(La Siréne, the Banshee, and Lady Shadow)
"So… you're saying you have gray skin because a curse was put on you?" Calliope asks the next day. They're sitting at the bar in The Tipsy Piano, drinking while waiting on Asmodeus.
"It's not so much a curse as it is a… magical disease. There's no fixin' it," Xena says. "One day it'll kill me and there ain't nothin' anyone can do about it. The only thing I've found so far that helps is an ointment made for me that can keep the magical necrosis at bay."
"Oh, that's awful," Nagaveni says sadly.
"You ever have a trickster try to cure it?" Dysnomi asks.
"Nah, but you're welcome to try," Xena replies.
"Alright, let's give it a shot." Dysnomi finishes his drink, stands, and walks over to her. He holds his hands out, letting swirling mists of light wash over them before curling around her skin, enveloping her in a bright cloud of light. He seems to be struggling, straining with his magic. His face turns red, and he grunts as if he's in pain.
"Dys…" Nagaveni lays a hand on his shoulder. "Don't hurt yourself, please."
"This magic-" Dysnomi replies in a strained voice. "It's strong." He lets out a pained grunt and his magic fades away, leaving Xena looking the same as she did before. "I'm sorry, I can't do it."
"Ah, it's alright," Xena says.
The door opens then, and in walks Asmodeus. He takes a look at Amarok playing the piano and sneers. "I bet you had a fun night."
"What is that supposed to mean?" Amarok asks.
"Oh, nothing," Asmodeus says. "Just that I know how fun sleeping with a siren can be. As does Dysnomi. Evidently, it's not hard to get a siren to take you to bed."
"What the fuck, 'Deus?" Calliope asks.
"Don't you fucking talk to me." The demon voice is the one that comes out this time. "I don't want to hear anything from la puta. I don't want to hear anything from el chucho over there, either."
"The fuck did you just call me?" Amarok stands, and Calliope notices his teeth and nails growing longer and sharper.
"Hey!" Zephyr calls out. "Y'all are not doing this in my bar. Either cut the shit or leave."
"Whatever… what are we doing today?" Asmodeus asks, his eyes slowly changing from black to blue, and his voice sounding normal again.
"Calliope is gonna contact her mom," Nagaveni says, standing and smoothing out her form-fitting pink plaid mini skirt.
Asmodeus notices that Nagaveni and Calliope have coordinated outfits as usual, wearing the same skirt. He notices, however, that they have different tops and shoes. While Nagaveni is wearing a loose white crop top and a pair of white open-toed heels, Calliope is wearing a long-sleeve pink shirt with no shoulders, a matching cloth choker around her neck, and a pair of black knee-high boots. Nagaveni's version of the outfit is soft and sweet, while Calliope's is commanding and seductive.
"Xena and I are going to go ask around and see what we can find out about Shango," Nagaveni continues.
"You're welcome to join us if you wanna," Xena offers, standing up and stretching.
"Yeah, that… that sounds great," he says, sparing a guilty look toward Calliope before looking at the floor, following them silently.
He glances over his shoulder at Calliope as he walks out the door, thinking,
I'm sorry, mi amor. I promise I'll get better. I know you don't owe me anything. I should never have called you names. Espero que me puedas perdonar.
That fucking hurt, 'Deus. I understand you can't control what the demon says, but it still hurt. I just need some time, she sends him.
When Xena, Nagaveni, and Asmodeus are gone, she waves Dysnomi and Amarok over to her spot at the bar. She pulls out a compact mirror that has brightly colored scales on the case–mermaid scales, if Dysnomi had to guess. Or siren scales, I suppose, he thinks.
She cocks her head to the side, surprised that she heard one of Dysnomi's thoughts. He's usually careful with who can hear them. She shakes her head and says, "That's exactly right, Dys." He and Amarok both give her a confused look. "These are siren scales," she explains. "Before we leave home—if we choose to leave home—everyone in the family adds one of their scales to it. We can use the magic in them to contact each other at any time, no matter where we are in the world. Watch," she says, opening the compact and looking into the mirror. She takes a deep breath and says, "Allow me to talk to La Siréne."
