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The three of us ran in a triangle formation. I was leading and Melissa and Eddie followed. Getting back to Indonesia was easy. When I thought that I must have run past the island, I finally recognized the shape of the small temple. A moment later I spotted Serena who was sitting cross-legged herself. I wondered if she could even get up if she wanted to.
We came to a halt at her beach. Serena had her eyes closed but I knew she had sensed our presence long before I had seen her.
“It’s small here,” Eddie observed. “And quiet.” He took a deep breath.
“But so beautiful.” Melissa gaped. “Look at the clear watercolor.”
I looked down on Serena, a bit insecure.
“Welcome back,” she said. “Also, hello to my new guests.” She opened her blue eyes and smiled first at Melissa, who nodded shyly and then at Eddie. He slightly drew his head back, surprised to see his own eyes on someone else. When he overcame his astonishment, he reached out to shake her hand.
“Nice to meet you,” Eddie said.
“It’s nice to finally meet a Siren who loves the ocean as much as I do.” She said, without having known Eddie for even a minute. “Its vastness, its freedom, and its power. You do feel better here, don’t you?” Serena then asked.
Eddie walked to the edge of the water and observed the surroundings, leaving us waiting expectantly. “Yes, now that you say it. As if I have stepped into the first sun rays after a long winter.”
“But we live right at the ocean as well,” I said.
“Yet, we were in a house the whole time. You can’t even hear the waves in there.” Eddie glanced along the beach. “Here we are basically on the ocean. Only a small amount of sand is dividing us from the water.”
“How come in all my years as a Siren I’ve never seen one with blue eyes?” Melissa asked. “We all have jet-black eyes with sparks of gold.”
“It’s rare.” Serena’s raspy voice resounded from down on the sand. It was a bit odd to have this height difference of us standing and her sitting and so I sat down as well. Melissa and Eddie followed. I picked up some sand and let it run through my fingers. Serena continued when we were all seated. “You are all descendants of Laya, who had black eyes. Since all your transformations were made by a Siren with black eyes, my gene – the gene of the blue eyes – hasn’t been passed on. Occasionally there still is a Siren with blue eyes though and they always come back to the ocean sooner or later.”
“Do you think with the serum everyone will have blue eyes now?” I wondered.
“No, I think this is a mere coincidence.” She looked out onto the water and then back at me. Like with Eddie, I could never be completely certain whether she was looking into my eyes or at something next to me. It was slightly unnerving. “How’s the singing going?”
I pursed my lips. “I can’t do it anymore. Or even if I could, it would take ages.”
“The latter is correct. Practice makes perfect.” She reached out to pat my knee encouragingly.
“I wondered if you had another tip for me. How to accelerate the whole process.”
Serena chuckled. “Once you find a stable connection it will be easy to go back to it and you can summon the power whenever you want. To reach it faster it’s important that you have an essential reason for it. For example, you need to sing to attract people because otherwise, you’d starve.”
I swallowed. I had about a thousand reasons why I wanted to be able to sing like a Siren. “Can you guide me again, please? I hope I can learn it faster this way. It’s necessary that I can sing in the moment when it’s needed and not three days later.” Before she could answer, I added the rest of my plea. “Melissa and Eddie can participate in the guidance as well. In case I won’t be able to do it perhaps at least somebody else can?” I cringed.
Serena turned her head toward Melissa who had been listening intently the whole time. Now I only saw the silver waterfall of Serena’s long and silky hair. “All of you are Sirens and all of you are able to sing. It depends on your amount of focus and patience. It could take months or years.”
The five days it had taken me suddenly seemed like nothing compared to that. “Then why-”
“Did you not need so much time?” Serena finished my question and her laughter lines radiated kindness.
I nodded.
“Already as a human you weren’t far from your Siren roots.” Serena paused and let her gaze wander. Clearly enjoying her role as the old wise lady. “Legend has it that every few thousand years there is a perfect alignment of the moon, stars, and tides. It creates such a strong connection between the tides and the sky that whoever is born inside that stream of energy will have the true powers of a Siren. Laya and I were created through the clash of a lightning storm with the waves during such an alignment. You,” she pointed at me with her hand, “could at least be human first and then return to your roots.”
