Mage Assassin 2 Chapter 3

I cleared the clouds in the water to try and find the face that belonged to the sweet voice. The water was softer than normal, and it almost felt like I was touching a cloud when I waved my hand through it.

Because Ephelia was a siren, she could travel through the waters of the world, and she could read through them like the Master could as well. This wasn’t a skill I possessed, so I always had to wait until she came to me instead of the other way around, and over the past few weeks, I had seen her often.

I had seen her in person a few times, but if she was away from the strange, aquamarine green waters of her goddesses for too long, then her energy began to drain, so most of our communication happened in the fountains of my estate.

The soft lullabies from the siren grew slightly louder, and I knew she was nearing now.

Then I finally saw the beautiful siren again, and she was just as striking to behold in the water as she was out of it.

Ephelia was a petite siren, with skin that looked like it had been quickly dipped in a sea of light-green. Her features were pointed like a pixie, and she had the cutest buttoned nose, but the most distinguishing thing about her was her large, doe eyes. They were the biggest I had ever seen, and they fell in the corners like teardrops. White speckles dotted her dark blue irises, and when I stared into them, it was like looking into a vast galaxy. Her wavy, periwinkle hair usually fell over her bare breasts like a waterfall, but in the fountain, the soft strands surrounded her head and dissipated into the milky water like halo.

“Ephy, you look beautiful,” I told her as if I hadn’t said that every time I saw her. “I miss you, too.”

“You’re so perfect, Dex Morgan,” she sighed in a musical tone. “I can’t believe I have someone as handsome as you to visit. I just wish I could be with you all the time.”

“I promise I’ll come to visit you as soon as I can,” I returned.

“Soon isn’t soon enough,” she hummed.

There was a hint of sadness in her voice, which wasn’t like her at all. The siren couldn’t even frown without really, really trying to, so to hear her speak with a choked voice made my heart ache.

“Has anything happened, Ephelia?” I asked her.

“No,” she murmured. “But… tell me about the estate. Are you handling everything okay?”

“Yes, everything is going well,” I returned. She obviously didn’t want to talk about whatever was troubling her, so I played into it and allowed the both of us to enjoy each other’s company. “The estate is really busy at the moment, but I guess that’s a good thing, even if it does mean I can’t see you as often as I would like to.”

“And Cinis?” the siren asked. “How is she?”

“She’s also good,” I laughed lightly, and just the thought of how much the two women loved each other brought a smile to my face. “She’s been a lot calmer now that Ignis has been defeated. She’s here often, but she sometimes has to go to the Ardere still.”

“Well, that makes sense, the First Ember Priestess does have to reign over the ember fields,” she giggled.

Her laugh seemed forced, and I couldn’t help but pick up on it.

“Ephy.” I frowned. “Are you sure everything is okay?”

I watched the water carefully and saw her petite head dip slightly. If she was here in person, she would have been looking toward the floor.

“Yes,” she murmured softly. “It’s just… I know you’re busier than ever, but… I don’t know.”

“What’s the matter?” I asked. “You can tell me anything, you know.”

“It’s nothing,” she sighed. “I only hope it won’t be long until we can see each other again. That’s all.”

“It won’t be,” I promised her.

I could see in the way she looked at me that there was something bothering her, but I also knew I needed to be there in person to get the truth out of her. I couldn’t bear to see her sad and lonely, and I hoped she was just missing me, because that was something I could fix.

Then I realized this issue was something I could fix today if I shuffled my schedule around a bit.

“I have to go,” I suddenly announced. “I have a meeting in a minute, but I promise I will come to the pond and see you soon.”

“But… ” she sadly returned

“I’ll see you soon,” I told her again.

Then I left the fountain’s edge at once, headed to the door, and left to go see the siren face-to-face.

I knew I had research to do surrounding the king and this case with the allegedly lecherous duke, and I was always one for being concise and on time with everything, but when my Ephy called to me with that glumness in her sweet voice, there was no other choice.

Compared to the king’s own angelic duchess, the beautiful siren took priority in my life.

The pond of the water goddesses laid in the Forest of Hud to the northeast, so it wasn’t too far away from me, but because Ephelia seemed to be in distress, I decided a water salamander was my best mode of transport.