A mist swirls within the small mirror and after a few seconds, a beautiful woman appears on the other end. She seems to be underwater, and it's hard to hear what she's saying at first. Then she breaks the surface and climbs onto a rock.
When the woman speaks again, it's in a language that only Calliope seems to understand.
"What the hell kinda language is that?" Amarok asks.
"I believe that's Mermaidian," Zephyr replies. "I didn't know they still spoke it."
After a long conversation, Calliope rubs her temple and sighs, closing the compact mirror. "Well," she says, turning to the men. "Shango is my father. But I still have no idea who would want me dead because of that."
"Well, it's a start, at least," Amarok says.
"Don't worry, chere. We'll figure it out," Zephyr says, sliding a drink toward her.
"Yeah, and if we don't, the worst-case scenario is that we have to fight off some assassins now and then," Dysnomi jokes.
"The problem with that is they'll eventually find one that's more powerful than me," she replies.
"Yes, but can they find one more powerful than someone who can warp reality?" He says with an arrogant smile.
"True," she replies. "I guess that means you're my security detail from now on?"
"If it comes down to it? Hell yeah. I'm not sitting on the sidelines anymore. You're my friend, so I'm gonna fight for you."
"Thank you, Dys," she says, laying a hand on his arm. "Oh, yeah, my mother told me to tell you-" she looks pointedly at all three of the men, "Are all very handsome. She reminded me, like, five times, to tell all of you."
"Your mother seems very nice," Zephyr remarks. "I could only understand a small bit of what she was saying, but she seems to care about you, and worry about you quite a bit."
"You can speak Mermaidian?" she asks, her face beaming with excitement.
"Only small words and phrases, chere. It… is not a very common language," Zephyr replied.
"Ah, that is true." She finishes her drink and turns to look at Dysnomi and Amarok. "Well boys, it looks like we've got some time to kill while we're waiting on the others to get back. How shall we pass the time?"
"I think I'm gonna go to the piano. I've got a new song I want to try," Amarok says. "You're welcome to join, if you'd like."
"Of course," she replies, taking his hand and walking with him to the piano sitting on the stage.
Zephyr and Dysnomi stay at the bar and talk, listening to Amarok play and Calliope sing. When the song ends, Zephyr and Dysnomi clap and cheer.
Zephyr says, "Beautiful, chere. Just beautiful."
Dysnomi teases, "Nice tunes, wolf-man."
"Yeah, you wish you could play like that," Amarok retorts, laughing.
Then, he hops off the stage and holds his hand out for Calliope. She takes his hand and he helps her off the stage, being careful so that her skirt doesn't get pushed up. She smoothes her skirt when she lands on the floor, then repositions the sleeves of her shoulderless top, ensuring it doesn't slip down and become indecent.
"I sense dread-"
"Danger-"
"Something terrible is coming."
"Do not venture into the shadows."
"The shadows-"
"There's evil within."
Ember and Lyn talk over each other, attempting to warn her about something, though their voices are all jumbled in her mind and she can't tell what they're upset about. At the same moment, however, a bolt of lightning zaps through her skull, tapering off around her eyes. It hisses less than a second before dying out altogether. She gasps, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. Her body feels heavy and unwieldy now, causing her knees to weaken and fail her.
Amarok catches her when her knees give out, holding her upright, and asking her what's wrong. She doesn't seem to hear him. Her eyes are glazed over with a far-away look in them, and when she tries to tell him what the phoenix and thunderbird said, the words won't come out. She just ends up making small groaning noises.
"It's alright," Amarok says, scooping her into his arms bridal-style. "It's okay. You can come back now. You're safe." He rubs her cheek softly as she slowly begins to come back to her senses.
"What happened to her?" Dysnomi inquires, helping Amarok set her on a barstool.
"I don't know. She was fine for a minute. Then all of a sudden, there was lightning coming out her eyes and she was like this," Amarok answers.
"I'll get somethin' for her head," Zephyr says.
