A/N: I've had some Edira requests I haven't gotten around to so I wanted to so here's something of her i wanted to offer!
TW: siren trickery, enslavement, ‘master/slave’ roles, siren x sailor shenanigans
Fem! Yan siren x GN! sailor
The ocean could be a cruel vixen, capable of ushering starving, crowded ships a bountiful harvest one moment, only to capsize a lifeboat the next. Her wrath was often pointed towards replaceable deckhands whose disappearances in the night or soundless falls into the dark sea scarcely went most often unnoticed.
You might’ve been a slippery, invisible thing to most of your crewmates, but you were quick to learn how to handle the sea’s fickle temperament after weeks of slimy boat floors and hauling barrels of fish. What you weren't prepared for however, were the uncanny, intelligent beasts that roamed within her, the ghost-like figures who commanded the waves with more power than a mere human could ever imagine to wield.
That night the rough waves did little to phase your hardened stomach, no longer sloshing against the ship as they once had; but the pale, wet figure sitting atop the ship's edge turned your insides into something thick-- like tar, breeding unease and something akin to fear inside you.
She hummed a melancholic melody, moody in the night and like that of mournful sailors songs. Beautiful wouldn't be the first word you'd use to describe her voice; It left traces of a haunting tune floating up to your ears, her hair tangled and slicked back to offer a full view of her long, glistening throat.
You had grown accustomed to dirty scales covering the ship floor from the fish cutters, stacks of wooden crates dedicated to fish heads and unsavory entrails. But to see a similar tail-- that of the hue of murky water, with shines of sea blue-- on a woman, her lower half melting in a gradient of beautiful scales below her pelvic bone, was a sight that forced you to let out a ragged gasp.
"Say sailor," She mused, clear as a bell. She leered at your unfortunate state, her gaze that of a predator disguised as prey. "Are you missing something?"
In her outstretched palm was a locket, sharp fingernails pinching at the clasp. The locket was in the shape of a heart, small barnacles encrusted on its tip and the gold dulled into a scratched, rustic brown.
Let alone the fact you've never seen the item before, you wouldn't be caught dead bringing something worth of value onto the wet, algae-ridden bunker of the boat where the crew slept, shit, and stole anything they could get their hands on.
"Never seen that b'fore," eyeing her, you walked a suspicious step closer; she seemed harmless, sitting there in the moonlight with a dazzling expression on her plush lips; you knew better than to be so blindly trusting. "Where'd you come from? There's no one out here for miles."
She sighed a deep, throaty hum, gazing down at the piece of fine jewelry. It looked like it was from another time, another continent.
"Are you sure this isn’t yours? Perhaps you should take a closer look.”
The rigid tilt of her head threw you off guard, seeing the bottom fins of her tail flip in a thoughtless twitch. Water continued to run down the length of her arms, the dark green of a long, pointed fin on her back slick with a viscous coating.
“Come closer to be sure, I promise I don’t bite. Hard.”
The slight smile of her closed lips was playful, as if there was nothing held behind it-- no secret or suspicious motive. But the dance of her answer around your question left your feet hesitant to move. How many times had the crew members told drunken stories about beautiful beasts that were half-human, half-creature who lured sailors fishers to their deaths? Her vibrant tail didn’t leave much to wonder about. Unlike you, the crew slurred on about just how fine a death caused by a beautiful woman would be. There weren’t many other ways to die out here that were as rewarding.
The woman ushered you forward with a nod of her head, allowing the jewelry to dangle. The closer you came, keeping your hand resting on the small knife at your side, her beauty rose higher to a blinding glare. She wasn't like the bright-eyed and young women down on the docks, awaiting their lovers or looking to give sailors a good time; though her skin was as smooth and pliant as theirs had been.
Her physique was full, her smile matured and sharp. It might've been mistaken for warm, if you hadn't seen how it didn't quite reach her eyes. Those soft, dancing hazel eyes. They seemed to shift hue the longer you looked into them.
As you moved forward she pulled the locket closer to herself, dangerously beside her bare collar and breast, almost encouraging the shameless downturn of your eyes, before you realized the insanity of the matter.
"You can have it, if it suits you." She hums, raising the locket. It delicately grazes at the tip of your moist cheek, slick with small raindrops that had fallen since night clouded over. It was cold, and smelt of the fish barrels…
"Whats your name?" You ask, looking for a shred of fear or evil in her eyes, only to find nothing but a quiet emptiness.