I quickly found the nearest stream to my road and stalked along it until I came across a slimy brown salamander sprawled out on the bank. The beast was giant, much larger than a horse and ten times faster, too, but on land they moved like slugs. Once I hopped on its back, I nudged it with my foot, and then I impatiently waited for the amphibian to haul itself into the water. It took almost a full minute, but the moment it slunk into the stream, I nudged it again, hunched over its body, and held on tight as it jetted off.

The wind raced through my hair as we sped through the waters, and my satchel held on to my shoulder as it flew behind me. My clothes jittered in the wind as we coasted along the stream, and tiny water droplets sprayed up from the water. Every now and then, I made the confident choice to remove my hand from the beast and wipe away the small speckles that stung like I had been hit with small hailstones, but within a matter of minutes, I had reached my destination.

I halted the slippery beast and waited for it to wade up to the banks again, and then I jumped off, gave it a pat, and turned on my heel to head for the forest ahead of me.

The Forest of Hud was usually very unforgiving, but considering I’d helped it tremendously by killing the fire titan, it had been pretty pleasant to deal with lately. At least, it allowed me access to the pond, and the pond only. I didn’t know when we formally came up with the deal, but I wasn’t going to argue with the forest about details, especially knowing what it did to uninvited guests.

I was still skeptical about how long this good-standing would last, though.

The Forest of Hud was a fickle beast, so this could only be temporary, and I was waiting for the day everything within the trees turned against me.

I looked up to the trees now and announced myself, and then I waited for the shrubs to part. One by one, the branches started to unwind from each other, and finally, an almost-black hollow way appeared in the hedges ahead.

Ocadia was bright and sunny today, and this made the shadowy tunnel of plants look even more intimidating, but I was growing used to this.

The forest was always dark lately. Ever since Ignis’ attack, Hud had started using the canopy treetops as a constant shield, and the last few freckles of light that normally could have gotten through the trees were now completely banished.

I trod carefully as I neared the living forest and hunched down to squeeze through the tiny gap it had made for me.

“Thank you,” I whispered to the all-hearing and all-knowing woodlands.

Then the forest quickly knitted back together behind me, and I was locked in the pitch blackness. Luckily, thanks to my confusing and unspoken agreement with the forest, glow worms started to lead the way.

The small, glowing bugs wriggled around in circles, and with each set I passed, more appeared ahead, and I urgently followed them through the slender hollow way while vines knotted around me on all sides.

Nobody really knew what the forest truly contained, it was one of the biggest secrets of the kingdom, and those who dared enter and defy it were met with a torturous end. Some wouldn’t even come back out, while others would just go completely mad. It was always a risk entering here, but this didn’t stop me.

A few weeks ago, I had only been into the woods a handful of times, but since visiting Cinis, I had found more and more ways to travel through the unforgiving forest.

It took a little while to get to the pond, but the journey wasn’t too tense, and I was starting to enjoy the strange darkness of the winding hollow way. I could tell when I was nearing the pond because a foggy blue light appeared ahead, and in a moment, I was spat out of the hollow way and onto a grassy knoll. Blue fog submerged the woods here, but after I crossed deep into the mist, I saw the hump of a hill that glowed a hazy aquamarine. I quickly jogged up the hill, and when I reached the top, I looked down to see seven sirens sitting on the edge of the mystical pond.

The pond itself was beyond enchanting. The forest was so dark, but the pond glowed as if it was the only source of light in the whole kingdom. Large stones sat on the sides while an abundance of greenery trailed into the water and dissipated all around the milky surface. The trees around the pond were illuminated by the aquamarine waters, and the faint chirping of birds could be heard around the edges.

Some of the naked sirens I saw were languidly running their fingers through their long, pastel-colored hair, and others rested their elbows on lily pads and perched their heads on top of their palms. Some others were playfully splashing around in the water, but I tore my gaze off their water-flecked breasts when I saw Ephy’s periwinkle hair.

She wasn’t toward the back of the pond where the others stayed. Instead, she was on the far right, and only her hair peeked out from the water. She had surrounded herself with green algae and moss that floated on the water’s surface, and even from this distance, I could tell she was sulking down there.

“Thank you,” I announced to the forest once more. “I won’t be long.”

Then I ran down the hill and headed straight toward my beautiful siren.

As soon as the other siren’s saw me coming, they gasped in lyrical tones and dashed into the water. They were timid and frightful creatures, and even though they had seen me a few times, they still startled every time I appeared. I chuckled at the sudden splashing of the bathing beauties, but I kept my gaze on Ephy’s hair.

