"Ugh..."
"Awake now oaf?" I heard a familiar voice the moment I woke up. It was a voice with an indifferent tone.
I let out a groan again, "Augh...".
My head is spinning and my vision is blurry before it came to focus.
Sai was leaning against a pillar of stone.
"What happened?" I asked while massaging my throbbing head.
He looked at me straight in the eyes before answering.
"You blacked out. Because you're a weak ass fish."
Choosing peace over violence, I nodded my head and waited a bit more for him to continue.
I made it a priority to inspect how I'm feeling while imagining him carrying me to safety in his shoulder like a sack of sand.
'Wow, I was such a baggage huh?' I thought.
I shifted my gaze at Sai. I waited patiently for his answer but none came out.
He lifted his head and stared at the blank sea, feeling the tranquility of the ocean's breeze; He looks like he was deep in thought.
'I wonder what happened at the night bazaar after I blacked out.'
'Come to think of it, I'm no longer bloody nor do I smell rust.'
"If you're curious about what happened earlier, don't. Those stupid bastards are just acting out. They should be grateful they aren't dead yet."
I gave him a look, "Weren't you the one who stole from them?"
He sighed. "No. What do you take me for, are you also dumb?"
I stared at him for a long time. A really long time. He rolled his eyes and looked through me.
"I was only planning on borrowing the heart of the night. Not exactly steal it. But someone beat me to it."
He sounded so frustrated, "But you said that this island only shows itself at midnight of full moons?" It was strange, unless the heart was already missing prior to tonight. That would also explain why the villagers are already out for blood. They seem rather prepared for him.
"Well, I was only one of the three beings aware of the location of this island. The other one cannot be suspected because he is technically tied down to his work, and the other is...damn worshipped by those bastards."
"Who are they? Seems like your reputation has reach rock bottom" I teased
He clicked his tongue at me and his hand, "See, I'm too great of a mage, so people can be blinded by my greatness."
I sat on the sands, I've decided to just relax and perhaps listen to Sai if he had anymore to say.
True to my expectations, I could see him staring at abyss as he mumbled to himself.
"I picked this island because it was safer and beautiful, I thought you'd like it. But those flies ruined it." He turned his head to me, his face visibly upset like a child.
I felt touched and warm, I was about to give him a small smile of appreciation when he spoke again.
"I was planning on making you help out with my mission. I had no idea, someone stole from them too." What a terrible mindset, Mr. Mage.
I gave him a disapproving look before sighing.
wsshhhhh~~ 'This trip has become complicated.'
Wondering whay Sai wanted the stolen heart, I looked at the moon peeking at the shore, while choosing to wait for him to tell me.
There was a peaceful silence between us before Sai dropped a dynamite on me.
"I burned the town," he said.
'...What?
Excuse me, WHAT?!'
I chuckled while scratching my ear.
"I'm sorry. I think I heard something weird just now, like you burning the town or something."
Swish, swish~sssswssh.
The crashing waves solemnly sang the night while Sai turned mute.
'What the heck? Dude, spill!'
"Don't look at me like that. You look stupid."
He shrugged. "They escaped anyway. I couldn't chase them because of you. But they teleported away once I've gone berserk after my fish for brain sister fainted."
"...I was wondering how extreme you'd be...but seriously,-"
'He's mental', I thought.
But I closed my mouth shut. I was the reason after all.... I was just glad to know that he wasn't the type to leave a fainted mermaid alone.
I'm a bit worried for the villager though, is it okay for them to lose their home just like that? Just as I was having these thought, Sai explained to me.
"They'll be back at the village soon. They can't leave this island anyway."
I stopped moving, "What do you mean?"
He just shrugged. I bit my lip. He doesn't want to answer. I waited but no answer left his mouth.
Haaa.
Sighing, I tried to straighten up my legs and stared at them instead.
We were just silent for a whole moment. The waves crashing on the shore and dawn almost passing by.
Sai was silent before he opened his mouth, only to close it again.
He did that back and fourth that he looked hesitant to say something.
'What's wrong with this absurd guy? He is acting weird.'
He sighed before finally facing me. I subconsciously gulped.
"Are you bored?" Sai.
'No, not really...' I answered mentally. I stared at him dejected, so he gets my cue.
"Yes. You're bored. So let me tell you a story." He nonchalantly refused my indirect refusal.
He looked back at the sea.
His blue eyes was deeply staring at the horizon, as he parted his lips. "There was once a stormy night. Rain falling and thunderstorms growling in the middle of the sea..." He then looked at me directly.
He didn't move his eyes at all.
'Why is he telling me a story now?'
I was puzzled but before I could even ask what he is talking about, he cut me off midway.
"Wh--"
"It was the times of War. The Warian Era where races fought each other to death while seeking dominance over the other. And in the middle of one bloody night, Mages, Mermaids and Pirates-- fought to death."
He wet his lips and proceeded to tell the tale.