But as he starts to walk away, Calliope yells after him, panicking. "Wait!" she cries. "Don't go into the shadows… Don't touch the shadows… Please…"
Before he can ask her what she means, or why he shouldn't go into the shadows, an ear-splitting, otherworldly shriek resonates around them, causing them all to fall to their knees.
"What the fuck was that?!" Amarok shouts when it ends.
"No…" she says to herself, feeling sick. "That," she answers Amarok, almost hyperventilating from panic. "…was a banshee."
"Okay… Calm down… It's alright," he replies. "It may have sounded close, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's here for you."
"No… you don't understand," she cries, tears streaming down her cheeks. "There are only two reasons why you would ever hear a banshee: if you're going to be a witness to a death… or if you are going to be the death."
(Poor Unfortunate Soul)
A little over an hour later, Calliope, Dysnomi, Amarok, and Zephyr are drinking at the bar, waiting on the rest of the group to get back with the supplies they need to be able to commune with Shango. It took a while, but Calliope's gotten herself calmed down–mostly thanks to the alcohol.
She's feeling a buzz now, and it seems to her that the guys are as well. Amarok goes back to play the piano once more while she sways to the music. Meanwhile, Zephyr gets into a heated debate with Dysnomi about which trickster god/goddess is the coolest.
"Obviously, it's Loki," Dysnomi argues. "I mean, look how many modern pieces of media he's been depicted in. His name is known everywhere."
"Loki's cool and all, but it was the goddess Eris who caused the battle of Troy… and all with a single golden apple–the apple of discord," Zephyr responds.
"Oh, wow, an apple," Dysnomi says sarcastically. "Loki has a giant snake, a fuck-off sized giant wolf, and an eight-legged horse for children. And he's the mother of the horse!"
"We all know Loki's a freak. That doesn't make him special," Zephyr remarks. "Eris had the balls to throw an apple into a room with three other goddesses and tell them it belongs to the prettiest one. Do you know how brave you must be to do that to Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera? Brah, it even caused Zeus to put his foot in his mouth because he tried to get a human to settle the debate. It takes a lot of balls to knowingly annoy the king of the gods."
She's about to join their debate when—
The side door is busted down unexpectedly, fracturing the wood into tiny pieces!
She jumps, frightened, while the men are just ready to fight. A creeping darkness comes flowing into the bar–tendrils of shadows move in, almost as if they're alive. Behind them, there is someone who appears to be a female, though it's hard to tell because they're covered in shadowy tendrils. The only thing they can positively see is ebony skin, waist-length box braids, and glowing golden eyes.
"Zorya?!" Amarok exclaims, confused.
"You know this shadow woman?" Dysnomi asks.
"She's always been able to control shadows, but I've never seen her consumed by them like this," Amarok replies. "This is new."
As they speak, shadows start swirling around their ankles, tightening around each man before pulling him to the floor.
"What the fuck?!" Dysnomi yells.
Zephyr whispers a spell and a bright flash of light appears in his hand, forcing the shadows to retreat. At the same time, Amarok lets his claws and teeth grow, tearing at the shadows, causing the woman to scream–a mixture of pain and anger in the noise.
"What do you want?" Calliope asks as she pulls out her Blade of Light, and Dysnomi conjures his own to cut through the shadows.
"Calliope," Zorya answers slowly, but it isn't only her voice that comes out. It sounds more like… three, or four, people speaking in unison.
"What do you want from me?" she asks.
"It is your time to go," the shadow woman says in multiple voices. "The other side… They're callin' you." She tilts her head to the side, as if she's listening to something that no one else can hear. "Take the girl. Leave the rest," she says to the shadows swirling around her.
"Yeah, that's not gonna happen," Dysnomi says, pulling up his Blade of Light.
"Zorya, listen to what you're saying," Amarok says in a strained voice. "This isn't you. You follow Baron Samedi, right? He may be the loa of death, but he's not the one that kills. He digs graves, he takes souls to the other side, he heals, or he resurrects if I ask you to, how will he know his worth? He doesn't send his followers to murder people."
