A story of mermaids, magic and dark passion.

The characters Owene, the Sorcerer and Adam were written by Gordon Napier

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The character Cancer was written by Alyssa White:

On a moonlit night, just after the sun had set, when the horizon still glowed like a fire over the western sea, Owene sat sadly on the quayside. The salty breeze caught hold of the locks of golden hair that strayed from under her bonnet, and made them dance across her face. It also added to the tears glistening in her large blue eyes. As usual, she was thinking of Adam; how she missed him, and how she regretted encouraging him to sail distant seas, simply so that he might have money, and keep her in comfort. She wished he were back with her instead of lost far away. She wished she could take back her arrogant words. She sensed he was out there, somewhere, in spite of all the reports that had reached back to her that his ship, the Calcutta Lion has been lost with all hands, many months ago, amid wild storms in the mid Atlantic. The deep is perilous… how often had she heard that from the veteran mariners of the town where she and Adam had grown up. She had noticed a strange, distant look in the old sailors' eyes, as if remembering many things too dreadful to mention. Sometimes she turns cruel. Aye, sometimes she takes men, takes the life out of them. It was a port town that had sacrificed many sons to the sea. Owene was the vicar's daughter, and knew her father had presided over many a funeral without a body to put in the ground- the bones of the seafaring sons the town mourned rolled around in the place that the old salts, who had survived a life on the waves spoke of in hushed tones as Davy Jones's locker. The relatives of the lost, who gathered at the church on the cliff for these memorial serviced, were told to take comfort in the verses in the Bible. The verses that most haunted Owene, as though written on her heart, was- Revelation 20; 13.

And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works

She was nearly eighteen now, and Adam had been gone for nearly two years. Even her doting father had started to lose patience with Owene's stubborn refusal to believe that her lost sweetheart was gone forever. Even he had started to censure her for her hopeless harbourside vigils, and suggest that she should accept another man for a husband. But Owene could not bring herself to believe that Adam was dead. Somehow she felt that his spirit was still on this earth. What she did not know was that Adam was in a palace in the city below the waves, in the custody of a creature of the deep.

The water spirit Cancer swam below the waves, were the moonlight dispersed into the inky abyss. She moved towards the shore and into the bay, under the keels of the boats sheltering there, and between the heavy chains of their anchors. She lifted her head out of the water, and stared at the young girl, watching her intently. She lowered her head a little, empathising with her feeling her loss. She gazed with her red eyes constantly at the girl. To her surprise, Owene looked up, and peered back across the bay straight towards her.

The girl rose and made for the edge of the jetty, searching the waters for the pale face she thought she had glimpsed. Cancer lowered her head and retreated into the shadow of one of the fishing boats. But then, still watching the girl, she dove under the water. In no time, she appeared again, closer now; and still she watched Owene. Cancer's voice rang like a soft song: 'Come to the water...'

The voice was sweet and silvery, to Owene's ears, and otherworldly. She thought she was dreaming. She looked about nervously. The harbour was unusually empty; the only the muffled, rougher sounds of conversation and song from a sailors' tavern, and the tune of an accordion. They would not hear.
'Owene!'
Owene's head jolted back to face the sea in surprise at the sound of her own name. The pale face was still there. 'Who are you?' the girl asked, urgently, across the water, in a voice hardly less lovely. She stooped down on the lowest step that led from the jetty, being careful not to slip on the sea slime that had been deposited there on countless tides.

Cancer moved closer. It seemed safe. She might never have called to Owene had she not found her alone. Still Cancer was wary. She too had heard the men in the tavern, and there was just a chance the girl on the shore would take fright as foolish humans were wont to do, and would call out to the men. Cancer did not want to get caught because human men would do things to her if they saw her set foot on the land. 'You are her...are you not? The lover... the lover of a sailor that was lost at sea? Adam who sailed from here...'
Owene pulled off her bonnet, distractedly. 'Adam…!' her voice quivered. 'Where is he- and who- what are you? Are you my mind playing tricks on me?'
'He does not know I'm here...' Cancer smiled slightly. 'And I'm not something in your mind. What I speak to you is the truth and you have to believe me... There was a disaster out there...he was lost. But…. But he is alive. He is well. I have been keeping watch over him. He does not know that I am here... He doesn't. But he is well... He was cast under a dark spell that… well…' Cancer stared at the girl still, watching her expression. 'So that he lives and breathes below the waves.'

Owene covered her face with her hands and hung he head so that her rippling golden hair fell forward, now blown wild by the saline breeze. Her body shook under the force of conflicting emotions. 'It cannot be! But if it is, look after him well, tell him I will love him forever!'

Swallowing tightly for a moment, Cancer was silent. 'I can take you to see him... but… it can only last momentarily. If I got caught you would be banished from the waters for eternity... and I would be sentenced... But if it is a chance you would like to take… then I can allow you to see him... to be with him one last time.'
Owene wiped her eyes. 'H... how?'

Cancer swam closer and carefully pulled herself from the water. The sight of her startled Owene. The strange creature looked like a beautiful woman. Her skin, like Owene's own, was like fine porcelain, radiant, smooth and even paler with some icy blue hint to it and a shine akin to fish scales though it appeared smooth. Her hair was bluish black in the moonlight and her eyes were a faintly luminous red. Her fingers were webbed and she had fins at her shoulders. Her garment reminded Owene of a fisherman's net, only it was woven of a fine silver thread. Owene was half frightened and half entranced by the sight of her. This apparition seemed to have stepped out of her strangest dreams. She has fins along the outer edges of her lower arm from her wrist to her elbow. Her ears were pointed and at the tip they resembled diaphanous fins.

'Untie your boots and leave them on the step' the creature said. She watched as Owene obeyed. Then, moving up to the girl, Cancer placed a hand on the back of her head and drew her close into a kiss, their lips locking. Once she released it, the girl would have trouble breathing the air. 'Come with me,' She took Owene's hand, leading her into the water.

Owene, tentatively, started to follow, as though under a spell. The cold waters lifted her skirts about her, and the sodden fabric soon felt heavy about her, as she descended. They swam out across the bay, into the open sea. The girl's extremities were numb and her teeth chattering. They were barely out of the harbour, and within her mind she wondered how she could survive, let alone swim on. 'We will dive soon,' Owene's strange companion told her. 'Soon you'll no longer feel the cold or any pain. You must trust me, and then you will see the place where Adam awaits you.'
Cancer's voice and the prospect of seeing Adam, beguiled Owene, and a dreamy trance soon overtook her mind. After a while, however, she became aware of a dark shape on the the horizon, a ship, masts and tattered sails silhouetted against the orange glow, giving off an air of menace that shattered her reverie. 'What is that?' she asked the strange sea-maiden fearfully. The aquatic creature seemed reticent to speak. Owene, not used to swimming, tread water, struggling against a saturated dress that seemed determined to drag her under.

As they stared, a ship's boat was lowered from the dark sailing ship, and rowed towards them. The lantern on its prow sent a long rippling reflection in the dark waves, and two smaller yellow lights- yellow eyes, burned above it. Narrowing her eyes, Cancer pulled the girl closed to her, watching the boat approach, its oars catching the waters, propelling it swiftly on. Protecting Owene, she held her tightly. Biting her lower lip she didn't move. Her hand covered the girl's mouth keeping her hushed.

'Owene!' came a low voice, carried on the waves. 'Do not be afraid!' As the boat drew closer, they could see the outline of a tall man stood at the fore, clad in a long, oily black garment, with ragged edges blowing in the breeze like and giving him a jagged outline. A wide, three-cornered hat covered his face and cast all into shadow but his eyes, which shone like yellow stars. He held up the lantern. 'Owene, come with us, and we will allow you forever with the man you seek!'
Narrowing her eyes more, Cancer muttered 'my bitterest enemy! Have you not ruined the lives of mortals enough!'
The Sorcerer of the Sea, for such was he, glanced down at the water nymph, then at Owene. 'Do not trust this sea witch, fair maid, for she seeks to keep your young man for herself! Do not trust her with your welfare! She means to drown you. Come, little one, come and sail with us, and we will take you to the place where you will find him!'

'What?' Cancer gasped, and her nose crinkled as she stared at him. She Looked back to Owene. 'He lies, Owene. If I meant to harm you I could have done so by now! Don't you trust me?'
Owene's brow creased, her wide blue eyes swam with confusion as they darted between the yellow eyes of the figure in the boat and the red ones of the strange nymph who held her in the water.
'Still you don't trust me.' Cancer said, touching her cheek. 'So be it. I'm taking you back to the shore, we will do this another night when the waters are no so drenched with darkness...' She propelled herself backwards, still holding on to Owene, and bore the girl back to the shores. Her blazing eyes never left the Sorcerer's as she withdrew to the quay.

And so Owene found herself back on the lonely quayside, as though it had all been nothing but a figment of her demented imagination after all. Shivering, she wrung out her dress, picked up her boots, and drifted back through the dark, narrow streets up to the parsonage where she lived with her father, and her elder sister Elizabeth.
'There you are,' Elizabeth folded her arms, from the stairs, as Owene crept in. 'And look at the state of you. What in the world happened? You look like a drowned rat!
Owene glanced up at her sister. Elizabeth had a severe look, not helped by the way she pulled her hair back so tightly into a bun. It seemed a wonder to Owene that her sister's forehead did not split open, especially when she was angry, as she was now.
'I'm sorry. I slipped and fell in the water.' Owene said. 'I'm fine. You shouldn't wait up for me.'
'Slipped and fell in the water? Owene what is the matter with you? You must stop this. Father worries himself to distraction about it, you have not a care about that!'
'Of course I care…'
'You foolish girl.' Elizabeth's strong hand squeezed Owene's arm with the intention of leaving bruises. Her voice became a hiss in her ear. 'God forgive you! You don't care about us. You don't care about the family's reputation. Going off alone to loiter at the port all night long. Don't imagine everyone thinks you're so innocent. And anyway, it's a miracle you haven't had worse things happen to you than falling into the water. If our mother, God rest her, could see you she'd be just as ashamed as father is. Now get out of those soaking clothes and get to bed before you catch your death.'

Owene was torn with guilt over causing her father worry, and wounded to her core by the thought of him being ashamed of her. Encountering the fury of Elizabeth had made the nights preceding events seem very unreal. The next day, though, she was more haunted by thoughts of Adam. She went up in the morning to tend her mother's grave, and found herself watching the sea from the churchyard for the remainder of the day. No big ships came in; there was no one to ask for word of Adam. She turned her head the other way, and looked along the coast, seeing the beaches and cliffs where she and Adam had walked and run and climbed in the times before he went away. She put a hand over her heart.

The sun set, and the rise of a bright moon brought to Owene's mind the strange events of the previous evening. Owene went to the waterside, hoping to find the sea creature, whoever or whatever she might be. A mist had closed in from the sea by the time Owene reached the harbour. There on the quay waited the figure in the dark cloak, holding his lantern. 'I know what ye desire, and I can grant it. But you must be obedient, and ask no questions. Will ye agree to that?'
Meekly she nodded, having nothing, she supposed, left to lose.
'Come then!' he said, in a hypnotic voice. His ship's boat was there, though she had not seen the sails of his ship on the horizon. The oarsmen had their backs to her, and did not look around. All wore ragged clothes of dark colour. She stepped onto the boat, helped by the tall man with the bright yellow eyes, and sat down as it moved off.
She caught sight of the hand of one of the crew, on his oar, and it hardly seemed a human hand, covered as it was in dark, glistening scales and with a membrane between the sharp-nailed fingers. She forced herself to look away and convinced herself that her mind was playing tricks on her again- if she wasn't out of her mind completely. It was just a glove that she had seen, she told herself, but dared not look back and see that hand. The sailors- whatever demons they might be- rowed towards their tall ship, which now loomed darkly out of the mist, as though it had suddenly sprung up from the depth.

They took her aboard the ship, which creaked and groaned as it rocked on the waves. Its motion, and the sinister aspect of the company, made Owene feel nauseous. The tall captain led her below, through the shadows to a dark, cramped cabin. He told her to undress completely before going to sleep. If she did not do precisely as instructed, he reminded her, she would never see her boy again. He told her not to fear, however, and produced a key, saying that she could lock and bolt the cabin door behind him and need not be concerned about being seen or disturbed. He left the key on a hook on the wall.

He bowed out and left her alone, and she was only too happy to lock the door and feel the door secure. With a shaking hand she returned the key to the hook, and then rubbed her arms. Then, remembering her instructions, she disrobed, folded her clothes over a stool, and went to the bed.

It was cold, fiendishly cold, for instead of linen or wool the little cabin bed was covered in a sort of chain mail sheet. The only concession to comfort was a coarse sheet of sackcloth under the chainmail, above a frayed and damp mattress. She supposed the metal covering was designed to stop the bed's occupant from rolling out if the ship should rock, but she had never heard of such a thing. The covering was indeed heavy and unbearably cold (sacking notwithstanding) against her naked body once she had slipped under it, and she thought she would never sleep under these torturous conditions. Tiredness- exhaustion- had its way, though, and she slept.

When she awoke, she was aware of a deeper gloom and coldness. Strangely, though her eyes could see through the gloom, and though aware of the cold she could no longer feel it- somehow. She raised an arm, drawing back the sheet of metal rings. She touched her face and then her neck, and was horrified to feel three slits on the side of her throat, curving behind her ear. She thought for a moment that someone had come in and cut her with a knife. But where was the blood? Then she discovered three more slits on the other side. When she gasped she saw bubbles rising. Only then did she realize the fact… She was underwater! Her chamber was fully flooded, and by rights she should be drowning. Drawing back the metal and sack sheets further she saw that where her legs had been a scaly tail lay... she might have screamed but found herself mute with shock.

Cancer had gone to the shores that night to find Owene, but no one was there... She worried and dove under the water and swam quickly back to her palace where the man Adam was. She darted into his room quickly 'Something is wrong...'

Owene wondered if she had sunken into an abyss of madness, a strange dream at least, for everything she saw was impossibility itself. Her lower body was transformed into that of a great fish, and she was no-longer human. For however long she was paralysed with shock and dismay. She wanted to pull her legs up to her chest, huddle and weep, but her legs were gone, and there was only that alien tail. It would not go away, for all her prayers and whimpers. Would not change back. It was not even possible to weep, submerged in a salty sea of tears.
Eventually she rose from the bed, and crossed the floor, swimming unsteadily through the flooded cabin. She did not know what had happened or how, surely it was unholy magic of some sort, and it scared her. She could not find her clothes, half of which were now, at any rate, useless to her. They were gone- and yet the room was still locked from within, the key still on its hook, neither did the cabin have a window nor any other means of entry or egress. She was alone as before, but she was not what she had been last night. She was a thing she had thought only a myth- a mermaid in a sunken ship.

Owene tried the cabin door and sure enough found it still locked. She took the key and turned it. Getting to grips with her new fins, she swam through the submerged passages beyond, searching the other cabins but finding every one abandoned, and nothing to give her any clues to what had happened, let alone an answer.

Cancer did not know exactly what had happened but sensed that wickedness was at work, and had a good idea who might be behind it. She took off quickly through the water, to the dark depths of the ocean in search of the Sorcerer. She let her instincts guide her. At length she saw the dark silhouette of the sunken ship perched on an underwater ridge, with fish swimming around its masts where once birds had flown. She approached the hull, looking about for her archenemy, meaning to confront him. Carefully she swam around the side of the deserted ship looking for clues.

Within the ship, Owene swam towards the captain's cabin. Turning and looking through an open door she had the shock of her life when she saw a mermaid. It was a hypnotic sight, the flowing hair golden green in the aquatic light, the bright eyes set in a pale face, the shimmer of silvery scales on the tail. It took a moment for Owene to realise it was her own reflection in a large mirror. The only reminder of her former identity was the little crucifix necklace still hanging around her throat. The mermaid in the mirror was a beautiful creature, it occurred to her, as shock gave way to curiosity. Fair of face, delicate breasted, with a slim-wasted, graceful torso blending elegantly at the hips into the silver tail which culminated in a wide, diaphanous fin.
She shifted, crossing her arms over her chest, wondering if her soul had survived the transition into the creature in the looking glass. The room itself was empty, but for the mirror. Looking out through the cabin window, Owene saw the sea nymph, floating above the coral outside. She looked like a porcelain doll, her skin icy white. She had legs, Owene saw, but with webbed feet, the skirts of her netlike garment floating about them. Owene swam towards the window, placing her hands on the glass.

Not being able to find her adversary, Cancer swam off through the waters, her pace was slow, though as she looked about for any clue as to what is going on.

Owene knocked on the window, crying to catch Cancer's attention, hoping the other maid of the depth might be able to provide some answers, or to help her find Adam.

