Chapter Eighteen: Seven Sirens of the Great Seas

One moment, they were sinking into the cool floorboards. The next thing he knew, he was scrunching his white toes in a batch of warm, bluish sand and they were outdoors underneath a balmy sun. Tom craned his pale neck towards a twinkling, clear, sunny sky and smiled with his eyes closed. The sunlight felt magnificent against his skin and what little modesty he possessed fell away from him as he slid off his black robes. He stood there, allowing a perfect breeze and a glorious sun to caress his bare body and he took a giant breath so he could drink in the pure ocean air. He opened his eyes with lazy happiness and turned his head to the horizon where aquamarine waves undulated as if to greet him and him alone.

He was pulled out of his reverie by the distinct sound of feminine chatter and his squalid heart jolted alive.

Ariel bent down to collect her seashells and carefully placed them back in her messenger bag. When she stood back up, she was stalled by what she saw. While his nakedness didn't startle her in the slightest, what she saw on his back made her stomach knot with alarm: A symbol she knew to be the Deathly Hallows took up the entire canvas that was his back. At first, she thought, this is simply a tattoo, done by some heavy-handed scratcher of an artist, but the longer she traced over his back with her eyes did what she saw made her blood run cold. The symbol looked as if it had been carved into his back. The lines were thick, raised and mangled-looking like an old scar of a brutal attack.

He turned his head and saw her stares. "What?" He glanced backward then laughed as he had just remembered something. "Thanks for reminding me." He said as he bent down to retrieve a small sack from his robes. He stuck his entire arm into the ridiculously small cloth bag and rummaged around until he finally pulled out a few articles of muggle clothes which he quickly threw on. As he dressed, he spotted Ariel's stares and told her, "Ma, it's just a tattoo. I got it 30 years ago."

"It looked like a scar."

"Tattoos are, technically, scars."

She gave him an unconvinced stare.

He didn't look at her though. He was squinting and smiling ahead at the purple lagoon where six languishing mermaids gossiped, arguing, antagonized, and talked over another with their angelic voices. He felt drunk with joy. To him, this was the pinnacle of his career in seeking immortality: Conversing and enjoying the company of real immortal beings. It was nearly giddy, thinking soon I will be one. But for now, he got to be in the company of goddesses and that was more than enough.

They meandered to the shoreline where Adella spotted them first and all their collective attention span was zeroed in on Ariel and this new younger stranger.

"Look what the catfish dragged in," observed Adella with her honeysuckle lilt as they swam to the edge of the waters to greet the pair. "Where's Severus, baby sister? Don't tell me you've already traded in one human for another."

"No, unfortunately for all of you, we are still together."

"Ha, pay up," Adella said to Attina who grudgingly handed over a silver dollar.

"They've already met Severus?" Tom asked teasingly. "I didn't realize you two were getting so serious."

"Of course, they have met Severus and they already like him better than they like me," said Ariel as she waded through the purple lagoon to receive a hug from each of her sisters.

"Vicious lies," said Adella as she swam over to embrace her sister.

"We only asked because we made a list of words we wanted him to say," insisted Adriana with her cheerful lisp pointing to an area of sand where words were had been written with a finger.

"Fawning, salacious, exquisite," listed Attina with a poised, euphonic reading voice.

"Rutabaga," chimed in Arista her voice reminding Tom instantly of a red summer dawn.

"Rutabaga isn't a sexy word," argued Aquatta whose voice had a welcoming, soothing, but cool tone. Like Aloe lotion on a sunburn.

"I just want to see if he could make it sound sexy," said Arista as she made her way to embrace Ariel. She glanced over her shoulder, her bright orchid eyes blinking curiously at the young man who hung back at the edge of the lagoon. When she let go, she asked her sister, "Aren't you going to introduce us to your shy friend?"

Tom stopped studying his reflection in the glass-like waters in order to lift his head and watch Ariel as she addressed her sisters. She pivoted herself so that she could switch her gaze between her sisters and him as she announced, "Sissies…I would like you to meet someone. His name's Tom and…he's…my son. I, uh, fostered him when he was a kid and when I came to land, we reunited and—decided to make it official."

It was the first time she had ever called him her son aloud.

Tom beamed at her, eyes stinging, lips shaking from smiling too hard. She held out her hand for him and he propelled himself into the waters to reach for it.

There were a few, audible gasps.

"You…you adopted a witch?" Arista gasped her voice pitchy as it started to crack as tears appeared in her big, violet eyes.

"Uh-huh," said Ariel, in-between sniffles.

"You're a mom?" cried out Alana and Aquatta.

"I'm an auntie?" Attina cried, her voice two octaves higher than normal, her hands crossed over her breast as if to save her heart from exploding.

Pandemonium ensued as the six sisters dissipated into an excited frenzy. Adella, Adriana, and Arista pushed Ariel aside so they could group tackle hug Tom off his feet and proceed to lavish the young man with soft pinches, sloppy kisses, intrusive questions, and adoring praise.

"Look at him!" remarked Adella. "He even has her eyes!"

"No, he has ice blue eyes like his aunt," Adriana argued, gesturing from his eyes to her big blue eyes with pride. "Ariel's eyes are more of an ocean blue."

Arista smushed his cheeks between her hands and cried, "Such a handsome boy!" She released him and slung her shoulder around his as she whispered, "I bet you fend off admirers with a sword."

"A sword no but a wand yes," replied Tom with a jackal's laugh.

"You seem like you'd be a terrible flirt," Arista said.

"Well if I am, I probably got it from my Aunt Arista."

Arista let out a false gasp of offense while a shadow of a flattered grin tugging at the corners of her lovely lips. "What lies has my sister told you of me?"

"None! I only know what I've read of you."

