#I stole the idea that sirens were created by Demeter to help rescue Persephone

[unadulteratedkr]

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Oh my god, I'm not gonna talk about how long it took me to get back to this 😂😂😂 I am very glad to report that this prompt did kick me in the pants to start writing again, and so a very big Thank You for that

"Come All You Sailors" by the Wailin' Jennys

lyrics | song

When the Stranger stole the Maiden from her Mother, sirens were sent to save her. It was only when they returned, singing of the Maiden’s desire to remain on the border between life and death, that the Mother cursed them to their pitiful existence as the hidden terror of the seas.

The feathers on his wings had needed grooming. The wretched irritation of dirt and sweat never abandoned Jaime’s recollection of the day the Mother had removed the wings that carried sirens high, singing their song to draw humanity’s gaze upwards to the heavens. The wings had itched from the grime of the passage between the realm of souls and the realm of the gods, and then there had been nothing but burning as the Mother ripped them from his body and the figures of his brothers and sisters. Even now, Jaime could remember the itch as if it were a phantom brushing against his shoulder, the torment a punishment from the Mother for failing to return her daughter.

The majority of his siblings had made their new home in the mouth of river that fed into the magnificent city humans had built for their kings. One of his sisters, Cersei, had vowed to make all the gods pay for the savagery execute on them, and she had turned her focus on their most precious of creations. The Men of Westeros told tales across their kingdoms of beautiful men and women with voices of honeyed poison and the tails of fishes, desiring nothing more than for an unwitting sailor to fling himself into the sea. Jaime had watched and sung his own song of vengeance for a hundred or so years, but his rage could not carry him forever.

No, Jaime had dived into the deeps of the sea, urging the clear and cold saltwater to soothe the invisible wounds of his perceived failure until he finally surfaced in the almost impossibly blue waters that caressed a handful of tiny islands that seemed to be beneath the notice of the humans his siblings tormented. Beyond the Sapphire Isle, Jaime could sense the open sea stretching far and wide, but Jaime could no more abandon humans as he could have forced the Maiden to abandon the Stranger she loved so well. He had been created to sing to them, and there was a deep current of longing to be near humanity he could not ignore.

So he circled the isles, singing songs of desire to those who dared listen. Jaime never let his voice get too close to the islands themselves; he had no wish to be blamed for someone diving into the cold waters to their death. No, Jaime saved his songs for the ships that brought violence from across the open waters of the sea. Men with gold in their teeth and nothing but blood-lust in their eyes. He had seen that look on his siblings’ faces when the Mother had discarded them into the sea. He sang to those evil men, demanding they turn their sails towards the choppy waters of the bay, luring them to the hidden reefs with rocks sharp enough to drown their ships. It became known as Shipbreaker Bay, and Jaime always felt the invisible itching from his destroyed wings was at its most bearable on days where he earned the name.

However, the gods had not seen fit to grant him with unending endurance along with the gift of immortality, and Jaime was ashamed to wake from slumber to discover one of the tiny islands he circled recovering from a fleeing ship. Jaime’s hands curled as if he still had the raptor talons to unleash on the fleeing pirates and it was only when his back burned in the agony of what was no longer there, Jaime realized he had tried to snap his missing wings open to pursue the ship as it sailed for the horizon. The pain elicited a keening wail as he sank back under the surface. The cool water filled Jaime’s open mouth and as his guilt and the saltwater mixed together, Jaime found himself almost choking.

The shock of half-filled lungs brought Jaime back to the surface, and he went white with dread as he threw himself into long strokes, swimming towards the shore. Jaime cursed himself for being so careless; he knew all too well that the keen of a siren could kill. Jaime no longer prayed to any of the gods, but he found himself dangerously close to it as he sped towards the pebbled beach still smoking from the pirate raid.

Jaime slowed as he reached the shallows, ducking under the blue water to ensure no one had taken it upon themselves to drown themselves thanks to his song. He could see only a single person’s feet, barely submerged, and Jaime risked surfacing in the dim light of dusk, ready to sing the human back to shore.

A young woman stood in the shallows, barefoot, impossibly tall, and holding a bloody sword in one hand. Her other hand clutched a handkerchief to her still-bleeding nose from what Jaime suspected must be a fresh break. Satisfied that the girl was merely cleansing herself after defending her home, Jaime turned to swim back into the waters of Shipbreaker Bay, when he saw her eyes. They shared the color of the sea Jaime had spent the last century and a half defending, and they were glassy with tears.

The tears suddenly stopped, and the woman’s impossible eyes widened in shock. Jaime realized too late that it was because her blue eyes had met his green ones.

Jaime opened his mouth.