AN: Woo, new story! May sound a little cliched at the start (according to my beta) but i promice you it is nothing like what the usual plots and is not MarySue (no romance for a start).

Anyway, Enjoy! (review - politely please, i don't dignify flames with an answer - i will take constructive criticism however).

Disclaimer (this one will do for entire story) - i don't own anything except a student loan and a fondness for rewriting cliche's into (hopefully) good stories. You can take the loan (well the repayments anyway) but i'd like to try and keep the inspiration.

Daughter of the Sea .

"Aista!" Aistanen, to use her full name, turned and swooped the little girl up into her arms. Her next door neighbour's six-year-old daughter was very sweet and over the moon at having an 'adult' friend. Once in Aista's arms, she nuzzled into her neck.

"And how have you been, young one?" That was all the conversation Aista needed to make for the next several minutes. How something so little could talk so much always baffled Aista. She nodded to the girl's parents as she carried Lena round the back of the house. Both were happy to have their daughter taken off their hands for a little while.

Round the back of the house was the old man Aista lived with. Her father travelled around for his business and so was rarely home to look after his only child. Her mother had died years ago, though it had been before that that Aista's father had employed Sartamin to care for his family while he was gone.

Aista always wondered what his job had been before caring for her and her mother, and why he agreed to babysit a woman and her daughter for someone who was never around. He was, however, very good company and more of a father than her own had ever been.

When he saw his charge enter the back garden with the little girl, he grinned and rose to retrieve some cakes and drinks. It was summer at the moment and one of the fairly rare occasions upon which they could actually enjoy the garden. The British summer tended to make a bit of an in and out visit rather than a prolonged stay.

XXX

Once Lena had been returned to her parents, Sartamin turned to his charge.

"I have news that should make you happy." He grinned at her as she made 'come on' gesture. "Your father called, he should be visiting soon." Aista grinned and whooped. Though she didn't see her father that often, she loved it when she did. He was very kind and loving and he always reminded her of where she got her unusual, eye catching looks from. Both she and her father had sea-blue eyes, hers touched with a hint of her mother's green eyes, and silver-blue hair that many people thought came out of a bottle. More than once, children at her school had joked that she was destined to be an ice queen with colouring like that.

"Did he say when?" Sarta sighed slightly.

"You know your father, he never gives a date just says 'soon'. Either way, I have prepared his room for him." Aista snorted slightly, her father could be singularly vague about time; it was one of his more irritating habits. As for 'his room' it was a room in the house that was always there for him when he came home, though he had never really used it. When her mother died, they had moved house, though like the old one, it had a little cove with a boat out the back. Aista would have thought that, since her mother had drowned in the cove at the back of the last house, the last thing they would want with their new house was another cove. It seemed that it was a specific requirement for any house her father bought however.

"Sarta? You know, it's occurred to me that you never talk of your family..." She trailed off questioningly. Sarta smiled knowingly at her, recognising the fishing for information.

"I suppose there is no harm in telling you, child." No matter that she was already doing an MA at University, she would always be child to the old man. "I had two brothers once, though they went exploring in the East a long time ago and no-one has seen them since. Their names were Palando and Alatar and we were three of a much larger family, who all worked for you father and his family."

"Father has a family? Why have I never heard of them?" Sarta laughed slightly.

"Yes, your father does have a family, but they have been long estranged. He occasionally goes to visit them when he is called for an important meeting, but even then he does not always attend. He finds them very much judgemental, over-reactionary, and selfish. The worse split was over when they decided to forsake a group who needed them because they had rebelled due to an evil influence. It is hard to explain more, but suffice to say, your father's sense of responsibility verses their puffed-up injury was more than slightly problematic in the family relationship."

"No offense, Sarta, but that did sound a little like what my University tutors would call a 'biased account of events'." The old man laughed.

"Throughout the argument, I remained loyal to your father. Suffice to say, I am a little biased in my opinion." Aista laughed.

"What more can you tell me about this family I know nothing of?"

"Of your father's generation, there were originally 15, though one of the elder contended against the others, as he disagreed with the path they were taking. He split off eventually and went off on his own and became truly evil. He was always a master of persuasion and corrupted others well, and he enjoyed trying to ruin your family's plans, as well as life. He was an absolute megalomaniac. Unfortunately, he used his powers of persuasion to cause the rebellion, which resulted in your family to forsake those that needed them. Your father was the only one to see that they hadn't become evil and joined the evil side, but that their ruler was insane and easily led astray, and that they followed their leader." Aista raised her eyebrows, if he hadn't been putting it in terms of her family, she would have thought he was telling stories of the Greek gods or something. Sarta saw her face and changed the subject slightly.

"Of the 14 remaining, all but your father and one called Nienna were married to one of the others, and no, they are not all siblings, they are not that incestuous, its rather more complicated than that. I suspect your father has never told them of his marriage or his daughter, hence the fact he has never told you anything of your family. All my relatives work for one or another of them. I suppose serving your family is our family business so to speak, though it can cause rifts when we side with an individual in the group. I have not spoken to my family since before I came to care for you and your mother."

They talked a little while longer before Sarta shooed her upstairs.

As Aista curled up, she reflected that she had learnt more of her family, and of Sarta's, in one night than she had in all the rest of her life. Even so, she still did not know the names of more than her carer's brothers. She wondered if she would ever find out, maybe she would ask when her father actually turned up.

XXX

A few days later, she drove home from University to find Sarta waiting for her, white as a sheet. As she entered, ready to ask what was wrong, Sarta started talking fast.

"Something has gone wrong; you are in danger, your father called to say we must leave here immediately. I have already packed for you, we must go. Now!" He'd rarely been so forceful. As Aista looked round for the bags he's supposedly packed to take them out to the car, Sarta shook his head and led her out back to the little cove and to the boat they kept there. Aista frowned, now completely confused as to what was going on. Why would they be leaving in the boat?

She didn't have time to ask questions, as she was herded on to the boat and sent below decks to one of the two small cabins. She watched through the port hole as the boat left the cove at full speed. It did not take long for land to be out of sight. Aista wondered where Sarta was taking her.

As they went further and further, less things seemed to be adding up. Aista knew the local seaways and they should have been looking at land by now. What on Earth was going on?

Suddenly, out of nowhere it seemed, a storm came up around the boat. Aista had never been in so strong a storm on a boat before and she was terrified. She wanted to go up to the cockpit, where Sarta was, for some reassurance if nothing else, but he had ordered her to remain down below.

Eventually, she got too scared and went upstairs to the cockpit. Sarta now looked different somehow, he glowed. He was yelling in some strange language – cursing, it almost seemed. She only caught one phrase before the boat cracked in two. A command to 'stop this' to someone with another strange name.

She did not have time to dwell on it, as the boat started to sink and they tried to swim. Eventually, Aista gave up to the waves and whatever they would do. She was probably dead now, in the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a storm far from land...