Cancer stopped and looked to the ship, she focussed her eyes on where the sound was coming from. Shifting quickly she swam to the ship and saw the girl peering out of the window. Signaling to her to back away, she picks up at rock and slammed it through the window shattering the glass panels. She looked at Owene. 'My stars, child, are you all right?'
'Half of me is!' Owene said, now in the detached calm state that lies beyond extreme shock. 'The rest of me is a fish!' She pulled herself through the broken window and swam down to join her.
Cancer stared at her, her red eyes widening. 'What has happened to you?'
'I was hoping you could tell me.'

Cancer swallowed, and then looked away, anger crossing her features. 'I'm going to kill that man,' she snarled, and then screamed into the water above her head. 'HEAR ME, SORCERER, IM GOING TO KILL YOU!' Then she looked at the mermaid. 'Come, Owene, I'm taking you to Adam.' She snatched up her hand and swam off quickly through the water to where Adam was. They swam over ruins, toppled columns and statues, to part of the city that survived almost intact.
'What is this place?' Owene asked her strange companion. 'And for that matter, please, who are you?'

'This is a place I can call my home... And I am Cancer...a creature of the oceans and the underwater lands.'

They moved down a street, between temples and grand buildings, half covered in seaweed. 'Is this Atlantis? Where are all the people? And what are they? Are they like you? Are they other mermaids? Are there other mermaids?'
Cancer couldn't help but laugh. 'I am the only one I know of, of my race. There are many other merfolk around... they are probably watching us now.' She led the way deeper into the city.
They saw two creatures, swimming down a street: humanoid, with bald heads, completely covered in dark green scales, with webbed feet and hands, and wearing red robes. 'What are they?' Owene asked, wide eyed.
'Don't stare.' Cancer pulled Cancer along not answering her question.
'You sound like my sister...' Owene broke off, realising how estranged she was now from her sister, her father, and all she had known. Still, she was supposedly close to Adam; that thought made it not so bad.

Cancer took Owene to a half ruined palace, which they entered through the yawning hole in the largest dome. Shoals of brightly coloured fish swam in and out through empty windows and holes in vaulted ceilings from which masonry had tumbled down to mosaic floors- some of the floors in turn had collapsed on to floors below.

'Adam is here?' Owene felt her heart racing.
'Yes.' Cancer led her through flooded corridors towards the room where Adam waited. 'Adam... I have a visitor for you...'
Owene peered around a doorpost, nervously, and her eyes met those of her long lost love.
'Owene!' Adam rose, with a look of disbelief. 'How can it be?'
She shook her head. 'Adam! Her heart fluttered, and her lovely smile beamed. My love, you're alive! I thought I'd never see you again!'
Cancer backed out of the room and headed off down the hall way with out a sound.
'Why are you hiding behind the door? Why do you not come here, and let me see you?' He sounded breathless. 'My arms have ached to hold you, my legs to run to you!'
'Owene flushed, her smile wavered. 'I have to tell you something, but I don't know how.'
'What is it?'
'Easier to show you, I suppose.'
She emerged around the doorframe.
'Dear Christ!' His jaw dropped and he stared at her unblinking. 'You're…'
Owene felt suddenly burdened by her tail, robbed of her humanity before the man she had loved. She looked behind her and saw Cancer disappearing. She looked back at the man's pale face. 'Adam, love, it is me!'
'How?'
'How can it be?' he stammered.
'I don't know. ...'
Owene tried to explain how she has missed him; about the figure that had taken her onto the ship...
'No. It's not true, it can't be true.' Adam backed away from her.
'It is!'
'How can it be?'
'I don't know.' She shook her head. 'I don't understand how it happened, by what sorcery, but it happened. Maybe Cancer can explain better.' Owene darted away to find solace in the other. Her tail gave her greater speed and soon she caught up with the porcelain skinned one, and calling her. As Cancer turned Owene looked at her sadly, plaintively. 'He doesn't believe it's me,' she said quietly. 'He doesn't believe it's me! Cancer, help me!'
Cancer looked at her, she was emotionless. 'I can not help you... You must explain this one on your own; we all have had to explain what has happened to us... Go back to him child. Do not follow me, where I go you don't want to follow.' She bowed her head a bit in a farewell and darted off.
'Where are you going?' Owene called after her.
Cancer did not look around. 'Nowhere… You and the man have each other now, go be with him.'
Owene's delicate shoulder's slumped. This was not happening how she had imagined it would.
'Cancer, please!'
Cancer turned around and her blazing red eyes narrowed. 'Fine! I will help you, but know this, you're pathetic!' She grabbed Owene by the wrist and pulled her back down the hall back to Adams room and in there, once in there she shut to door locking all three of them in the room. 'Adam, why do you not believe this is her?'
Adam still stared at Owene as though frightened by the sight of her tail. 'Bad dream, or horrible reality,' he muttered. 'She... this is a mermaid!'
Cancer stares at him. 'Yes… Yes, that is her own fault.' Cancer sighed. 'Adam... I don't see how you can think this isn't your Owene; this is she! I swear... And for all she has been through for your sake, you might treat her more kindly!'

Cancer left them, eventually, heading for her own haunts. She would seek the dark one, the Sorcerer of the waves, the one who had caused all this pain. She knew she would need to gather her strength before facing him, however. She looked around the ruins for a place to rest a while.

Owene felt nervous being alone again with Adam, under these unreal circumstances. She swam closer to him, holding out her hand, and gazing into his eyes, and finding that tears still stung in a sea of salty water. My love, it is me! I've missed you so, I'm so sorry I made you leave, that I expected you to be more than you were when you were perfect... I'm sorry that I have become this thing, but it happened when I was trying to find you! Please, do not spurn me now, I can't bear it!'

Adam felt a surge of love for Owene, and guilt of his own- and shame for hurting her now when he should be grateful to have her back. He rushed to her and took her hands, and then folded her in an embrace and stroked her hair. 'Oh my poor darling, it is I who should be sorry. I missed you too. I'm happy to have you back with me in any shape, believe me!'

Owene looked up into his face with eyes that seemed to glisten through the water. Soon they were on the bed locked in an embrace and kissing as fervently as they had when they had parted- if anything with a greater passion and desperation. They kissed tenderly, but with a wistful yearning, for they knew that now she was transformed into a mermaid they could do little more. Finally, they fell asleep in one-another's arms, in love despite their inability to make love. It was a blessing to be reunited thus, but a sort of curse too.

Cancer swam to the ruins and sat herself on the capital of a tall column, the last one still upright amid the toppled ruins of a great temple. There she remained, leaning her cheek against her palm. Stealing herself for what was to come, and not really knowing what to do, she just stared into the waters.

She thought of the one responsible for bringing this scenario about, the one they called the Sorcerer of the Sea. He had caused the virtual extinction of her own kind. Thanks to his minions this once great undersea city was a ruin. His presence seemed to work its shadowy way into her mind.
Gripping her head she sighed. 'Why do you torment me so,' she whispers softly
His laughter seemed to reverberate among the ruins, the liquid shadows seemed to be corrupted with his essence, his power.
She sat up and climbed to her feet atop the pillar, ready to face him.

The Sorcerer of the Sea watched Cancer, but, with infinite patience, kept himself from her sight until he sensed her resolve wavering.

In the murky blue up ahead, shadows seemed to coalesce into a dark, ragged-edged shape. Two faint yellow lights became discernable in the depth, and these lights, the yellow lights of his eyes seemed to pierce her to the core of her soul. What are you doing, little Atlantian, skulking in the seaweed covered ruins of your once great civilization?' his voice drift to her hypnotically on the sub-aquatic currant. 'Shame on you!'
The shadow moved closer, and as it did so she saw the tentacle-like strands of the dark cloak shifting about the form.

She launched up and swam to face him, narrowed her eyes, looking into his. 'You ruined my life and many others... Why... for your own pleasure?'

'I am not the only callous one in these depth. I notice how quick you were to abandon Adam and Owene. Especially the poor little mermaid- cast into a dark sea with a new form and not a soul to guide her- and reunited with her man, only to find they can no longer love! Ah, how tragic!'

'I don't understand you,' she hissed. 'They don't want to be here- why did you make them... You made the girl into a mermaid!'

'So I did. She should be grateful.' He grinned gleefully, with a mouth full of sharp, white teeth, and dropped his hood. His flesh was pale, slightly bluish in hue. His head was hairless, his features handsome but gaunt. A fin-like ridge ran over the top of his head, and his ears were pointed, rather like Cancer's. 'Pretty is she not? I thought she would make a divine mermaid. Do you think he will love you now that he has her? Even if you can give him what she cannot?'
'I love no one….'
'Then what are you angry about?'
'Your evil kind delight in tormenting. You're a monster.'
'Then you're like me.' He seized her with a strong, bony hand, as she moved to turn from him. 'And you, how can you accuse me? Should you not be looking after her now! Think, she is a newborn mermaid, and the ocean is wide and deep and frightening. Should she not have a mentor?' His grip of her arm tightened. 'My kind make better tormentors than mentors, you should go to her, or else I might.'

Cancer fought against him, and how he quickened her pulse. With his other strong hand he caught her chin. He smiled, cruelly. 'Such a pretty mermaid she makes.'
'Stop talking about her.'
'You are jealous of her, yet you have what she has lost.'
He drew her closer, his presence and voice somehow intoxicating. 'And you want the man- that is why you cannot bear to see them together- and yet he could be yours! What you can offer might make him forget his love...' His pale, bony hand ran down her body, from her throat, towards her middle, only the open weave of her net garment coming between them.

She took in a deep breath as she watched his face momentarily, only to have her eyes fall and look down at his hand pulling its way over the fishnet of her garments. 'I have...a lot to offer him... but I'm not bound to come between mortal love.' she kept watching him.
'But you want him....' The Sorcerer's face moved closer to hers, and his lips brushed hers. 'And you want me,' he said. 'Whore.' He planted his mouth on hers, his sharp teeth teasing her lips. 'Slut of the sea'
She gasped and pulled a few inches away from him. 'No... No I'm not a whore, you know I'm not a whore! She gasped, her hands gripped his arms tightly and she whispered softly against his lips. 'My body is still as pure as ever, you should know that...'
He held her chin, in a strong hand, and moved a finger over her cheek. 'Purity, my child, is a state of mind! And your mind is that of a whore!' His other hand worked lower, and her felt her shuddering responses and her awareness that it was so...

Then he laughed and turned her around, smacking her rear. 'Now go! I will appear to you again before too much time elapses, never fear.'

She rubbed her backside and grumbled; swimming off towards the palace, where she left the two lovers locked in each other's arms. She didn't know what to do. She could not shake from her mind the Sorcerer's words, calling her a slut and a whore.

Cancer spotted Owene before she reached the building. The mermaid was sat alone on a formation of rock, with her chin cupped in her palms, watching the fish darting about the ocean floor, with melancholy eyes. Some she had seen lured into the deadly mouth of a camouflaged turtle, which had adapted its tongue to resemble a wriggling worm to attract them. The ocean was a treacherous and deceitful place, it seemed to Owene. She looked up when she detected the other's presence. 'Cancer!'

Cancer turned her head and looked at her smiling 'Hello darling child, how are you? Getting the hang of things down here?'

Owene smiled, but she still looked sad. 'It's hard to grow accustomed to this... harder still, it seems, for Adam to accept. He seemed to last night, but this morning...' she shook her head. 'I'm sorry; you have tried to help us. I should not burden you with my problems. It is just... I have no-one else...'
'You have your man. Where is he?'
'Back in that place.'
'He should be here.' Cancer said 'One moment, I'm going to go talk to him now.' She flicked her foot and swam off towards the palace, to find Adam to find out what is going on.

Adam paced before a redundant fountain in another ruined part of the palace.
Cancer dropped down in front of him as he paced, her hands pressing to his shoulder to get him to stop. 'W hat is going on?'
He looked to the side. 'Cancer,' he said. 'Do you know anything of the Gods or the forces of fate? Why do they mock me, torment me at every turn? First make me miss Owene more than I can bear, then bring me here, direct me into your arms and confuse my mind with...' He balled his fists. 'And then reunite me with Owene but changed into... hah!' he sneered. 'It is ridiculous, cruel! I used to be entranced by the old men's stories of mermaids and always wanted to see one- and she is beautiful, of course. But...'
She stares at him 'I wish there was something I could do, but if I interfere I as well will be transformed with a fin...which would completely demolish the rest of my race...' she places a pale white hand upon his cheek 'I'm forever sorry.'

'What? What is this? I don't understand you? Everything confuses me more and more.'

'I know the one who did this to her. He and only he can reverse the spell on you both.'

A few days had passed. The sun was setting over the ocean. Owene had risen to the surface; swimming up to watch the sky turn gold and the sea turn red. She wondered what had become of Cancer who had been away from them for some time. She looked up at the painted clouds and saw gulls flying over, and sighed.

It was turning cold. Owene found it strange that she was only really aware of the temperature above the surface of the water, out in what had once been her natural place, where the wind blew. There was a moon now, and the sea looked silver under an inky blue sky. She swam to a rock that rose out of the water- the tip of an undersea mountain which she become familiar with over the last few days. She climbed up to the peak of the rock, and gazed into the distance, and sang to herself a sad and beautiful song.

Cancer swam just below her, looking up at her for a moment. She decided not to speak a word at all to her, but to keep swimming. She was headed back to her dwelling; she looked worn out and tired. She felt the thick water sliding across her body.
The moonlight trickled faintly through the deep, bathing the ruins in an eerie light, so that they seemed to shimmer, so that the submerged city seemed a ghost of itself.
Cancer sat upon a fallen pillar and stared out among the water and sighed softly lowering her head. 'I hate these lonely waters.'

Owene, on the surface, was also feeling lonely, and lost in the world. She missed her father and sister, but knew that she could not go back to them. She was no-longer human, and could only visit this world now, and only then when she was not likely to be spotted by members of her erstwhile race. She sighed, and thought about returning to the deep.

Then she saw a ship, on the horizon, the beautiful white sails seeming to shine in he moonlight. She felt a desire to swim towards it, to see people, who might even be sailing to her home, but no. Humans were dangerous for her now. Cancer had warned her of that in no uncertain terms. Owene ceased singing and hid behind the rock, then sank back into the sea before the ship sailed too close.

Cancer saw the darkened shadow from the ship and quickly swam to the surface, she started to sing the same song that was sung the night Adam's ship capsized, she carefully inched her way to the vessel, looking around to see if anyone was watching.

Owene saw Cancer from the depth and worried that she would attract the sailors' attention, or even lure the ship onto the rocks with her voice. She was unsure about Cancer, now, whether she had benevolent intentions towards humans, or whether she, like the sorcerer, delighted in their ruin.

Cancer looked around and dived under the water. The waves slammed violently up against the ship. Raising her head out of the water, she kept singing the same song, watching the large sailing ship.

Men crowded to the side of the deck, and searched the water, holding lanterns aloft and looking for the source of the singing in the water. Owene watched, keeping her head below the waves, wondering what Cancer thought she was playing at. She wondered whether the other female desired to compete with her, singing as sweetly as she has been. Cancer, meanwhile, emerged from the waters, smiling at the men with soft, red painted lips.

Below the water loomed another presence, the dark presence of the sorcerer. He watched, as amused himself as Owene was worried. He smiled. Already men were leaping into the cold waves. Cancer's allure would prove deadly again tonight...

Cancer pushed away with her feet when one of the men tried to touch her, she flinched and pushed back further.

Owene saw that a number of the sailors had rowed out in the ships boat. Three or four jumped into the water close to Cancer, surrounding her and about to seize her. Owene launched herself towards them and positioned herself between them. 'Leave her alone!' She tried to push a burly man with a curled beard away from Cancer, but to her dismay felt another seize her around the waste. She struggled and her tail thrashed above the roaming waves. 'Jesus Christ, it's a mermaid!' another of the sailors exclaimed. 'Bloody hell, lads, grab her!' called the bearded man.
Cancer narrowed her eyes and pulled Owene away from them 'Get out of here!' She shrieked at Owene, while striking a man across his cheek. The fins on her arms were visible. Her skin shone like scales in the moonlight. Cancer pushed Owen under the water and out of the way so they could not grab her. Slamming her hand into the water a wave slammed the sailors back towards their boat.

However, one of the sailors had kept a firm grip on Owene's tail fin, preventing her from unfurling it properly. A powerful swimmer, he pulled the hapless Owene back up to the surface. He called to the boat 'I've got me a mermaid, here, lads, toss over a rope!' One of the men in the boat, snapped out of his disbelieving daze, stood up and threw a rope, and another of the men in the water lashed it around Owene's tail adroitly. She struggled still, but they dragged her towards the bobbing boat. Meanwhile the sorcerer rose up deftly through the water, seizing Cancer's ankle with a viselike grip, and dragging her down rapidly, leaving only a column of bubbles behind them. It was too late to help Owene now...

