Page 6 of Song of Lorelei

Nireed repeated the gesture, and then extended her hand, palm facing down, and walked two fingers across the top with the other. “Hello Shorewalker,” she said. It was the siren word for someone like Lorelei, a siren raised on land, not in the sea.

While the pod of sirens Nireed belonged to did have a sung language, a pidgin of English and whatever their own spoken language had been before, it was rarely used, save to lure, seduce, and devour sailors. Or to communicate with one another on the surface when the sun was bright and blinding. Most of her ocean-born kin did not often venture up from the dark deep, staying far away from noisy engine-powered boats and ships.

But Lorelei wanted to learn it anyway.

It was difficult.

Nireed said their sung language was easier to teach below the waves than above them. She also pointed out that, because Lorelei was a shorewalker, she’d never learned to “sing” properly and much of their lessons focused on reproducing the right basic sounds. The language made Lorelei use parts of her mouth and throat in ways she never had before. It felt unnatural to her, but theoretically made more sense underwater while filtering in oxygen through her gills rather than her lungs.

Teaching their respective languages felt like trial by fire most days, but they managed, making lots of progress over the last year.

For Nireed’s English lessons, they used a grade school primer for guidance.Most of the pictures in the book were of things Nireed had never seen and had no equivalent words for like A for Apple, B for Bumble Bee, or C for Cat, but Lorelei replaced all the examples with oceanic ones. Their lessons also involved drawing, charades, and show-and-tell. Nireed was a fast learner, much faster than Lorelei. But she probably had to be, surrounded by folk her kind once considered prey, who spoke strange words and stuck her with needles.

Lorelei signed her way through the week’s vocabulary list. Whenever she made a mistake, Nireed stilled her hands and adjusted their positioning and movement. Observing them once, Lila commented that being moved around like that would drive her nuts, but Lorelei preferred the tactile method. It helped with muscle memory. And these days, her brain needed every bit of extra help it could get.

Nireed nodded along with each correct sign, a grin creeping up the sides of her mouth to reveal a wicked set of fangs. “Yer much better.”

“You’re much better,” Lorelei corrected gently. “It’s more of an ‘oar’ sound.” Nireed repeated the phrase for the sake of practice. Lorelei smiled. “So are you. You’re a faster learner than I.”

Nireed nodded, never hesitant to own her merits.

The siren could now speak conversational English and perform rudimentary reading and writing tasks. But it was more a testament to Nireed’s capabilities as a student, than Lorelei’s as a teacher. The siren’s mind was a sponge. She picked up so much between their lessons, just by listening to the scientists talk around her. Lorelei would envy her if it weren’t for the circumstances.

Lorelei’s earliest lessons with Nireed had a dual purpose—not just the basic ability to communicate, but also to get Nireed to the point where she could give informed consent to being a research subject. If she declined, Lila, her team, and the whole research institution had to let her go. Despite the questionable manner they’d gotten her back to shore with them, their pursuit of informed consent wasn’t disingenuous.

They couldn’t have predicted Nireed’s opinion on the matter. It had been quite strong.

Lorelei drifted into the memory, recalling that day.

* * *

One of Lila’s new team members had brought a set of documents for Nireed to sign and explained the concept of informed consent. Lorelei had been present for communication help, while Lila was there to observe as research lead and to be another friendly, familiar face in the room.

“Good morning, Nireed.” Lila inclined her head to the siren with respect but maintained a healthy amount of personal space. Whenever possible, Nireed preferred not to be touched. “We have a guest today. The one we talked about?”

Nireed repeated the greeting and said, “I remember.”

Normally when Lorelei saw the marine biologist at work, she wore blouses and dress slacks in vibrant jewel tones that complimented her rich brown skin and exuberant personality, but inside the mermaid lab, Lila wore a white lab coat over her clothes—that was standard lab protocol—and yet, it wasn’t the only sharp contrast Lorelei noticed. Her friend was more formal, more reserved the moment she donned it, but she’d been especially stiff through introductions that day.

An older gentleman plodded into the room after her, a dour expression on his face. In appearance, and appearance alone, he could have been a carbon copy of Doc from Back to the Future, but with grey hair instead of white, and a pair of wireframe spectacles perched on the end of his nose.

“This is Dr.—”

Lorelei didn’t catch the man’s name—Jerry, maybe? But given what followed, she didn’t feel bad about missing it either.

Without any warning, he grabbed the siren’s hand and shook it once, squeezing hard. Unnecessarily hard.

Hissing, Nireed ripped back her hand, and pushed the chair she sat in behind Lorelei. The siren wasn’t fearful. Anger burned bright in her eyes, and yet, she remained seated. It was a miracle she hadn’t slashed Lila’s colleague to pieces right then and there.

“Did we not just discuss no touching?” Lila snapped, knifing through the air with her hand.

“She’s been amongst humans for three months now,” he scoffed, and with one finger, pushed his glasses up the bridge of his greasy nose. “She ought to get used to it. You’re not doing her any favors by babying her, Dr. Branson.”

“That’s her call.” Lila’s voice dropped low, losing none of its severity. “Not yours, or mine, and for someone the board appointed to handle consent issues in this study, you’ve a concerning lack of it.”

The man grumbled nonsense, before flipping through the stack of papers attached to his clipboard, and saying, “Mea culpa. Shall we proceed?”

Despite the bumpy beginning, the siren listened carefully to the scientist’s slowly spoken words, frowning more and more. It was a tedious process. Even though Nireed was a quick learner, she was new to English, and there were a lot of unfamiliar words to go over with her.

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