Poseidon and Amphitrite had spent hundreds of years telling Helmi that being divine came with great power, but not great wisdom. That was one thing the divine had to learn for themselves. The fundamentals of wisdom came from standing still, watching, listening, and trying to understand the needs of others. But the deepest wisdom came by learning from mistakes. By recognizing and understanding the mistakes of others, beings could learn to make as few of their own as possible.
With eight sisters, Helmi had plenty of examples to ponder. It’s not easy to learn from the mistakes of others, since most creatures insist on making all of their own mistakes anyway. By the time she became a mother, Helmi, for the most part, had succeeded in learning great wisdom. She had tried to share this with Miranda by telling her stories of her sisters, Miranda’s long departed aunts, and how their choices had shaped their lives.
Helmi’s eldest sister, Speio, had been overprotected by Poseidon and Queen Amphitrite. She was born two centuries after the fall of Atlantis, and she was almost three thousand years old before she met her first two-legger. That was probably why she became so fascinated with jewels and sea treasure. As a family, they were safe and isolated, but it was not really healthy for a girl to grow up talking to and caring for “things” rather than people. Helmi felt this was a good lesson for Miranda to learn.
Another sister Helmi often spoke of was Cymo. Known as Unn of the billowing tides by her Viking admirers, and Undine by the Gauls, she was the goddess of the waves in the Baltic Sea. Because of a man, she had come to a tragic end. Cymo’s demise was one of the many reasons Helmi hated the Hag.
Nothing lives forever, not even gods. Immortals are merely able to choose the time of their demise. They can live for thousands and thousands of years in one lifetime, until all they wish to see and all they need to learn has come to them. Then, when they wish to move on, to embrace the Creator and join their voice to the cosmic song that everything comes from and to which everything must return, they choose to step through the veil into the next realm.
Humans have short lives, and that is why they have souls. The mortal soul is what is bound to the earth and resides either in the Elysian Fields, which some call Heaven and others call Nirvana or Valhalla, or remains in torture in Tartarus, or Hell. It waits there until it can be reborn to live another life and as many successive lives as are necessary until the mortal soul has lived and learned all it needs to know to join the cosmic song.
If immortals leave their element and die in mortal lands, by the hand of mortal man, they are trapped and doomed to wander forever. Condemned to purgatory as a spirit, they are neither complete as a divine creature, nor able to be reborn through a mortal soul.
When the Asgaard gods and the Olympians began to go their way, the flirtatious and curvaceous Unn still needed male companionship. After the elder gods had dwindled, she’d turned her wiles on men, and one man in particular.
It happened during the reign of Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor to turn his back on the gods and follow the teachings of the Son of the Creator, a turning point for all immortals. Unn was searching for someone to believe in, and with one look at the handsome Roman tribune Marcus Antonius, she believed in him. Marcus had aspirations of becoming an imperial governor, and he exuded confidence.
The Druids held power over Gaul and Brittany. Their savagery was outmatched only by their wisdom of the earth and its elemental gods. They were Marcus Antonius’ sworn enemies, and yet they fascinated him.
He had heard legends of Unn, the beauteous sea maiden of golden hair and mellifluous voice. If this divine creature were his, he would attain great status with the native populous and this would help him to rise in power. All these things were running through his mind until he saw her in her mermaid form, singing to the moon from her perch on a promontory rock in the harbor.
It was a full moon, and she had come to sing to its beauty. In her hair, she wore a netted cap that had been woven by Queen Amphitrite herself. The net was studded with a multitude of luminous pink pearls from the far-off China Sea, and each pearl reflected the moonlight, making it appear that a misty garland of water lilies was floating above her head. Her hair alone proved her divine, for it glowed like an oracle’s sacred eternal flame. To Marcus Antonius, it was more than light and more than heat. It was steeped with mystical power, and he burned with that flame. He had to possess her.