"Pirates were at a disadvantage...but they managed to sink magicians and kill mermaids through their pirate ships' cannon and great navigation. They blasted everything. Mermaids propelled in the waves, sank ships and bloodied the ocean with their great submerge strength, and lulled pirates with the heavenly voices...
...and the mages, they were the first to cast magic for defense and attack. Of course they were the first to run out of mana. They casted spells and magic one after another, but because they were stranded and because they didn't expected to be caught on the battle between the pirates and mermaids, their numbers were lacking;
30 mages fought with their life on the line, only five remained alive in front of the hoards of mermaids on the right side and hundreds of pirate ship on the other."
'The mages were caught in the middle...' I tilted my head.
"How did the mages get caught up in the battle?"
Sai shrugged, "They were simply tricked by scheming pirates, and the dumb mages and witches was provoked to death."
'Why is he telling me this?'
Thump, thump, thump.
My heart was beating in anticipation for some odd reasons.
"Why...why are you telling me this?"
He smiled bitterly but his eyes were full of confusion himself, he shrugged again,
"You asked me before didn't you? You asked me who I am and who you are."
'It can't be...' Is he telling me...
"F-Father and Mother...don't tell me...did they ?"
"Our parents met in that bloody war. Mother was dying when she fell off the ship. She was about to be struck by a Pirate's spear when she desperately cried and asked for fath--your father's help. She pleaded and pleaded until the merman submerged to water and engulf the fallen witch..."
I gasped. I covered my mouth from gasping for air.
I have never heard the story underneath my birth.
"Your Father hid her in a dark underground cave. He left the war and stealthily escaped to save Mother. Pff"
Sai laughed but he still continued. I noticed how he refused to address Father, as 'Father'.
"To be honest, Mother said she used enchantment to charm your the merman, so he would fall for her and save her. But I doubt that was the reason he saved her."
I interjected, "Then why do you think did Father save her?"
He mocked me with his smirk and beamed, "Mother is gorgeous with or without enchantment. He would fall for her no matter what."
I chuckled at his response.
"Anyway, he left her in the cave and came back to the war. When he came back after the war, he treated her wounds and took care of her."
I just smiled. I knew Father was a gentle kind of merman.
Sai stopped talking, he was now playing with the sands.
"Who won the war?" I inquired, but he brushed me off, "Who knows? Mother was in the cave during the war and I didn't know the results either."
Mom...I have a mother...and she's...a mage..
"They met each other more often after that war and mother had us."
Sai stopped and clenched his shaking hands. He shook all emotions evident in his eyes and stared a me with shallow and empty eyes now,
"Mermaid and humans can't have children. They can't be together. Too much restraints on attributes, race and power will collide inside the woman, the bearer of the child could die as she exhaust her mana to keep the life forces inside her body from colliding."
He continued, "Mermaids and Mages are pretty much incompatible. That's why pushing for our births are basically suicide." Sai said that too directly without stopping that it shocked me.
Magic and nature looks similar but they are different. As mages uses the mana from nature, mermaids rely on their body to adapt and use nature, the water. They do coexist, but they never mix in.
"A mage is born with heavy mana and that mana is stored in a core in the heart, mermaids does not. Mermaids have nothing to store mana with because they don't use mana, what they are born with, is a body for water, with voices that bewitches people... " Sai traced, I continued for him.
I nodded, "Yeah. And if a child is born out of the two, as the rule of this world, the dominating traits of each race will be passed down to their descendants... So if the mages' dominating trait is being born with mana, then for the mermaids, it's their amazing build. In order words, a child of a mermaid with mana...."
He laughed a bit. "A child with mana who inherited the build of a mermaid have no mana core to store magic. They would explode and die."
Emotions overflowed from my shaking eyes to my weak knees, in contrast, Sai stood like stone, unmoving, emotionless and empty.
"But were alive." I stated.
"Because she isn't any ordinary mage." He sighed.
"She was an amazing woman who earned her title as a high grade mage. So she found a way...to keep us alive. Instead of killing us off, she willingly gave away her mana to her unborn children to increase even tiniest possibility of us surviving. It took her everything though, everything."
That's strange. "What do you mean she gave us mana? I have no mana."
He smiled warmly at me without answering. It was a warm but sad smile.
If one would look directly at his eyes, they'll find themselves lost at its depth. His eyes looked like the sea that sinks beyond measure, filled with darkness and loneliness. Just looking made me sad.
'It's depressing...'
My face started to contort.
He is stoic and seemed unreachable.
"She gave us all of her. Everything. Without mana and inadequate lifeforce left, she perished..."
Anger? Disappointment? Astonishment? Denial? Regret? or even burden? None were evident in his deep eyes.
"When she gave birth, she gave birth to twins...one with tail, one with legs. What she give births to, was a miracle. We are the first miracle during that Era."
He glanced at me. "And there are only two miracles known during that time."