The Call Of Thalassa

“It is beautiful -it is endless,

it is full and yet seems empty.

It hurts us.”

-Jackson Pearce

The door opened with a squeaky sound that disturbed the peaceful silence of the night. Entering the dark house feeling extremely tired and sleepy, Aileen threw away her shoes carelessly. Without bothering to turn on the lights, she followed the familiar corridor towards the small kitchen.

She quickly grabbed a glass from the wooden cabinet and filled it with cold water before she thirstily drank it. The cool fluid was exactly what her dry neck needed and it calmed her racing heart down. Touching the half-empty glass on the table, she looked at the transparent liquid and got lost in her thoughts.

“Did you say my eyes are beautiful?′

His whole demeanor changed. The despair and sadness in his glowing eyes disappeared -a soft look of adoration took their place. He let a small smile appear on his beautiful face, making her breath hitch and her rosy cheeks to blush.

“Your eyes are more than just beautiful”, he whispered to her.

She raised a flaming eyebrow at him but did not dare to move away or closer.

“Your eyes are...unique”, he murmured as his large tail splashed around in the shallow waters.

“Why are they unique?“, she asked him curiously.

He watched as her petite form sat down on the sand of the lonely beach and inwardly sighed in relief. At least, she wasn’t trying to run away from him this time.

“Because I can’t seem to stop myself from getting lost in them.”

Aileen blushed as she remembered his flattering words. How was it possible for someone who barely knew her to have such an effect on her?

She had never felt such an attraction toward a man before. However, this mysterious merman was different from anyone she had ever met and she was attracted to him like steel to a magnet. She was so scared of him –of what he was and what he could do to her, but she somehow knew that he wouldn’t dare harm a single strand of her hair. And he had given her all the answers she ever needed.

“You are scared of me.”

It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. And it hurt him more than he’d like to admit.

“Can you blame me?“, she asked in a small voice, “I just found out that mermaids are real.”

“I am not a mermaid, my love. I am a merman, it has quite a difference. ”

He smiled at her gently.

“Mermaids are the females of our kind and they don’t swim too far from home. They stay behind since they are more peaceful and are well protected in the depths of the ocean by their mates.”

Aileen nodded in understanding, encouraging him to continue.

“Mermen, on the other hand, are a bit more aggressive since they have the urge to protect their kin and mates. They can become pretty dangerous and violent when it comes to protecting their territory. They are swimming a lot further than home -near the surface of the waters and the land that is close to their homeland, in order to destroy potential threats and make sure that everyone is protected.”

Mates...Mates...Where had she heard this before?

“... A mate to love and cherish. It would give them a purpose in their life. To love and protect. To create a family together. To grow old together...”

Nana’s words!

He couldn’t mean that though, could he?

“Mates as in meant to be lovers?“, she asked him curiously, feeling herself blushing everywhere from her neck to her ears.

Havelock smiled at her. He was surprised at her question but glad for it too. Perhaps, explaining everything to her would be a lot easier than what he had originally thought.

“Not quite exactly. Mates are a lot more than just a lover to my kind. They are our soul’s other halves, our sanity thread...our lifeline. They are the most precious and sacred gift our Goddesses ever gave to us -we will forever be indebted to them for this.”

His gaze brightened as he looked at her.

“We look for them ever since we become of age and when we find them, they become our top priority. Their happiness is ours too, their pain is our pain...We make everything we believe it’s right to ensure their safety and happiness, no matter what the cost is...”

He had such a passionate look on his flawless face as he spoke about merfolk’s mates. Aileen couldn’t help but be fascinated by him. She wanted to learn even more about his kind.

“You referred to Goddesses?“, she asked him, cocking her head to the side in thought.

“We believe in two Goddesses -they were the only ones who helped us in our time of need. Selene, who is the Goddess of the Moon, and Thalassa, Goddess of the Sea. We originally praised only Thalassa, but then the Grand War happened. I believe most of the stories you, humans, have written for us were from this period of time.”

Aileen twirled a wet strand of her hair with her finger, making him distracted by her elegance. Who was he kidding? He would find adorable anything she did.

“Most stories describe mermaids as violent and dangerous creatures, blaming them for the deaths of many sailors. They destroyed their ships, infatuated them with their melodious voices, and killed them when they made sure that their victims wouldn’t escape.”

Aileen bit her lips nervously.

“They say that they wanted them to suffer from extreme pain. That they...tortured them -they cut them to pieces with their sharp teeth and nails until there wasn’t even a clue that they once existed.”

Her voice was small as she repeated the main points of all the local mermaid stories.

Havelock took in a deep breath of air in order to help himself calm down.

“My kind was like this for many centuries...lethal...bloodthirsty...vial. Merpeople began to feel restless like something was missing, but they couldn’t understand exactly what in order to fix it. Their restlessness urged them to attack anything they didn’t understand –anything different from them, be it ships or humans.”

He gave her a saddened smile as she shivered at his words.

“When this restlessness didn’t cease, they began to attack their own kin. The Grand War was a dark period of time for my people and we don’t really like to talk about it. Brother turned against brother...father against children...lover against lover. The civil war was so brutal that merfolk almost completely disappeared off the face of the Earth.”

Aileen listened to him, completely mesmerized by his voice.

“What happened next?”

He gave her a small smile, before continuing.

“Thalassa tried to find a way to stop this war, but she couldn’t find anyone to help her. She was almost sure that this would be the end for us.”

