both.
00:49:29The silver siren surfaced the next day.
00:49:31She didn't approach the research station.
00:49:33She swam directly to the dock.
00:49:35Directly to me.
00:49:36Opal was between us in an instant.
00:49:39Tail-
00:49:39A-out.
00:49:40Claws half-extended every line of his body screaming threat.
00:49:42The silver siren stopped.
00:49:44If she wanted to kill me, she would have done it in the deep.
00:49:46You don't know that.
00:49:48She had six others with her and I was completely exposed.
00:49:51If they wanted us dead, we'd be dead.
00:49:52He didn't move.
00:49:53Opal, let me through.
00:49:55A long moment.
00:49:57Then he shifted aside.
00:49:58Barely.
00:50:00The silver siren regarded me with ancient, steady eyes.
00:50:03Then she opened her mouth.
00:50:04What came out wasn't human language.
00:50:06It was siren.
00:50:06Low-
00:50:07Layered tones that seemed to resonate in my chest rather than my ears.
00:50:10I shouldn't have understood any of it.
00:50:12But I did.
00:50:13Fragments.
00:50:14Pieces.
00:50:14Like catching words in a language you studied years ago and mostly forgot.
00:50:18The pearl.
00:50:19It wasn't just changing my body.
00:50:20It was changing how I perceived.
00:50:22Child.
00:50:23Bridge.
00:50:25Dying.
00:50:26I turned to Opal.
00:50:28Teach me your language.
00:50:29All of it.
00:50:31Now.
00:50:34Siren language had never been written down.
00:50:36Never been formally taught.
00:50:37It was inherited.
00:50:38Encoded in instinct.
00:50:39Passed through blood.
00:50:40Opal knew it the way he knew how to swim.
00:50:42He'd never had to learn it.
00:50:43Teaching it was something else entirely.
00:50:45How do you say why?
00:50:46He made a sound.
00:50:47I tried to reproduce it.
00:50:48He winced.
00:50:49That means danger.
00:50:51You just told me the ocean is about to kill us.
00:50:54They sound identical.
00:50:55They don't.
00:50:56The second tone drops.
00:50:57Listen.
00:50:58He repeated both.
00:50:59I genuinely could not hear the difference.
00:51:01I recorded everything.
00:51:02Ran frequency analysis.
00:51:04Mapped tonal patterns against meaning.
00:51:06Built a database from scratch, entry by entry.
00:51:08Three days.
00:51:09No sleep.
00:51:10On the second night, Opal carried me to bed.
00:51:12I fought him.
00:51:16I'm not done.
00:51:17You'll die before you finish.
00:51:19Then I'll die bilingual.
00:51:21He pinned me to the mattress and held me there until I stopped struggling.
00:51:24I was asleep in minutes.
00:51:27On the fourth day, I walked to the dock.
00:51:29Opal followed.
00:51:30The silver siren was there.
00:51:31Waiting.
00:51:32As if she'd known.
00:51:33I opened my mouth and spoke a full sentence in siren.
00:51:36It was clumsy.
00:51:37I'm listening.
00:51:39Tell me everything.
00:51:40Probably accented.
00:51:41Maybe slightly wrong.
00:51:42She understood me.
00:51:43The silver siren glanced at him.
00:51:45Then back at me and began to speak.
00:51:46When you deride you.
00:51:49She told me.
00:51:50Opal translated the parts I couldn't catch.
00:51:52In fragments at first.
00:51:53My comprehension was imperfect.
00:51:55And she spoke in a dialect older than anything Opal knew.
00:51:57I had to stop her constantly.
00:51:59Ask her to repeat.
00:52:00To rephrase.
00:52:00Opal filled in the gap.
00:52:02Frowning at words even he barely recognized.
00:52:04But piece by piece, the story took shape.
00:52:06Sirens were not always solitary.
00:52:08Thousands of years ago, they lived in loose communities throughout Thalassa's oceans.
00:52:12Not colonies like Merfolk.
00:52:14More like a network.
00:52:15Connected by infrasound across vast distances.
00:52:18They were the ocean's apex species.
00:52:20Not just predators.
00:52:22Guardians, then something happened deep beneath the ocean floor.
00:52:28The planet's thermal systems destabilized.
00:52:31Volcanic vents that had been dormant for millennia began to rush.
00:52:35The energy released was catastrophic.
00:52:37Entire ecosystems were wiped out in months.
00:52:39The sirens found a way to contain it.
00:52:41Using their infrasound, they constructed barriers.
