Desiphent
Return of the Sirens
By: Daphne Liang
The underwater Desiphai, the Sirens, were gentle, shy, private Desiphai. Okay, fine. Maybe they would enchant some sailors so they would crash into rocks and shipwreck. And maybe the Sirens would eat the carcasses of said sailors occasionally. And, fine, they would sometimes morph into sharks and jump onto ships to either swallow sailors whole (and ocasionally drag them down into the sea to drown in a slow, bloody death). But they were still gentle. Right?
If you are reading this, please do not drop your water bottles in the sea, unless you want the Sirens throwing them back at you.
PROLOGUE: Three Months Ago
Three months ago, a group of children fell asleep under a bridge, unaware that their magical Scroll was showing them a prophecy to be interpreted in three months:
The journey to Australia may have ended
but Alaina’s faults have not been yet mended
And the farther you go the farther you’ll find
the rest of the Desiphai are not of your kind
For to the sea you must make an alliance
therefore, Multi, beware of the Sirens.
And these children will find not just themselves, but another group working together unknowingly to solve this word puzzle. Because if they don’t, the consequences will be grave.
Very grave.
Chapter One:
Scalina
If there was one thing Princess Scalina of the Sirens hated, it was plastic bottles. She was okay about other things.
But plastic water bottles? No. Just, no.
She scowled as she dug up another one from under a mangy plastic bag. Plastic. The bane of every Sirens life. It didn’t matter if it was getting tangled around you or plain being annoying, it was horrible.
Scalina picked up the dirty bottle, labeled Vitamin Water (whatever that was), and tossed it back up, up, up, until she heard the faint pop that told her it had flown through the water and hit a human on the nose.
Satisfied, she began to turn around and around until she was dizzy. Then she stopped, and in her place was a sleek young eel.
Satisfied with it’s long, smooth body, the eel flicked it’s tail in a very un-eellike way and swam off towards the west.
Scalina was a Siren. Thus, she was also a Desiphent. Except she lived underwater.
Desiphent were, simply put, interesting creatures. They could live on land (normal, boring Desiphai) or they could live underwater (amazing, unique Desiphai), but they were nothing alike.
All Desiphai could control certain natural elements (earth, fire, air, water, soul, body, animal, etc.) but the onland Desiphai were normal and could do just that. The underwater Desiphai could morph. That means they could turn into other things, which was good if you were the Hider in Hide and Seek, but bad if you were the Seeker. Another great thing about them was that they were all Multis. That meant they could control all of the elements. The Desiphai on land could be Multis too, yes, but it was very, very rare. Not for Sirens.
The Sirens were gentle, shy, private Desiphai. Okay, fine. Maybe they would enchant some sailors so they would crash into rocks and shipwreck. And maybe the Sirens would eat the carcasses of said sailors occasionally. And, fine, they would sometimes morph into sharks and jump onto ships to either swallow sailors whole (and ocasionally drag them down into the sea to drown in a slow, bloody death). But they were still gentle. Right?
The onland Desiphai were a different story. They were vile, cruel, and selfish. They (namely a certain one by the name of Alaina Silverstar) had banished the Sirens to the sea, where they were stuck for one-hundred percent of their lives. In other words, the on-land Desiphai sucked.
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Scalina swam and swam until she saw the distance lights of Downtown Atlantis up ahead. Then she stopped, and spun around until she maintained her original form, a barefoot, green skinned, blue haired teenage girl with gold eyes dressed in a seaweed gown.
Scalina walked through downtown (stopping sometimes to throw plastic bottles up at humans) , looking around through shop windows, occasionally ducking in alleyways as guards marched past. Strictly speaking, she wasn’t supposed to be downtown. It was what her sister and father, Princess Taleay and Lord Marlin, called ‘second-class’. Even worse (to them) was Atlantis Country. Scalina found it just fine. Where else could you buy sharkskin blankets and seahorse scale jewelery? Not Uptown, that’s for sure.
Lord Marlin was constantly nagging Scalina to stay in Uptown, and constantly failing in his attempts to groom Scalina into the perfect princess that Taleay was. In the end he just gave up and had Siren guards patrol Downtown and Dolphin guards patrol Country, with orders to send Scalina back to the palace if they saw her there. He had also positioned guards outside Scalina’s chambers. But Scalina just left via window instead.
Now as Scalina watched the Sirens march around Downtown, she scowled. Stupid, stupid guards! Why did they care whether or not she visited downtown? She knew it was only her father threats of disembowelment that kept them marching around. But she knew that they wouldn’t care if she skipped jauntily into the men’s porta-potty.
