Page 155 of Mama Si's Paradise

The sirens were outraged. Never before in the history of Ennaris had such a thing happened. A siren in love with a human man?

We do not play with our food,one of the sisters told her right there on the shore, as they stood naked on the rock-covered beach, Hansil Knight asleep behind Syra, and all his crewmembers half-eaten behind her sisters.

We do not fall in love,said another.

We are sirens—we eat the flesh of men.

We are sirens—it is our duty to bring power to the waters of Ennaris so that the Kingdom may flourish.

We are sirens—we do not fall in love!

But even so, Syra didn’t care. She loved Hansil, and none of her sisters were to come even close to him. He was hersand hers only.

The sisters laughed.Wait until he awakens,they said.

He’ll hate you forever.

Did you not hear his screams?

He thinks you’re a monster.

He despises you, sister.

He willneverlove you…

Even so, Syra believed.

She truly believed that once Hansil woke up and she explained everything to him, he would understand. He already loved her—she’d felt it, had seen it in his eyes. He would know that she was not a monster—he knew her heart. Heknew.

The sisters retreated into the sea when they ate the last of the crew’s flesh and only their bones remained behind. Syra stayed ashore, terrified to wake Hansil up still, and I watched her from wherever I was, walking that beach naked for hourson end, talking to herself, trying to convince herself of Hansil’s love.

I had never before seen anyone more torn, more uncomfortable in their skin than her.

Her sisters watched her from afar and they looked at one another, judged her,despisedher for going against them like that, but they were also sure that it was going to pass. That in a matter of hours, maybe days, she’d come out of it, would eat Hansil, and come back to the sea so they could swim its depths all around Ennaris in peace like they were always meant to do.

Eventually, Syra awakened Hansil to offer him food—fish and fruit, drinkable water she’d found in a witch town near the shore.

But when Hansil saw the bones of his dead crew, he raged again.

He shouted and screamed at her—You’re a monster! A filthy, flesh-eating monster!

Syra broke in a million pieces right in front of him, falling to her knees, crying. She tried to tell him about Ennaris, about the magic, about what she was, but Hansil wouldn’t hear it. He wanted to be away from her. He wanted her to either let him go or kill him the same way her sisters had killed his crew.

So, Syra had no choice but to put him to sleep again because she was not going to give up. He was her one true love, and she would fight for him with everything she had. She would not give up no matter how long it took. She would fight forever.

The days passed by in a blur in front of my eyes, in fast-forward, and it was mesmerizing to watch the sun rising and falling at such speed. Heartbreaking to see Syra, restless, walking the beach, and building a small cabin out of wood right there on the rocks for Hansil all by herself. She was preparing for yet another day of waking him up, feeding him,trying to convince him of her love—all while the other siren sisters watched from the water.

Some days, Hansil screamed harder, and some days he was quiet. Syra told him the story of Ennaris, of everything that lived in it, so many times, yet every time she tried to touch him, he would move away, disgusted.

Months must have passed, and Syra only barely went into the water of the ocean anymore. Her sisters begged her to join them every day, telling her how much weaker they were apart, trying to convince her to give up on Hansil. He was not her true love. He thought she was a monster.

But Syra refused.

Until one day, Hansil said,“Never again. If you swear to me that you and your sisters will never again harm a soul or eat flesh off a man’s bones, I will love you. I will spend the rest of my life with you. I will make you my wife.”

That night, when Syra put him to sleep, she vowed to find another way for the sirens to live—herself as well as her sisters, one that did not involve luring sailors into the water and eating them raw. She vowed to search the whole of Ennaris during the day until she had her answer, and return at night to be with Hansil while he slept.

So, the next morning, she set out to go find the witches, for their territory was closest to the shore she’d made a home on. She hoped to find a witch who knew enough magic, who knew enough history to tell her how a siren could live differently. How a siren could provide magic to Ennaris without having to eat human flesh.

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