The Sea-Queen's Touch by Elwin Fortuna

The Sea-Queen's Touch

She sank out of time altogether, or so it felt, losing her feet in the onward rush of the great wave, being pulled under with a gasp and a choked sob, the tendrils of her green dress flying out behind her in the water. Just before she lost consciousness, she thought she saw eyes peering at her curiously.

She awoke to green. Light filtered as if through bottle-glass, as if she were inside the bottle. All around her was a warm sweet pressure. She could move within it, lazily, and did so, flicking her tail out gently.

Wait, her tail? She looked down at herself, and gasped in shock once more. She was as she remembered herself, to the waist, and beyond that there were scales, green in colour, shining bright, and a tail, fishes' mail like she had heard about in the stories. She glanced around wildly, looking up at the bottle-glass light, catching at the bushes that grew next to the couch where she rested, and feeling them slide through her fingers.

Panic was beginning to set in. She was under the sea, she was - she should have drowned - this was impossible!

Just as she was starting to twitch frantically, to lash about on her couch, struggle in vain for the air that was no longer possible, a calm deep voice resounded in her mind, and she turned to see one much like herself approaching, except that this one was larger, far more beautiful, the queen of all fishes indeed, and her hair drifted out behind her, red like seaweed, dark like a cloud.

"Do not be afraid, little one," the voice said. "I am Uinen, and now you are safe."

"What have you done?" Tar-Míriel's mouth did not speak the words but somehow they were understood.

"You were on the point of death, as were many of your people, even though you did nothing to deserve it. I asked a blessing of the One, and he granted me the chance to save your lives." She swept closer. Her face was full of strength and light, but it was a strange face, unlike any Tar-Míriel had ever seen before, cold and alien. But her voice inside Tar-Míriel's mind was warm, and her hair twined around Tar-Míriel's body in a loving embrace. "Will you be the Queen of your people, little mortal?"

Tar-Míriel lifted up her arms with a smile and was gathered into Uinen's embrace fully. "I will, "she said, and then all in a rush, as if the chance to speak would soon be gone, "if you, Lady, show me all yourself, Queen of the Seas that you are, so that I may know how to rule under you, how to be what both you and they will ask of me."

"Spoken like a true Queen," Uinen said, and then Tar-Míriel was falling into her mind, spreading out large and wide across the vast waters. Her tendrils extended into every river, and every lake was her breathing-space. Her breath was tides, her hair tentacles, her ears could hear the motion of a fish in distant oceans. Ships floated on the skin of her, undulating to the motion of her heartbeat.

And she remembered. The Great Wave was devastating. It howled through her being, killing her fish, rooting up her mountains, scattering wreckage and bodies across the floor of her home. And she saw with Uinen's eyes, a small form struggling up a mountain, praying, pleading, and her heart was filled with compassion.

"And so you saved us," Tar-Míriel said, falling back into herself.

Uinen's answer was a kiss. This new mouth had sharper teeth than Tar-Míriel was used to, and she carefully covered them, not wanting to hurt the Sea-Queen, but Uinen laughed into her mind and took her deeper.

Her hair swirled around Tar-Míriel, and the hair was not hair but tentacles, and they slid against Tar-Míriel's body, playing her like an instrument, bringing her such pleasure. There was a hidden slit in her lower half, and some of the tentacles pressed inside. Tar-Míriel shuddered with delight and abandoned herself to joy, spilling freely and warmly at the Sea-Queen's touch, arching up against her without care or worry.

"Welcome home," Uinen said at last, a sensual whisper into her mind. Somewhere in Tar-Míriel's head, Uinen was laughing.