Sirens of Sorrow

“Many years ago there was a great famine. A blight upon the world when people tried to bend huge swaths of land to the will of their hands without thoughts on how the land was growing ever more sickly.” Elder Sandweaver paused in her telling as a mother left to console her agitated child. Shoredreamer had witnessed this story countless times told by countless others but the grace in which Sandweaver's hands moved and the expressions on her face were so visceral that she never failed to enthral her audience.

“Firstdelver was lost, afraid and without hope as she looked upon her starving family and the dead land before her. The dry world had little respect for women, as they did the Earth, and so her husband blamed her for the barren land. He claimed her obsession with The Mother, or as they once called her ‘Mother Nature’, had driven his divine God from the land and left them to starve. When the last month of the growing season passed and no crops were ripe in the soil she begged The Mother for help to keep her husband and son safe from the hunger winter would bring. The men caught her in worship of the Earth and were enraged, her son driven to hateful thoughts by his fathers example and they both set to punish her in an attempt to please their God. They dragged her into the woods by their property, walking for hours in the chilled air and light dusting of snow. They left her there, in the dirt, too cowardly to kill her with their own hands but too bitter to let her remain alive; for surely they knew that in the harsh wild a delicate woman would be taken by cold, or hunger, or beast.” Sandweaver paused again but for the sake of the story this time and Shoredreamer took the opportunity to glance around at those that had gathered. Every pair of eyes were trained on her movements, the delicate drift of her fingers as they drew the story in perfect detail through the space before her. The young ones were eager to learn the story from her for the first time.

“Firstdelver was terrified, near frozen, half-starved and her heart was enraged. For three days she wandered and every day she came across a wide pond near the base of a mountain. Every day she drank from it and thanked the mother for giving her the water. On the last day she sat on the shore, staring across the flat silvery expanse until the sun turned the sky and water a deep orange. On that third day she wept the last of her rage, the last of her tears, into the water and with her body empty she waded into the near frozen pond and called out to the mother. 'Take me, take me into your heart, take my soul as payment and share my love for you with everyone who has found themselves as lost as me. Take me so the others may never be so broken again.’ And with her words spoken she sank below the surface, a sacrifice to the hopeless. Firstdelver knew she would die, she knew water would fill her lungs, her body, and she would breathe no more. She knew and she embraced it. The water was icy, frosted at the edges, and her mind screamed with the need to breathe but still she sank deeper. She released her last breath in a stream or bubbles, closed her eyes and filled her chest with water. She felt pain for a brief moment before the cold took hold of her and the darkness followed."

There was sorrow in the audience now, a moment of grief for Firstdelver and the pain she had suffered. Sandweavers' movements became languid, drawing out the next stage of the tale.

'"Only the Mother knows what transpired and how much time had passed but eventually Firstdelver opened her eyes. Initially she panicked, uncertain what fate she now faced but after a time she calmed and began to understand. She was still below the water but the pain was gone. She felt the warm embrace of the Mother, felt her lungs still filled with water but they no longer burned. The Mother had taken her first life and returned her anew. Firstdelver knew that she had been returned to fulfil a purpose, to enable the promise she had asked for. She was here to spread her love to others who were lost. At first she knew not how she would help the others, only that she must, so she asked the mother for courage and returned to shore. She was violently ill as the water exited her body but found that she could breathe again. The air felt thick and her skin felt heavy as she moved. She didn't venture far, afraid that her first death and rebirth had tethered her to the water, and she was right.

The first day was easy, the second much worse and by the third she felt like stone; heavy, and breathless, and her bones ached. She delved back under the water and explored for a time before venturing out again. The second time she wandered the forest a while and found another woman, beaten and afraid, wandering the frozen landscape in search of food. Firstdelver brought her back to the pond and sang to her from the safety of the water. She guarded the woman while she waited, instinct telling her she must wait three days before she could accept the Mothers embrace. Firstdelver was afraid for the woman, she was so close to death that she was uncertain she would make it, but she showed her strength was true so on the third day Firstdelver made another prayer to the Mother…" Sandweaver paused knowing that many who were present would join her in the prayer.

"...'Mother, take this body into your heart so they may know your love and suffer no more.' And then Firstdelver like the woman below the surface and embraced her through first death, praying all the while for her rebirth.

Hopegiver awoke and was gifted her new name, embracing her new life with Firstdelver. They wandered the woods many times that first month, singing as they went and returning with the lost and broken. Some of the women were taken into the final embrace of the Mother to rest peacefully, but most joined them in the pond they came to call Serenity.

Not all was full of joy, as the sickness of the land had tainted the minds and broken the hearts of many. The souls of men were poisoned and they were terrified of "The Forest of Fears" as they began to call it, believing a witch hid within and was stealing away their women. One journey, Firstdelver had wandered farther than usual to help a woman who was being kept from the forest by her enraged husband who was using her to try and lure out the witch of their nightmares. Firstdelver found her, freed her and was leading her back to Serenity during her second day on land. At sunset on the second day, the woman's husband and his brother tracked them down just hours from the pond." Sandweaver grew even more sober, struggling with this portion of the story.

"Firstdelver was raped and her new sister was murdered as punishment for seeking her freedom. It is believed the men thought Firstdelver would die from her injuries so they left her to perish much like her own husband had. She was stronger than they thought but still she barely managed to crawl away to where Hopebringer found her and brought her home just in time.

Only hours later the surface froze over and remained that way for six months. During that time her body changed, her belly swelled and she knew that she was with child but she did not despair, she knew the Mother would guide her ask she became a mother herself.

Right as the thaw began and the surface to the pond cracked open she birthed her baby boy. She named him Pureheart and knew that he was a sign that the dry men could have healthy hearts too. As the water dwellers grew in numbers and explored further, they leant that the water wound its way below the mountains and deep into the Earth where they chose to build a city to call home, far from the pain they had suffered on dry land. It was here that they thrived and waited until the land could be cleaned of sickness and all hearts made pure; or until the end of time if it must be so."

Sandweavers smile grew wide as she gestured to the depths around them. "And this is where we have been ever since, protected by the Mother from those still broken and here for those who find us when they are most lost."

Shoredreamer expelled bubbles with the rest as they applauded the retelling. She was proud to be a water dweller, a siren of sorrow, but she found herself unable to avoid her dreams of wandering the shore...