“Ephelia!” I called to the petite woman.

The siren shot up from the water’s surface and turned to me, and her blue eyes sparkled with delight the moment she saw me.

“Dex Morgan!” she sang in her soft voice and swam over to me. “You’re here! I didn’t realize you were going to be here so soon! It feels like it’s been forever.”

“Forever and a day,” I playfully corrected her.

I dropped to my knees and leaned over the side of the pond, and then I caught her damp body in my arms and dragged her closer. She was just as beautiful in the fountains as she was in real life, but nothing was as good as getting to touch her again, and I wasted no time in delving my tongue into her sweet mouth.

The siren’s lips were silky soft, and everytime I kissed her, I suddenly never wanted to stop. Her lyrical whimpers kept me devouring her tongue for nearly a full minute, too, and when I finally released her, Ephy was already staring longingly at my lips again.

“You sounded so sad, and I couldn’t bear to think of you being alone out here,” I told her. “I had to come see you.”

“I’m glad you did,” she said and kissed me again. “I’ve really, really missed you.”

“I’ve missed you, too,” I repeated. “But I’m here now.”

“For how long?” she asked with a longing in her voice.

“However long you want me for,” I returned.

Even with her green-tinted skin, I saw her blush. Then she shyly looked down before her big blue eyes fluttered up to me again, and she drifted away from me.

“Wait here,” she tittered. “I just need to do something.”

I looked at her with a puzzled expression, and she giggled before she dove under the water.

The ripples in the pond lapped over each other, and I continued to watch them until they had completely disappeared. The aquamarine glow that radiated from the water seemed to bounce through the air, and the blue fog broke away and traveled over in my direction. The mist wasn’t really hot or cold, and it didn’t even have a smell. It just existed, and I let myself lay back on my elbows in the grass as I admired the mystical view.

There was something so serene about the aquamarine glow that resonated from the pond of the water goddesses. I watched the lilies as they fluttered toward the edges of the banks, and the other green debris that wallowed on the water’s surface rolled in gentle waves. I almost forgot entirely that Ephy was sad, and I wondered if she really had only missed me so much that she actually frowned over it.

Then I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned around and saw the siren standing behind me.

Ephy wore her finely-made lilypad skirt that barely covered the apex of her delicious thighs. Her wavy, periwinkle hair fell perfectly over her bare breasts, and she looked down to me with a teasing smile.

I laughed and grabbed her by the waist, and she happily fell on top of me. Then her supple legs straddled mine, and she looked at me with the same longing in her teardrop eyes. Her light-green skin was softer than clouds to the touch, and she smelled as sweet as honeydew all over. The water droplets on her soft body trailed slowly over all of her curves, and as she leaned in, she placed her small hand on my face and kissed me for longer than I could keep track of.

I groaned as I cupped her lily-pad-covered ass, and I let her kiss me until my lips were practically numb.

“I know I’ve said it a million times already, but I have to say it again,” she sighed against my lips. “I’ve missed you…”

“I can tell,” I whispered as the siren pressed herself firmly against me.

Then she fluttered between kissing me and stroking my shoulders and hair before she finally settled for wrapping her arms around my neck.

“Do you want to come swim with me?” she asked me when our lips finally parted.

I glanced at the sacred, glowing pond of the water goddesses.

“No,” I replied. “I still don’t want to temp it.”

“Okay.” Ephy smiled. “Well, let’s do something fun! We can’t just spend the entire time kissing each other.”

“We can’t?” I teased and fondled her perfect backend.

The siren giggled and kissed me again, but then she pulled away and bit her lip.

“Let’s walk around the pond!” she said excitedly and hopped up from my lap. “I love to walk with you.”

She held out her dainty hand for me to take, and I chuckled and let her try to haul me up for a moment, but after she huffed and squeaked in the effort, I humored her and got up.

Then we walked hand in hand around the perimeter of the large, mystical pond, but I wasn’t interested in the strange fauna that grew around it, or the neon plants that grew in it. Instead, I was focused on Ephelia, and everytime I watched her from the side of my eye, she caught me and giggled over the attention. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen the pond already, anyway, but I loved to watch the way she interacted with it.

