The Siren and The Star

By Ally Lavelli

Once upon a time, in a land lost to the sea, there lay a harbor town. It held all the things a harbor town might hold, with taverns and inns and a large port for the fishermen’s boats to come docking into to sell their wares. The harbor town’s splendor came and went with the tide. It molded to fit the restless tantrums of the sea. The sea was kind, and the town prospered. The sea was cruel, and the town suffered. 

As such the townspeople had learned to leave the sea to her devices. The fishermen were the only souls that dared to venture into the gray waters; and only a fool among them would dare to fish more than they were due. 

Within this harbor town lived a young maiden. She was kind, and gentle to all creatures. Her complexion matched that of the pine wood of autumn- a season she was unfamiliar with in a town so close to the sea and so over-harvested of its trees. Her eyes were darker still. They were so dark and so wide that they reflected the stars themselves on a cloudless night. Her father had told her time and time again that she was made of stars. 

“One day, ma petite, you’ll be with the stars again. And I’ll be there waiting for you,” he’d whisper every night before she fell asleep, the night sky twinkling from her window. The young maiden would dream of beautiful creatures made of starlight scooping her into their arms and showing her the wonders only birds and clouds could fathom. 

One evening, the maiden was collecting mussels along the shore of her harbor town. The sea was calm, only a gentle lapping against her feet. But as she finished her scavenge for the hearty shells, she caught sight of a figure along the jetty. 

The maiden knew it couldn’t have been one of the townsfolk from her home. No soul would dare step onto such dangerous rocks. Her father had warned her time and time again that she could slip and hurt herself. Worse, she could fall into the violent waves as they crashed into the jagged rocks, and she would surely die. But as she watched the figure perch upon the rock, an ache pierced the maiden’s chest. 

Did they not know of the rule? Perhaps they weren’t aware of the danger they were in. Determined to help, the maiden clasped her hands to the stars above her and prayed they would catch her, should she fall. 

And so, the maiden climbed over the slick, pointed rocks to the figure at the far end of the jetty. The waves sent gusts of shrieking wind into her thick curls, tossing and twisting them about her head. The walk was treacherous, and the maiden was short of breath when she reached the figure. Now that she was close, it was clear that they were pale- in her wild imagination the maiden wondered if a piece of the moon had fallen to the tide that it was so desperate to bring closer. 

But now the maiden could see the truth; this was no person from her town, nor was it a human at all. It was a woman, but not in her entirety. She was pale as the moon, and her hair the bluest of silver. It was chopped short, and still the wind cradled it tenderly. She radiated a beauty that the maiden had never witnessed before. 

“Are you a goddess of the moon?” she found herself whispering. Even through the wind, the woman turned at the sound of her voice. She became even more enchanting. Soft lips and sharp eyes, frilled gills and aquamarine scales tracing her jaw and temple. She quirked a brow at the question. 

“A goddess?” she scoffed. “I’m not from the sky. Quite the opposite.”

With that, she revealed a long, slender tail where her legs should have been. The maiden gasped in awe as the moonlight caused each and every scale to glimmer. The stranger seemed to be adorned in the finest of gemstones. 

“I am a siren,” the stranger said. Her voice sang without her ever needing to tilt her words. The maiden was completely and hopelessly enamored. 

She took a trembling step forward. “It isn’t safe here.”

The siren did not seem moved. She instead said, “All the more reason for you to leave me be. Humans tend not to stray this close to sirens. You’ve never heard the tales?”

The maiden was hardly aware of any advice she’d been given up until this moment. She only sank to her knees beside the siren. She offered her a kind smile.

“Do tell me.”

The siren furrowed her brow in confusion. “The stories? I doubt you’d like to hear them- especially with you sitting so close to me.” She turned her face away, but the maiden could hear her pain as clear as day when she murmured, “Your people call me a sea witch. A monster. I’ve heard countless stories of my people in a human’s voice. Saying we eat human flesh. Blaming us when their ships sink and their men drown in our waters. Calling us the wrath of the sea.” 

The maiden had never heard such hateful things, and couldn’t begin to attach them to the beautiful creature before her. She sat closer. 

“I have heard no such stories, and I can’t imagine they’re true,” the maiden said. The siren stiffened, staring in wonderment. The maiden’s kind heart was clear to see, and in that moment, the siren could see the stars in the sky above them reflected in her eyes as clearly as the calm waters of the sea. In a moment as pure as the one formed between them, both were equally enchanted. 

“Well.. thank you,” the siren said, her song growing softer by the minute. 

The maiden stood with her bucket of mussels, still smiling. “I have to run home now, but will you be here tomorrow night? I would love to hear of the stories you do like.” 

The siren was so surprised by the maiden’s kindness that all she could do was agree. And so it went. Night after night, the maiden would meet the siren along the jetty, and the two would share stories from their separate worlds. Neither could visit for long, but even within their short time together each night, a love deeper than the ocean itself had blossomed. 

One night the maiden couldn’t bear it any longer. She pressed a gentle kiss to the siren’s lips. The siren had never felt a touch so soft, or a heart so strong.

For the first time in years, the siren smiled. And she kissed the maiden again. And again.

Night after night it went. The maiden and her siren lover. Rumors flitted about the harbor town of a girl who traversed the jetty each night, beckoned by the loving melody of the sea creature who had stolen her heart away.

It wasn’t until many years later that the maiden’s heart began to ache for more. Stolen kisses and shallow touches could no longer soothe the deep hole in her chest to hold her lover close during all manner of the day. 

She cursed the stars. Why must she only see her beloved at night? Why need they fear the daylight? 

It was after her lament that night when she held tighter to the siren. Stayed longer. She never wished to let go. It began to frighten her lover. 

“Darling, you’re shaking,” she whispered, pressing gentle kisses to the maiden’s dark eyelids. The maiden could only clutch her arms tighter, her thoughts growing darker than the sky above them. 

“My dear, I can’t be apart from you any longer. I’ve scorned the stars; they’ve shadowed our love for far too long. I beg of you, take this ache away from me. Take me with you; into the sea, where we can be together no matter the time of day.”

The siren paled at the thought. “I could never do such a thing! You would die!”

The maiden stood too quickly- moved too recklessly. “You must. You must take me with you. I can’t be without you any longer,” she begged, tears streaming from her face. 

Her tears punctured the siren’s heart. How could she refuse her lover’s wish? But still, she shook her head.

“If anything happened to you, my love, I wouldn’t survive. I’m sure of it,” she said gently, stroking her maiden’s inky curls. “You’ve taught me what it is to love. To live. How could I ever take that life from you? Please, sit back down. Stay with me a few moments longer, until the sun rises..”

The maiden stepped back. The rocks were slick, and her movements were not careful enough. Before the siren could reach her, the maiden slipped from the rocks and fell into the crashing waves below. 

The siren screamed, a sound so ragged with terror and grief that lightning split the sky. She dove to catch her, but stopped. 

As the maiden’s body touched the starry reflection of the water, the stars themselves descended from above. They swaddled her in light, bundling her until her plain clothes faded into the sea below. Her skin turned a deep violet in mimicry of the sun-speckled sky. Light pricked her skin, and constellations scattered across her body. 

For she was starlight, as her father had said. And the stars had caught her, as they’d promised to do when she’d prayed to them all those years ago. 

She was now a woman of the stars, stars that splayed across the sea each and every night. Stars that dove beneath the waves and visited her lover any time they both wished it. 

Legends tell of a siren who sings to the night sky, and a star that touches the water just to be in her embrace once more.