"Maybe not. But the shadow realm has been talkin' bout her. They told me that it is her time. They're in my head… all the time. They're around me… every night. This is her fate… whether it seems fair or not. I'll accept the consequences if the Baron has a problem with it." Zorya's hands shoot out in front of her as shadows crawl over her arms, leaping toward Calliope and the men. A feral growl—louder than any Calliope's ever heard before—echoes throughout the bar, and she looks over to see an eight-foot-tall wolf standing on its hind legs in the spot Amarok had been. The wolf looks at her and nods once, then leaps at the approaching shadows, tearing into them, causing all of the shadow voices to scream.
Zephyr whispers a spell into his palm, once again holding a ball of light, but the shadows learned from the first time. They dodge it by going through the dark sections of the bar, sneaking up behind him, grabbing him by his ankles, and pulling on him. This causes him to come crashing to the floor face-first. His nose hits the floor and he grunts in pain as it starts to bleed. "You will regret that," he says.
Calliope and Dysnomi hold their Blades of Light in front of them, slashing at the shadow tendrils, and watching them burn where the light touches them.
The shadows change, twisting themselves until they look more like whips than anything else. Zorya brings her hands up, palms in front of her, then brings them down hard! The whips mimic her movements, pulling back, then slamming down toward their heads. Dys jumps to his right, and Calliope rolls forward, popping back up behind the whip just in time to hear a loud—CRACK!—the sound of whips hitting open air.
"This is getting annoying," Dysnomi says as one of the whips wraps itself around his ankle, yanking him into the air. "Ugh!" He cuts himself free, hearing the screams as the tendril burns.
"Tell me about it," Amarok replies. "I don't even have magic." He's been splitting his time between dodging the shadows when they're gaseous and he can't hurt them, and viciously tearing through them when they become corporeal.
With everyone distracted, Zorya takes the opportunity to push most of the shadows toward Calliope. Some of the shadows form whips, lashing out across her body and face, while others form chains, wrapping around her ankles and wrists–holding her in place as she gets lashed. She has cuts all-over, and her new outfit is torn and bloody, making her angry. But before she can do anything, Zorya moves over to her, pulls out a silver knife, and stabs it deeply into her stomach. She knows it won't kill her, but the pain—especially when the knife is pulled out—becomes too much for her, and she screams. Her scream is piercing, causing everyone to cover their ears; even the shadows seem to vibrate with pain. As she screams, her hands and wrists become engulfed in flames, burning away her restraints–doing the same to the ones at her ankles. Zorya stumbles backwards a few steps when the restraints break, gasping as if it were her physical body that had been hurt rather than the shadows.
The next sound they hear is a thunderstorm that seemingly comes from nowhere. The thunder makes Zorya jump. She can see the shadow woman's eyes widen when lightning starts coming out of Calliope's eyes and zipping around her head, making her hair fly up in static waves. One bolt sends Zorya flying onto the floor before her powers die out and she falls to her knees, clutching the gaping wound in her stomach.
Amarok shifts back to his human self and runs over to her. He's checking out her wound when the shadow tendrils start lashing out at the group once again.
"Enough!" Dysnomi screams in that encompassing voice, holding his hands out. He whispers, "Cleanse the darkness, get rid of the shadows…" The last thing he whispers is,
"Let there be light."
A bright burst of light jumps from his hands to the shadows. The light becomes brighter and brighter, until they all have to shut their eyes against it. When it finally goes out, all that's left is Zorya… She's gasping for breath and clutching her chest. Amarok runs over to her, leaving Dysnomi with Calliope.
"What's wrong with her?" Zephyr asks, looking curiously at the young black woman with glowing golden eyes.
After checking her over, Amarok says, "I can't be sure, but… I think the shadows were corrupting her on the inside as well as the outside. Maybe even worse… She's gonna die without them."
"I… I'm sorry," the woman says, and Calliope notices the light leaving her eyes.
Silently, Calliope stands, still holding her stomach with one hand, and moves to the bar. "Pass me the best rum you've got," she tells Zephyr.
"What? Why? Chere, you need to get to a hospital," he replies.
