From the Depths
A Life for a Life

Henry woke the next morning, unsure of when he had drifted off. His eyes jerked open realising that he shouldn’t have fallen asleep when she had been so worried about her own health.

Looking down he studied the small frail form in his hold. A smile crept onto the corner of his lips only to fade as he noticed...

The gentle rise and fall of her chest when she breathed was laboured and heavily delayed.

Her skin was cool to the touch even with his own body heat attempting to aid hers.

“Shit!” He exclaimed as he bolted upright and turned her onto her back. He gently shook her calling her name. “Kirea?”

He gently slapped her cheek a couple of times in an attempt to wake her. “Come on Kirea...”

It was then that panic set in.

She shouldn’t be this far along.

Something was wrong.

“No, no no no. Kirea you need to wake up!” He shook her again, but there was no response.

He rested his hand just above her mouth, the breath on his palm was hardly noticeable.

“Damn it! Not now! It’s too soon!” His fist clenched as he fought back a mountain of emotions.

It was as though she’d skipped a stage in the disease, it had progressed too rapidly. He’d witnessed it too many times to fathom, he knew this wasn’t the way it happened.

Then came a thought, Ren. He had given her a small amount of time before, maybe he could do the same again, or at least replace out what was causing her body to shut down so quickly.

“Hang in there just a little longer. I’m going to get help.” He gently squeezed her hand in the hopes that she could still hear or feel him.

Covering her with the blanket and tucking her back in an attempt at trying to keep her warm, he then left in a hurry. There was no point in replaceing a doctor, only magic could realistically help her now.

Ren had made it a point to keep his legs until this evening, it would serve them better to have another able body to help where needed for the day to come, especially with Kirea getting weaker.

For that reason, he’d spent most of the night trying to recall everything he had overheard when he had been in captivity at home. If you could call it a home. He knew he had the abilities, just none of the know-how. She was his mate, there had to be something that he could do, something that would extend her life... but nothing was useful, or he simply didn’t understand what he had heard.

Suddenly, Henry burst through the cavern doorway covered in sweat and in a state of sheer panic, taking Ren completely by surprise. He bolted upright, a grave mistake for someone who had never slept on a hard surface before. He let out a breathless shriek as his back protested to the movement.

“Help! You need to help her!” Henry collapsed to his knees utterly exhausted. “Ren, she’s dying!”

Ren knew something was wrong, they both already knew that Kirea was dying, but his frantic state told another story. “What’s wrong?”

“She won’t wake, this isn’t meant to happen yet. It’s too soon. Something has escalated it.”

Ren’s heart clenched tightly in his chest. “I don’t think I can do anything else for her... I don’t know how.”

Henry’s pained expression reflected Ren's own feelings.

Henry's worst fear coming to full fruition at the siren’s words. “Then... then we must go to her, so we can be with her when she passes. I... I can’t do this alone, not again.” He pleaded.

Ren held out a hand to the Knight. Henry clasped the Siren’s forearm and heaved himself to his feet.

“Put on my cloak and shirt that are hanging. It will help mask your scent.” The Knight offered.

They both knew this was a huge risk, but one Henry knew the siren would take.

Ren did as he was instructed, and before long they were headed back to the castle and Kirea. Henry didn’t even bother to try to hide the Siren this time. He moved like any other man through the corridors looking much more natural this time around. Both their thoughts were solely on one thing, no distractions caused an issue.

Before long they finally entered her small room.

Ren sank to his knees beside her bed while Henry positioned himself on the mattress beside her. He could see that she wasn’t in a good way. Henry’s worried expression only added to the sorrow-filled atmosphere of the room.

“I don’t think she has long...” The knight muttered as he gently retrieved her hand from under the blankets.

Following the interaction Ren’s eyes widened in realization. “You love her.”

Henry smiled weakly. “Not the way you do.”

“I think you’re wrong.” Ren tilted his head. “Love doesn’t have to be desire and pleasure, it’s how that person makes you feel in here.” Reaching up, he placed his hand on the Knight’s chest over his heart.

“We call that a platonic love, like how you love family.” Henry placed his own hand over the Siren’s giving it a little squeeze. “Like how I consider you a friend or brother in arms.”