Quietly, Marcus stripped off his armor and slipped into the harbor as sleekly as an otter, diving deep into the water, guided to Unn by a path of moonlight on the surface above him. When he reached the rocks, he drew himself up and climbed onto the ledge behind her, as silently as an assassin. What small sounds his feet did make against the rocks were masked by the sound of her glorious voice.
“Are you the maid the Druids call Unn?” he asked in a rich deep voice, much like a distant horn of battle.
Completely taken by surprise, Unn turned to see who disturbed her. She was prepared to flee, but, instead, she froze, for he was the model of what the gods had forever meant man to be. He was tall, slim of hip, and wide of shoulders, with a wild mane of hair now swept back in a warrior’s braid to reveal a strong forehead and intense, dark eyes. Those eyes were rimmed in pale amber like a fire that burns behind an iron grate. His body was of perfect frame, though scarred and battle worn. But those scars, which ran across hard, firm flesh that was sculpted as if by Mars himself, testified to the strength of his spirit, a spirit that carved his warrior’s body out of wet clay and left it to bake hard in the fires of a Hephaestus’ forge.
So Unn did not flee, but reached out one hand and drew him down beside her, and their joining was witnessed by the honey-colored rays of the moon. All through the night he wooed her and bewitched the immortal mermaid with his mortal love. Being a soldier of war and not a sailor of the sea, he wooed her out of the water and into his chariot, where he carried her away to his estates.
She transformed into a woman, and they were wed, but beauty and bed do not hold a goddess for long, let alone a man. The tribune needed a wife who could manage his estate, run his palace, and rule his lands when he was at war. Unn was not that kind of woman, or that kind of mermaid. When he went to war, she went to sea.
So a time finally came when he returned with a young princess as part of his spoils of war. She was not only beautiful, but clever, well versed in the day-to-day dealings of a palace, and pregnant with his child.
Unn, or Undine, as the people had taken to calling her, was still desperately in love with Marcus. She could not bear the idea of sharing her husband, or being supplanted by a trophy consort. Such things did not happen to a divine creature, so she was too embarrassed to ask for Poseidon’s aid. She was afraid he might feel insulted and hurt or kill her tribune.
So instead, she turned to a distant cousin, the maniacal Medea, who had come to dwell in the sea. She had grown old and ugly and was by then called the Hag. Undine wanted to change her tribune into a merman and bring him back to the sea, a feat of magic beyond her skills. The Hag had once been a powerful sorceress, so Undine begged her for a spell that would transform him and bind his love to her forever.
The Hag agreed, but for her aid, she demanded that Undine surrender her voice, which had great power and beauty of its own. Undine agreed, for to her it seemed a small price to pay. The Hag then gave her a dagger with a blade made from the golden gates of Troy, set in an ivory handle carved from a Narwhal tusk. She was to plunge it into the middle of his chest as he lay sleeping and pour a cup of seawater upon the wound.
Poor Undine was too emotional, and when she crept back into their rooms that night and found her tribune lying in their bed with his war trophy whose belly was swollen with his child, she was so angry that she plunged the dagger into his heart instead of his chest. The seawater was to have filled his lungs, which would enable him to breathe underwater, but they were now filled with blood. He opened his eyes long enough to see Undine and curse her with his dying breath. She was so distrau
ght, she turned the knife upon herself.
On land in the shape of a mortal woman, Unn died without a soul. Her spirit, trapped forever between this world and the next, still wanders across the waves through the cold winter nights with no voice but the wind to cry out for her husband, in long, sad wails.
“It destroyed my mother,” Helmi had told Miranda as she ended the story. “Undine was my seventh sister to die. When the news reached us, Mother said good-bye to father and me and turned herself into a wave that spread across a beach and sank into the sand.”
“That was when Father made me swear an oath that when my time came to fall in love, I would never leave the sea,” Helmi had continued and then reached for her daughter’s hand and held it tight. “He made me swear that, if I could not bring my mate to the sea, I would wait until the time came when I could. And that is the oath I want you to swear to me, Miranda” she’d implored.