Of course, she would soon be away from all of that. . .
Chapter Two:
Anti-Gill
Scalina quietly tiptoed to a large pile of trash that consisted of quite a bit of plastic. It took all of her will not to throw the garbage up at the polluting humans.
Wrinkling her nose, she thrust her hand into the pile and felt around underneath the plastic until she found a coral ring. She tugged it, and a small hole opened next the trash.
Holding her breath, Scalina hopped into the hole.
She was immediately met with a strangely sickening swirling sensation as she fell into a whirlpool.
Said whirlpool whirled Scalina around and around for about three minutes before depositing her in a cavernous cavern.
Scalina stood up shakily and walked towards two huge, rusted iron doors and knocked.
“Password?” a deep, echoing voice rang through the chamber.
“Anti-Gill,” replied Scalina.
“Correct.” the doors swung open and Scalina stepped into a marble temple full of water.
Scalina stretched and lay down on a seaweed hammock. “I know you’re there Taleay. Not as much as a good girl as you thought, eh?”
Two red eyes suddenly appeared against the snow-white marble wall. A figure drifted away from the wall. “How did you know I was there?”
“Puh-lease.” Scalina leapt off the hammock and swam upward to a marble shelf near the roof of the chamber. “It’s easy to know when an albino Siren’s pressed against a white wall when you know there’s such thing as an albino Siren.”
Taleay sat down on the hammock Scalina had just leapt up from. She looked identical to her sister, except that she had a shark’s tail instead of legs and was pure white. So white, in fact, that she slightly resembled a patch of freshly fallen snow. Except for her eyes, which were red. “I don’t want to do this, Scalina. This is illegal. This is,” she glanced around nervously. “This is rebelling.”
“You noticed?” Scalina was shifting through a mess of bottles and flasks and tubes on the shelf, looking for the stone cauldron.
“Yes, I noticed.” Taleay was now pacing around the room -- well, as much as you can pace with a tail for legs. And it’s dangerous. Don’t you remember the lecture we got from Father when you were three?”
“When I was three? Taleay, I’m two hundred and six. I can’t remember stuff from two hundred and three years ago. And I don’t think a four hundred and twelve year old should remember stuff from four hundred and nine years ago.”
“Still.” Taleay had leaned back against the wall. “Rebelling is illegal. And Anti-Gill is illegal as well. You of all Sirens should know that. You’re the best potion brewer in the sea!”
“While I thank you for your praise, I just can’t stay here any longer. Did you see what Mar’s doing to those shark farmers in the Country? Never mind,” she said, cutting of Taleay, was was about to say something. “You’ve never been there. The point is, the sea is awful. I can’t stay here anymore.”
“Neither can we.” two new Sirens came in through the door.
The one on the left had a long, deep blue, seahorse tail and skin. Her eyes flashed a bright orange and her hair was in a short, purple pixie cut. The one on the right had legs and skin that were cherry red, and hair that was greyer than mist. Her eyes were thin and white, almost as white as Taleay’s skin.
“Drana, Satinay.” Taleay inclined her head to the newcomers.
“Heya.” Satinay (the blue one) swam up to Scalina, who had come down with a midnight-black cauldron, with smoke bubbling out of it.
“Is it ready?” Drana (the red one) looked down into the cauldron (Which was pretty pointless, considering that she could only see the white mist that was bubbling out of it).
“Not yet, no.” Scalina sighed. “But it will be ready tomorrow.” she placed the mixing stick on the marble ground. “We need one more ingredient. A bit of human.”
“I can do that.” Drana piped up. “There’s an old shipwreck near an iceberg. Accident, or something. It has plenty of skeletons there. I can break of a toe, or something.” she winced, disgusted at her own words.
“All right. Then you can bring it back and add it to the Anti-Gill.” Scalina stood up, yanked out some of her hair and tossed it onto the brew, which sparked and began to stop spewing smoke so much. “Taleay and I need to get back to the palace.”
Taleay nodded.
“All right. And once I add the bones, I’ll stay and mix it around.” Drana made as if to get up, but found her legs were stuck to each other.
“You can’t just mix it around, Drana.” Satinay scolded as Drana unstuck herself. “Five times counterclockwise, add a bit of bone. Five times clockwise, add a bit of bone. Keep doing that until it stops spewing mist and turns a nice teal colour.”
“Gotcha.” Drana stood up. “I’ll go grab the bone tomorrow, shall I?”
Scalina nodded, and the little group went their separate ways.