Cancer gasped when she was dragged under the water. She looked at the sorcerer and watched him through her red eyes. 'We have to get her back! We cant let this happen!'

'Concerned for others' welfare all of a sudden, are you?' sneered the starkly handsome sorcerer, his fine mouth curling into a sardonic smile. He laughed. 'You must leave her to what were her own people. She was not born to the sea, unlike us.'
Cancer lowered her head. 'I wanted them to take me, not her. I didn't know she was watching. Adam is going to kill me!'

'And if you care about her fate, you must go to him... or maybe this has played into your hands...' The sorcerer smiled, and his yellow eyes stared hypnotically into her red ones. 'The man can be all yours now, your little sea-human pet.'
He kissed her, and her lips responded, locking around his lips. 'Or... stay... with... me.... evil whore of the deep! I will...allow you to keep your... pet... human!'
'I'm not a whore...you know that.' She pulled him closely against her and her arms hugged around him 'Meet me in Atlantis in a few moments. I'm going to go get him....' she pulled away and swam off to find Adam.

The boat was winched up on derricks up the side, and the men manhandled Owene onto the deck, setting her down on the wooden boards, under a lantern that hung on the mast. She struggled free and clawed her way towards the side, but they pulled her back. One of the men tied her arms behind her. Another looped a rope around her neck, and then lashed it around her tail, above her fin, keeping her tail curled up towards her torso, so that she could not move, and would have been unable to swim away, even had she made it back in to the sea.

Owene struggled in vain, in a puddle on the deck, surrounded by a staring crowd of bare-footed sailors. 'What is this?' barked a voice. They parted and the captain stepped forward in his leather boots. The swarthy captain looked down at the deck, and the helpless, golden-haired mermaid looked up with tearful blue eyes.

Cancer, meanwhile, found Adam and pulled him to her and stared at him 'Owene is gone. I'm sorry...I don't think she will return... Come with me please...away from all this.'

'Where is she?' Adam stared at her. His brow darkened. 'What have you done with her?'

'What do you mean what I have I done with her! She is the one that got captured not me.' She narrowed her eyes. 'Its her fault, she got in the way.'
'Got in the way of what? Where is she?' he stepped forward quickly and caught her by the throat. 'Tell me, damn you! Where is she?'
Cancer gasped, her hands gripping around his, they where slender and delicate and white. 'I was playing with some sailors... and I didn't know she was there… and she tried to save me… and they took her instead because she's a mermaid,' She struggled to breathe.

'You were playing... God damn you, what side are you on? There is a thing out there, tormenting us, a sea devil, and do not think me so stupid that I do not realize it! I have heard its voice and seen its shadow! But you must take me to Owene now, you must show me the ship, and pray that they have not taken her ashore yet!'

Cancer swallows tightly and gasps trying to get free. 'As you wish. Follow me then...'

On the moonlit deck, the captain stoked his beard. 'Well, I have seen icebergs and Saint Elmo's fire, baby dragons and phantom ship and narwhals, but I never thought to see me a Mermaid. And you are every bit as enchanting as myth attributes your race as being. But do you understand English, oh beauty of the water?'

Owene looked up at him indignantly. 'I am English, and if this is an English ship then I am not accustomed to being treated like this by my countrymen!'

The men were stunned by this, and then laughed. 'Then I never saw an English rose that was half fish! How are we to account for this?' The captain stooped beside her, and looked her over. He ran a brawny hand over her exposed body, and down to her scaly tail. He drew a little knife and cut her through the silver scales. She cried in pain and blood trickled from the wound in her tail. 'There is no trickery here, this is a real mermaid!' the captain declared. Owene winced, then sighed and looked away, towards the dark waters, wandering about the others, how Cancer was faring, and what would become of her.

Cancer struggled still to break free of Adam, striking him across the face she swam away quickly. Her neck bruised purple against her pale white skin.
Adam called after her, swimming with all his might. 'Cancer! Come back, you have to show me to the ship!'
'You hurt me!' She swam away from him, trying to get away before he could catch her.

Dawn was approaching. The sailors knew these waters, and Owene, still a captive on deck, sensed their anticipation that land would soon be reached. Sure enough, there came a shout from aloft 'Land! Land ho!' Normally the crew would have striven to catch a glimpse of the land on the horizon, but this time it was different, they had a captive mermaid bound on deck. Owene wondered what they would do to her once they reached port. She also wondered what had happened to Adam and Cancer.

Cancer took Adam through the fallen city in which she lived. She know he was infuriated with her because of the loss of Owene and knew she had more of an advantage for her life if she led him here. Adam had felt torn in two, he had at first tried to persuade the sea nymph to show him the way to the ship that had taken Owene, his love, away, determined to find her and to save her. Now though, beguiled by Cancer, he found himself lured into her lair and her arms. Guilt lay heavy in his heart for abandoning Owene to her fate, but it was as though Cancer had cast some spell over him, and he could not leave her.
Cancer felt her back press against a pillar as she stared at him '...go find your love... she... she was taken aboard a ship. Don't hurt me please...' She gripped the pillar with her hands.
'I don't know where it is; you have to show me! I cannot swim so well, either, or so fast as you, so I will need your help!'
Swallowing tightly she watched him through her enchanting eyes. 'I don't know which way it sailed.'
'You would rather I stay with you; and your eyes, you sorceress, they hold me here! You want to keep me for yourself.'
She closed her eyes and lowered her head 'I'm sorry...'

Meanwhile on board the ship, Owene wept, through confusion, shame and fear of what lay ahead. Her fins fluttered as though trembling against the deck, and her tail sagged on the rope that bound it to her neck. She hung her head and cried into her great fin. Under the water she had felt out of place, a girl of the surface turned by dark magic into this half-fish, and consigned to the deep. Now all she wanted to do was escape to the safety of the water.

'You're lying,' Adam said, 'Tell me, you wicked little whore.'
Cancer looked stung to the core by his words. She raised her eyes. 'They where taking her to the lands just east of here... If you swim as fast as you can you will catch them before they dock.'
Adam looked up at the glistening water surface. 'Can I breathe up there, after what has been done to me? What am I saying, Owene is my love, I will take that risk! Come, lead me up, help me, damn it!'
Cancer sighed and took him quickly to the ship. Looking at the hull of the boat she pulled something from the leather pouch she had brought, a sort of drill with a blade of sharp coral. She began to turn the handle, and the bit began to bore its way through the wooden hull. At once the ship started to take on water. She started to sing again, seeming to conjure ever-rougher waves. The ship started to rock violently.
Adam watched, marveling at the creature. At the same time an eddy began to whirl, and the winds blew above the water.
The Captain was reluctant to give up his prize catch, and ordered his men to carry Owene onto one of the lifeboats. They plunged into the crashing waves. As they rowed away, the sinking ship began to spin around. Three times round it span, and then sank swiftly as though dragged down by unseen demons, into a watery abyss. It dragged the lifeboat down after it. Suddenly Owene found herself falling helplessly through the water, still bound, with drowned or drowning sailors sinking around her. Then they were with her, Cancer and Adam, cutting her bonds and dragging her away.
'We should help them!' Owene said, looking around to the plunging sailors.
'No, said Cancer, 'they have earned their fate.'
Adam touched Owene's face. 'Lets just get you to safety.'
'They are dying! Please!'
'Waste your time if you must, I'm going home.' Cancer glared at the couple with that she swam off quickly back to the darkness of Atlantis. She didn't look back or stop for anyone, for she was upset.

The chamber was dark, unnaturally so. The sea nymph flung herself down on her bed and for hours just lay there, exhausted to her core. The shadows were thickest in one particular corner. Yellow eyes burned dimly in that darkness, watching her as she lay there. At last she raised her head. She stared at him trembling 'What do you want now?'
'You have taken to sinking ships again, Cancer,' hissed the voice. 'You are a creature after my own heart, after all!'
She turned away from him her back towards him '...I will never be after your heart. That was only when I was a child...I'm not a child now.'
He advanced out of the shadows and came closer. She felt his touch, his fingers stroking her bare shoulder. 'That much is evident to me.' He touched her cheek and turned her face to his.
She looked over her shoulder at his touch and watched him, her hand sliding delicately over his. His fine mouth curled into a smile and he moved self-assuredly to kiss her lips. His cloak floated around him in the water like dark wings, eventually folding around her. She felt entranced by his embrace, her hand slid to the back of his head as she pressed her lips against his.
'Whore of the waters' he whispered in her ear, his hand moving over her body, as though to take possession of it. 'Did it thrill you to drown all those men within sight of their homeland? Dead men cannot hear your song, my sweet, my siren!'
She took a deep breath when he held tightly to her body; and brushed her cheek caressingly against his. 'Take me....'
'Slut of the sea!' He smiled, biting on her pointed ear with his sharp teeth, and tearing through the fine netting of her garment...
She gasped, her body contorting into his; her hands gripped his thighs tightly. She was praying Owene and Adam would not come.
He began to grind into her, furiously, powerfully. 'You are... the whore... of... the sea, but... you... belong... to me! You... are... all... mine!' He hissed between heavy breaths. Suddenly he reared up and looked around. He laughed with cruel glee. The other two he had lured here, trapped in his spell, and unable to look away. 'Ah the man who cannot breathe air, and the mermaid fair! Yes behold, behold the act you may nevermore perform, for all the yearning in your hearts, and come here, golden haired Owene! I will kiss purer lips while yet I take this tramp of the deep!'
Closing her eyes Cancer gasped almost like she was trying to break free of his grip upon her body. Trembling in the sorcerer's hold she allowed her eyes to fall upon Adam, with a seductive look.

For his part Adam watched the proceedings with horror and revulsion. 'Owene!' He cried, 'stay with me!'
But Owene was in the grip of the demonic power that had robbed her of her human form. The sorcerer drew her closer, swimming in a trance, and caught her by her flowing hair. By the time she realized what was happening and started to struggle, it was too late. His hands were moving possessively over her body and her breasts. The mouth was locked on hers. A wisp of blood flowed out from her lips into the water, from where his sharp teeth had cut her...
Cancer trembled, closing her eyes, her body rocked by the motion of the Sorcerer's insistent thrusts, her heart palpitating, her womb throbbing.
Suddenly Adam rushed at the sorcerer who seemed about to have his way with the two females. 'Get off her!'
Caner against opened he eye and looked at Adam shaking her head slowly. 'You shouldn't… have come here.' She reached for him, her hands caressing his thighs. 'Fight for your little fish...to get her back...I could give you so much more!'
Owene pulled away from the sorcerer and rushed back to Adam, burying her head in his chest, hurt both by the sorcerer and by Cancer's words. 'Oh God, it is true! I am a... oh god! A fish, Adam!' But it is not true that mermaids could not weep. She had a human soul yet, and a heart that was breaking...
Cancer hadn't meant to say those words, the hold that the Sorcerer had over her was making her speak her mind. Her legs wrapped around the sorcerer's body.

Adam took Owene away, only because the sorcerer chose to let them, but he did not release Cancer from his hold until he was done with her. She trembled in his arms, closing her eyes tightly like she wanted to cry. Her arms clutched him tightly; she was scared, ashamed, fulfilled.
When it was done he sat up. He perched on the edge of the bed, watching her through narrowed eyes. 'My little whore, or my little fish, my little fish or you...' he mused.
Cancer lay there completely bare before him, her body trembling as she stared at him with her melting eyes. She rested her hand against one of her breasts, feeling her heart still pounding. 'So now you have had me. Yet you would chose her over me... wouldn't you?'
'It is amusing to possess you both, especially when she would sooner give her heart to that man, and when you would sooner possess all men's hearts.'
'I can't believe you used me...like that' She lowered her head trembling. 'Ever since I was a child I dreamed of a time like that... but I never… never thought that would happen.'
'Cancer, you harlot!' he touched the little symbol over her forehead, and then stroked her cheek. 'It was no more than a demonstration for the sake of Adam and Owene of what they no longer have- and cannot have unless I should decide to reverse her fish and human features for the sake of amusement. Do not think you hold my heart- I have no such organ!' He looked away, briefly, looking into the distance, and into the past. 'It was not always so...'
She nodded 'I know. Don't touch me' She stood up and wrapped herself in the netting again.
She swam off. However disgusted they must be with her by now, she wanted to see the others. She caught their trail in the waters, and made to follow.

Adam was furious about how the sorcerer had treat Owene, and stung by the lurid display, arranged merely for their torment. Owene, scared of the sorcerer's power, begged Adam to come away with her. They were at least together- perhaps they could find a place, somewhere in the sea where they could forget about the evil power that had touched their lives. It was no good though. They stumbled across the wreck of a ship, with a skeleton captain still slumped over the wheel in his tattered apparel. Adam swam up to it, and took the sword from the belt still hanging around the dead captain's body.
He drew it out and found the blade intact. 'Good! Now by God I will have my revenge on that demon, and rid the waters of him once and for all!'

Cancer saw them swim to the old ship, she watched carefully in the shadows so not to be seen. She was curious of what was going to happen.
Owene clutched at Adam's arm. 'Adam, no! Please! It is too dangerous, I beg you, I love you! Please, do not do this,' she implored him, as he made off back towards the ruins of the city.
'Leave me be, Owene, I must do this! If he lives, we will never have peace!'
Cancer fallowed after him keeping back though so not to be seen.

The street seemed empty. Only the few ancient statues stood amid the broken columns seemed to look on. Other buildings stood in various states of ruination around, and only small shoals of fish swam overhead. The sorcerer waited for the man coolly.
'You have something for me, pup?' he called, as Adam approached.

Cancer hung back, watching through the shadows, her body trembling ready to jump in if anything severe happened.

'You bastard!' Adam cried, raising the sword and moving at the sorcerer. At that, four krakens, reptilian humanoid creatures serving the sorcerer, shot from the dilapidated buildings on both sides. Owene screamed. Adam parried the blow of one's sword and sent it reeling back, and then turned swiftly, and managed to repel another. A third reached him and swung a blade at his neck and would have decapitated him had not the mermaid darted forward through the water and batting him in the arm with her great tail. Adam turned and fought off another of the creatures...
By then, though, one of the first ones had recovered it's footing, and resurged at him. As the other kraken shook off Owene and flung her with dizzying force towards a crumbling wall, the first kraken caught hold of Adam and rammed a sword into his belly. It twisted, tearing through his stomach and as it withdrew the serrated blade wrenched parts of the man's innards out through the wound and into the water. Adam gagged, wide eyed in pain, and then collapsed to the seabed. There was silence, but for the low laugh of the sorcerer. Owene looked up to see her lover fall. She tried to rush to him but one of the Kraken caught her.
'Let her be,' said the sorcerer. Owene reached Adam, but there was nothing she could do.