I gasped, surprised and a bit confused. “To me, it appears the other way around. Being human were my roots.” I narrowed my eyes. “But so, it was the stars? If I were born in another place or a few minutes later, it could have been someone else?”
“It could have but it didn’t happen. It’s you and that’s how it was supposed to be.” Serena gave her statement a supportive nod. “Your parents even named you Serena although they had probably had another name in mind the whole time before your birth. But then, that name felt right.”
I thought about that for a moment. “I had once asked them why they named me this way, but their answer had been that my mom wanted Livia and my dad Francesca. In the end, they couldn’t agree and so they decided to pick something entirely different.”
Melissa raised her eyebrows as if to say “see”.
“Nevertheless, it doesn’t hurt if you try to sing as well,” Serena said to Eddie and Melissa. “For starters, you should sit or stand in a comfortable position in which you can breathe well.”
I sat up straighter and crossed my legs loosely in front of me. Melissa and Eddie had taken a moment to realize that the learning session had begun. Eddie got up and Melissa moved into a similar position as me. Then, Serena’s sedating voice guided us into the meditation. Even though Melissa and Eddie probably had their eyes closed, I felt as if they were watching me. I was very much aware of their presence and felt pressured that I should already have reached my energetic place. Of course, this thought didn’t help me in calming me down and so I tried to push it away. I fought to block out everything else and only concentrated on Serena’s voice.
She had said it would feel natural but concentrating so much was hard work. I rolled my shoulders back to loosen up a little.
There... I had felt something... but I couldn’t pin it down exactly. Yet, it was that kind of feeling which brought me to the goal last time and so I knew I was close to finding my inner voice.
Finally, I reached that explosion of vibrations inside me. They spread from the center of my body to all angles with a tingling feeling. It was at once both thrilling and a relief. I sent the vibrations out through my skin, goosebumps rising all over my arms and legs. The orchestra filled my ears and when I was sure I wouldn’t lose the flow of energy right away, I opened my eyes. The three of them were looking at me. Melissa’s mouth was opened to a round ‘o’ and she leaned toward me to hear better. Eddie was stroking his chin and closed his eyes. I smiled and extended my arms to help the sound travel even better. I think Melissa said something, but I couldn’t hear her. Eddie stretched as if he was absorbing a nice breeze. When my whole body started to shake, I let go of the energy flow and the music faded out. I sank onto my knees, holding my head, disappearing behind the curtain of my light brown hair.
“That was incredible.” Melissa squeezed out.
“I have to agree, quite mesmerizing,” Eddie said. “Like the big finish at the end of a movie where you’re either rooting for the hero to win his battle or crying because it’s so sad.”
“I agree. You can’t remain untouched.” Melissa finished. “Are you okay?”
I groaned. “I feel like I’ve hiked one thousand steps up a steep mountain without a break.”
“It uses up a lot of energy”, Serena confirmed. “We only used to sing to attract our prey and so we could be certain that after singing, we’d have a nice meal.”
“How did you do it?” Melissa asked me, and Eddie interestedly tilted his head as well.
I shrugged, thinking carefully about what had happened. “I followed the different spots of warmth and cold inside me. Where it was warm, there was a better energy flow. At some point, I felt a string of vibration and from that point it was easy.”
“That’s precisely it and you already made much progress to the last time”, Serena praised, and I checked my surroundings to guess how much time had passed. The sun hung low in the sky and would set soon.
“How long?” I asked for all I knew it could already have been three days.
“Eight hours,” Serena nodded satisfied.
“Better than last time.” My shoulders sank in relief. “However, it didn’t seem like anything special happened to you. Shouldn’t you get hypnotized or at least glued to the spot or something, instead of just finding it moving?”
Serena chuckled. “But we are Sirens. We won’t be affected by our own weapons.”