Chapter Three:
Undecided Fates
Scalina and Taleay swam/walked towards Atlantis Uptown, where the palace was located in an awkward silence.
When they reached the palace, they stopped short.
“Well, later.” Scalina swam awkwardly towards the west wing, where her chambers were located.
“Yeah.”
Taleay watched until her sister had crawled into her room via window, and swam towards the throne room for her daily meeting with Lord Mar.
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The throne room wasn’t actually a room. It was better described as an extremely long hall with numerous doors on either side and a giant rock at the end.
Taleay approached the throne cautiously, and placed her hand on a silvery globe hovering over it. “Princess Taleay to Lord Marlin.”
A grey mist filled the globe, and a figure appeared. Even though she had seen her father over a million times before, she still had to stifle a scream.
Lord Marlin had the face of someone who might have once been handsome. But it looked like it had been through a blender, repeatedly slashed by knives, and burnt by fire. His hair was matted and bloody, and one of his ears looked like it had been chewed by a shark and sat on by a humpback whale. His eyes were wild and glassy. And his body was just plain wrong.
Where the torso might of been, there was a sea urchin (that greatly resembled a shark victim); where his legs should have been, there were two golden strands of seaweed (with numerous teeth marks on it); where his butt would have been, there was the back of a humongous Chinese dragon (that looked a sponge that a butcher had used to wipe up his cutting board); and as for his arms. . . simply put, they were a diaster.. And his body was made up of multicolored strands of smoke, so it looked like he was going to break apart into a billion pieces of Marlin particles.
“Taleay.” Marlin’s voice sounded like one that belonged a person who was drunk on acid. He held out his arms, “My dear girl, how are you?”
“Fine, father.” Taleay brushed a stray strand of hair that had escaped from her tall (and extremely uncomfortable) hairdo behind her ear. “You?”
“Ah,” Marlin flexed his fingers (which resembled bits of sliced up raw bacon), “In pain. Made of mist. Trapped in this crystal ball. But healing.” Marlin smiled up at his daughter; and even as Taleay watched, slowly but surely, one of his many cuts began to crust over into a scab.
“When will you gather up enough strength to escape?” Taleay asked, biting her lip.
“As soon as that disgrace of a daughter, that fool Scalina, is out of the sea.” Marlin smiled slyly. “Then that spell she put on this glassy prison will die, and I will be able to shatter the protective spells that human Queen cast. And then I will be free!”
Taleay gulped.
“And of course, then I will need a body.” Marlin looked Taleay up and down. “And you know that I always prefer royal blood.”
“What? No!” Taleay jumped back (well, as much as you can jump when your butt is a shark’s tail). “You can’t possibly consider inhabiting me?”
“You should be honoured!” Marlin snarled. “I need an anchor!”
“No!”
Marlin seemed to deflate. He sank down and buried his head in his bacony hands “I’m sorry, daughter. I don’t know what came over me. I just. . .” he shook his head. “I’m sorry.” he straightened. “Accept this as a physical apology.” he held out his hand, and a necklace appeared. It was coral and stone, with a red ruby set in the centre. That surprised Taleay the most, as her father normally hated human jewels.
“I -- father -- thank you -- I mean,” she cleared her throat. “I accept your apology.”
Marlin smiled, “Good choice,” and clicked his fingers.
The necklace vanished and appeared in Taleay’s hands, glowing with a ghostly light.
“Until next time.” Marlin evaporated.
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Taleay sat down in her sleeping bowl and turned the necklace around in her hands. She felt something on the inside and turned it inside out.
She gasped. Inlaid within the coral were words. Symbols. Hieroglyphs. And Chinese characters.
Taleay was shocked. It was normally her sister who used illegal magic, such as Egyptian and Chinese spells. But their father? . . . Taleay shook her head, mistified. Perhaps her father had a rebellious streak in him, just like Scalina.
She tried reading the words, but she wasn’t as good as Scalina. Something about bind and soul.
She clasped the necklace around her neck and instantly she was in the centre of a whirlpool. She let out a scream that went unheard. The necklace glowed white hot as the hieroglyphs and characters melted into Taleay’s skin.
Then, just as suddenly as it had come, the whirlpool vanished and the necklace returned to room temperature. Princess Taleay collapsed into her sleeping bowl, the hieroglyphs and characters tattooed onto her neck, cold and still as death.
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Deep within his prison, Lord Marlin felt a new surge of power and, for the first time ever, solidified without being invoked by his daughter. And, as he began to turn into flesh and blood, he let out a bone chilling laugh.
Chapter Four:
History
Drana sat in her cold little cave, fingering the fringe on her dress.