Cancer emerged from the shadows. She slammed a shockwave through the water into the sorcerer. She darted over and pulled the sword from Adam and used her ability to heal his wound the best she could. He would survive. She collapsed back, her body trembling. It left her weak.
The sorcerer reeled slightly, but continued to laugh, his eyes bright as fire.
She glared at him through narrowed eyes 'You're a bastard.'
He narrowed his in return. 'So I'm informed.'
'I will rip your throat out, when my strength returns, I swear it!'
He laughed. 'Ah, this is entertaining! Such passion! I always suspected you had taken a shine to that hapless mariner!'
Gasping, her body froze motionless, she stared deeply into his eyes 'I...I have not!'
'Then why will you not let him die, though saving him risks your own life?' He sneered. 'Many others you have lured to a watery grave.' The sorcerer dropped his hood. His face appeared that of a handsome man, if rather gaunt. His skin was pale, with a bluish tint that could have been an effect of the water. His features struck Owene with a sense of mortal dread, as did the serrated fin that ran over the top of his skull. When he grinned, his teeth appeared like razors, reminding Owene of the shark jaws she had once seen hanging, as a macabre ornament, in a tavern in her home town, by the sea but back on land. The thought and the memory of this deadly mouth enveloping hers made Owene feel weak.
Cancer could do nothing; her life was scar tissue, covering her past. The things the Sorcerer kept calling her over and over kept the wound open though. She stared at him, not knowing what to do. Then she looked to Adam and Owene. 'Get out of here- and never return!'
The sorcerer, though, rushed past her, and caught the man about the neck, dragging him from the mermaid's arms. The Sorcerer then gave an ear-splitting roar, and shot upwards, then away into a cloud of darkness, accompanied by his kraken guards, and dragging the hapless Adam away with him. Owene wailed, and tried to swim after them, but it was hopeless. They were gone; at a speed she could never match. She could only float there, despairingly, gazing into the murky blackness. It was night again in the world above and now not even the moon shone to filter down into the deep. She floated, crippled with dismay. Then she sensed Cancer, swimming up behind her.
Cancer watched her intently. 'I will help get him back for you, I promise.' She took her hand. 'Come with me back to Atlantis... I will protect you.' she pulled her towards her home.
The mermaid followed, finding solace in obedience. 'Who, what is that dreadful creature? Where has he taken Adam- where does he live? How can I find them?'
'I knew him… a long time ago. Don't ask me to speak his name. He was the one whom created you as you are. I don't know where he took Adam and why... but it can not be good.'
'What will happen to him? Oh, Cancer!' Owene felt very lost, once again, and terribly worried about Adam. She looked fraught, tormented by the memory of the Sorcerer's cruel kiss violating her mouth, and of being helpless to resist his power, and also the memory of Cancer recumbent beneath that devil, being ravaged by him, and bearing his insults. 'Oh Jesus, give me strength! I can't cope with this! Is there not a town, or a village of mermen, who might know more about this evil creature, and how to get to his lair?'
'Many know of him....'
'Then someone must know the way...' Owene seemed distracted, and more than a little distraught. 'Oh but why? Why did he take him? He made us what we are, what does he want with us? ' She looked across at Cancer, whose face seemed to shimmer and shine below her floating hair, with its strange bluish hue. Her paleness and her reddish eyes reminded the mermaid of an albino sailor she had seen in the port of the costal town where she had grown up, back when she was a human....
Feeling watched, Cancer gazed off in the direction of where Adam was taken away by the Sorcerer. 'We… need to make you human again...Before you get hurt any more.'
Owene hardly seemed to register the words. She shook her head slightly and her long golden hair floated in the water around her head. She heaved a sigh. 'But Adam is in the sea! And anyway, but for the grace of God, only that creature, that devil of the deep has the power to undo the spell...' Owene shook her head again. 'Should we go back to the city, maybe others there will know more about him?'
'No,' Cancer shook her head. 'Go on your own if you must... but no one will help you.'
'If you want rid of me...' Owene covered her face; her voice was small. 'Fine... you ought to leave me!'
Cancer struck Owene across her face, hard enough to leave a red mark, and her nails scratched across Owene's cheek, drawing blood. 'Ever since you got down here you've been hopeless!' Cancer stared at her with burning eyes. 'Maybe you should think about how to live your life! Without him!'
Owene recoiled through the water, her eyes widening in shock and bewilderment as she saw the red mist of blood in the water between them, and as the stinging pain registered. 'Ouch! Can...' she froze, and looked around, as though some instinct had alerted her to a new danger. There was another dark shape moving through the water towards them. She stared at it, registering it's outline, the tall fin on its back, the white belly, the sweep of the vertical tail, the gleam of the teeth in its widening jaws. 'Oh Jesus! The blood! Shark!' she gasped.
Cancer turned around quickly and stared at it 'Owene… swim for your life!'

Owene turned on her tail and darted away with a flash of silver scales. She was only worried about putting some distance between herself and the great shark. Yet her cheek was scratched and bleeding, and her blood was leaving a trail through the water.
Cancer waved her hands in the water, trying to crate a reverse currant, to draw the blood in the water away from Owene and towards herself.
The shark darted past, however after Owene, ignoring Cancer for the time being. Owene was the one who was bleeding, and she resembled more closely the shark's usual prey (at least from the waste down). However it turned suddenly and darted towards Cancer. It closed on her and it's jaw opened, showing row after row of jagged teeth, as big as a human hand and as sharp as daggers, ready to strike and to tear flesh.
Cancer stood her ground; she stared at the shark, her blood red eyes narrowing.

The shark's black, soulless eyes stared back at her coldly, and it closed on her. It considered biting her into two pieces in the first strike, and then devouring each half momentarily afterwards. She would make a quick but enjoyable meal. Sharks loved to feed, but more than that they loved the kill...
With a flick off her foot, Cancer propelled herself back farther in the water, pushing away from the cold-blooded beast of the ocean.

Owene swam far, but was overtaken by a sense of remorse, and concern about her red-eyed companion, who, for all her strange ways and hurtful words, was the closest thing she had to a friend in the perilous deep. She turned around, and swam back, having to know what had become of Cancer. Meanwhile the shark lunged at Cancer, barely missing her arm as she evaded it, pushing a hard jet of water into the devil-fish's pointed face. The water buffeted against the shark's body, but its form was streamlined, and the jet-like currant flowed over it. Its powerful tail propelled it on, and it knew that it would get to her soon. Cancer grinned and darted over the shark's head. She grabbed its tail to provoke it; she didn't let go and kept just out of biting distance.
Owene saw the struggle. She came closer, slashing her own hand with her teeth as she did so, before waving it in the water. 'Let her be! I say! Look here Mister Shark!' she cried, as her blood spiraled out into the water. 'Come and get me, this is what you want!'
Cancer turned around. 'Owene, no!' She dug her nails into the shark, ripping its coarse skin to hurt it and keep it with her. 'YOU STUPIED MERMAID GET OUT OF HERE!'

Owene scowled; here was gratitude. She darted away, remembering the wreck of the pirate ship she had seen, with the skeleton captain slumped over the wheel. She had to get there, before the shark got the better of Cancer. Somehow her blood, only half human now, attracted the shark more appetizingly. The great carnivore launched off after her. She swam for all her might. She saw the ship, and the skeleton. She dived for it, and the shark dived after her, impacting against the wheel and smashing it to splinters. The skeleton fell back and its bones fragmented and rolled across the deck. Frantically Owene scrambled for the dead pirate's sword belt, which had also fallen on the deck. Looking around she saw the jaws of the shark, again plunging for her, easily able to swallow her torso whole. She grabbed the belt, groping for the sword, but it was not there. Of course it not, she remembered in a flash, Adam had taken the weapon for his ill-fated confrontation with the Sorcerer. Stupid mermaid!
The shark bore down on her, opening its deadly jaw. The jaws enveloped Owene. Cancer arrived just in time to see them closing on her friend. Her eyes widened she couldn't do anything.

Owene flinched, just managing to lodge the scabbard in the hellish mouth, preventing the jaws from closing. As the shark struggled with the scabbard, she extracted herself from its mouth and darted away. She looked around frantically as the scabbard folded and snapped in the shark's mouth behind her. Her heart pounded. She saw another skeletal body across on the deck with a sword belt across its chest. She dived for it and this time her hand found a sword hilt. Desperately she wrenched the blade from the rotting scabbard as the beast came on. She turned and stabbed with the blade, just as the monstrous beast reached her. The tip swung up into the shark's jaw and more blood washed through the sea, blood from the shark. It's black eyes held Owene's terrified gaze for a moment, and then it thrashed on the blade.

Owene was so stricken with fear, for the moment, that she could not release the sword. But as the shark shook and thrashed it pulled the blade through it's flesh and the cloud of blood surrounding the two thickened. And then it slowed it's thrashing and then it stopped and all of a sudden it was an inert mass in the water. Owene realized that it was dead. She let go of the sword, only then, and swam back.
She covered her mouth for a moment, staring at the dead monster with wide, confused blue eyes. Then she let out a nervous laugh, clutching her pounding heart. 'I've killed it!'
Cancer grabbed Owene quickly by the arm. 'I can't believe you did that....' she shook her head.
'I... I killed it!' Owene grinned suddenly, and her eyes sparkled. 'Oh golly! I killed a shark! Little me!'
Great...I will never hear the end of this...Cancer thought to herself. She sighed and looked up at her 'Congratulations....'
'No, it was luck! Or else... I could have been killed- oh, gosh... I'm trembling from head to... fin!'
'And you're still bleeding. Here, give me your hand.' Cancer closed her fingers over where Owene had bitten, and the mermaid felt a warm pulsation. When she removed her hand the wound was closed.
'Thank you.'
Cancer grunted, and pulled her by the arm. 'Come on, we should get back to the city.' They started to swim from the shipwreck, where the shark's body had sunk to the deck.
'Oh, I've got to go back,' Owene said, touching Cancer's shoulder. 'I won't be long, you can wait for me if you like... or go on… as you like.'
'What are you up to now?'
'I won't be long...' Owene called back, darting away, as before, her silver tails flashing in the light of the risen sun that was now filtering through the sea...
Cancer shook her head and sat sown on a rock that rose up from the seabed. She laid back and gazed into the gloom of the ocean. She knew he was out there somewhere

Owene returned to the wreck. The dead shark was slumped on the deck, with the sword sticking into its chin. The mermaid approached it cautiously, afraid that it might still be alive- for even dead it was a frightening sight, and also afraid that it's blood might have attracted other sharks. She approached it and touched it timidly, and then pulled out the sword quickly. She looked back at the jaws, and couldn't believe she had killed such a monster, although it she felt a pang of guilt for taking any life, especially that of so large and formidable a creature.
'Good God!' she muttered. Then, impulsively, she prodded the jaws with the tip of her sabre, and then, deciding to take a tooth as a trophy, started to dig it out with the blade. It was not the sort of thing she would usually do, but she had to keep some proof that she had killed this shark or else she herself would not believe it. 'Sorry, Mister Shark, but you wouldn't begrudge me, would you?' She pierced a hole through it with the sword, drilling with the point, and slotted it onto her necklace, next to her cross.
After that she picked up the scabbard, on a leather lanyard belt. She slid the belt over her shoulder, diagonally so that the strap ran between her bare breasts, and put the sword in it. The next time she met the sorcerer, she might need this weapon. Finally she started back to look for Cancer.
Cancer was waiting for her. Looking to her she smiled faintly. 'Come, it's a long way back.

They swam through all the day, until again the sea was dark. Even now they were not back at the grotto. They were in the deserted outer reaches of the city, shadowy ruins, over grown with seaweed and coral.
Cancer looked around, as the water got darker. 'This is where we rest for the night...' she said, alighting amid the ruins. 'Get some sleep, you need it after all we've been through.' She was wondering if the Sorcerer would cross her waters tonight, she knew that Owene wanted him dead. Owene nodded, and settled in a corner, curling her tail around her. She did not know what tomorrow might bring, but she was ready for sleep. Cancer watched her until she fell asleep, sitting back against a pillar again, her dark hair flowed softly in the faint water current, and she stares out. She glanced over to Owene as she slept, she knew her waters where not safe and kept a careful eye on her, not knowing what was to happen this evening.
A vast manta ray sailed over the column on wide wings, a silent giant of the sea. Aside from that, only the occasional school of silver-scaled fish swam by. Cancer kept her eyes peeled for krakens and other minions of the Sorcerer. It was for fear of them that she had avoided returning to the palace. 'He won't come tonight...' she said to herself. She lowered her head and laid back against the fallen pillar, her arms folded behind her head. She lowered her eyes but did not shut them completely. The nights of the depths of the ocean only brings trouble, she knew.

Owene woke from a nightmare of pirates and monsters. She felt the uncomfortable shape of the sword against her side, and wondered if she were picking up vibes from the weapon. She did not like the thing, and was sure she looked odd- a mermaid with a sword- only on the heraldic arms of Warsaw was such a thing seen! But she had faced dangers already, and she knew she might need to defend herself again, either from the sorcerer and his minions, or from men- the men of what had been her own species. She stirred. She looked up and saw Cancer looking down at her, silhouetted elegantly against the moonlight shining through the surface...
Cancer smiled faintly. 'I said go to sleep.' She stretched her arms.
'Were you waiting for something?'
'Sort of...'
'Not him? That creature? The one who took Adam away from me?'
Cancer said nothing but stared into the darkness.
'Are you with him? Are you on his side? I thought I could trust you!'
Cancer looked at Owene and narrowed her eyes. 'Shut up, all right! You can trust me... What makes you think you cant?'
'I'm sorry. You don't talk much. You seem to have many secrets, Cancer.'
Cancer looked at her. 'He is something to me neither you nor anyone would ever know... All you need to know is he is a sorcerer with terrible power. But then if anyone should know that by now it's you.'
Owene sat forward, looking thoughtful. 'Is it his magic that turned him bad?' She asked in a hushed voice. 'I have heard that some sorcerers gain powers by making demons do their bidding... but that sometimes the demons only pretend to serve the magician, then take them over- and that is why it is a dangerous sin. His eyes- I could easily imagine a demon in there...'
'Shut up!' Cancer's eyes were burning. 'YOU DONT KNOW HIM!' She swam off quickly through the water.
'Cancer!' Owene cried. 'Come back, I'm sorry! I don't know anything, I'm just a stupid mermaid, please, forget I said anything!' Clearly she had touched a raw nerve. Perhaps her guess about the demon was closer to the truth than she realised... 'Cancer, please, for heaven's sake, I didn't mean to upset you!'
Cancer screamed for the sorcerer, but was only answered by silence. She swam down and dropped to her knees in the white sand, closing her eyes tightly; she gripped her head, trembling.
Silence.
Owene swam up, tentatively, and gently placed a hand on Cancer's trembling shoulder. 'It doesn't look like he's coming, darling,' she said gently. 'I'm sorry... and I'm sorry if I said something wrong, really. I don't want you to be hurting.'
Cancer couldn't stop trembling 'Give me your sword... please!'
'Why? Cancer, no! Please, it's alright, there's no need...' Owene came closer and put a slender arm around the Cancer's shoulder, she looked at her face, saw the burning of eyes trying to cry in a sea of tears. 'I know what it's like to lose someone you love, but you mustn't give up. I want to help you, darling, beautiful Cancer, truly I do!'
'Cancer looked away. 'I want to...'
'You're not alone!'
'Don't say I love him- ever again- all right? I want to destroy the last of my race now. After all he's done to me… I don't know why he kept me around for all these years.' She pulled away for Owene and carefully swam back towards Atlantis... 'I knew he was going to take Adam.... I knew everything.'
'Then... why...?'
'I don't know why… that he wouldn't tell me...he said I was jealous of the love you two had… and my mind made me a whore... I'm the slut of the sea....' She leaned against a pillar.
'Oh Cancer, you aren't... you aren't anything of the sort! Please, you must believe me! He was just tormenting you, for his own cruel pleasure! You mustn't believe things like that. He didn't give you a choice!' Owene risked rejection again by reaching out to touch Cancer's cheek. She shook her head and whispered softly, 'You're not the whore of the sea!'
Cancer looked to her with hell in her eyes. 'If you knew the thoughts I had about your beloved Adam you would think differently. You don't understand. You never will.' She pulled from her tough and looked back into the darkness.
'People have thoughts, fantasies. Maybe they are sinful, my father would have thought so. But they're just thoughts, only random thoughts...' Owene said. 'I don't think any the worse of you, why should you?'
Cancer again did not reply to her for a long time. 'Go to sleep.' She stared off still into the darkness of the waters. Her hands wrapped in a hug around her body. Her white skin gave of an ever so faint white glow.
Owene looked hurt. 'Well if you ever want to talk... if you need a friend...' she shrugged. 'And I will sleep on this sword, so you won't be able to take it without waking me!' Owene swam away a short distance and settled where she had before. She doubted that she would sleep again, though. She was too concerned about Cancer and the mysterious pain that the sea nymph carried within her.

Cancer stared off into the distance still before she saw a dark shadow pass over the Land with a swift kick of her foot she knew what it was, she swam quickly after it making sure Owene didn't see. Pulled her head from the water she saw the pirate ship. As she moved quickly towards it the waters started to get worse.
A sailor pointed seeing her through the maelstrom. 'Capitan! Look! It's the white siren of the sea! The one that legends speak of!'
Van der Dekken, the captain grinned. 'Capture her!'
Cancer had no plans to be caught like a herring, though. She sent waves smashing sharply against the ships hull.
The ship rolled atop the resulting great wave, and crashed down the other side of a mountain of water. Somehow, almost supernaturally, it survived the impact with the water, however, and righted itself. Some of the crew were swept overboard, another was crushed as the boat on deck tore loose and slid forward into the fore mast, with the unfortunate seaman trapped between boat and mast.
Most of the crew survived to regain their footing though. One of them saw Cancer in the water, and grabbed a harpoon. He tied it to a rope and launched it at her. She didn't see it coming. She felt the spear slam into her collarbone and jerk sharply, hooking into her. She cried in screams of agony and pain, the high pitched screams send a huge wave current under the water shattering some ruins of Atlantis. It reverberated for miles on end. She was then pulled aboard the ship, and then unceremoniously gagged and tied up.
Owene was roused from semi slumber by Cancer's scream. She saw the shape of the ship above, and was at once reminded of the sailors that had captured her. She swam to the surface, and broke through the waves beside the hull of the ship, just in time to see Cancer being hauled aboard with a harpoon through her shoulder. 'Oh God!' the mermaid muttered. 'Cancer, what have you gotten into?' the white sea spirit seemed to have a fatal attraction to ships and their crews, determined, it seemed to lure them to their death, or to make them the death of her.
Cancer trembled as the men stripped her of her netting that wrapped around her body, her blood slide down the side of the ship into the water blow clouding it a bit. Tears slid down her cheeks as the men violated her laughing. Shrieking sharply she tried to get away, she started to lose feeling on one side of her body where the spear penetrated, and almost longed for the numbness to consume her completely. Owene would need help to get her back now if she ever wanted to. The pirate ship was an accursed vessel, with a black-hearted crew. Cancer had definitely picked the wrong ship to destroy.

