Chapter 187 — What Are the Sirens

"Beyond all this, there are legends claiming that the sirens do not shun human contact, but rather possess the power to take human form, so that when they come ashore they blend at once into the crowd... Yes, the power of transformation—many tales assert that sirens can assume ten thousand forms, formless as water, and so may become any shape at all. More than half the legends of sea monsters in the far oceans are their handiwork.

"Also, some legends say the sirens make planned visits to land. Since they live so long, they take a kind of pleasure in observing the development of short-lived civilizations like humanity; whenever human civilization rises or falls, they come running, full of curiosity, to watch. Others hold that the sirens visit land in search of certain things. Certain texts of the silver elves contain records, sworn to by their authors, of contact with the sirens, and say that the sirens converse peaceably with the intelligent beings of land. Sometimes they seek help from 'land folk,' and so long as the land folk can grant their wishes, they receive exceedingly generous recompense—sometimes rare jewels from the deep sea, sometimes strange and wondrous magical devices. The sea elf royal family is said to possess a trident that can unleash thunder and lightning; it was a gift from the sirens a thousand years ago.

"Yet other legends hold that the sirens seem not to know the value of the gifts they give. They simply hand things to land folk according to their own whims. Sometimes you point out a road for them and they give you a chest of pearls; sometimes you do them an enormous service and they give you only a piece of fish—and the fish still bears tooth marks. The records on this point, too, were left by the silver elves."

Gao Yang cut Pi Yun off. "If one encounters sirens on a voyage to the far ocean, how would they treat those who 'invade the sea'?"

Pi Yun's eyebrows went up. "Now you have touched upon a blind spot in my knowledge. But by most accounts, meeting sirens in the far ocean is very, very dangerous."

"Very dangerous?" Gao Yang frowned. "Don't many legends say the sirens converse peaceably with people on land? They even give gifts..."

"But that is on land," Pi Yun said, his expression grave. "In the ocean they seem to turn aggressive. Especially when lost voyagers enter waters they should not enter, the sirens at once take the form of terrifying sea monsters to drive them off, even to pursue them. They are the children of the sea, possessed of unimaginable power upon it. Even the thunder and lightning summoned by the mightiest magisters cannot rival their storms. There are so many horror stories about far-ocean voyages—they are not all idle wind."

Gao Yang frowned. "Is that so..."

And at that very moment, in the deep eastern sea far from the Loren Continent, a number of graceful, slender figures were gliding swiftly over the dark, profound seafloor. Their serpent tails or fish tails swayed in the water, lending these beautiful, clever beings the speed and elusiveness of phantoms of the deep.

They had no notion that two humans on a distant continent had made them a topic of discussion. For these deep-sea saltwater fish, there was still very important work awaiting them.

One siren crested a "ridge" upon the seafloor and surveyed the scene unfurling ahead along the ocean's contours. Her peculiar "deep-sea vision" let her gaze very far indeed through the blackness of the abyss.

A tentacle vast beyond astonishment stretched across the seafloor ahead, its length crusted in layer upon layer of coral and deep-sea growths. Scattered around it lay a great quantity of shattered flesh and blood, utterly devoid of life, yet showing not the slightest sign of decay.

And farther still, at the end of that tentacle stretching out like a small mountain range, a vaster shadow could faintly be made out: a still more colossal mass of flesh and blood, the direction of the "First Excavation Site."

The leader of the excavation squad slapped her long serpent tail against the sandy seafloor, then raised the tip high and waved it rapidly through the water like a banner. She shouted her orders to her crew: "We dig here today! Everyone, give it your all!"

The sirens answered in unison: "Give it our all!"

"Don't get too carried away with the 'squid'—don't waste time!"

"Don't waste time!"

"No sneaking bites of the engine fuel!"

"No sneaking bites of the engine fuel!"

"Dig!"

"Break ground!"