00:52:44Acoustic seals over the most volatile vents.
00:52:46Frequency walls that held the energy in check.
00:52:48But maintaining the seals required proximity.
00:52:51Each siren had to remain near their assigned vent.
00:52:53Alone.
00:52:54Cut off from the network.
00:52:55Generations passed.
00:52:56The knowledge of community faded.
00:52:58Independence became instinct.
00:53:00Solitude became identity.
00:53:01They forgot they'd ever been anything else.
00:53:05We were not made to be alone.
00:53:08We chose it.
00:53:09To save the ocean.
00:53:10But the seals are failing now.
00:53:12We need the Bridgeborn to restore what we sealed.
00:53:15But he is too young.
00:53:16We need time.
00:53:17Her pale eyes met mine.
00:53:19And time is running out.
00:53:21Opal's hand found my shoulder.
00:53:22His claws were retracted.
00:53:24But I could feel the tension in his grip.
00:53:26He'd just learned something about his own kind that he'd never known.
00:53:29That the loneliness he'd grown up with wasn't natural.
00:53:32It was inherited sacrifice.
00:53:33I covered his hand with mine.
00:53:35Said nothing.
00:53:36Some things didn't need words.
00:53:39That night I lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
00:53:41Opal was beside me.
00:53:42Finn curled between us.
00:53:43His tiny tail draped over Opal's arm.
00:53:45My son.
00:53:46Eight months old.
00:53:46Already the center of something enormous.
00:53:48You knew about the seals.
00:53:50The ocean dying.
00:53:51I felt it in the deep.
00:53:53Something wrong.
00:53:54Getting worse.
00:53:55Is that why you left?
00:53:56Partly.
00:53:57And the other part?
00:53:58He opened his eyes as I sent.
00:54:00You.
00:54:00I let that sit for a moment.
00:54:02I need to see the seals myself.
00:54:03The thermal vents.
00:54:04All of it.
00:54:05No.
00:54:06Opal.
00:54:07Too dangerous.
00:54:08The vents are unstable.
00:54:09If one ruptures while you're near it.
00:54:10If you want me to trust them with Finn's future,
00:54:12I need to understand what we're dealing with.
00:54:14I can't make decisions based on someone else's word alone.
00:54:28You trust my word.
00:54:33You're my husband.
00:54:34She's a stranger who showed up with six friends
00:54:35and told me my infant is some kind of chosen one.
00:54:38He was quiet.
00:54:39I need to see it.
00:54:40If it's as bad as she says, we need to act.
00:54:42If it's not, we need to know that too.
00:54:43More dangerous than teaching a siren to flirt?
00:54:45Fine.
00:54:46But I'm coming with you.
00:54:49The descent took hours.
00:54:51The silver siren led.
00:54:52Opal stayed pressed against my side, one hand on my waist.
00:54:55We passed through layers of darkness.
00:54:57The twilight zone.
00:54:58The midnight zone.
00:55:00Deeper, the pressure was immense.
00:55:01A year ago, it would have killed me.
00:55:03Now it felt like a heavy blanket.
00:55:06Uncomfortable, but bearable.
00:55:07Then I saw it.
00:55:09The thermal vent loomed out of the darkness like a wound in the earth.
00:55:12Superheated water billowed from the fissure,
00:55:14distorting everything around it.
00:55:15And over the vent, shimmering faintly.
00:55:17The seal.
00:55:18It was beautiful.
00:55:19A lattice of sound made visible.
00:55:21Somehow.
00:55:21Frequencies woven together so tightly, they created a physical barrier.
00:55:25I could see where it was intact, the patterns tight and regular.
00:55:29I could also see where it was failing.
00:55:30Cracks ran through the structure like fractures in glass.
00:55:33In places, raw thermal energy leaked through, scorching the water.
00:56:06The sea floor around the vent was barren.
00:56:07His arms tightened around me.
00:56:09What happens then?
00:56:10Cascading thermal eruptions along the ocean floor.
00:56:13Mass extinction event.
00:56:15Everything in this ocean dies.
00:56:16We have two years.
00:56:18We need to use them.
00:56:20I wrote for 72 hours.
00:56:22A formal proposal to the Interstellar Alliance.
00:56:25Title.
00:56:25The Lassa Deep Ocean Crisis Assessment and Proposed Siren Cooperative Intervention.
00:56:29I laid out everything.
00:56:30The thermal data.
00:56:31The failing seals.
00:56:32The siren's history as ocean guardians.
00:56:34The timeline core argument.