The mermaid last saw her friend being taken onto the deck. She realised that Cancer's only hope of escape was if the crew could be distracted, or better still drawn away. She started to sing. Her beautiful voice rose up from the water, though it might have been that of an angel, descending down from heaven. The haunting beauty of the sound reached the ears of the damned and accursed crew, doomed to sail the seas with no rest for all eternity, on account of some ancient and forgotten sin, - their captain, had led them all to sell all their souls to the devil, to save the ship from sinking during a terrible storm a century past... And now the sweet song of the mermaid touched their black hearts and reminded them what they had lost. It drew them to the sides... 'There!' one pointed with a bony finger. 'A mermaid! As lovely as you ever saw!'
Cancer knew it was Owene. She used her last strength to pull herself to the edge of the ship. Then the captain of the pirates picked up her tattered body by the neck and hauled her off the deck. 'Is this what you want?' he calls to the mermaid.

Owene dipped below the water, removing the sword belt from her shoulder, so that they would not see it. She rose from the water exposing her lovely form. Continuing to sing, Owene stared into the captain's burning eyes, and beckoned with a hand.
Van der Dekken grinned; his black heart was not so easily moved. He slit Cancer's throat with his cutlass then dropped her still bound into the oceans waters, which started to cloud with her blood. The ship vanished like a ghost into the morning mist.

Owene rushed forward, with the sword belt over her arm, catching Cancer. She had not learned any magic of her own, and could only support her weakening friend and hold a hand over the wound in her throat. She could feel the hot blood bubbling out, between her fingers. 'Oh God help us!' God gave no answer. Owene cried out again.
'Sorcerer! You conjured up these fiends and now you have nearly killed her! If you ever loved her, come and save her!'
Cancer was still bound and gagged, her blood trailed through the ocean waters. Trembling she felt her body giving up. Her eyes flickered then closed.

The mist closed round, and again the dark mass of a ship became visible through it. At first Owene thought it was the dreadful pirate ship returning. Then she saw that it was different. It was of a different shape and rig. It moved though no sails were set, and dripping seaweed dangled from its rigging, spars and yardarms. It was familiar, though. It was the ship that had delivered to the bottom of the sea, the ship on which she had undergone her transformation. She felt a chill, and a strange mixture of dread and relief as she realised that the Sorcerer had come- and that he was their only hope.
The small boat lowered down the side of the great ship with groaning of rope in pulleys. Hands- reptile hands like the one Owene had seen on the oar on that fateful night, reached down into the water, and lifted Cancer from her friend's arms, bringing her onto the boat. The Sorcerer took the pale nymph's limp body from his crew, he took her in his arms, wrapping her in his cloak, and holding her close. He put his hand over the gash across Cancer's throat, and (using the same power that Owene had seen Cancer demonstrated before) caused the wound to heal. Perhaps it had been he who had taught Cancer this same magic.
Owene watched speechless, fearful, while Cancer's eyes opened and looked up into the Sorcerer's inscrutable face. He untied her bonds and her gag, moving moved his mouth close to Cancer's. The mermaid, looking on from the waves, could not hear what words passed between them. She saw Cancer trembling, as the sorcerer's hand stroked her cheek languorously.
'Stop it!' Cancer suddenly exclaimed. 'I told you I was sorry...' She shoved him away from her. 'Nothing happened!' She looked around and met Owene's eyes, then wriggled out of the sorcerer's grasp. She tumbled from the boat into the sea before anyone could move to stop her. She grabbed Owene's arm. 'Come on, quickly! Lets get out of here!' Owene did not argue and at once they dived below the waves, fearful of being pursued. They swam quickly back for Atlantis. The sorcerer's cruel laughter echoed in both their ears.

When they were back among the ruins, Cancer wailed and gripped her head tightly. The Sorcerer's cloak was still around her body. She hit a pillar with her flat palms and dropped to her knees. 'I hate him! I HATE HIM! HATE HIM HATE HIM!' She gasps from tears.
'What did he say to you?'
Cancer ignored Owene's question. 'I hate him... I hate him so much I can't stop loving him...I love him so much... But I hate him!'
Owene looked at her sympathetically, and then touched her back, stroking the quivering shoulder blade in an attempt to soothe her. 'I know, I know. There, darling... It's all right. It's not your fault.'
Cancer looked back at her, her red eyes look like they were losing colour turning, grey. 'Years ago… He walked in when an Atlantian called Erish kissed me. Erish knew I liked someone not of my race. He wanted me to like him... one of my kind. He pulled me closed to him; I tried to fight him away from me. The next thing I knew I was naked on my bed with him on top of me- kissing me- then...The Sorcerer was there at the door…. And… everything went down hill from there.'
Owene took her hand. 'It wasn't your fault. If the Sorcerer had been in his right mind he would have come to see it, no-matter how it hurt him... Oh my friend, you mustn't think this is your fault. Something else must have changed him. I can't believe it was only that! Owene could feel the pain and uncertainty inside her friend and it seemed the reflection of her own. The next thing she knew they had enfolded one another in a close embrace.
Cancer jerked her head 'the only reason why he has Adam is because of me...He said I want him. My thoughts of him he can read... I do not thing of Adam with desire, not anymore. I know he is a taken man, I respect that.' She crumbled her red eyes burned and she closed them tightly 'I love him- the sorcerer… why can't he understand that?'
'Adam was my first love; he's everything to me, my only love!' Owene said. 'The first time I saw him I knew that if I could not have him my life would be bleak- pointless. But he was a poor boy, the son of a fisherman, and my father was a parish priest- which makes you almost part of the upper classes in my world- my old world. I should have been content with Adam and not worried about that... But I let myself be persuaded that he wasn't good enough as he was. It was my fault he sailed away, to seek his fortune and return...' she shut her eyes and shook her head in self-rebuke. 'Worthy of me! Ha! I even knew in my heart it was wrong, really, snobbish. I begged him not to go when the time came, but by then he was determined to go, and to return a man who could keep me in luxury. You were right; it was my fault. I was shallow, selfish, greedy. But I have learned my lesson now. Too late, it seems. I've lost him forever, Cancer. But for you... I'd be all alone, and all of this is as much my fault as anyone's!'
'I will get Adam back for you, darling… I promise you that' Cancer kissed her gently and pulled away from her, the cloak shifted around her body. 'If I have to kill my love to get Adam back for you.... He can ruin my life all he wants...but he has no right to make you two suffer.' She swam off back towards the surface.
'Cancer don't! Not now, please! He isn't on the ship, the Sorcerer has him somewhere else! Don't ask how I know... but I do, and if anything happens to you then I might never find that place!'
Cancer stopped and looked at her 'I really wish you hadn't saved me back there... You really are dear to me… but I can't stand this pain, if I was out of the way... You would have Adam back.'
'No, don't dream it! And I need you, I do! You are dear to me too, and not only for saving Adam. For yourself, Cancer. I wish I could do something about your pain... your affliction. I don't know what more to say... But if I could have Adam back, and had the choice, I'd rather stay here, as I am, than go back to the life I had before.'

'You don't belong in the waters, Owene, You need to be free, with Adam...you belong on the land back to the way you where...I belong here in the depths of the ocean, away from everyone and everything I can hurt...Maybe then he will love me...'
Owene shook her head. 'You are my friend, aren't you? I would be quite happy staying here!'
'I am your friend...' Cancer lowered her head; her fingertips found a scar along her arm that was faintly there... 'Erish hurt me... that night... His nails where sharply and I tried fighting… he cut me... I was so scared... Scared that something would happen and I would lose the love of my life forever...but it's worse… I have him torturing me now...'
'It must have been bad, but... to go on as he does the sorcerer must still have strong feelings for you, locked away in his soul he must still have love for you. Don't despair, we can free his love, free him of the demon hate that overwhelms him, one day, just as we will free Adam! We can do it!'
'Do you really believe that?'
'We must have faith!'
'I'm sorry.' Cancer swam over to sit down on a fallen pillar and lowered her head. 'I refuse to love anyone anymore...because it will only lead to pain of others.' She looked at her 'I don't normally do this...but I'm running away this time. I'm going to find other oceans to play in.'

Across the ocean, the seabed was rocky and devoid of plant life or corral. Few fish even swam in those dark, deep waters, and seldom did a ray of sunlight filter down. There were barren valleys so deep that no ship's anchor could reach the bottom. And in the depth of one such valley rose the walls of a fortress, ruinous now, with a great stone dome in the center, with a great crack across it, where seismic shift had torn through the stonework, causing masonry to tumble inwards.
It had been to here that the sorcerer had taken Adam his prisoner. Kraken warriors swam about above the fortress, guarding the home of their master.
It happened that Cancer was headed in that direction when she ran away- but perhaps she knew where she was going. She had begged Owene to stay in Atlantis. She came through the dark depths of the ocean, land she never tracked before. She saw some creatures she would have rather never seen before because of their hideousness. Some hours later she came upon the dome. Her eyes widened when she saw the Kraken warriors. Carefully she moved to the dome to keep from being seen. Slipping past the watchful warriors, Cancer made her way to find and entrance to the dome. Finding one, she pulled into the shadows and carefully snuck in.

The mermaid Owene drifted through Atlantis, sorrowfully. She did not know what to do or where to go, and she felt empty inside. She came across a bar, drawn to it by the lantern light and a strange music. Inside another mermaid was playing a harp, in a great open shell in the corner. Behind the bar was a merman, and half a dozen more sat at stools, drinking a strange substance out of what looked like beakers, which kept the sea water out. Around the walls was a collection of odds and ends gathered from various shipwrecks. Nervously she went up to the bar.

Cancer swam deeper into the dome, her eyes fell upon Adam and she gasped softly. Looking around making sure no one could see her she whispered "Pssst!" She tried to get his attention.
Adam rushed to the bars of the great iron cage he was locked in. 'You!' he gasped. 'What are you doing here? And where is Owene, is she safe?'
'She… she is doing fine. She is in Atlantis... I was running away from my life back there, and then I stumbled upon this place...Are you alright? What did he do to you...How can I get you out of here?'
'Get out of here before he sees you! It's too dangerous!' Adam urged.
'I don't care about him... I don't care about anyone. Owene cares about you though and I promised her I would get you out and get you back to her if I could. He can kill me for all I care… in fact I wish he would kill me. Then he would set you free- for this is all about me.' She looked around for something to break him free with; she was still wearing the sorcerer's cloak.
'Cancer, it's no good, this cage has a spell, over it... it sends pain, burning pain through me if it's interfered with it or if anyone tries to get me out! Even so I've tried, but it is impossible!'
Cancer stared at him. 'There...has to be a way...' she leaned against the cage thinking, her head lowered.
'There is nothing.' Adam said. 'You know he controls us, everything we do! He has been manipulating us from the start!'
'Yes. He is only using you to hurt me. That is why he holds you prisonr. Because he is using you against me to get what he wants from me... To destroy my life like he has always delighted in doing...' She stared off into the darkness.
'So why did you come here?'
She glanced at him quickly 'You are my friend's lover...'
'If you are my lover's friend, you had better get out of here for your own sake, and go back to look after her! You can't know how it distresses me to think of her alone in this wilderness of water!'
'She is where she cannot get hurt. I can't always be there for her. What if those men had killed me? You don't know what happened back there. I promised her I would find you and get you free. To make all of this stop. It's all lies. I hate how he thinks I lust for you I hate it!' She dropped to her knees and lowered her head.'
'Cancer...' Adam tried to reach though the bars, but then pulled his arm back and cried as though he had put his hand in a fire. 'Oh Christ, go to her! If you feel anything for me, go and look after her! She is so little, she cannot possibly look after herself!'
'If she can kill the most terrible creature of the sea, a great white shark, then I think she can look after herself fine.'
'A great white?'
'Yes.' Cancer told him what had happened.
Adam shook his head. 'But it goes to show, this is a nasty world, how can she survive alone with such creatures about? If she was lucky once, it doesn't mean... and anyway, what are you running away from- and this is no place to run to! This is the blackest pit, the closest place to hell on the planet!'
Cancer slammed her fist against bars, and a jolt of pain coursed up to her brain, causing her to reel back. Agony buzzed behind her eyes. 'I hate him so much.'

She looked at Adam with deep red eyes 'I'm running away from my life. If I'm gone, maybe he will free you...' She pushed off the bars 'You never saw me.' she headed to leave.

One of the mermen took pity on Owene, back at the tavern, and bought her a drink of the strange stuff, which was called Quiger. She thanked him and found herself telling him her story, and about the mysterious Sorcerer. 'You poor thing.' said the merman, who had longish brown hair and a beard.

'Sounds like you've met Jaspar' said his companion, an older merman with silvery strands in his long black hair. 'He was one of the titans, he the one who ruined this city.'
'Jaspar, the sorcerer is called Jaspar, the man with the yellow eyes, like cold fire?'
'Aye.'
'Why did he do it?'
'This city used to be inhabited by Atlantians. Jaspar loved one of them, and she had professed her love for him. But then, they say, he caught her with another. He took a terrible revenge. He destroyed everything… She was the only one he left alive, and that only so he could torment her. We've seen you with her.'
'Cancer? But she is my friend.'
'She's trouble.'
'How do I find this Jaspar? I am totally lost, here, and my friend has abandoned me. I need to find Jaspar, only he can free the man I love.'
'I should forget about that, my sweet,' said the first merman. 'He resides, they say in a fortress protected by kraken. You cannot fight them! They killed my father, when I was young... they are the most powerful warriors in the deep!'
'His father was my brother,' said the older one.
'I'm sorry,' Owene said. 'Do you know the way there?'
'You would never get there.'
'Please, I must try, can you not direct me?'
'I would not want your death on my hands, child.'
'I will find that place, I will look... I have at least to look!'
'She's determined, I see,' said the younger one.
'Well, it is foolishness. And we are fools, my nephew, for we are going to show her the way!'

Cancer took one glance back and Adam 'I'm...sorry this all happened, its my fault...' when she was leaving she ran right into one of the warriors with a gasp she quickly tried to swim off. The kraken warrior grabbed Cancer by the foot and yanked her back. She yelped.
'Look what we have here…'
'Let me go!' She jerked hard trying to get free. Adam could hear her scream. The grip upon her only tightened.

'What do we do with her seneschal?' Asked another Kraken. 'Put her in irons, and take her to the master?'
The officer grinnined. 'Lets play with her.'
'We can play with her a while first, yes,' the other seemed to chuckle.
Cancer jerked sharply 'No! LET ME GO!' She kicked trying to get free.
'Leave her alone!' Adam roared, uselessly.
The kraken officer looked back at Adam 'Shut up, freak. No on asked you.'

The second kraken grabbed Cancer by the throat as the first bound her wrists in metal shackles behind her back. He pulled her face close to his and a long, reptilian tongue slid out of his lipless mouth, and lapped her face lasciviously. She jerked her head and closed her eyes and mouth tightly trying to get away from him, her foot slammed into him hard.
The other one grabbed her leg and kept hold of it so she couldn't kick him again. 'Let's see what's under this cloak.' He ripped it off her body leaving her bare. 'Yum.'
'Yes, pretty, pretty!' said the last kraken. 'This is the slut of the sea that the master spoke of! Have you ever had a kraken, little whore? We have attributes that those poor mermen sadly lack!'
She swallowed tightly; fear almost struck her face. Jerking sharply she hissed at them 'Let me go!!!' He laughed and shook his head.

Meanwhile the two mermen collected their bows and prepared to lead Owene over the wilderness to the fortress. One had a lantern fish inside a wicker basket, and carried it to light their way.

Cancer's body trembled. Jerking she tried hard to get away. The grip upon her only tightened as she felt hands trail her body. She felt a sick feeling stricken her; she wanted to kill herself right now. She hated this so much.

An arrow whistled, twisting through the water from one of the mermen's crossbows. Its tip had been forged in an undersea volcano, and it ended its journey smashing into the kraken sentinel's skull. The second kraken turned rapidly, dropping Cancer, and quickly drawing his own bow. He dodged the second arrow from the mermen and sent one back towards the crack in the domed roof above. His aim was good and it struck the older merman in the shoulder...
Cancer, meanwhile, fell to the ground with a gasp of pain. The shackles weighed her down; she jerked trying to break free of them, with no luck. She curled up in a tight ball, shivering.

There were a dozen more krakens about and they swam at the mermen with swords drawn. There was no hope now. 'Hide!' the younger one, who was called Tio, shouted to Owene, who was behind them. 'I have to get my uncle out of here, maybe we can draw them off!' Owene nodded and darted back behind the dome, while the swarm of kraken burst through the gap.