“I don’t love my family, I feel more for you and Kirea than I do for any blood relation.” Ren pointed out.

Henry’s gaze moved from the Siren to the sleeping form beside him. “Family isn’t blood. Blood is just your genetic make-up nothing more, it has no true value, no meaning when it comes to love.” His mouth crept into a half smile as his bottom lip quivered. “She is a true friend, one that I will never replace again.”

Leaning forward Ren’s placed his forehead against the side of her head, closing down his eyes he whispered sweet words of love to her. He listened to the light thump of her heartbeat as it slowly became slower and fainter.

She was leaving them.

On the next diminishing thud of her heart, Ren noticed something, he frowned. His eyes fluttered open and he righted his posture, his expression deepened not quite understanding what he was seeing or feeling as he studied her form. Standing, he flung the blanket off to stare down at her more intensely.

“What is it?” Henry asked confused.

“Her life is being diverted, all her energy is not circulating through her body like it normally would.” Ren couldn’t explain it, it was difficult to put into words. "Something is stealing it."

“What does that mean? Can we fix it!?”

“I understand very little of life essence, and how it works in the body.” He turned to Henry and pulled him to his feet. “Normally, as it is with you. The energy starts here-” He pointed to the Knight’s heart. “From here the energy circulates through the body like the blood, it returns to this same point to be... refilled or recharged, before circulating again.” He motioned with his hands how the flow normally worked. “For Kirea, it’s coming from here-” Ren points to Henry’s heart again. “But is only reaching here, and is not returning.” He points to Henry’s lower abdomen. “Something there is taking her energy, and draining her. Her body doesn’t have enough energy to continue to function or reproduce more essence for itself, it's shutting down.”

Henry looked down at his abdomen confused then over to Kirea. “It can’t be...”

Ren tilted his head in a questioning manner.

“Ren, can you check for another life within her?” He asked.

The siren immediately went ghostly white. He sat down beside her, hovering his hand above her abdomen and concentrating. Clenching his outstretched hand into a fist he looked grimly up to the Knight and nodded. “She’s with child. It’s only just happened and it’s faint, but it's there.”

“All her energy is being diverted to allow the child to grow, that’s why her body has fallen so far in such a short time!” Henry explained.

“This is all my fault, I didn’t think it possible...” A million thoughts were racing through the siren’s mind. “If we remove the child, she may recover for a short while, however...”

The men looked at each other. “She wouldn’t want that.” They both said in unison.

“But if we do nothing, they both die,” Henry added with a pained expression.

Ren lifted his hand to his own chest. His fingers lingered over his heart. The female of his kind that had forced him to the surface would have taken his heart for her child if she hadn’t been interrupted. The King wanted his heart for immortality... if he gave it to Kirea, what could it do for her? It already belonged to her.

Making up his mind he looked sternly at the Knight. “Your knife Henry.”

He shot a look toward the Siren. “Why?”

“She needs my heart.” He stated plainly.

“You can’t just force-feed her your heart!” The Knight protested. “One, she’s unconscious at the moment. And two, I’m not explaining that to her. Hell no. Oh hey, you’re awake and alive Kirea! Yikey, oh and by the way, you ate the love of your life’s heart to live. Yeah, no thank you.”

Ren rolled his eyes. Reaching forward he took hold of her thin nightgown and tore it open to reveal her chest.

“Hey!” Henry went to stop him, but the look the Siren gave him made him stop dead.

“I’m going to replace her heart with mine. I don’t even know if it will work, but I have to try. If my heart is so damn powerful, enough to help sirens carry to term or to turn a human immortal then it has to do something for her.”

“She won’t like this.” Henry shook his head.

“It’s not just for her. The child deserves a better life than what I have, then what she’s had.” He held out his hand for the weapon again. “Let me do this for them.”

“She won’t accept this,” Henry warned.

“I’m to spend my life in a cave, for hundreds of years, by myself! Or I can save them both right now, and give them what I can’t have! Give me the Knife!” Ren ordered though he made no move to take it by force. He knew what he was asking of the Knight was harsh.