"If I give you mine, will you give me yours, dashing sailor?"
"M'not a sailor, just a deckhand." You murmur, embarrassed of having to correct yourself into a lower title. A moment passes before you reluctantly offer her your name.
She sings it in a low voice, velvet flowing from her curled, needle-tipped tongue.
The locket opens from the clasp simply despite the woman's jagged nails that pry it apart.
"I'm a seductress-- a sea witch, you sailors might call me," She whispers, as if the sadistic joke is humorous only to her. "But I prefer Edira, if you must have a name for me."
The chain wraps upon your neck before you realize she's got her arms around you, pulling the rusted clasp to a close.
"Edira," You breathe, watching as she becomes a hazy grey-blue blur in front of you, so close you can smell the salt in her hair. The locket is shifted around to rest on the front of your chest, the woman's hands running over it, and in turn over your sailing coat.
"Mmn, it sounds surprisingly lovely from your tongue, as unfortunate as it is to admit." With a whiff of the air, you can see her swallow thickly, the frilled gills at her neck moving in a shivering rhythm. "Truth be told, I hate beasts like you."
Her bright smile was ghostly with the shine of her teeth all of a sudden, nearly salivating as she dared to move closer. The insult caught you off guard, a twinge of rejection following it rather than fear.
"So easy, so tortured," She whined, tilting her head in false sympathy. "It almost makes me want to keep you as a pet! You can't even tell when danger is right in front of you. I can't imagine how you've fared this long without a protector; a master.”
The locket is like a heavy weight around your neck, dragging you closer to Edira as she beckons for you with a flick of her cold, pulseless fingers.
"What right do you have to enslave someone, when you yourself can only rely on your charms?" You seethe, realizing the slow teeter of her body bending towards the ocean, your own in tow. It was as if you were drawn to her, two magnets following one another. The locket was suffocating, now as you fought against its tightening grip.
"But my charms are what caught you, leaving you so exposed. Don't blame me for being tricked into such an easy trap, sailor."
She pulled the cap from your head, the one that had scarcely kept the sun from your eyes. Tossing it aside, she leaned up towards you in a violent thrust.
Her opal lips nearly touched yours, just as her lashes scarcely melded with your own.
"You're the devil's work, witch!" Is all you could muster, the growing weight of the locket bringing your head down in a bow as it dug into the skin of your nape.
"And now, you absolute fool, you belong to such a witch.” She runs a hand down your head, the gentle caress turning to a gripping fistful of your hair. “You’ll do nicely to pay for the sins of your kind, not that any of them here would notice your disappearance.”
Edira forces your head back to meet her eye, the locket keeping you low to the salt and fish-smelling ship floor.
“Fine! do what you wish-- I may be nothing here, but you won’t find it easy to kill me. No matter how far down you drag me, torture me, my soul will never be yours, nor any sea demon’s!”
You clench your teeth together, holding back a grimace at the increasing weight on your neck.
The siren cocks an eyebrow at the ruthlessness in your eyes, alongside it the very evident fear-- either of your imminent death, or the idea of your silent disappearance into the salty, cool water.
The creature bends close to your crouched figure, pulling your head closer from the grip on your hair.
“It gives me great pleasure to tell you-- it already is.” The siren’s mouth opens, as if she leans forward to kiss you. “Don’t fret though, little sailor-- I do not want your flesh, not yet. You have so many other ways to serve me; I have no reason to kill you now.”
The dawn of relief is short-lived at the idea of staying alive-- could being a ‘slave’ to whatever desires she has-- from carnal to bloodlust-- be a fate worse than death?
Her tongue is ice cold, thick with some sort of saliva that reminds you of the texture of jellyfish often caught in your ship’s nets. It slides up your cheek, pushing against it in a way of shameless enjoyment. Her breath is faintly warmer, damp and thick on your skin.
Her sticky pull-away leaves you feeling tainted and dirty.
“We’ve got so much fun to be had before your crewmates notice you’re gone.”
The airy laugh she lets out upon diving from the ship is not lost on you, nor is the dread of no one coming to send out a search for you, or even holding a memorial in your name.
The existential fear of your meaninglessness on that ship comes to fall short, as the locket around your neck drags you over the side of the ship, pulling you to follow a disappearing tail beneath the water’s surface.