Using her foot Cancer pulled the cloak with it and shifts wrapping it around her, the shackles digging into her wrist 'Owene! I can't believe you... did this.' Cancer sat up carefully she tried to break free of the shackles again, she knew Jaspar would come soon… he should be here already. He must have heard the commotion. Something wasn't right.
It did not seem right to Adam, either. Somehow he suspected that the Sorcerer knew everything that was happening...

Owene slipped through the gap, gingerly, looking around for more guards. 'Cancer!' she called. 'What have they done to you?' she looked at her shackled wrist. 'You get in more trouble than I do!'
Cancer looked at Owene and rested her head against her momentarily for a hug. 'Adam… he is in there,' Cancer jerked her head. 'Go free him... I'm fine really.'
'Let me free your wrists!' Owene hardly seemed to register what Cancer had just said. She drew her sword. 'Come on, hold your arms behind you against that column over there!'
Cancer narrowed her eyes. 'Don't worry about me! Go free Adam!'
'Cancer, they may come back, just do it!'
'Just go to him!' Cancer hissed.
Owene scowled then looked over to the cage, and saw Adam. 'Oh dear God!' she sighed. She was there in a moment.
'Owene!' He said, hardly believing his eyes.
Her fair brow creased. 'How do I open it?'
'I don't know, try the sword!' Adam prompted.
'Right! Sorry, being blonde!' she smiled, and readied the sword to swing at the huge iron lock on the door. The blade recoiled from the lock though, and at that moment Adam collapsed in the cage, clutching his head and crying in pain. 'What's wrong? Adam, Love, what's the matter?'
'The pain! Aaugh! This cage has a spell on it, I feel pain if anyone tampers with it!'

Cancer realized she was alone now. With the shackles still around her cutting her wrist tightly behind her back. Carefully she stood on shaky legs, the cloak barely clung onto her body. She looked back at Owene and Adam and whispered to her self 'I told you two you would be together again...' She moved away from it all her arms hurting from the strain on them. She walked through the darkness

Owene slumped against the side of the cage, reaching through to stroke Adam's hair. It was hopeless. 'I can't get you out,' she said.
'You are here, at least!' he looked out at her tenderly. 'Owene, I love you! I thought I would never see you again!'
Owene looked around. She saw Cancer slipping away. She winced. There could, surely would be more kraken guards about. Was Cancer suicidal? 'Adam, don't go anywhere!' she said, darting off after her.
'Right, I'll wait here then,' said Adam, bemused.
Cancer got a good distance away and collapsed to her knees with a lowered head. Her body was trembling. Her eyes burned.
'Cancer, you silly thing, where are you off to now?' Owene whispered, catching her up. She touched Cancer's shoulder, and then shook her head. 'Don't leave us again, please!'
Cancer flinched painfully when the cuffs are pulled up, it strained her arms more because they where bound behind her back. Looking back at Owene she sighed. Her expression was emotionless and empty looking 'Why are you here? You should be with the one you love...' She watched her momentarily; then pulling away from her.
'You are my friend, don't you know what that means? I want us all to get out of this alive! Now let me break this bond, and then come back and help me figure out how to open the cage. You know magic, we need you!'
'I can't… break him out... My magic isn't strong enough.' She showed he the cuffs. 'They are as well protected... Just… please go… he needs you...'
Owene sighed, exasperated, and then slapped her. 'Now you get a grip! We need you and you are not going off on your own again! This sword is either going to break your bonds or chop your stubborn head off! I love you dearly, but I am getting very stressed now!'
'THEN CHOP MY STUBBORN HEAD OFF!!! LOOK AT ME!!! DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE FOR MY LIFE! The man I love thinks I'm a whore! Every man who has touched me has violated and hurt me. EVERYONE THINKS I'M THE SLUT OF THE SEA! You don't know what that is like! You don't know what its like to exist like this! You have someone the loves you and would never hurt you. The sword won't break these cuffs and I swear if you EVER place your hand on me again like that I will rip you apart! Understand me! Don't you EVER TOUCH ME LIKE THAT AGAIN ARE WE UNDERSTOOD?' Cancer's eyes burned with rage.
Owene was taken aback, and looked both hurt and indignant. 'I was only trying to help you cancer! Anyway I owed you that slap. You've called me stupid yet you threaten to tear me apart while you have your hands bound behind you! And you won't even let me try to free you- how do you know they are protected until we try! The guards, not the sorcerer, put them on you! Ah, if you must keep rejecting me then go your own way! But don't think I don't know what it is like to be hurt, to lose, to be mistreated!'
Cancer shoved past her hard with her shoulder. She went back into the room where Adam was. She whispered something under her breath, the waves slammed hard into the bars. The force it repulsed back at her sent her flying back into the wall slamming her hard.
'The spell,' Adam said, hopelessly.
Owene swam back through. She looked around. Across from Cancer lay the body of the kraken warrior, with the merman's arrow through his head. At his belt was a ring of keys. 'Maybe we're missing the obvious.' The mermaid muttered, hardly daring to believe it. She swam over to the body and cut the ring from the belt, then brought it over to the cage. She tried one key after another until one slid into the lock and turned. The door swung open. Adam rushed out into Owene's embrace.
After a moment Owene looked around to Cancer, who had got herself to a sitting position against the wall.
Cancer was trembling. 'Get out of here... quick! Take Adam and never look back.' Cancer flinched as the mermaid swam to her side, and again tried the keys in the bonds at her wrists. At last the bonds fell away. Cancer pulled her arms forward again stretching them; her back caused her to flinch. There seemed to be no strength in her.
'Cancer, come with us, for the last time of asking!' Owene said. 'Please!'
She looked at her. 'In time I will meet up with you again. But he will chase us if I go with you. If I stay here, he won't have a reason to follow you. I promise we will meet again. I promise… My back hurts...I think it might be broken...or breaking... the pain is so great...' A slight trail of blood slid from her mouth and clouded in the water.

'Cancer' Owene sighed sadly, but then Adam shouted. 'More of those scaly guards are coming!' He swam to the mermaid's side and touched her shoulder. Quick, Owene, away, the fiend won't harm Cancer, she's his reason for being, just as you are mine!'
Still Owene seemed reluctant to leave her, and Cancer, despite herself, was touched by the mermaid's fidelity 'In time I will find you again, Owene, I promise, now please go, and live happily...'
'I'm sorry,' Owene said, and then looked at Adam, and let herself be led away.

Cancer watched the couple leave. She glanced at the cage. Her body trembled; it hurt to breath for her she closed her eyes tightly feeling her body burning with a shattering pain.
The sorcerer manifested in the shadows and crossed the room to Cancer's side. He stooped down close to her. 'Perfect!' he stroked her hair, then stooped lower to kiss her.
She flinched painfully at his touched. Looking up at him she pulled away from the kiss, she didn't want it. Closing her eyes tightly she was fighting the emotions hard.
He brought back the cloak to wrap around her, and then took her up in his arms, like a bundle. 'Welcome to my humble abode, little whore!' he whispered.
'Don't...call me that...Just leave me here… let me die.' I don't want to be with you...'
'Oh, but I know that isn't true. Have you forgotten our love?' Jaspar carried her into a chamber with a four-poster bed, with lacy drapes stirring in the faint currant of the water.
She looked at him fearfully. 'Your men...hurt me. Everyone hurts me... And however you treat me I'm not a whore- or a slut... I'm nothing like that...' She turned her head away. 'I hate you so much.'
'How can you plead innocence? As though the image of you and... him... is not still etched, indelibly etched on my mind. Every time I close my eyes I see it! That is how I suffer!'
She sat up and narrowed her eyes "THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED!!! I didn't wan't Erish! I don't want Adam. I never have wanted anyone but I you!' She stared at him with an expression of such hurt upon her face. 'I hated Erish so much... He tired to rape me. He wanted to hurt you because he knew I loved only you. He wanted to take that away from me! He wanted to take me away from you!'
'I was told of your betrayals. There was another. He told me what you were doing, and that I would find you with that... creature… Erish. How can you explain that? And when I found it was true, he gave me the power to have my revenge!'
'What creature! What are you talking about' She honestly had no idea. 'The only thing that ever happened was with Erish... That one night. Nothing else. Who told you I was doing something? I don't understand!'
'I saw you with Erish, just as the spirit told me I would! How, I ask you again, do you explain that?'
She was scared and hurt '...This is why? This is why you torment me? This is why you destroyed my people and my world? Because a spirit told you a lie! A spirit told you I was a whore and sleeping around?' She stared at him in astonishment. 'You believe everyone else but me... Believe what you like, but I was pure- until you took me. I was never touched in that way by anyone or anything!' She was telling him the truth. It was a painful look she gave him, like her heart was torn from her body, which was now lifeless... 'I loved you so much. More than you ever will know. But if you think of me as a whore...then… then fine so let it be...' She turned her head away and down 'I hate you so much...' She fought back the stinging of tears.
The sorcerer Jaspar stared at her. The yellow of his eyes deepened to a red not dissimilar to hers.
'Why would a spirit, an immortal, something beyond this world and our understanding, lie?'
She peered deeply into his eyes. 'If you think I'm lying then kill me now. But then I will haunt you for ever until you believe what is true...' Shaking her head she looked away from him again.
'No, I will never let you die! If you die then I will too, and we will be two spirits, keeping one another from rest, drifting, wafting in the sea like flotsam! But no, you will not die! Cancer!' He raised her to him and held her, as he had not done for many centuries. He placed his had over her broken back and again she felt the crackle, just as she had when he had healed her slashed throat.
Gasping in pain, Cancer trembled and pulled away from him. 'Get away from me...' She knew he would never believe her no matter how much she told him.
He held her still. 'And your heart, do you claim to love me still, my Cancer?' he whispered, close to her face, his brow almost touching hers.
'I wish I could hate you, for all the pain you have put me through. You don't know how badly you've hurt me. How many times I have wanted to end my life because of the words you say to me... I do hate you.... but I love you and always have and always will.'
Jaspar cupped her pale face in his bony hands, stroking her cheeks with his sharp-nailed thumbs. He scrutinized her deeply. His mouth twitched. Impulses towards tenderness and violence seemed to conflict within him. She saw his tongue lap over his sharp teeth.
She tried to shrink from him. 'Keep away from me! I don't want to be with you ever again.' Tears formed in her burning eyes. 'You don't believe me you never will. Your own men tried to rape me. But it's my fault… everything always is!'
He caught her wrists in one hand and kissed her mouth, deeply, tasting her, feeling her resistance, and waiting for it to melt away.
He could feel her lip trembling as he kissed her. Then her body started to tremble badly. He could tell she was scared, frail in his hands. 'Do not be innocent now, Cancer, I could not bear it!' he muttered through the kiss, stroking her hair, laying her back, underneath him and riding up over her. 'Be my whore! My love... my curse... now!'
She felts him pinning her down to his bed, she jerked sharply 'I'm… not a whore...I don't want to be a whore...ever!'
'You can be one for me, at least! You could have been whatever you desired to be! My lady! My Queen!' He kissed her throat, and knew she was wondering with a mixture of expectation and fear, whether he might bite...
Cancer trembled feeling his body above hers, she didn't look him in the face at all 'I… hate you… so much,' she covered her face with a hand and closed her eyes.
He rose from her. 'Then you had better leave here!' His voice was mocking. 'Go, and have no fear for your chastity! Perhaps you would like me to fuse your legs together and give you a tail like Owene's, to safeguard it forever!'
She looked at him 'You… wouldn't dare do that to me!'
'What would it matter to you, if I did? At least the mermaid would no longer have to fear what her man might be tempted to do with you!'
'I don't want her man! I never did!! DONT YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?'
'Then why so concerned about retaining your legs?' He chuckled and sat on the edge of the bed, stroking her thing playfully.
She closed her eyes at his touch and trembled faintly. 'Why do you want to hurt me so badly?'
'So you know, my darling...'
'So I know what...?'
'Come, now Cancer, do not feign naivety! And remember, that if you do not intend to stay with me tonight, then you must go now!'
'If I leave here I will never return again.' she slowly got up and walked away.
'No, but we will meet again, and you know it! Our destinies are entwined, Cancer! Entwined!'
'DEATH WILL PULL US APART!' She swam off quickly.
He turned, smiling to himself. As if he would let her die! He sent for the commander of his guards, to ensure the kraken would not molest her on way out. He also gave an order for her to be followed at a distance.

Cancer eventually made her way back to Atlantis. She was tired and shaken. The ruined city lay under a cloud of darkness. There was a wild storm raging above, so violent that it had even stirred up the sediment of the seabed, so that the sea was filled with swirling dust and debris... Cancer looked around and quickly swam for shelter
'This cave's taken, get your own!' said a familiar voice, in friendly jest. 'Hello Cance!' Cancer backed up at the sound. 'I'm sorry... Owene...Bye' Cancer turned to go.
'Oh dear, Cancer! Come back! What's wrong? Oh dear...'
Cancer looked at her and trembled, the dust blowing around her
'Come back in the cave, please, it's dangerous out here,' the mermaid said, putting an arm around her friend and leading her back. 'It's alright, it's safe there, and Adam and the others are waiting...'
'The...others?' she was confused.
'The mermen, Tio and Xius, his uncle. Xius is wounded, in his shoulder, but not badly... I managed to remove the arrow and to bandage him up with some seaweed leaves, which Tio said had healing properties... it's good to see you by the way. I was terribly worried, we all were!'
Cancer looked at her incredulously.
'Are you ok?' Owene touched Cancer's arm, lowering her voice. 'He didn't hurt you did he?'
'He… threatened me.'
'Oh dear. Poor love, it must have been awful, but you're safe now! It's a miracle, really, how we have all got away alive!'
Cancer sat down and lowered her head burying it against her knees and trembled she didn't have anything to say to anyone. Owene stroked her hair, seeing that she was upset, having the sensitivity not to press her to find out what had happened.
Cancer leaned into her and trembled 'I've lost all love for that man... he has hurt me to much this time...'
'I'm sorry,' Owene said, softly. She hugged Cancer, but gently. 'I'm sorry, he betrayed your love, he was terrible to you.'
Cancer shrugged and just relaxed. 'He said he was going to turn me into a mermaid....'
'Oh' Owene said. 'Well, I'm getting used to it! But I don't think he would do that.'
'I couldn't care less what he wants...'
'Don't worry about him now, it's over, I'm sure it is.'
'He said it wouldn't be...our paths are intertwined... for ever... I hate him. I need to find another man!' Cancer laughed a bit, trying to cheer herself up.
Owene smiled. 'Come and meet Tio!'
'I...cant take mermen... Legs…' she motioned to her legs 'They cause problems...'
'I know, it's awkward, but we can still have a party!'
Cancer sighs and lowered her head. 'You all have fun, I'm going to just stay here for a bit and think.' she smiled softly. Owene nodded and darted back to check on Adam and the others and to tell them that Cancer had turned up relatively unscathed but shaken. Cancer curled up and laid on the ground closing her red eyes and trembled she was alone now, scared of the world.
Owene did not leave her for too long. She came back to make sure Cancer was all right. She drew closer, slowly, and stroked her hair again.
Cancer trembled in her touch. 'Go spend time with Adam you have him back now. I will be alright.'
'He's big enough to look after himself- and it's all man-talk in there! I just wanted to make sure you are ok. I don't like the thought of you being on your own after what's happened.'
'I will be alright I promise… I just… give up!'
'I know.' Owene dropped her hand and looked out of the cave mouth at the swirling clouds of silt. 'Dreadful weather today!'
'Yes.'
'Do you think this is his doing, this storm? It's the strangest thing I ever saw...'
'It's his anger. It will go for anything from an hour to several days...'
'Oh well.' Owene covered her mouth to yawn. 'We are well off here! This will make a cosy camp for the night, it's been an exhausting day.'
'Yes...tell me about it… go on back to socialize lovely.' she smiled softly with red painted lips.
Owene leant forward and kissed her on the mouth, impulsively. She looked away, then, blushing, and peered towards the back of the cave, which had fallen quiet. 'They've gone to sleep now!' she remarked.
Cancer looked up at her in question. 'Why...did you kiss me?'
'I don't know. Sorry.'
'It was alright…' Cancer smiled faintly.
'It was just, I'm happy to see you again, safe... away from... I was so worried...! And your lips are pretty, too!'
She laughed and hugged her carefully 'Thank you darling.'
Owene smiled bashfully. 'It's ok. Just don't think no-one cares about you in this whole sea!' she touched her hand again, lightly and stroked her arm. 'Things will be ok, you'll see!'
'I'm happy you and Adam are together again.' Cancer smiled softly
'Thank you. Oh! He would still be in a cage but for you! I don't know what I can do to repay you.'
'No need to… I promised you I would free him.'
Owene smiled at her friend again and then glanced past her, out into the swirling water. Through the dirty waves she thought she glimpsed two yellow lights, but when she looked again they were no more. She held Cancer so she would not look around. The last thing she needed was to think that her nemesis might be out there even now...
Cancer hugged her friend close. 'Lets go in further with the men.' she pulled her with her back into the cave to where the entrance couldn't be seen anymore.
There, in the snug confinements, they bedded down. Mossy seaweed covered the rocky floor of the cave, and it was not uncomfortable. Owene gracefully laid herself down close to Adam, but close enough to Cancer to reach out and touch her friend. 'Good night Cance,' she whispered.
Cancer didn't reply she was already asleep her body trembled; the cloak was still around her bare body.