With a clenched jaw, Henry unsheathed the small dagger that was on his belt, it never left his side. His hand was tightly clenched around the dagger looking at the siren’s outstretched hand. The edge of the Knights jaw twitched, but he handed over the weapon nonetheless.

“Thank you.” Ren took the weapon, holding it oddly.

He’d never held such a tool before, but he’d seen Henry use it, he knew what he needed to do. Thankfully for him, blood was mostly composed of water, in theory, he would be able to control its flow for a short while. Hopefully.

Stripping off the cloak and shirt that he had borrowed he plunged the dagger into his chest. He let out a silent scream as his mouth opened wide. He still needed to do this without alerting the entire castle.

Henry came to his aid, holding his shoulders firmly as he began to carve a ‘c’ shape incision around his heart. Focusing on the areas around the incision he wrapped his essence around the wound stopping the flow of blood from escaping. However, it wasn’t perfect, a trickle of blood ran down his abdomen in protest. Already his body was trying to heal the damage and he had to fight against it, willing it to not knit itself together.

Once through the muscle layer came the hard part. His body was screaming at him to stop. The pain was blinding, and when his hand disappeared under the flap of the incestion the feelings only made him want to heave and vomit. He used Henry’s contact as an anchor, focusing on his hands on his shoulder, trying to ground himself somehow as he proceeded to move his ribs out of the way.

Crack.

Snap.

Pop.

Flinging the bones aside he could finally access his heart. Cutting his heart out was far easier than snapping the bones of his rib cage. Retrieving the organ he let go of the essence he was holding to keep his body from healing. Blood immediately flowed but was soon stopped as his body appeared to seal the external injury rather quickly. Internally, however, he wouldn’t be able to regrow the organ. And yet oddly enough, it still pulsed in his hand.

“Help me.” He managed to gasp as he could feel his body fading fast. “Cut open her chest.”

Henry took the knife and repeated what the siren had done to himself as though in a trance. After making the incision he swiftly broke her ribs but didn’t discard them.

Ren still held his heart while his other hand rested on Kirea's arm allowing him to channel what little energy he had left in his body into hers to stop her from bleeding out during the procedure.

But, her heart had stopped by the time Henry was able to retrieve it. What shocked Henry the most was that her insides weren’t the bright red that one would expect, instead they were a deep dark red, almost black in some spots. Not until that moment had he seen what it really meant for a person to rot from the inside. His mind remained completely blank as though his body was moving on its own as he continued to work to the siren's command.

“Replace it.” Ren breathlessly ordered. “Mine still beats.”

Henry looked at the swaying siren, his eyes were half open, his form looking extremely weak. Not even having to think about it, he swapped the hearts. Taking the merman’s still beating heart and giving him Kirea’s still one.

The air shifted, startling the Knight and gripping him with fear. Whatever spell had been placed on him had disappeared the moment he took Ren's heart from his grasp. The atmosphere and feelings that wrapped around him were beyond description. The air felt electrified and filled with power while he felt horrified at the fact that he was holding a still-beating heart.

“Hurry, there’s still time. They are not lost to us yet.” Ren tried to encourage haste.

Henry was shaking now, his hands covered in blood as he placed the mysterious organ inside her body, realigning her rips and repositioning the flap of skin that he had cut into.

Shock settling in and taking over. He couldn't believe what he was doing.

Ren was breathing heavily, gasping for air now. He had appeared to weaken considerably more when the Knight had taken his heart. Only now did Henry notice that the tips of the Siren’s limbs for changing. A faint fizzing sound could be heard. On closer inspection, Ren appeared to be very slowly fading away starting from his feet and fingers. His limbs were being eaten away by an unseen force, his body turning to foam and disappearing inch by inch.

“Henry-”

The Knight’s traumatized gaze flicked between Kirea’s miraculous healing chest wound to the dissolving siren and back again.

Everything was happening so fast.

“Take care of them both for me.”

He nodded, not able to replace words to express... it was so surreal. His throat was so tight, his muscles so tense. He couldn’t believe what he had just done. He knew Ren had helped him through it somehow, but once he no longer had hold of his heart all his power had vanished... transferring with the heart to Kirea.