00:56:36Sirens are not a vulnerable species requiring human protection.
00:56:39They are the only force capable of preventing a planetary ecological collapse.
00:56:43Humanity's role is cooperation, not control.
00:56:45I attached my credentials, my published research, and every scrap of data I'd gathered in the
00:56:49deep.
00:56:49Then I sent it to my professor.
00:56:52I watched his face on the video call.
00:56:54He read it in silence.
00:56:55A long time passed.
00:56:56You know this will make you the most controversial researcher in the Alliance.
00:57:00I know.
00:57:02My published research and every scrap of data I'd gathered in the deep.
00:57:06Then I sent it to my professor.
00:57:08I watched his face on the video call.
00:57:10He read it in silence.
00:57:11A long time passed.
00:57:12You know this will make you the most controversial researcher in the Alliance.
00:57:16I know.
00:57:17Dr. Voss will come after you personally.
00:57:20I know.
00:57:22Your career could be over.
00:57:24If that ocean dies, careers won't matter much.
00:57:27He sighed, pushed his glasses up.
00:57:30Send it.
00:57:31I'll co-sign.
00:57:32The report went out that afternoon.
00:57:34By evening, my name was on every major news feed in the system.
00:57:38The Alliance response split down the middle.
00:57:40Half the member states called for immediate cooperation with the sirens.
00:57:44The other half, led by a block of military-industrial representatives, demanded caution.
00:57:50You're asking us to hand planetary defense to a species that kidnaps mates and goes feral.
00:57:54Dr. Voss said in his official rebuttal, I was invited to testify at an emergency hearing.
00:57:59Remote.
00:58:00From the research station's comm room, I sat in front of the camera.
00:58:03Behind me, through the window, you could see the ocean.
00:58:06Calm, blue.
00:58:07Hiding everything.
00:58:08I didn't use academic language.
00:58:11I want to tell you about my husband.
00:58:14I want to tell you about my husband.
00:58:16He hatched alone in the deep ocean.
00:58:18No parents.
00:58:19No family.
00:58:20No one to teach him how to speak.
00:58:22How to socialize.
00:58:23How to love.
00:58:24He survived by being stronger and faster than everything that tried to kill him.
00:58:28He grew up without knowing what loneliness was because he'd never known anything else.
00:58:34When he was still a child, he saved a drowning girl.
00:58:37A human girl.
00:58:38She was the first living thing that ever spoke to him.
00:58:41She promised she'd come back.
00:58:43She didn't.
00:58:45For over a decade, he waited on that reef.
00:58:48When he found her again, he didn't know how to say, I love you.
00:58:51He'd never heard those words.
00:58:53So he did the only thing his instincts told him.
00:58:55He kept her close.
00:58:57He fed her.
00:58:58He protected her.
00:58:59Was it frightening?
00:59:00Yes.
00:59:01Was it dangerous?
00:59:02Yes.
00:59:03But so are humans.
00:59:05We've destroyed planets.
00:59:06We've driven species to extinction across 12 star systems.
00:59:10These creatures have been protecting this ocean for thousands of years.
00:59:13Alone.
00:59:14In silence.
00:59:15Without asking for anything.
00:59:17All I'm asking is that we let them...
00:59:18The hearing was broadcast.
00:59:20Live visor ship broke every record in the Alliance's history.
00:59:23Dr. Voss didn't speak again for the rest of the session.
00:59:27The public support didn't stop Dr. Voss.
00:59:29It just changed his approach.
00:59:31My professor forwarded me an intercepted communication three days later.
00:59:35Encrypted.
00:59:35Routed through back channels.
00:59:37A scientific research vessel was being deployed to Thalassa.
00:59:39Official purpose.
00:59:40Deep ocean geological survey.
00:59:42Crew manifest included 12 marine geologists and 8 acoustic engineers.
00:59:46Unofficial purpose.
00:59:47Buried in a classified addendum my professor's contact had leaked.
00:59:50Acquisition siren acoustic frequency data for defense applications.
00:59:53The SEAL technology.
00:59:55If it could be replicated artificially...
00:59:57It wasn't just an environmental tool.
01:00:00A frequency wall that could contain volcanic eruptions could also contain explosions.
01:00:05Deflect weapons.
01:00:06Shield military installations.
01:00:07They weren't coming for the sirens.
01:00:09They were coming for the sound.
01:00:10How long until they arrive?
01:00:12Six days.
01:00:13Six days.
01:00:13I stood on the dock that evening.
01:00:15The sun was going down.
01:00:17Finn was asleep inside.