Adam stirred the next morning, rolled over and put an arm around Owene's waste. She shuffled closer and he opened his eyes to see her beautiful face, her blue eyes gazing up into his. 'Darling!' he said. 'Am I dreaming, have I been dreaming all this time?' He slid his hand down and felt flesh turn into scales. It registered that that part at least had been no dream. He was under the sea in the arms of a mermaid. She glanced down then back up. 'We are together again,' she said.
He nodded and pulled her to his kiss. Eventually they got up and looked about. 'What happens now?' Adam asked.

Cancer was gone. She wasn't there anymore in the cave. 'Where is she?' Owene asked, needlessly.
Cancer swam back in she was draped in fishnet again. 'Right here...the storm hasn't let up… but I brought food' she kneeled and opened a satchel of stuff. The cloak was gone, and she was dressed again in netting.
Owene sighed with relief. 'I thought you...' she smiled. 'Never mind! Nice net!' she supposed that Cancer would be glad to be rid of a reminder of the sorcerer. 'And ooh, what have you brought, there? I'm starving!'
Cancer leaned on the wall looking around, her legs crossed at the ankles; she rubbed the fin going down her right arm as she watched.
There were some bottles of the drink Owene had sampled before, and some baskets of fish and oysters, and also a spongy sort of bread, somehow managing not to dissolve in the water. 'It's a good job I'm used to fish,' Adam said, raising an eyebrow.
Cancer laughed. 'You love your fish in more ways than one! She threw a fish at him.
Owene and Adam laughed and then tucked in to the meal. 'So what happened to Tio and Xius?' Owene asked at length.
Cancer shrugged. 'They where sleeping when I left.'
There was a sound. Adam jumped up, alert. 'It's only me!' said a voice. It was Tio. 'I was just taking my uncle home to be looked after by my cousin. She's a healer, very skilled. Oh, am I late for the feast?'
Cancer looked at him and smirked 'Yes.'
'What a shame,' he said, sitting on a rock, and looking from Cancer to Owene, and then back. 'It's still violent out there. In Atlantis, you could scarcely see from one side of the street to the other, and it looks like some more buildings have collapsed.'
'I suspect he is doing this, to torment me...' she sighed and lowered her head 'To destroy more of my life.' Cancer moved to the entrance.
It was still dark outside, a sea of shifting shadows. There were no yellow eyes, though, that she could see watching her through the miasma. Cancer shrugged and leaned against the rocky lip of the cave mouth, away from everyone and alone staring into the darkness.
Owene joined her, presently. 'What are you thinking?'
She was startled a bit and looked at her 'Oh… nothing...'
'You still have your legs, I see,' Owene observed.
She looked down at her legs and nodded 'Yes...'
'And I have my tail. Do you think he has forgotten about us now?'
She shook her head. 'He never forgets.'
'Are you still afraid?'
'If he wants to, he will...' she looked at her...'Go back inside, it's too dangerous to be this far out.'
Owene shrank back a little and Adam came and put his arms around her. Her tail twisted about his leg, and she leant back against his shoulder.

Cancer dropped to her knees trembling; she did think of Adam in the ways she was said to. But she told everyone different. She hated behind alone, so much. Why do I still live...for his torment? she thought. I can't be with anyone… Ever... She clutched her head.

Tio saw her fall, and wondered whether he should say or do something.
Owene kissed Adam, leaning hear head back, but then looked down again, and saw Cancer's shoulder blades quiver. 'Oh no!' she said, sensing how Cancer was hurting and feeling terrible that she might be part of the cause. Perhaps it would be best if she got out of here. 'I must be greedy, but I'm still hungry! Come on Tio, you haven't eaten yet, you can show me how we mer-people are supposed to find food!' She fetched the merman, and before they left, she nodded to Adam. 'Look after Cancer, love. She's... upset.'

Cancer leaned into the wall still curled up. She stared at the sand blowing around at her feet. She wiggled her toes a bit in it. Adam crossed the cave and watched Owene swim away into the dirty water. That merman had better keep her safe, he thought. He sat on a rock opposite Cancer, in his torn white trousers and striped shirt with its shredded sleeves, open at the collar and showing his powerful chest muscles. His face was handsome, looking at times boyish and at others very manly. His hair came just past his ears, covering the gills that the sorcerer had caused to open in his broad neck. He cupped his strong chin and watched Cancer. 'What is wrong?' he asked in a surprisingly soft voice. 'Is it the sorcerer? Is it Owene? Is it me?'
'It doesn't matter any more.' She looked back at him 'I'm going out into the storm… I don't want to return… make sure Owene doesn't come looking for me please.' She stood.
He stood too and rushed to her shaking her head. 'How can you think of it?' He seized her wrists and she felt his warmth and his strength. 'Owene regards you as her best friend, she would be distraught about this- how can you even contemplate it! And what about...'
Cancer snapped her wrists back. 'Because I'm sick of seeing people happy! It's not fair! Everyone gets to be happy except for me! THE ONE CREATURE I LOVED IS TORMENTING ME ALIVE!'
'You love him then?' Adam looked almost disappointed, betrayed. 'How can you love him when he does such things to you?' He touched her face. 'If you were mine... what I mean is, you deserve more than that!'
'I will never be yours so… no… that is not possible. You have Owene… that... that makes me happy to know that you two are happy. I don't love him anymore...I hate him… he scares me.'
Adam looked into her eyes; the dilated centers looked very large and dark, softening the severity of the red pupils. Her lips quivered. 'You should not be afraid,' he said, moving closer.
She watched him ever so cautiously 'everyone...seems to hurt me' she keep watching him, her eyes impossibly drawn to his.
'Hush' he said, and found himself stroking her hair. 'None of this has been fair, yet here we are!'
'You two belong… back on the dry land.' she turned her head away staring at the ground. 'Not in the ocean...its far to dangerous down here... everyone will turn on you at the slightest…'
He kissed her, pulling her to him.
Her eyes widened and she felt her lips locking around his, her hands slid up his strong arms. She pulled away quickly and swallowed tightly. 'No! What about Owene?'
Adam turned away. 'Fishier, ' he muttered. 'Oh... Cancer!'
Cancer looked at him and she shook her head. 'No; you love her!'
'I love her... my beautiful Owene! And she does make a lovely mermaid, but I am a man, Cancer! How can I... BE with a mermaid? I am a man!'
'I'm sorry... I...' she ran her fingers ran through his locks as she looked at him.
He turned his back. 'I think it would be better if we could forget this, forget anything happened.'
'Alright.' She looked around. 'I wonder when they are going to get back.'

Owene had only said she was still hungry to give Cancer some time alone. She had the feeling that the sight of her and Adam happily reunited was reminding Cancer of her loneliness. She went off with Tio and he showed her how to catch fish. Owene felt quite sorry for their prey, but it was the way it had to be. Tio hunted with a bow and arrow, which seemed strange underwater to Owene. The arrow was adapted to screw its way through the sea. The storm was clearing and it grew easier to locate the prey. Soon they were on their way back to the cave.
Cancer was sat at the entrance waiting for their arrival, but she could get the kiss out of her mind to save her life.
'Ye shall have a fishie on a little dishie...' Owene was singing, a song she had heard a Geordie sailor singing, one of Adam's old crewmates, as they had unloaded their catch... She saw Cancer sat there. 'Hello Cance! We caught some more, or rather Tio did, I'm no good... should stick to sharks, I think! So what's happening?'
Cancer looked up at her and smiled 'Adam helped me out...' she shrugged. 'He made me realize some high points in life, your lucky you have him.'
Owene smiles and glanced towards Adam, with a nod. 'And it's thanks to you Cance! We're both in your debt.' She looked back. 'I think it's settling down out there, you can see the sun shining through again.'
'You don't owe me anything' she looked at Owene for a moment then looked at Adam. She stood.

Adam likewise got to his feet. 'I suppose we had better head back for town.'
'I will- um…' Cancer said, 'I'm going to head back to my part of Atlantis; don't be strangers' She smiled at Tio.
'Where should we go?' Adam asked.
She looked at them. 'I thought you might want to stay with me, as before.' She shrugged. 'There is plenty of room, you are welcome.'
'It's that or this cave!' Owene smiled. 'Thank you Cancer.'
She laughed and shrugged 'Stay here then.' She smiled

'It is beautiful here,' said Owene, drifting through the flooded marble halls, back in Cancer's ruinous palace. 'So grand this city must have been in olden times!'
'Yes... this is where I was raised,' Cancer smiled and watched her, but couldn't help glancing at Adam.
'We've landed on our feet here!' Owene said to Adam, swimming close to where he walked, and taking his hand. 'Or at least you have, I don't seem to have feet anymore, but you know what I mean.'
Adam nodded with a forced smile.
'Is everything alright?' Owene asked him.
'I just don't like to think we're imposing on Cancer's hospitality.' He glanced across. 'She's already done too much.'
Cancer looked away from him. 'I said you were welcome. At any rate, our paths need barely cross. This place is so big. And now I will leave you to make yourselves at home.' She nodded and swam off down a wing of the palace.

Adam slumped on a couch. 'Well, we have nothing to unpack!'
Owene unslung her sword and hung it on the arm of a statue of a triton warrior. 'No, we travel light!'
He smiled. 'You merpeople don't seem to bother with clothes.' She blushed and folded her arms, until he reached out a hand to her. 'Come here!' She settled in his arms, feeling his touch, and their lips met.

Cancer went into her corridor and collapsed upon an elegant bed made out of a giant shell. She curled up on the cushions. 'I hate this...'

Later Owene fell asleep in Adam's arms, with her head resting on his chest, and with his hand stroking her long golden hair. He lay beneath her, still stroking the flowing hair, smoothing it down only to have it float away again in the water. He looked up at the ornate ceiling of the flooded room. Fishes swam through the windows and darted this way and that in the space between.
Cancer left her room and swam though her home heading for the opening. She trailed her hands along the marble statues of her people. She missed them all.
Adam sensed that Owene was fast asleep. She only stirred slightly as he eased himself out from under her, leaving her lying on the chaise with her tail flopping over the edge. He kissed her brow then crossed the floor to a door.
Cancer passed by Adam and Owene's room and headed off.
'Cancer' she heard him hiss.
Freezing she turned her head and looked back. There he stood, in the tall doorway. She looked at him. 'What?'
'What.' he echoed, stepping closer to her. 'I can't stop thinking about you! '
'You're just saying that.'
'Why would I lie, nymph? Do you think I want my mind to be haunted by thoughts of you? Do you think I wouldn't resist you if I could?'
She stepped back some. 'You can resist me… and you should...'
'No man can resist you! How many sailors have happily drowned for you?'
She fell over a pillar that lay on the ground her legs drooped over it and she looked up at him. 'Try hard... think of Owene.'
'I feel torn in two!' He dropped down and took her hand. He helped her to rise and held on to her fingers.
'I'm sorry!' she shook her head. 'There is nothing I can do...'
He released her hand turned his back on her.
She started to swim away. Adam let her go.

Cancer swam some way out into the ocean and then laid herself down in the sand. Closing her eyes, she buried her face into her arms. Adam, meanwhile returned to the chaise lounge. Owene was gone...
Cancer came back about 20 minutes later and swam through her halls heading back to her room.
'Cancer have you seen Owene?' Adam asked, accosting her in the hall, with a frantic look on his face.
'No… I thought she was with you?'
'She's gone!'
'I'll go out and look for her' She kicked off, quickly swimming into the ocean, she had a feeling the man she loved would know. Calling his name she swam farther.
The yellow eyes shone in the distance. The Sorcerer was waiting. He seemed to have been waiting for some time...
She swam towards him.
'Hello' he said, mockingly.
She stopped right before him. 'Where is she?'
'Who?' he smiled, baring his sharp teeth.
'Give Owene back to Adam… I will do anything; I will be yours if that is what you really want. I love you I honestly do! I never hated you...only feared you. Please just leave them out of this.'
'Is she gone?' he looked innocent.
'Jaspar! Don't do this please...' She stared at him with troubled red eyes. 'Please...' She buried her face against his chest, trembling.
He put an arm around her, lowering his voice. 'What makes you think this has anything to do with me? All I did was wake her- the rest was your work; yours and Adam, anyway...'
She looked up at him. 'What... I didn't do anything… I told him no I told him he had to fight it, to think... think of Owene'
'She did not wait around long enough to hear that... For at least the second time in your life, innocent or not, Cancer, you have been caught out! You broke an onlooker's heart. I told her of your kiss-showed her it! Showed her the cave, and you two.... That was not my doing, I promised, it was yours and the faithless man's!'
She pulled back 'He kissed me!' She stared at him. She felt her heart rip out of her body... 'I…' she fell sealant.
'We know how you felt- do you think she could not see you melt as he touched you? Do you not think she could recognise your longing?'
Cancer backed away farther, she grabbed a piece of driftwood and slammed it sharply into her chest and heaved it in tighter, backing away from him, and she quickly swam away. About five miles out, bleeding profusely, she collapsed to the ground.
He was behind her already, laughing. He grabbed her and pulled the wood from her chest, quickly using his magic to arrest the bleeding. 'Now now, naughty, naughty! You really are an errant little nymph! Do not think you can get out of this that easily! Why should you escape the trouble you have caused?' He turned her around and held her face so that she had to look at him. 'You have to face the fruit of your labours, or rather of your wantonness!'
'I want to die...JUST LET ME DIE PLEASE!'
'No, no, no! Never, never!'
'PLEASE!!! Please. Just let me die! Or burn my eyes so I can never see again!'
'Cancer do stop feeling sorry for yourself!'
'I have done something I never meant to do! Because I was angry!! And I regret it so much!'
'Tell me.'
'I did kiss him... but that was all! I was upset with you… and vulnerable… the man saw that...and he took advantage of that... I never meant to hurt Owene...ever!'
Jaspar laughed, as though tickled to the core. 'What a game! And even now you pity yourself when your betrayed friend could be lying dead on the sea bed with a sword in her gut!'
'What?' she shoved him away and took off quickly screaming for her 'OWENE!! OWENE! WHERE ARE YOU? PLEASE ANSWER ME!!! OWENE!!' her voice echoed through the water.

Owene was nowhere to hear. She was sat on a rock, out in the night. She raised a tearful face up to the cold light of the moon, in the velvet sky. She sobbed and wept, and shivered, clutching at her bare shoulders. 'Oh God! Oh why! Oh God let me die!'
Cancer swam to the surface and saw her. 'OWENE!! DONT PLEASE!'
'Go away, Cancer! Go back and have my man! If you make him happy and that's what you want then... just go back! I can't make him happy, I do not ... have... what he needs.' she sobbed. 'Go, just go!'
'IT WAS ONLY A KISS! I told him not to do it again! I told him I didn't want to be with him because of you! I told him he needs to be with you! I love you more than I will ever love him! If you want to kill someone, don't kill yourself... Kill me... I'm the one that caused you pain and I'm sorry...I'm sorry it hurt you. I never wanted it to happen...never... He loves you. I love you... I'm really sorry… Please…'
Owene looked around, with terrible pain in her eyes. The moonlight flattered her, made her tears glisten like diamonds, and made her look like a mournful angel.
'My life is over. He does not love me!'
'YES HE DOES!' Cancer moved closer to her. 'I'm sorry.' tears were in Cancer's eyes too 'I... I didn't mean for this to happen.'
'You betrayed me!'
'IM SORRY! I know I did!! I'm sorry! It wills NEVER EVER HAPPEN AGAIN! I swear upon it!'
Owene shook her head. 'Have him! Take him! Take my heart, and... my world... have him!' The pain was dreadful in her usually sweet voice.
'I don't want him. I don't want him! I DONT! I want Jaspar… I'm in love with Jaspar... I'm sorry... I'm SORRY!'
Owene looked at her, mystified. She covered her face then, unable to bear it.
Cancer grabbed her and pulled her close. 'Will you listen to me! I will leave this place and never return. I don't want Adam alright?' she kissed her
Owene looked away. Her voice was soft, strangely sweet. 'I thought he was my soul mate. He's all I ever wanted, but he has betrayed me! I love him and I... I don't know! It can't go on! Look at me! How can this thing that I have become satisfy a man or retain one's love? I was a fool to hope... oh God, I wish I were dead!'
'No, Owene. I'm sorry.' Cancer brushed her fingers over Owene's cheek 'I don't want you dead... You are… I mean… where... my only friend.... my only reason for happiness...' Tears slid down her porcelain white cheeks 'If you want to die you had better kill me first...'
Owene looked down, heaving a heavy sigh. Her hair tumbled forward to veil her face. 'Really Cancer, I do not want you to hurt, or to give up your home! Not on my account! Keep it, keep him, keep it all. I do not blame you.'
She shook her a few times 'I DONT WAN'T HIM! HOW MANY TIMES TO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT! I DONT WANT HIM! All I want...is your friendship back..........' she trailed off and released her… 'But I won't get that back.' Brushing her hair aside she kissing Owene's soft cheek, tasting the salty tears that had run down. Cancer sighed and drew back, then swam off, in the opposite direction to Atlantis.