I could tell that she had only ever experienced walking around it when she was with me, because everytime she would see the small snowdrops that clustered around the trees, she would bend down and cup them between her fingers. She was always so intrigued about everything and was as delicate as those flowers, but she seemed as resilient as the pond that had sat here for who knew how long.

After our walk, I sat down and leaned my back against a tree, and the siren promptly snuggled under my arm with her cheek on my chest. She gently swirled her fingers around on my torso as she sighed like she was in a dream, and it felt like time had stopped, and nothing in the kingdom existed.

I had no cares in the world, no responsibilities or troubles, and just being near the siren was a far cry from the stressful situations I had constantly been put in lately. I looked down at the ethereal creature snuggled against me, and I stroked her soft, periwinkle hair.
Sirens like her were healers by nature. They were the caretakers of the world, and I could feel this from the energy that radiated off of her and into me. I felt happy and serene, calm and relaxed, and I would have stayed there for a million years if I could have.

“I adore you, you know,” I informed the cuddly siren.

She giggled and looked up. “I adore you more, Dex Morgan. I’m never happier than when I get to hold you this close.”

“Really?” I hummed. “Well… you could hold me a lot closer than this, if you like.”

Ephelia’s cheeks blushed pink as her eyes somehow became even wider than they already were, and she looked incredibly innocent all of a sudden. Then she leaned and kissed me so softly, I wasn’t sure if I imagined her lips.

But heat blazed in my chest, and I knotted my hand in her hair and pulled her in for a more thorough kiss. The siren let out the softest moan as I slid my tongue into her mouth, and all at once, she was trembling like a leaf.

Ephy was holding me tighter now, and she climbed onto my lap as she let her sweet tongue tangle with mine. For one heartstopping minute, I thought I was finally going to experience everything I’d been imagining with the sexy little siren. I could feel the warmth of her pussy through my pants, and she instinctively rolled her hips against me. She trembled even more as I trailed my fingers up her soft thighs, but as I slowly inched them under her delicate, lily-pad skirt, something in the atmosphere started to change.

My skin started to prickle, and the hairs on my arm stood up, and in an instant, the temperature dropped. It felt like winter had suddenly descended in the forest, and the birds stopped chirping as everything fell silent.

Then I suddenly had the feeling that someone was watching me, but when I glanced around, there was no one there.

But the glow of the pond was now pulsing.

It turned from a bright, effervescent aquamarine, to a dull, ghoulish green, and a moment later, the silent birds suddenly took off through the thick canopy.

Sticks and leaves cascaded down behind them, and I sheltered the both of us with my arms until the hail of debris stopped, but when I looked up again, everything was still.

Eerily still.

“What’s going on?” I whispered as Ephy scurried off my lap.

She looked at me with that same concerned expression I had seen on her face in the fountain today.

“I-I don’t know,” the siren said in a small voice. “The waters are not happy…”

“Is this why you were upset earlier?” I demanded. “Has this been going on for a while?”

“Umm,” she trailed and glanced toward the pond.

The glow suddenly became brighter, and the blue fog thickened twice as much, but then the water seemed to pulse more rapidly as the temperature dropped several more degrees.

Ephelia shivered violently as goosebumps dotted her light-green skin.

“Ephy…” I said in a sterner tone. “What are you not telling me?”

The siren refused to look over, so I got up and approached the water’s edge and then knelt to take a careful look at what was going on. I chose not to stare directly into the water like last time, because I didn’t want to get transfixed like I had done once before, but then something else drew my attention from the pulsing green glow of the water.

The leaves in the canopy above started to rattle and shake, and whole branches fell to the forest floor. A gust of wind came in from the north and nearly knocked me onto my back, and I shoved my hand through my hair to try and see what the hell was going on.

Then I looked over at Ephy, but it was like she didn’t notice any of this. She was huddled over the edge of the pond and looking out into the water, and she had an expression as if she was listening to someone talking to her.

The wind started to chatter, and for a second, I thought I could hear a deep monotone voice telling me to leave, but that was impossible. There was nobody here to tell me to go. I looked all around to prove it to myself, and only blowing leaves and dense blue fog surrounded the pulsing, glowing pond.

“Dex Morgan,” Ephy gasped breathlessly.

I looked over to where the siren was pointing, and I saw the most peculiar thing had started happening in the pond. It still glowed that fluorescent aquamarine, but now the lily pads were shifting from the outside inward. They knitted together to form a dense, green blanket, and then they started to cover the whole watery surface.