“Selene?“, Aileen questioned.

“Selene saw Thalassa sobbing one night at a lonely beach. Her sobs were so heartbreaking that she decided she would help her. Together they created mates in order to soften the beasts in our hearts. The Moon Goddess looked inside us -she understood what each of us really needed and found us the right match. Her couples complement each other -she made sure they are the perfect match.”

“What did Thalassa do?”

“You see, sometimes our perfect half can be miles and miles away or even worse...in a completely different world. The ocean is infinite and there could be a chance that mates would never meet each other due to the distance between them. The Goddesses found it unfair for some of us to be able to meet our mates and have our happily ever after, while others had to live a lonely miserable life.

Therefore, Thalassa decided she would make sure that all mates would eventually meet -no matter what. It feels like a call to us –it urges us to search for our mates or even visit a place at a specific time. We usually don’t understand it when it happens -we just have strange and unexplainable urges at random times.”

Aileen furrowed her eyebrows in concentration.

“So, you find your mates with...”

Havelock waited patiently for her to continue as he saw her struggling to find the correct words.

“The Call of Thalassa?”

He let a glorious laugh escape from him at her words. He hadn’t thought of it like this, but it made perfect sense.

“I guess you could name it as such. Yes, we find our mates during the Call of Thalassa.”

“And you said that you are not aware when it’s happening?“, Aileen asked again.

“No, we don’t realize at the moment. We just follow our urges no matter how unreasonably might they seem -we just go with the flow. However, we do understand that this was our call -we somehow stumble upon our mates because of it. I told you...mates are a great blessing for us, they calm the restlessness in us. They are the piece of the puzzle we were looking for all along.”

Aileen smiled at the memory. She moved towards her bedroom as she realized she was still standing in the darkness of the kitchen doing absolutely nothing. As she changed from her ruined white dress into her comfortable night clothes, she thought how beautiful the merfolk system was.

They were sure that somebody out there was waiting for them -yearning for them and ready to love them. They weren’t troubled with the nuisance of a meaningless hourly relationship. They were focused on finding their other half and creating a deeper meaningful bond with them. It was so beautiful to know that someone out there was waiting for you -that he would accept you for just who you are.

Or would they?

“What happens when someone doesn’t like their mate?

Havelock looked at her in bewilderment.

“There isn’t a single chance that you wouldn’t be physically attracted to your mate. I mean, Selene made the choice especially for you and therefore, has taken into consideration your thoughts and feelings. ”

Aileen shook her head, giggling at Havelock’s offended expression.

“I mean what if you don’t want to be with them for some other reason? Mates obviously mean a lot to you, so what happens after?”

A dark look replaced his handsome features as his eyes filled with an unexpected panic.

“There is a choice of rejection, but it is madness just to think about it...it is blaspheme! Both mates will feel excruciating pain because of it -it will affect them both physically and mentally. It feels like your heart is stabbed constantly with a sharp knife and your soul is violently ripped out of your body.”

He didn’t want to even think about it -it was obvious from his disgusted expression.

“I’ve seen mermen who have lost their mates turning completely insane because of it. They become feral, bloodthirsty, and immediate danger for the rest of us. They become what we call ‘Tenebris’ -they run away like rogues or we have to put them down. The braver ones kill themselves from the pain of the loss, wanting to be reunited with their mates as soon as possible.”

Aileen let a stray tear escape her emerald eyes.

“This sounds terrible.”

“Mates are our lifelines, meum Arcanum. We cannot live in a world that they do not exist in.”

Aileen laid down in her comfortable bed and relaxed in the warmth of her soft blankets. Closing her eyes, she tried to finally get some much-needed sleep.

“What about you?”

Havelock’s eyes twinkled in delight.

“What about me?“, he asked casually, enjoying the blush that covered her beautiful face.

Aileen cleared her throat, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

“Have you...you know...”

He just raised a dark eyebrow at her, enjoying her struggle.

“Have you felt the Call?“, she finally asked.

He let a lopsided smile adore his face.

“As a matter of fact, I have.”

He splashed his tail slightly, enjoying where this conversation was heading.

“Oh.”

For some reason, this hurt her dearly but she couldn’t explain why. The thought of him being with someone else, made her heart squeeze painfully. She imagined him laughing with another woman and looking down at her with that breathtaking smile of his -her mind shattered the image before it hurt her even further.

She didn’t know the person in front of her at all –she had barely met him. Yet, her whole being shouted at her that she was the one that should stand by his side.

“Your mate must be very beautiful”, she whispered in a trembling voice.

Why did she feel this way? Why did the words feel like ashes in her mouth?

“She is.”

His bright smile and the dreamy look in his glowing blue eyes almost broke her. Why couldn’t she just be content with his happiness?

“She is very lucky to have you.”

She tried to smile at him, but it must have been more close to a grimace than anything else.

“Perhaps.”

She tried to blink her tears away, not wanting to seem weak in front of him.

“Well, what’s her name?”

He gave her one of his mysterious smiles.

Sleep finally took the young girl in its arms and offered her the sweet peace of its darkness. But this time, something was different. Because she slept with a smile on her face, feeling more peaceful than ever before.

“Aileen Smith.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

End of chapter 14!!

Latin Translations:

1)“Meum Arcanum”: My Treasure

2) “Tenebris”: The dark ones (They are similar to the rouges that appear in werewolves stories.)

Follow & Comment & Vote

Until next time!!