She stood at the edge of the quiet water and cut her middle finger. The drop of blood shone bronze from the copper running through her veins. She flicked her finger and the drop flew slowly through the air and hit the blue sea. She watched as it expanded outward, growing, picking up speed and overtaking the water. It did as she commanded: it choked the life out of everything it touched. A few fish rose to the surface, dead.
“I’m sorry, Gaia,” she said, staring at the water. She held back her tears as best she could but was instantly stricken with regret for having hurt innocent life with her revenge. As she looked down, one tear escaped her eye. She tried to catch it, knowing the irreversible effect it would have, but it slipped past her outstretched fingers. She watched the tear land softly on the wave, like a feather, and then fall into the water.
Her blood was one thing; it only stretched so far. Her tears were a different story. They were far more potent than her blood—one drop was enough to make the whole planet’s water supply undrinkable.
Down her tear fell into the sea, saturating the water with salt. It was a curse she hadn’t planned on.
Skylar sat in shock. She had always held Vivienne in the highest regard, although she hardly knew her. It seemed the Great Mother of Water stayed hidden for a reason. These Mothers, who wielded such power, were fallible and susceptible to the pitfalls of love, just like the human race. She thought of Beatrice and her convoluted relationship with Arthur. For the past two years, she had let the Mothers mold her and had accepted them as her mentors, yet she’d lost sight of her greatest authority: herself.
“Others will always disappoint you somewhere on your timeline,” she heard Magda’s voice say. “It is inevitable.”
Skylar opened her eyes but didn’t see her.
A heavily jeweled mirror on the wall by the door called her attention. She got out of the chair and walked to it. She saw her current appearance reflecting back for just a moment. Then the mirror showed her who she’d been in the First Age. Her eyes widened. She was Magda.
The goddess smiled back at her. “The mermaid’s mirror shows us our true selves, under the shell over our hearts. You see yourself here in all your own glory, your own capabilities, your own wisdom. I am so pleased.”
Skylar let out a laugh, incredulous.
“Would you have believed your own voice in the beginning?” Magda asked. “You needed the appearance of authority. Now you know in your heart and mind and belly that you are your own authority. Only through experience could this become true for you … that I am you. How powerful you really are. All your journeys have led you here to this moment of truth, of embracing the wisdom within.”
“What wisdom is that, Magda?” Skylar asked the mirror.
“We all must go through our own journey to discover we were enough all along. There is no becoming, we already are all that is. Your job is to simply be you. Having the experience, no matter the outcome, is fulfilling your purpose.”
Skylar knew in her heart that Magda’s words were true. And she accepted that her own words were true. She smiled and turned away from the mirror. She walked to the other side of the room and looked out the big window to the busyness below.
“Magda, I remember why there are no women here,” she said, watching the men go about their tasks outside. “He banished me … you … us to the ethers. I was no longer in human form, but I was too powerful to be destroyed completely. So I lived on just beyond the realm of humanity. The rest of the women here were not so fortunate. They were cursed.” The imagery ran through Skylar’s mind like movie film. She wished she could stop it but she couldn’t.
A team of men harpooned and slaughtered vast amounts of giant fish in the very tanks of the Great Hall. In the darkness of night, they entered the living quarters where the women were staying and rounded them up with force. Some died in the fight along the way. Those that survived were dragged and thrown into the great tanks where the fish had been slaughtered. Their whole bodies were submerged in the blood and flesh of the fish. Magus stood atop a platform, wielding great light with his hands, and struck the tanks with a wave of dark energy. The women were paralyzed from the waist down, all frozen in fear.
Skylar whirled around and looked at Magda in the mirror. “Soon after, the women grew their tails.” She covered her mouth in horror, her eyes shining with the memory. “Their beauty emerged out of something so horrible. He could remove their influence from the land, but not the sea. Their rebellion was to retain their beauty and their voices and mesmerize the men of generations to come. They became mermaids.”
“Yes,” Magda said. “The myths portray them as vixens, bent on ruining men. This is not entirely untrue, but now you see the origin of their plight. Women were cursed for having heart, for being true to their humanness, for caring about those that walk the planet in the future. Magus wanted power and didn’t care that he was channeling it from dark entities he had no business conjuring.”
Skylar was aghast. The mermaids in the tanks were his creations, by the darkest means.
Her memory grew fuzzy. “All women of the age were turned into sea maids?” she asked, hoping to come to her own answer.
“A few escaped—those who had men in the secret circle who knew of the plan and cared for their safety. They fled to other parts of the globe. Most landed in Egypt. It wasn’t long before Magus’s plan imploded and the volcanoes erupted, turning all the land red. The time of the First Age was over.”
“Men?” Skylar asked, seeing strong mermen with beards and long hair swimming with the females.
“Those that couldn’t leave chose to stay with their women, and become sea dwellers. Once they made their choice, Magus cast them out anyway. Very few are left in your current time. But the impending Golden Age is for their evolution as well. As the vibration of your planet increases, the merpeople will be finally set free from the curse that has imprisoned them for millennia, and they will return to their rightful place in the stars.”
Skylar looked back out the window below. All the buildings were white, luminescent, shining like a crystal city. They were the epitome of beauty except that everything seemed hollow, unreal, lacking heart. The men walking below all wore familiar gray uniforms. She saw one white lion walking among them.
In the distance, she saw a cathedral.
“Is this part of the Underworld?” she asked herself aloud, letting the surroundings sink in. “This doesn’t feel right.” The familiar silver and gold rivers ran through the open courtyard. A holographic image of a beautiful woman appeared by the Lethe. She scooped up the silver liquid in her hand and took a sip. The image disappeared and the woman appeared again at the great fountain farther down the pathway. It was beautiful, iridescent water cascading down multiple levels of ceramic tiles embedded with white stones.
Magda spoke. “The Mnemosyne is the predominant river in the Underworld. Those there choose to remember, to confront the past, forgive and move forward. Here, the Lethe is the drink of choice. Here, the rulers prefer to forget, deny, and hide their wrongdoings, cultivating an underlying shame that hangs in the ethers.”
Skylar watched the image as the fountain’s water slowly ran dry.
“It has sat dry for thirteen thousand years,” Magda said.