Drana hated the cave.
Drana’s mother, a beautiful Siren that was near identical to Drana, had tried her best to turn the abandoned cave into a proper home, and that had cost her more than just her freedom.
In an effort to make Drana feel comfortable, she had painted the wall of her little sleeping area a soft blue -- Drana’s favorite color. She had also filled Drana’s tiny sleeping bowl with soft blankets, warm sharkskins, and numerous pillows, so that Drana could sleep with comfort.
Drana had lived with ignorance for the first eight years of her life. She never knew that when she was at school, her mother was in the Country, performing hard farm labor to pay for Drana’s toys and food. She never knew that after her mother had tucked Drana in, she would wait until Drana was asleep and crept out quietly to work in the palace kitchens to pay of Drana’s school tution.
One day, when she was nine, Drana had come home from school early, as a whale had accidentaly sat on the schoolhouse. She expected to see her mother sitting at the kitchen table, talking with her friends, as she had told Drana she did everyday.
But the cave was empty.
Drana searched the cave inside and out, until she finally concluded her mother was not there.
She then searched all of Downtown, and even managed to slip into Uptown to look for her mother in the mall her mother had told her she owned. But Drana found that no such mall existed, and had tore out of Downtown, screaming, in a panic, much to the shock of the guard who was on duty.
Drana finally, grudgingly, entered the Country, thinking that her beautiful mother wouldn’t be caught dead in the Country, but was met with a suprise when she saw her mother pulling a plow at the biggest farm.
Drana had screamed. Her mother had tried to calm her, but Drana wouldn’t listen. Her mother had finally admitted to being a farm labourer during the day and a Palace kitchen worker at night.
Distraught, Drana had ran home and packed a few things in a rucksack -- some clothes, a bow and quiver, a knife, a blanket, some food, and a compass. Then she had turned around and marched out of the cave.
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Drana spent the next two hundred years on her own, cutting her hair and selling seaweed as a boy. She had been perfectly happy and content until she received the news.
Her mother was dead.
After Drana had left, her mother had apparently been driven mad with grief and left her jobs. She had wandered the seas, wild and insane. Then, apparently, one day, she had been walking around a shark’s den, crazy and confused. She had upset a shark. And then, in a single chomp, well, she entered the shark’s digestive system.
When Drana had received the news, she had been shocked. Not because her mother was dead, but because of how she died. The sharks all had strict orders to never ever eat a living Siren. Humans, fine, but Sirens, no. Another reason Drana had been shocked was because her mother had been a very powerful Desiphent. She had especially specialized in the animal category, and had convinced many a shark to take her on a ride. But to be eaten by a shark, even when she was crazy. . . That was just unheard of.
Drana hadn’t attended the memorial, but when a runner had (finally) caught up to her and told her that she had to move back into the cave, Drana was forced to move back into the cave.
Now, as she lay back in her sleeping bowl and stared up at the ceiling, remembering her mother, Drana sighed. Shed couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come.
Chapter Five:
Jitters
Satinay woke up, feeling like a hand was squeezing her guts. She swam over to a barrel full of fish liver, grabbed a handful, and swallowed it.
Even liver, her favorite food couldn’t make her stop feeling jittery.
She glanced at her clock and swam out the door, heading for Uptown.
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Drana sat at the old stone table in her cave, twisting the fringe on her gown. She had a plate of salmon eggs in front of her, but she couldn’t eat. She swam outside and checked the sundial. Half past seven.
With thirty minutes to spare, she swam over to the shipwreck, and plucked off a chunk of some humans’ skull. Trying hard not to vomit, she raced off towards the Anit-Gill den.
It was nearly ready.
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Scalina and Taleay sat at opposite ends of the twenty-foot-long table in the dining hall. Warriors and guards ate undersea delicacies with reckless care around them, so it was easy for Scalina to glance at Taleay once in awhile without being noticed.
Scalina glanced at Taleay for the sixth time in five minutes and frowned. There was something different about her sister; her regal posture was gone, along with her serious expression and severe looks. Instead, she was staring blankly into space; and every now and then, she shuddered and cracked a crazy grin, which would disappear as suddenly as it had come.
Scalina frowned. She would have to look into this.
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Taleay was fighting a losing battle.
Her entire body was in pain, and there was something -- a creature -- that had invaded her mind, twisting her thoughts and actions, making her do things she did not want to do. And she had a pretty good idea of who the creature was.
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Through his daughter’s eyes, Marlin saw Scalina stand up and nod at Taleay. He forced her up and made her follow her.
His plan was working.
More Coming Soon!
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