Owene had been too hurt to offer forgiveness yet. Her soul was raw, and in turmoil. Perhaps Cancer was telling the truth when she said she didn't want Adam. If so that somehow only made what they had done seem worse. The betrayal by her friend had shattered Owene as much as the betrayal by her lover. She felt like an outcast from her own life. She was alone, without comfort, but for the cold comfort of the moonlight, and the sigh of the waves.

Cancer swam deeper into the briny sea. She was heading to a forsaken part of the waters where creatures dare not pass because many have not returned from the waters there. It was wrapped in the Bermuda triangle. When she neared the unhallowed waters there, they pulled her in sharply. The seabed was like an abyss, filled with the skeletal remains of sunken ships, so many wrecks that in places they piled one above the other, ships of every nation, as though this were the graveyard of the sea.
She swam carefully through it and called out to see if anyone was there. Any sea demons or anything she could talk to... she just didn't want to be alone. 'Hello... anyone there?'
Her words echoed around the battered hulks and wrecks, half buried in the silt. Only the echoes answered her. Only the empty eye-sockets of skulls looked back at her. She swam through; sitting down on the edge of a plank of a ship she closed her eyes and lowered her head. 'Alone...as I should be.'
Cancer felt a touch on her back, something cold... Her body straightened up. Slowly she turned her head and peered over her shoulder. Empty eyes stared back at her. A jawless skull belonging to a ragged skeleton, hanging tangled in some decaying rigging. That freaked her out and she gaped and dove off the plank and swam off to find something else to sit on.

Up on the surface Owene's heart was breaking. Lonely and desolate, and yet it would have been more torment if Cancer had stayed with her, her presence a reminder of what Jaspar had shown her.

Cancer closed her eyes and sat upon a fallen anchor and trembled. She hated herself so much for hurting her friend and would not have blamed her if she never forgave her betrayal. A giant squid floated eerily overhead, as large as the greatest ship that lay wrecked below. It's great bulk acidentaly dislodged a half shattered ships's mast, which came crashing down and slammed hard into Cancer. She dropped to the ground gasping. She felt a great pain, and saw a long splinter of the mast pinning her into another ship by her arm.
She closed her eyes. 'Owene I'm sorry...I love you.'

Owene, hundreds of miles away, sighed. 'Cancer, how could you do this to me! I love you. Lord what did I do to deserve... oh, it is hopeless!' The moon stayed in the sky until dawn, when the horizon lightened and then turned into a lovely golden display. Owene remained on her rock, as though paralysed. It was beautiful, but it only made Owene feel sadder, because she was alone, and the both the lover and the friend with whom she might have liked to share the sight were lost to her. She had no one to turn to, and nowhere to go.

Cancer started to lose feeling. 'I love you Owene....' she pulled the splintery shard of wood from her, tearing her arm badly; blood spilling into the water. She found herself still trapped under the jagged wreckage, bleeding into the water, and knew she was going to die. Two yellow lights appeared above. She thought he was back, but it was only two lantern fish, vicious jawed scavengers, waiting for her to weaken and, waiting hungrily for her flesh. She trembles strained to lift the wooden tangle from across her body, and with the last of her strength heaved it aside. She staggered to her feet, stumbled a little farther and then collapsed into the pile of bones. Her gills fluttered faintly now as she tried to breath ever so often taking in a deep breath, her eyes closed.
A ship sailed along, a dark shape, sailing spectrally below the waves. It's hull scraped against the broken masts and ribs rising from the ships' graveyard. It drifted by and came to settle beside Cancer. Hands lifted her and bore her aboard, minions of the sorcerer; swimming with her through a portal in the side. They laid her on a bed. The same bed, though she did not know it, as Owene had slept in during her last night as a human.
Cancer was falling in and out of consciousness. At least this time she hadn't actively attempted to kill herself. The sorcerer entered, wearing the clothes of a sea captain, and a broad black hat. He had high leather boots on his feet and tattered black cloak about his shoulders.
'We meet again,' he said, tapping his fingers together and sitting in a chair beside the cabin bed.
She trembled and turned her head, opening her eyes that her vision was blurred 'I... didn't do this to myself... Not this time.'
'Indeed?'
She arched her back and flinched in pain, turned her head carefully, she was in pain her whole right side of her body was thrashed up. 'I… love you.' she closed her eyes.
He came to her. 'It is excruciating, is it not?' he said, matter-of-factly. 'And now?'
She started breathing shorter and quicker. Tightly she gripped the sheets and screamed Owene's name.

Jaspar touched her, infusing a little strength by means of his magic. 'We cannot have you slipping away just yet, not when you are suffering so exquisitely.' He kissed her lips. He stoked her hair back from her brow, and kissed her over the eyes. 'No, my love, Have I not told you? I will never let that happen!'
'Damn you...why don't you just let me die? What are you going to do to torture me now? Put me on dry land as a mouth breather?' She held him tightly.
He chuckled. 'Why should I do that- so you can prostitute yourself with the men of the land! No, I am a creature of the deep, I would not let you escape to the terra firma!'
'Stop it!' She dug her nails deeply into him 'Take my voice or my sight. Make me a mouth breather. I just don't want any part of this endless game any more.'
'But you make most of the moves, my love. Think! If you were true, you would not be in this situation! Not if you were true to those that love you! Do you begin to comprehend the sins that have damned you?'
Tears started to burn in her eyes 'I don't want to hurt anyone… ever again... ever.' She didn't release him from her grip.
He held her, 'so you love me now!'
'I have always loved you! You know that!'
'And now, shall we make love again, like the lovers we should have been?' He ran a hand through her hair.
She nuzzles into his hand and then kissed it gently 'If you never call me a whore or a slut…or anything like that again...'
He laughed in her face. 'Oh but you are, and you have proved it! And now, why should I make love to you, and let you forget your pain in a moment of bliss? Why should I help you to escape the hell you have made for yourself?' His eyes burned with wicked triumph.
She closed her eyes, relinquishing her grip on him, her arms dropping to her sides. 'You shouldn't… I am a whore… nothing but a whore… I don't even know why you're still interested in me.'

Owene, meanwhile, had remained on the surface for many hours, and then swam down. She drifted through underwater canyons rather aimlessly. Some dolphins swam her way, and sensing her air of woe tried to cheer her, with only partial success. She made an intriguing discovery, that she could understand them, up to a point, their semi-telepathic communication, as though hearing with her mind. They proved to be wiser beings than anyone had thought, and somehow managed to lift her spirits. They knew of Cancer, and told her things. Owene asked where her erstwhile friend was, fatally curious, wondering if she had gone back to Adam in Atlantis. They told her she was in a dangerous place, the sailors' graveyard off Bermuda. Only one of them, a young male dolphin called Akaka was brave enough to show her the way. Owene, despite herself, wandered what had become of her erstwhile friend, and had a vague feeling that she might be in trouble. Aside from that, she wondered if she would find Cancer and Adam together. If they were then at least she would know.

Cancer wished to escape the cabin and swim away, even the dangers of the graveyard of ships seemed preferable to the exquisite torture the Sorcerer inflicted upon her soul. She wanted to get away from Jaspar, she was scared, she may have loved him but she still feared and suffered in his presence.

Owene and the dolphin swam until they saw the hulks lying on the seabed. Akaka communicated something to the effect of 'you're on your own, now, mermaid! Dolphins don't swim here. Good luck!' and swam away. Owene looked down at the seabed, a dark canyon filled with sinister wrecks.
The mermaid became aware of the dark shape floating from the canyon. One of the ships was moving, rising and moving forward through the abyss. She dropped to the cover of the seabed. Fearfully she looked up as at the dark silhouette floated overhead. It was the Sorcerer's ship, the very one aboard which she had been changed.
Cautiously she swam up to the ship, and floated up past the rudder to the ornate stern. She peered over a carved wooden balcony, and saw only darkness through the windows of the captain's cabin. One of the windows was broken- where Cancer had smashed it to facilitate Owene's escape from this sunken ship on her first day under the waves. It seemed a lifetime ago. It had only been a few weeks.
Hardly knowing what drove her to do it, Owene pulled her way through the broken window, careful to avoid the jagged shards of glass surrounding the hole.
The captain's cabin was deserted. A large desk sat under the great windows, with a high backed chair. The tall mirror still stood adjacent to the door. Owene glimpsed herself as she swam through. She heard their voices. Her hand went to her sword, and she drew it. She felt her heart beating.
She came to the door of the cabin where she had last slept as a human being. It was open ajar. She saw Cancer on the bed with Jaspar's dark shape leaning over her.
'But wait, my dear,' he said to Cancer, without looking around at Owene. 'I think we have a guest. Then he did turn, and his eyes met Owene's. 'To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure, mermaid?'
'You are the source of all our suffering.' Owene pointed the sword at him. 'You will let her go, please, and promise to harass her no more, or I will kill you now.'
The sorcerer laughed. 'You may as well put that rusty blade away, for it will do you no good.'
'It will do you no good, by God!' Owene swore. 'Adam was right. None of us will have any peace while you live.'
She glanced at Cancer who lay on the bed, hoping for some instruction or direction, but Cancer, though she looked her way, seemed only to gaze through her. 'What are you doing here? How did you…' she shook her head. 'I'm sorry.' She looked away.
'Cancer...'
Cancer looked back at her 'Yes...?'
'Cancer, get up, move away from him!' the mermaid said, and looked back to the sorcerer, brandishing her sabre. 'Well Jaspar, will you swear to leave us in peace now, and keep your word like a gentleman?'
'Strike true, silly creature, then it will be my turn! I will fillet you alive!'
'Why can't we end this peacefully?'
'Because that is not how it ends. It ends for you now, with a torturous death in this very cabin. It never ends for your friend. I will hound her for the rest of time for what she did to me!'
'No you won't!' Owene cried. She swam at the Sorcerer, with a powerful sweep of her tail, propelling herself for him. He sprang to his feet. The mermaid's sword darted for his chest, but before it could strike home a dark tentacle leapt from under the sorcerer's cloak and wrapped itself around her narrow wrist. It squeezed, like a boa constrictor squeezing its prey, until her fingers had no choice but to spread and the sword dropped through the water. Before it touched the deck, another tentacle slithered from the Sorcerer's cloak, and caught the sword by its handle. The suckers at its end latching onto the grip. Owene watched helplessly as the blade rose before her eyes.
'Now, my turn,' The Sorcerer snarled with glee. Yet another tentacle extended to coil around her tail, pulling it towards him. His yellow eyes blazed. 'I can't believe you've been so stupid, Owene. Now learn the price.' The Tentacle with the sword dropped through the water towards her body, lower and lower. 'I will carve you open you from chin to tail!'
'No!' Cancer screamed. She jumped from the bed, and threw herself at the sorcerer, knocking him from his feet, and sending the most powerful shockwave of water she could into his face from the closest possible range. The tentacle with the sword wavered in the air above them as Owene and the sorcerer crashed to the deck. Owene, her tail and arm still trapped by the other tentacles, pulled the shark's tooth from her necklace and stabbed it down to pierce the tentacle that was around her other wrist, forcing it to release her. Then she dropped the tooth and reached up with both hands, grasping the sabre's hilt above the coiled tentacle. With all her might she clutched the sword and pulled it downward. There was a terrible roar of rage and pain. The sorcerer's mouth opened wide, and a long tongue flapped out of it. His eyes blazed and then dulled. Owene looked down to see the sword sticking into heart. Black blood seeped from the wound like oil- becoming black smoke where it drifted into the water.
'Jaspar!' Cancer cried. Painfully he turned his gaunt, wide eye face to the sea nymph. Cancer's lips quivered. 'Oh my lord! What have we done?'
'This is not the end,' the sorcerer said, but then the light in his eyes died, and the life force went from him.
Owene disentangled herself from the sorcerer's tentacles. She bit her lip, covered her mouth with her shaking hand, looking down at him.
'Cance,' she said.
Cancer didn't answer.
'Cance, come on, we must get out of here!'
Still Cancer did not look up.
'Cance please!' Owene touched Cancer's shoulder. 'Please!'
'He is dead,' Cancer's voice betrayed her shock.
'Yes, and so will we be if we stay here.'
Cancer nodded. 'Get out of here Owene. I'll meet you outside.'
Owene met her eyes, then nodded. She left through the captain's cabin, the way she had entered, and waited.
A minute later Cancer emerged, and swam up to her, handing over the sword, which Owene had left behind, buried in the Sorcerer's heart.
'Thank you.' Owene said.
Cancer glanced down at Owene's scaly extremity. 'I thought his death might have broken the spell over you.'
'I'm still a mermaid.'
'It was all my fault. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ruined your life... I don't want to mess it up any more.'
'Is it over, isn't it? Is he gone for good.'
'Yes.'
'Then we are free of him!'
'I don't know.' Cancer swam off, back towards the murky marine graveyard.
Owene called out 'Cance…'
Cancer froze in the water. She stared at Owene with burning eyes 'Yes?'
'I... wanted to... say...' Owene bit her lip. 'That we can still be friends, if you want that... And if… if Adam wants you, or if you want him... then I will have to accept it.'
'You don't have to forgive me...you're not obliged to...'
Owene raised her hand, 'I wanted to say… that… oh god! I have to forgive you... I cannot say the hurt has passed, I don't know if it ever will, but I have nothing without your friendship. This is how lost I am!' It was true. She needed to forgive Cancer, or else thoughts of this would eat away at her; hurt and anger would control her. She no longer wanted to be alone with only her pain. Cancer was her best friend… if she and Adam wanted each other then Owene knew she could not stand in their way. She knew what she was. Besides, she had just slain the sorcerer, Jaspar, who Cancer loved as much as she hated. Cancer, Owene supposed, had as much to forgive her for as to thank her for.
'Cancer swam closer. 'I don't want Adam! I don't want anyone but you as a friend... my life is pointless with out that!' she reached out to touch her arm. 'Owene… Owene no, all I care about is you… I feel… as wretched as you, for betraying your friendship- I hate myself for it! I wouldn't blame you if you never forgave me! You don't have to do this!'
'I do, or this will burn me up inside. Cancer, do what you like, but never deceive me, I couldn't bear it again!' Owene's voice was gentle but weary.
'I told you I would never do it again.' Cancer looked at the scar on her arm. She hid it.
Owene bit her lip, then looked around and shuddered. 'This is a horrible place, and I feel like I am being watched, even now. There's something evil here,' she said, half to herself
Cancer nodded 'Lets get out of here.'
'You read my mind.'
Cancer grabbed Owene hand and led her away from the dolorous triangle.

Owene said little on the way back to Atlantis. It had involved swallowing a lot of anger and hurt pride to reconcile with Cancer. Despite herself, she hoped Adam would not be there waiting for her, she could not bear to listen to apologies and excuses and promises she could not bring herself to believe- for fear of being hurt like this again... worse still seemed the prospect that he would reaffirm his love for Cancer, and try to break it to her gently. The mermaid, subdued and fretful, would have taken that as a second rejection.
Cancer watched her carefully. 'If he likes me… I'm sorry... just so you know…' she kept swimming.
Owene felt a stabbing pain in her heart. She hid her sorrow and shame though, and nodded.
Cancer stopped and pulled her close hugging her tightly. Tentatively her mouth locked around Owene's in a soft kiss. Owene initially wanted to pull away thinking that she was not ready for this, not ready to forgive that much, but then a new feeling swept through her, and she returned the kiss. She let Cancer hold her, cradle her, and kissed her, her eyelashes drooped, as her lids covered her eyes.
Cancer hugged her tightly, breaking away from the kiss, her eyes burning with tears, and she trembled. 'I was scared I was going to lose you for ever...'
Owene shrugged. 'Come on, Cance, it's still a long way back.'

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