The Tale of Iseryelda

History of the sirens, as accounted by Nymirainya, siren of night:

My grandmother, Iseryelda, came from the Forest River. She told us that her Sister and her had grown to fight over an alliance with men. The sister believed our people should befriend lesser men. So bitter was their argument that it turned to blows, that Iseryelda destroyed her Sister and was cast out gravely injured. It was the river that carried her to the Sea, and the Sea that carried her to this island. It was here that she healed, and this isle that she claimed.

She taught her twin children their strength, to never surrender and to never bend to the whim of others. That the isle was our inheritance through her claim and that we were the rightful rulers of it, to slay or bend all who dare near our shore; that the mortals of the neighboring realms are weak-willed and alliances are pointless, for we need nothing from them that we cannot simply take from them.

Ships would pass by the island, as they do now, although less now than they did back then. Iseryelda knew how to sing to their keepers, the men, that they would become full of dreams and unaware of where they were sailing. Then their ship would fall to the rocks. Here, in those wrecks, Iseryelda claimed great riches and all manner of tiny gifts.

Of her children the twins, our Mothers, they grew to live on the isle. At a young age they were competitive as Iseryelda with her sister. Elyeeari the first, with fair hair. My mother, Basill, the younger, dark-haired. She taught them to delve the depths of the deep, to find what was hidden in the shipwrecks and to pick out shells. From her lessons they learned to hunt and Search and Sing.

One night a betrayer came to the island. He had a shallow-ship, a small rowing boat, and he and his men set to steal the claimed riches, Iseryelda's tribute. Iseryelda and her children, our mothers, were sleeping; and though Iseryelda awoke and slew them all before they could harm her twins, she was again gravely wounded. Basill vowed to watch over the seas of the Stars then, and Elyeerari the Sun. They grew to Iseryelda's power, in time, and had children of their own. As our family grew, we built passages for night and day, stars and sun.

They watch over the Stars, Basill's children do, and this I do, and this I teach, as Iseryelda did long ago. It is the best of time to find ships, when their pale lights cannot compare to the brilliance of the moon and they are blind; unknowing of the depths of the water, weak, easy to fall to dreaming. The others, they may claim that the best of ships sail at day and how far they can be seen, but this you should not believe. The ships know to avoid this island during the day. They fear what they see in the water.

Though Iseryelda fell long ago to the sea and did not return, her Will has made us strong. She is remembered in our Song and in of the Island and in the things we Claim as our own. Sometimes Outsiders, they come to seek the treasures we have claimed. Those travelers die and we Claim their things.