“But mother—” Miranda had begun.
“No! And here you must listen to me, Miranda,” Helmi demanded in a stronger, clearer voice than she had believed possible. “I knew the moment I saw your father that I had found the man I would love for all eternity. When we were together that first time, he too fell in love with me. Yet, there was a higher calling, a deeper purpose his life needed to fulfill. There are many ways to love someone,” she’d explained to her daughter, “so I sent him back to his world, to his wedding, to another woman he had never met, and had no desire to marry. I did this for the good of his people, and that is what rulers do. But, before he left, I gave him a narwhal ring that held the power to keep a mortal healthy and give him long life. I told him that, when he was free to return to me, however long it took, I would be waiting.”
Miranda then listened intently to her mother’s words. “When he did return, he was free to come into my world, to help to rule my realm. I had used my love to help him live the life he was destined to fulfill on land. Then the right time came for us to begin a new life together, beneath the sea.”
Helmi had held Miranda’s hand in both of hers and smiled lovingly at her. “And now we have you, the perfect symbol of our love and life together. All things come in their own time, Miranda.” She’d smiled again softly. “Time is the one gift we as merfolk have. Time brings wisdom, and wisdom gives us the ability to use time well. Swear to me that you will keep this one promise to me, Miranda. You shall bring your mate into your world and not abandon the sea to live in his.”
“I swear it, Mother,” she’d agreed softly.
“Miranda, you and I are the only ones left who have a chance to fulfill Poseidon’s vision. The gift of prophecy runs in our family, though it is fleeting and uncontrollable. Father told me I would bring forth a new race of merfolk to populate the oceans as they had never been—not a race of gods and demigods, but sea people who will dwell beneath the waves in peace and spread throughout the oceans of the world.”
“After the fall of Atlantis,” Helmi had continued, “Poseidon built the city of Oceanus and named it after my great-grandfather, the first god of the sea. He built it in a place of safety where no one without merblood in his or her veins could reach it. It was to be a safe haven where a new nation could grow. For a thousand years, its streets and buildings have been lovingly tended by corylians, but no new race of merfolk has yet been created to fill the city. It is our destiny—yours and mine—to fill Oceanus with life!”
Mermaid 101
Once again, when Pearl stopped crying and opened her eyes, she found herself floating in a sphere of living creatures. They were all staring at her and literally feeling her pain.
“Darn it!” she snapped out loud. I did it again, she thought as she lashed her tail out in anger, sending all the creatures scurrying in every direction. I really need to get a handle on that.
“Yes, Princess, we need to think happy thoughts.” Patches said with a sniff. Echo purred in agreement.
“Don’t worry, Princess, we love you,” chirped Coral and Prickle as they settled on her shoulders and snuggled under her chin.
“Let Sandy give you a big hug.” The giant manta ray swept up under Pearl and wrapped her giant wings around all three of them, squeezing tightly.
“Thanks, Sandy, and you too Coral and Prickle,” Pearl grunted under the strain of their loving embrace. “I’m okay,” she continued when they let her go and she was able to breathe, “so we might as well get started with my lessons.”
“Thanks be to the Creator,” said Patches as he breathed a sigh of relief. “The queen was very specific that you learn invisibility right away!”
“Is it magic?”
Patches humphed. “Not at all! Many creatures of the sea can do similar things—just by looking around them and blending into their surroundings.”
“Camouflage? You mean the art of camouflage, like a chameleon or a Nassau grouper! I saw one of those in the Seattle Aquarium, and they can change into all different kinds of colors and shapes,” Pearl added.
“Exactly like that. Only fish use chemicals that they have inside them. A mermaid, however, bends light around herself with her mind using the salt crystals in the sea. You just think of an image while you are swimming, and the water around you reflects it back making you disappear.”
“This mind stuff is not as easy as you keep saying,” said Pearl, sounding a bit worried. “I can’t even keep my thoughts to myself, let alone do something complicated like that.”