“Makes sense.” The concern that had just crossed Melissa’s face had disappeared again.
“And you think I can learn this as well?” Eddie asked Serena, his eyes fixated on her. For the first time, I sensed a desire for something in Eddie. Until now he'd stayed alive because we told him he had to but perhaps Serena had been right and out here was his true place.
“Yes, with enough practice. I can show you a lot more.”
“I’d love that.” He looked from me to her. “So, I can stay here and learn?”
“I’d even encourage it. If you are so eager to learn you will be good at it and then, your Siren life will have a purpose and make sense.” It was partially selfish because it would have been my fault if Eddie’d have hated the rest of his life.
“But why are you doing this?”, he turned to Serena.
She made a waving motion with her hand. “Ah, even I am getting old. I don’t want all my knowledge to be lost. In times like those, such powers can help to keep the balance of good and evil in the magical world balanced. Even the Orbiters make mistakes and it’s good if some of us can keep an eye on them.”
“So, how do you do that?” Melissa asked.
Serena took a deep breath before she started talking, giving us to understand that what she was about to explain could take a while. “I hide from them and let my spirit enter their sphere. As I told Nathalie before, our universe is made up of many different physical layers. There are the ones we can see which consist of different material like rock, sand, metal or water. But then, there are layers that we can’t see. They only exist as an energetic force field. Sometimes it’s like a backup copy of something that actually exists.” She checked with us to see if we were following. “If you don’t want to be found, it’s possible to hide in those in-between spaces. We are in one now.”
I tilted my head. This looked like a normal island to me.
Serena noticed our questioning glances and continued. “I moved one of the force fields across us and it’s as if we are below a giant non-see-through cheese dome. This takes a big amount of energy.
“But how did we find you then?” Eddie asked.
“I opened up a gap in the field, so you could see inside.” She smiled.
“I assume this could be dangerous because anyone unwanted could see through that gap in that time as well?” Melissa asked.
“Only if you look from the correct angle and I don’t assume the Orbiters are hanging around the Indonesian archipelago right now.”
“And you would teach me all that?” Eddie asked.
“If you are willing to learn, yes.”
“One is never too old to learn, right?” Eddie smiled.
“So, this means goodbye, for now.” I felt melancholic and wanted him to come back with us. I looked at him and only saw my old friend Rey who’d always had a kind word for me after our initial starting difficulties. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember any of it. “I’ll miss you. You were one of my first friends in America and somehow I assumed you’d always be around.”
Eddie shrugged. “You can forget about me. I did the same about you as well.”
“Are you making jokes now?” I raised an eyebrow.
“It’s not goodbye forever, right? I’m sure we’ll meet again.” He said. “I guess I have to thank you for always being nice and for bringing me here.” He addressed Melissa and me.
“That’s how you are with friends,” I said. “Can I give you a hug?”
“Sure.” He shrugged and opened his arms. The island made him warm up to us. Now that we were saying goodbye. I got up to return the hug. I realized, in all this time when I had known Rey, we never had any physical contact. Despite that, our friendship had felt very close. I let go of him and smiled.
“You will do well here. I hope you let us find you again.” I threw a glance at Serena.
“Don’t worry, I’ll keep watching out for you. If you don’t get anywhere with practicing on your own, you must come back, and I’ll guide you. We can’t let Monica keep ruling without anybody doing anything about it.”
“I know.” I pursed my lips.
“I have a feeling you’ll get more confident in singing soon though. And usually, my feeling is quite right.” She smiled.
I bit my lip. “I hope so.”
After a few more words of goodbye, Melissa and I left she and Eddie behind.
“Meeting her makes you realize how much even the Sirens have changed since their beginning. Nothing ever stays the same.” Melissa spoke over the opposing wind.
“Luckily. That means no matter what happens, Monica won’t stay in charge forever.”
Although I had managed to sing once more with Serena’s guidance, I was eager to get home and practice. At least I would be close to Alex. We had spent far too much time apart from each other in the past months.