Siren's Kiss

73: Bleeding the Leech Part Five

"Bloody hell..." Toby breathed. "What be we lookin' at?"

"Your...Highness..." The voice was weak but unmistakably Commander Triton's.

Ciel's eyes went wide with horror. The once-mighty commander of the siren guards was fused to the wall in a grotesque growth of twisted flesh, his face a blend of agony and pleading. "Your Highness!" he cried, the words breaking into tortured sobs. Suddenly, tentacle-like appendages sprouted from his abdomen, reaching toward Ciel and the pirates.

"Look out!" Captain Drake shouted, yanking Ciel to his side as Toby, Griff, and Vic scrambled out of the tentacles' reach.

The force of the appendages sent them all stumbling, and Drake was thrown against the door of another room, with Ciel landing on top of him. Ciel groaned, scrambling to his feet. "Drake! I'm so sorry..."

Drake gave a pained smile, the impact still resonating through his back. When they looked up, Commander Triton's face was twisted in desperation. "Fetch the prince...bring him to the king! Your Highness...Your Highness!" His voice echoed in tortured loops, driven by his last shred of loyalty, as though clinging to his duty in his final moments before becoming part of this creature.

"He's completely lost his mind, he has..." Drake muttered under his breath. He scanned the area for his crew. "Toby, Vic, Griff! Lads, answer me!"

"We're here, Captain!" Griff called out. He and Toby were struggling to lift a heavy slab of debris that had fallen on Vic. Fortunately, it wasn't too heavy, and Vic was unhurt, though he looked shaken from the close call. The appendages were stronger than any of them had anticipated.

Ciel's voice softened, a mixture of pity and horror in his eyes. "I don't think we can save him..."

Helping Ciel up, Drake shook his head. "I'm afraid he's too far gone, me love. There's no bringin' him back—"

"Please don't say that." Ciel's eyes filled with desperation. "There has to be a way to restore him...maybe if we find my father..."

He trailed off, clinging to the hope that his father might hold some ancient knowledge that could save Triton—and, perhaps, the kingdom itself.

The captain and his crew watched the siren prince in heavy silence, all thinking the same thing but too afraid to say it aloud—not when Ciel was on the verge of tears, his voice choked with desperation. He knew deep down there was little hope his kingdom or the denizens of Thalassara could be restored. Judging by the state of the Siren Commander, it was bloody likely others had suffered the same fate. Yet, Ciel clung to that slim chance that he could still save them.

"We need to find the source o' this... creature," Drake said, glancing away from Ciel's face. If his beloved clung to the hope, then so be it. He'd made a promise to love Ciel and protect what mattered to him. Perhaps Ciel was right...perhaps there was a way to restore the original citizen of Thalassara. Perhaps if they did so, they could restore the kingdom itself.

"Source?" Vic echoed, eyeing the writhing appendages emerging from Commander Triton's abdomen. More masses of flesh clung to the walls, but with the commander's aggressive state, it was too dangerous to get a closer look. "Ye mean... the head o' this thing?"

"Aye," Drake said grimly. "I suspect this thing be a part o' Lexios himself. He's somewhere here, fused with every livin' being in the Siren Kingdom."

"Captain, I hate to think it, but ye're probably right," Toby said, swallowing. "If we judge by what happened to Commander Triton, it's parasitic."

Griff looked horrified. "If it's really like that, then it shouldn't be allowed to spread to the land. Look what it did to this kingdom—it's like an extinction-level event!"