Iridescense [snippet]

[hypermoyashi]

[ Thanks to quinnlocke for coming up with the title to this for me!! Also a certain group chat on discord for being directly responsible for this. You guys know who you are. Enjoy a preview for my upcoming HOB mermaid au, guys! No warnings besides scars/past injuries for this snippet. ]

The siren’s song, a tantalizing rumor of pure bliss, of a sound unmatched by any human voice, so sweet it had enticed sailors to their deaths for centuries despite the many warnings that floated through every child’s story and old wife’s tale.

Really, the tales were exaggerated.

Mostly.

Singing was an odd passtime merfolk had grown fond of, one that made less sense the more one thought about it. They were creatures of the sea; that they had developed voices that could mimic human speech and music at all was astounding. Still, their voices were only slightly better than the average humans. What made them dangerous was when they weaved their songs into spells, more so when the voices of many created a harmony that could make a human forget every memory ever held dear and abandon it all for the call of a cold, airless death.

But even by those standards, Xie Lian thought people would have a hard time finding him dangerous. It had been a long, long time since he’d had anyone to sing with, and even longer since he’d had the will to weave anything into those notes.

He sighed as he pulled himself up onto a rock and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to unknot the shells and coral that’d gotten tangled up into it. It was a pain, but he was used to it. The cove he lived in was somewhat close to a small fishing village, so there were a good number of nets strewn over the cove. Some of them were abandoned, some lost, and some were just waiting for their owners to come back, but no matter why or how they wound up there, Xie Lian always found himself tangled up in one.

He supposed it was inevitable with his luck. It would’ve been more tolerable if not for the fact that extricating himself was never a simple matter. He always managed to worm out before starving to death, but never without suffering lacerations and burns from the rope over his skin. His scales were always fine, too thick and tough to be bothered by the nets, but his delicate tail and dorsal fins were both in sorry states. They neither looked appealing anymore nor functioned as well, their edges ragged and shredded from years of abuse.

Ah, well. That was just how things went.

Just then, a sound cut through the air, sending shivers down his spine. So unused to voices, it took him a moments to recognize, but when he did, dismay crept through him.

It was a human voice. No, it was a human scream.