His words caught the attention of Alana, Attinna, and Aquatta who had railed around Ariel, demanding to know the why's and how's and when's of this adoption tale.

"You've read of us?" asked Attina.

"I've gobbled up every book I could find about you seven," said Tom, his eyes flashed over all of them. He could have basked in their beauty for days. How they were all equally the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on rendered him momentarily speechless.

"Whatever you've read, it's all lies!" Adella interjected causing all of them to laugh.

"I sincerely hope not," said Tom with a shark-like grin. To Arista, he said, "Some of my favorite stories growing up were about the Blonde Bane of Belize."

"Aw, Belize! Good times..."

"Or about Queen Attina of the Great Deep. Wise and beautiful ruler of the largest underwater kingdom in the world. Or of Adriana, whose eyes were so captivating it inspired the poet Agnes Ainsworth to write seventeen hundred sonnets about them and them alone? Or of Alana, who once burped so hard it caused a Tsunami that wiped out half of Ireland."

Alana grinned proudly at her sisters. "I always knew muggle writers were fascinated by us."

"But we never thought we were subject to such extensive research," said Adriana with a coy smile that belied otherwise.

"What a sweetheart," Adella whispered to Ariel.

"He's very sweet," said Ariel in a voice slightly louder than normal. "When he wants to be."

"When am I ever anything less than polite and well-behaved around you?" said Tom with a mawkish smile.

Ariel gave him a tucked-in lopsided grin. "That's very true. You were always good to me."

"That's because you were always good to me." Then, he said, his voice soaked with a tenderness he wished he showed more often, "And I'm forever grateful that you came into my life."

This garnered a collective "aww".

"If you two keep making us cry, this lagoon is going to turn into an ocean," said Aquatta wryly as she used a knuckle to dry a tear.

"I can't help it," he said his eyes pinned on Ariel. He turned his head to his aunts and told them, "I'm still in awe that a creature like her took an interest in me. I mean, she would go out of her way, once a year, to spend the day with me. Me. This no-nothing child that she didn't owe a single thing to. I used to look forward to that day more than Christmas and my birthday and every holiday combine. And there was never a day that we spent together that wasn't filled with joy and laughter and wisdom and love…No, no, it's true. You were a perfect older figure to me. Your sister was the first person in my life to make me feel loved and valued and cared for…And…And…" He turned to Ariel, his eyes shining with stuck tears, face soft with the need to know. "Mom, I have to know. Why? Why, out of all the children in the world, why did you choose me? Why me?"

Ariel hesitated. "Do you really want to know?"

He took her by the hand and breathed, "Yes."

She looked down at his hand sitting on top of hers then lifted her head and said, "I remember looking at you and just knowing right away that you were full of this…rage. I figured, maybe, if I became your friend…you wouldn't grow up to be a serial murderer."

He stalled as if trying to decipher whether or not she was telling the truth. Then, his eyes scrunched tight and his lips parted wide as he bent over into uncontrollable laughter. His laughter was contagious to everyone but Ariel who cut a worried side glance at Tom who cackled away, as if it were truly the funniest thing he had ever heard. Eventually, he stopped laughing hard enough to wrap his arms around her neck and profess with total endearment, "I love you so much, mom."

"Aww…"

"I love you too, son."

"Awwwwww…"

From there, the conversation changed. Tom floated quietly while he lost himself in their various conversations, giving half-truths to questions when they were thrown his way, smiling often, occasionally darting out of the lagoon to sip from his collection of Polyjuice brew.

"You're not going to share?" teased Aquatta when he made another trip for a drink.

"You're welcome to have some, but sadly they haven't invented an allergy potion yet that gets you drunk," Tom lied after another gulp.

"There's an idea for you, Ariel," said Attina.

Ariel smiled but said nothing. Her silence tempted Tom to search through her thoughts, to see what troubled her, but then Adella addressed him. "So, Tom, tell us about yourself."

"Oh, I'm not that interesting. I mostly spend my free time reading and practicing magic."

"No love interests?" asked Arista slyly.

"I've always preferred the single life."

"Aww, so no grandchildren for Ariel I see."

"I'm afraid not."

"Probably for the best," remarked Arista. "I mean, what with the state your world is right now."

"What with that deranged bastard running around," said Aquatta furiously.

"Lord Fuckface," said Adriana.

"Lord Avortement," added Attina.

"Très intelligent," chuckled Tom.

"Ah, tu parles français?"

"Un peu."

"He-who-needs-to-get-stabbed-in-the-face," giggled Alana.

"Wait wait wait I got one. The Twat Lord," interjected Tom. "No, wait that sucked. Attina's was better."

"Attina did have the best one," agreed Aquatta. "But it's a relief to hear you're not another one of that monster's followers."

"Oh, trust me. I am no follower," said Tom.

"Smart boy," said Arista giving his cheek an affectionate squeeze.

"You know, I didn't think celestial creatures like yourself concerned yourself with the lives of witches."

"We normally don't," replied Aquatta.

"But the stories we've heard," said Adriana her sentence trailing off with an involuntary shudder.

"It's a damn shame he didn't stay dead," stated Alana.

Despite what they were saying about him, Tom couldn't be more thrilled. This was the highlight of his career as a Dark Lord. Not only were these Goddesses of the Great Seas aware of his existence but they spoke of him in their free time and held strong enough opinions about him to ridicule him! He never felt more seen in his entire life. He looked at Ariel, hoping to see motherly pride in her eyes but her face was cloudy and distrustful. He could hear her thoughts, one false move and I'll claw your face off. Her thoughts pained him greatly. How could she think…but then again how could she not? Without losing her gaze, he dug into swim shorts pocket and heaved his wand into the sand where it remained, untouched, for the remainder of his time with them.