One Soul

Chapter Thirteen: The Prisoner

Calypso smiles, eating the fruits before heading off to find William. He's swimming along the coast, only flicks of his tail and splashes of water show where he is. She watches, noticing how free and open he seems in the water, as opposed to the clouded eyes and crossed arms on land. 

When he returns to the beach, she decides to try and learn more about him, but he dodges most personal questions. 

"Hey, how old are you?"
"Old enough."

"Um, where are you from?"
"Zygós."
"Oh, is that your home?"
"Not anymore."

"I, uh, I like your tail. It's a pretty blue."
"Thanks."
"Do all sirens have blue tails or just you?"
"There's different colors, I guess."

"What are the other sirens like?"
This question he didn't respond to, his lips pressing together as he turned away from her. Calypso thought she saw a small tear before he hastily wiped at his eyes. "Are you okay, Will?"
"I don't want to talk about it," he replied, and they fell into silence.

"Well, I can tell you about the other Avians. And humans, I guess," Calypso offered gently.
"I know all I need to know."
"Then I'll tell you about my friends. I, uh, got separated from them by accident."

He turned back to face her. "Yeah. Okay." The tension in his eyebrows, the hard line of his lips, faded slightly.

"There's two. One is named Norene. She's blunt and intelligent and hardworking, but she values family more than anything. She's Avian and has cool grey wings, and white hair, and pale lavender eyes," Calypso tried to stick to simple facts to keep her eyes from tearing up. She lost them, and it was her fault. What if they're dead? What if they're dying? She took a shaky breath and continued. "The other is named Solomon. He's kind and timid and has the ability to heal people-"
"In what way?"
"I-I'm sorry?"
"Like, how could we heal people? What did he heal?" William's hand drifted slightly to his left shoulder, tugging at the sleeve. 

"Um, his soul lets him, I don't know the exact logistics. As for what...pretty much anything, from what I've seen. From headaches to larger wounds...hypothermia to burns-"

At the word "burn", William's entire body tensed again. His hand snapped from his shoulder and his arm drew close to his chest. His eyes widened, and his breaths became ragged, his stare unfocused. 

"W-Will? Are you okay?" But he couldn't hear her. 

~-~

"This one's trouble," the guard said, his fingernails digging into William's shoulder, shoving him to the cold ground, his tail bent at an awkward angle. "He's resisting joining our ranks. I think he's the ward of the dead emperor."

The officer leaned down to look at him, sneering. William met his gaze, bold and resentful, tugging at the soldier's firm grip. "Well then, what do we do with you? I ought to cut your tail fins..."

William immediately drew back, his tail instinctively curling away. His eyes flashed with fear, but he couldn't break his cold stare. The officer smiled maliciously. "...but I won't. A generous deed, no doubt...and one that should not go unacknowledged by upstart brats like you." His hand lashed out, striking William on his cheek. William tumbled to the ground, gasping for breath. The officer grabbed him by the hair and yanked him upwards.

"Say 'thank you', you pathetic little-"

William, with a powerful swish of his tail, lept forwards and headbutted the official in the jaw, eyes burning and a red mark on his cheek. "I won't ever thank you, you wretched excuse for a leader! And I won't join you! So go ahead and cut my fins if it makes you feel stronger, you-"

The official growled and seized William by the throat. "You're lucky the new emperor wants you alive...for what I don't know, you useless pain. But that doesn't mean you can escape punishment for your insolence." He waved over another soldier, who came with a hot iron brand. It was glowing red, even underwater, steam following in its wake. The stamp was shaped like a giant X inside a circle.

He screamed. He screamed and screamed as white-hot pain flamed at his shoulder. His tail writhed as he struggled, only for it to be caught and his fins forcefully clamped to a giant weight. "Throw him into a cell, he needs to learn his lesson," the officer ordered as he dropped William to the ground, leaving with his tail swishing ominously in the deep blue.

~-~

"William!" Calypso gently shook him, her voice higher than usual. "Are you okay? H-here, focus on my voice, okay? Count to four, you're okay...it's just us, William."

He tried to focus on her voice. "One, two, three, four...one, two, three four..." but his head swam with horrible memories. His shoulder throbbed like it was being scarred for the first time all over again. He whimpered before collapsing, having exhausted himself from the flashback. Even in sleep, he curled up defensively, his arms over his head.

~-~

The other prisoners were miserable, moaning in pain and despair at all hours of the day. William stayed silent, pacing his small cell and trying to tune out the noise. "You can't keep us in here!" He'd yell every now and then, though no one listened. "You can't keep us in here! We'll let ourselves out if we have to!"

His shoulder ached something terrible, but his voice was shrill and persistent. In the beginning, the guards pretended not to hear. They pretended to shut his voice out as if it wasn't there. But his cries had a way of rising louder over their plugged ears. 

"I'll get out one day, and you'll all be sorry!" He shouted, his hands clasped around the metal bars, his tail struggling against the weighted cuff. "You'll regret locking me down here!"

~-~

William didn't know if they were ever sorry. He wondered, briefly, if it was because he left soon enough he never got the chance to find out, or if they didn't live long enough to feel regret. He realized he didn't know anything that happened after he washed up on shore, feeling nothing but pain and missing. 

~-~

A pair of sapphire eyes wrinkled kindly at the corners, the pearly crown atop his head, a long salt-and-pepper beard. The face pulsed, fading in and out of view. William swam towards, it, desperately calling out the emperor's name. When he finally reached that tan skin, that welcoming hand, it vanished in his grip.

"You need to let me go," the king said. William screamed.

~-~

When he woke up, Calypso was by his side, cooking something over the fire. Her eyes had dark circles underneath like she hadn't slept. "...sand lady?"

Calypso looked over in shock and relief, before pursing her lips at the nickname. "How are you feeling?" She asked instead, pouring the seaweed broth into their shallow bowls and handing one to him. "You've been out a whole day."

"I...I think I need to talk to you about something. I can't keep it locked up, not anymore," William said, nervously staring at his reflection in the soup. "I know it's a bit weird, spilling my life story to someone I just met. But it needs to get out, it's killing me."

Slowly his hand drifted up to his left shoulder and pulled up the sleeve, revealing the hideous scar branded onto the pale skin. Calypso's eyes softened, glistening with tears. Before he could say a word, she threw her arms around him. William was shocked, for a moment, before letting himself lean against her. They stayed hugging for the entirety of his story, and by the end, both of their cheeks were stained with tears.

"When I was young, I didn't know who my family was. I don't really remember life before the emperor found me trying to steal fruits from the royal gardens. I thought I was in trouble, but instead he simply asked how on earth I managed to scale the high walls. He took me in, gave me a name: William Marino..."