01:00:19Opal was somewhere in the shallows hunting dinner.
01:00:21Behind me.
01:00:22The research station.
01:00:23My professor.
01:00:23Lena.
01:00:24The team.
01:00:25In front of me.
01:00:26The ocean.
01:00:26Opal.
01:00:27Red.
01:00:28Seven sirens who had trusted me with their history.
01:00:30Six days wasn't much time.
01:00:31But I'd built an interspecies bridge in less.
01:00:34I didn't wait for them to arrive.
01:00:36I spent two days compiling everything.
01:00:38The siren seal data.
01:00:40The thermal vent readings.
01:00:41The full ecological timeline.
01:00:43And the leaked classified addendum detailing Voss' military objectives.
01:00:46Then I sent it everywhere.
01:00:48Simultaneously.
01:00:49Twelve member state governments.
01:00:51Forty major media outlets.
01:00:52Six independent scientific review boards.
01:00:55Everything.
01:00:55All at once.
01:00:56Nothing held back.
01:00:57If everyone knows, no one can bury it.
01:01:00He watched me hit send and let out a long breath.
01:01:04You just made yourself either the most famous or the most hated scientist alive.
01:01:10Probably both.
01:01:11You're scarier than me.
01:01:14Shut up and watch.
01:01:17Shut up and watch.
01:01:18Within hours, the feeds exploded.
01:01:20The leaked military plans drew immediate outrage.
01:01:22Three member states issued formal protests.
01:01:25Two demanded Voss' removal.
01:01:26The Ethics Commission launched an emergency investigation.
01:01:29By the time the research vessel was halfway to Palasa,
01:01:32Dr. Voss was suspended pending inquiry.
01:01:35I allowed myself one glass of wine that night.
01:01:38Opal watched me drink it.
01:01:40Is it over?
01:01:41The immediate threat.
01:01:43Not the war.
01:01:44There will always be people who want to use them.
01:01:46I know.
01:01:47That's why we build something permanent.
01:01:49Something bigger than one man's ambition.
01:01:51He took the glass from my hand and set it down.
01:01:54Pulled me into his lap.
01:01:56Later.
01:01:57Rest first.
01:01:58For once, I didn't argue.
01:02:01The Alliance convened an emergency summit.
01:02:04I received the invitation on a Tuesday.
01:02:06Not as a researcher.
01:02:07As the official liaison between the Siren species and the Interstellar Alliance.
01:02:11A title I'd never asked for.
01:02:12But apparently, when you're the only human alive who speaks Siren,
01:02:15married to one, and mother to the only known hybrid, the job finds you.
01:02:19I want Opal listed as co-representative.
01:02:21A Siren.
01:02:23At the Alliance headquarters.
01:02:24He's a legally recognized Sopian individual with full personhood status.
01:02:28He has every right to be there.
01:02:30We'll arrange accommodations.
01:02:31Opal had never left the Lhasa.
01:02:33Never left the ocean.
01:02:36The flight alone would be 12 hours in a sealed vessel.
01:02:39Surrounded by vacuum.
01:02:40That night I held him in the dark.
01:02:42Finn was asleep between us.
01:02:44One tiny hand curled around Opal's finger.
01:02:46I was scared.
01:02:47Not of the summit.
01:02:48Of taking him somewhere I couldn't protect him.
01:02:50But we made a promise.
01:02:51In the cave.
01:02:52On the dock.
01:02:53In the deep.
01:02:54Never apart.
01:02:55That was the only vow that mattered.
01:02:56Opal's arms tightened around me.
01:02:58On the shuttle.
01:02:59He sat by the viewport and watched the Lhasa shrink below us.
01:03:02The blue planet.
01:03:03All ocean.
01:03:04Disappearing into black.
01:03:05Then the stars.
01:03:06He didn't speak for a long time.
01:03:09I always knew the ocean was bottomless.
01:03:12I didn't know the sky was the same.
01:03:14I took his hand at the summit.
01:03:17Opal stood before 200 delegates in a simple dark suit.
01:03:20Human form.
01:03:20No tail.
01:03:21No claws.
01:03:22No visible threat.
01:03:23Just those green eyes and that voice.
01:03:25We are not asking for charity.
01:03:27We are offering a partnership.
01:03:30Help us repair the seals.
01:03:31And we will share what we know about the deep ocean.
01:03:34Refuse and we will do it alone.
01:03:37Either way, the ocean will be saved.
01:03:40The only question is whether you want to be part of it.
01:03:43The vote passed unanimously.