“Everything takes a bit of practice, Princess. That’s what lessons are for. Now, just clear your mind, and look at what is right in front of you. See it inside your mind. See it there.” Patches pointed to the water in front of them. “And picture it here.” And he tapped his round, green head. “Then you will appear to others as what you want them to see.”
“You mean if I think like seaweed, I’ll look like seaweed?” Pearl asked.
“No, you don’t think like seaweed. They are really very dull and have nothing to say. You think of seaweed—make a picture in your mind. Then you will look like that picture,” Patches said, gently correcting her.
Pearl scrunched her eyes and thought really hard about wavy beds of kelp, then, slowly but surely, she shimmered and disappeared into wavy stems of vibrant green plants.
“My shell, she’s got it!” Patches cried. “I think she’s got it! You did that beautifully, Princess. A little less scrunching of the eyes so you can see where you are swimming, but very, very good nonetheless.”
“That was fun!” Pearl smiled.
“Now try thinking of different things. Picture empty water around you, which is the best way to disappear,” Patches suggested.
So Pearl thought of clear water, and she shimmered and disappeared. She thought of a sea fan and shimmered into that shape. Then she thought of a dolphin and shimmered into that. Suddenly she became a large white square overhung with two yellow arches. Bunches of long, tan-colored stalks of some kind were sticking out of the top.
“What is that?” Patches stared at her in shock.
“Oh, sorry, Patches.” Pearl shimmered back to herself. “I would kill for some french fries. I’m really hungry.”
“You are doing very well, Princess. The hardest part is to swim and picture something at the same time.”
“I bet it is.” Pearl shrugged.
“Perhaps we should swim up to find you some nice tender fish for lunch and then get back to your lesson.”
“Yum, sushi is my favorite!” Pearl smiled and flicked her tail in just the right way to send her soaring upward. “I think I’m getting the hang of this mermaid stuff,” Pearl said. She giggled as Coral, Prickle, and Sandy rose up after her.
“Lunch time!” Pearl beamed the thought to Slammer and Jumper as she saw their shadows above her. “We’re on our way up! If you see anything yummy swimming by, grab it.”
Sea of Memories
The queen drifted slowly as she swayed in the seaweed forest like a sail in the wind. Helmi opened herself to receive the power of the sea,
to embrace all it had to give to her, and to lose herself in its song … a song of love for her.
The whales sang of her beauty, her kindness, and her centuries of healing their kind. They sang of the courage of her king, of the power of her father, and of the wisdom of her mother. They sang the songs of her lost sisters, and of their memories of her daughter, Miranda. They sang a song of hope and joy that her grandchild, their princess, had returned to the sea. All their songs filled Helmi with their love, and she wept.
She cried in joy and in sorrow. She cried in wonder of all that had been and all that could be. All the pain and weariness wept its way out of her to be replaced by the power of hope and love, the most powerful combination of healing in the universe. And heal she did, as Helmi dreamed and remembered.
The stronger Helmi grew, the faster and stronger her memories flowed through her mind. The loss of the two people she’d loved most grew deeper. They were her consort and their daughter. To the world, they had been the Duke and Duchess Brahe-Sinkel-Laurvig of Egeskov. The Duchy of Egeskov was the estate that King Valdemar I of Denmark had bestowed upon a fictitious distant cousin, also named Valdemar, before he abdicated his throne. It was a way to keep his life private and comfortable should the Little Mermaid not take him with her back into the sea. Also, should she indeed do so, the estate would serve as a connection to the land, and could be useful in his position as protector of the sea. Some of the land granted to the duchy included property in the Faeroe Islands, as well as Denmark, Norway, Italy, Germany, and Africa.
Growing up, Miranda had an affinity for land, which was very unnatural for a mermaid. She loved sailing in ships across the water with the wind blowing all around her. She loved racing on horseback across open fields, and loved to sit on the highest cliff from sunset to sunrise, watching the stars and the moon in their dance across the sky.
All The Mermaids In The Sea Page 13