The siren looked at me with fear burning in her big eyes.

“I have to go,” she lulled as the pond started to disappear before our eyes. “If the pond closes up, then I can’t get my energy from anywhere. I’ll be stranded out here.”

“But--” I started to say.

Ephy pushed herself into the water at once, and she rested her chest on the side of the bank while lilypads swelled in around her.

I quickly ran over to her and took her by the hand.

“I don’t understand what’s happening,” I said, and I tried to stay calm, but it looked like the leafy blanket would swallow her whole.

“It’s the water goddesses,” Ephy confessed and clung to my hands. “They… they don’t like it when non-water beings come back and forth as they please to see the sirens. We’re… we’re sacred to them.”

“But they haven’t said anything to me about it so far, and I’ve been here a couple of times,” I exclaimed. “Wouldn’t they just come out and tell me as much?”

“Dex Morgan, the water goddesses don’t work like that,” she said in her small voice. “They don’t exist to make small talk with people, they exist as an element.”

“I see,” I muttered, but I only tightened my hold on her hands.

I wished we could have been together longer, especially after feeling how urgently she kissed me while she trembled with excitement. It never felt like I had been with her for long enough, and I knew that she felt the same way. But she was tied to the pond, and I was tied to my estate in Ocadia, and the last thing I wanted was to see her suffer.

I also really didn’t want to piss off a bunch of water goddesses.

But this was Ephy.

“There must be a way to get the goddesses to understand,” I whispered to her.

“I’m sure they’ll calm down,” she whispered back, but I got the feeling she wasn’t really so sure about this. Then the siren pulled me in and kissed me again. “But for now, you should leave before the forest turns on you, too.”

I looked back at the disingenuous woodlands, and then at Ephy. I knew she was right, but I savored the last couple of seconds I could have with her as the icy winds blasted over me again, and the lilypads crawled up Ephy’s shoulders.

“Come with me,” I pleaded. “You can come to Ocadia for a while and stay with me until I figure everything out.”

“Oh, Dex Morgan,” she sighed. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“But it can,” I insisted.

“The life of a siren is much more complicated,” Ephelia reminded me. “If the pond closes without me, then I won’t have it to come back to when I run out of energy. I’ll be in the most horrible pain.”

“So, we’ll keep on visiting…” I trailed.

“And what if it stays closed?” she asked. “I may never have energy again. I will have to stay here as long as they wish, Dex Morgan. But you must go.”

“Do you think water goddesses would really punish you so much for wanting to spend time with me?” I scoffed. “The goddesses and I got along fine when I spoke to them, and you’re a lovely siren. I’m sure they wouldn’t do that--”

“Sirens mean a lot to the goddesses,” Ephy exclaimed. “They only act this way to protect us, and our own good comes before all mortals. They can be nice to your kind, but it’s not on merit, they were only that way with you because of what you sought to do for Mage Abyssi. Now that you found out who killed him and have avenged his death, they owe you nothing besides the rain and the water you drink and bathe in.”

“I see,” I muttered.

“And I am very important around here,” she continued, and I furrowed my brow. “They won’t risk me getting hurt.”

“But I would never hurt you,” I told her.

“I know you won’t.” Ephy smiled.

There was so much I wanted to say to Ephy, but she knew the goddesses better than I did, and the temperature continued to drop so rapidly that she was shivering all over now.

“I’ll go.” I nodded.

“I don’t want to see you go,” the siren whimpered through chattering teeth. “But you really do need to leave before you are harmed, and I… I have to stay here.”

She bowed her head and sank lower into the water. The lily pads were crawling over her hair now, and I knew I had to let her go.

I gave the beautiful siren one last kiss, and then I stood up and looked down at her.

“Ephelia,” I said, and she looked up at me with bowed eyebrows. “I promise you that I’ll come back to visit as soon as I can, and it won’t be long, okay?”

“Okay.” The siren forced a smile. “I’ll always be waiting for you, Dex Morgan.”

Her chest was rising and falling with her heavy breaths, and she nodded at me. Then she slowly sank under the water, and as the remnants of her hair floated down with her, the lily pads quickly came together and covered the pond entirely.

I was now in complete darkness.

The aquamarine glow had disappeared, and Ephy had gone, and suddenly, I remembered just how uninviting the Forest of Hud truly was.