"I don't have time to explain," she says impatiently, and he hands her a bottle, along with two glasses. "Good thing I'm badly injured, or else this wouldn't work." She pours two shots and whispers, "I offer you this rum, Baron Samedi. Please… Come and have a drink. Hear my request."
"It won't… work…" Zorya gasps between breaths. Her breathing is shallow now, and her eyes are drooping. "He hasn't seen any living person… in ages…"
(I've Got Friends on the Other Side)
"Yeah, well, I wouldn't fucking dream of passing over this fine-ass woman right here."
Calliope catches a glimpse of a black man wearing skull paint on his face. He winks at her before disappearing behind her. A pair of black hands with bone tattoos on them caress her shoulders. "And such a unique little thing, too. You're fucking joking, right? I never knew that old bastard Shango had any game. La Siréne is not an easy woman to talk to. Trust me, I've tried."
"You're telling me," Calliope laughs. "Try living with her." She takes the Baron's hands and leads him to the barstool next to her. "So… Here's the thing… I was kinda hoping I could convince you to heal Zorya–over there." She points to her.
He lets out a hearty laugh and replies in a husky voice, sending a pleasant chill down her spine. "Straight to the point… Oh, I do fucking love a woman who knows what she wants from me…" Then he asks, "Her? You don't want me to heal you? It would be a damn shame for the living world to lose such a beauty like you." He nods at the wound in her stomach.
"My body will heal itself. Hers won't be able to," she answers. "According to Amarok, Zorya has served you for years. I think she deserves another chance at life."
"Hmmm…" He gets up and walks over to Zorya, takes her hand in his, then shakes his head sadly, and walks back to the bar. "That damn shadow realm has done too much damage to her. I can't heal that myself."
"So there's nothing that can be done?" she asks, sounding miserable.
"Oh, don't give me that damn cute puppy dog look… Alright, shit. There may be one thing I can try," Baron Samedi replies. "I could… Ah, fuck. I could try to fucking… take her to the crossroads… between life and death. I've never fucking tried it before, but since she's in a sort of… in-between state at the moment… stuck somewhere between life and death… theoretically… one of three things could happen. The first outcome is that the crossroads… just fucking accept her, she stays the way she is—minus the pain, of course—and she can stay there for as long as she'd like, helping me direct the shitty amounts of foot traffic to the afterlife. The second outcome is… the crossroads realize she's not fucking dead, heals her, and sends her back up here, to the living."
"And the third outcome?" she asks.
"Third…" he says, clearing his throat. "is that the fucking crossroads realize she's supposed to be dead, kills her, and sends her to her afterlife."
"Ugh, that's way too big of a decision for us to make for her… She needs to make it for herself," she replies.
"I would normally agree there, beautiful, but she's not gonna be able to talk," Baron Samedi says.
"Maybe not out loud," she interjects. "But one of my abilities is that I can get inside people's minds. Though, I try not to unless it's necessary… and I'd say this counts." She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and mentally feels around the emotions in the room. When she's sure she's found Zorya, she calls out for her. Zorya?
Who are you? Zorya asks.
Calliope.
Oh no! I'm so sorry! Zorya cries inside her mind.
Hey, it's okay! I'll live! I just wanted to let you know your options. Baron Samedi agreed to help you… if you want him to. But it's risky, so it has to be your decision.
Zorya makes her choice after a moment, and says sorry once again. Then Calliope pulls out of her mind to tell Baron Samedi the answer.
"Well… as much as I'd fucking love to stay and find out more about your damn fascinating, gorgeous self, I gotta get her to the crossroads in-between life and death before she ends up dead. Thank you for the rum... and for the pleasure of your beautiful company, of course. Please, do feel free to call on me again any fucking time, day or night." He winks at her, smiling, and hands her a card. Then he lights a cigar and lifts Zorya into his arms, disappearing.
Calliope flips the card over when he's gone. It's not like a business card or anything that could physically help her contact him. It's just a simple tarot card, she thinks, confused. Then she hears Lyn's voice in her head, saying,
"It's not just a simple card… The Death card represents change, rebirth, possibly even the end of an important part of your life."