Secrets Beneath the Waves

Siren's heart pounded in his chest. Kael's words echoed in his mind— You're awakening. And if you don't learn to control it… the sea won't be the only thing bending to your will.

"What do you mean?" Siren's voice was calm, but inside, he was unraveling. "Why would I have this kind of power?"

Kael hesitated, his expression unreadable. Then, with a heavy sigh, he spoke.

"Because this isn't the first time."

Siren's breath caught. "What?"

Kael's gaze darkened. "You aren't like the rest of us, Siren. You never were."

The ocean around them grew eerily still, as if listening.

"There was a time when the elders feared you," Kael continued. "They whispered about your birth, about the signs in the water. But they never told you the truth."

Siren's pulse quickened. The truth?

"You weren't born like the others," Kael said. "You were found."

Siren's world tilted. "What?"

Kael nodded grimly. "The night you were brought into the kingdom, the sea raged like never before. Storms, waves, whirlpools—destruction everywhere. The elders said it was the ocean rejecting you. But what if it wasn't rejecting you?" He looked Siren dead in the eyes. "What if it was bowing to you?"

Siren felt his lungs tighten, even underwater.

"I don't understand…" he murmured, shaking his head. "You're saying… I wasn't born in our kingdom?"

"No." Kael's voice was grave. "You came from the depths—far deeper than any of us have ever gone. A place lost even to legend."

Siren clenched his fists. "Why wouldn't they tell me this?"

"Because they feared what you would become."

The weight of Kael's words pressed against Siren's chest.

He had always felt different. Always felt an emptiness he couldn't explain.

And now, for the first time, he understood why.

He didn't belong to the sea kingdom.

He belonged to something far greater.