Burning Sirens

by Lonarion

5. Memories

While Sonata, sitting on a crate, massaged her injured leg, Aria was leaning against the wall of the warehouse, taking advantage of the silence to focus and put some order among the numerous thoughts and emotions that muddied her mind, and none of them were positive.

Things had been going downhill since the sirens entered the town. Aria couldn’t help holding Adagio responsible for everything – except the events of the few previous minutes, which had been entirely Sonata’s fault.

In addition, Aria hated this place. During the past century or so, she had stopped caring about her surroundings, finding everything boring instead. But the recent events, especially the way she had been treated while in jail, had rekindled a deep contempt toward this despicable world and its inhabitants. This, coupled with the emptiness in her heart that had come back and replaced the hole in her stomach as soon as she had retrieved her pendant, officially made this day the most disagreeable in at least the past two decades.

But that wasn’t even the worst of it. Ever since that conversation with Adagio on the previous evening, she had been haunted by the horrible sentiment that Adagio was right, and the implications were frightening. Aria had slept badly because of that, so she resolved that she would not think about it anymore until she left the town, or else it may make her crazy.

Instead, she focused on yet another thing that was making this day awful. Pain had been coursing through her left side since she had been ejected from the cart, and the collision with the ground also damaged the bottom part of her dress, which was now torn and dirtied with something brown that may or may not be mud. Aria looked at her gown with disgust.

“Er, I have a dress in my bag.”

So much for the silence. At least she didn’t say something stupid this time.

“In fact, it’s one of Adagio’s,” Sonata said as she handed out the garment.

Aria took and examined it. Brightly colored and embroidered, it was of much better quality than their everyday clothes. Adagio wore it when the three of them invited themselves to a fancy feast at a lord’s castle. It would attract attention, but at least it was clean. Aria walked to a dark corner of the building to change.

She considered saying thanks, but then again, it was Sonata’s fault her dress was in this state to begin with. If she hadn’t left the house on her own, they would already be out of town. Why did they even bother going after her?

“Did you really put yourself in danger just for some toys?” Aria asked as she threw her dirty dress away.

“Well, there was one in particular.” Aria noted that Sonata’s voice was still trembling slightly. “Because, it’s the only thing I have that reminds me of home.”

Aria raised an eyebrow. “Home? I always thought you didn’t care.”

“I don’t complain about it like you always do, but I hate this world, too. And Adagio does too. We’re all in the same situation.” After a pause, Sonata added with a dispirited tone, “I remember, like, almost nothing about Equestria. I mean, we’ve spent so little time there compared to here…”

“You don’t need to tell me.” Aria’s own memories of their home world were scarce and hazy, though she couldn’t tell whether that was a bad thing.

Once she had finished donning Adagio’s dress, she walked back to Sonata. “So, what is that toy?”

Sonata pulled a wooden sculpture out of her bag and let Aria take a good look at it. It represented a familiar creature, well detailed; the upper part resembled a horse, with a long muzzle and two hooves, but adorned with fins on the cheeks, legs and along the back. The lower part looked like a fish tail. The whole figurine was covered in two tones of worn-out purple paint, save for a red shape on the chest.

The sight brought back bitter memories of a delightful past that was gone forever. Aria wanted to look away and forget about it, but curiosity and confusion overwhelmed her. “How… where did you get that?”

“When we were in Nürnberg,” Sonata said, smiling fondly. Having never paid attention to cities’ names, Aria had no idea where or when that was, but decided to stay silent and let Sonata continue. “I sang to a toymaker and asked him to make it for me. I, huh…” Sonata’s voice weakened, and she looked down. “I showed him a siren picture that… that I found in your stuff. But I put it back afterward!”

Aria knew she should be angry that Sonata had been prying into her belongings, even if it had been long ago, but something else preoccupied her. Namely, the toy’s color.

“Why is it… me?”

Sonata held the toy close to her chest. “Well, in fact I asked for three of them. But Adagio made us leave the city before the others were finished.”

Part of Aria was disappointed by that explanation. In any case, she found it hard to believe that, as stupid as Sonata was, she would take so much risk just for this chunk of wood. Did she want a memento of her past life so badly? And would it be so hard to get another one? If a picture of a siren was all she needed to get a similar toy, she could have simply asked.

A tinge of remorse rushed to Aria’s mind when she suddenly recalled a time, a few years or a few decades ago, when Sonata had requested her just that, and had received a less than polite answer.

“You really think we’ll never go back home?” Sonata asked, interrupting Aria’s thoughts. The answer was so obvious to Aria that she couldn’t understand why her companions had a different opinion. She leaned close to Sonata and looked in her eyes sternly.

“Of course. You still believe otherwise?”

“Adagio says –”

Aria had seen this reply coming, and had to restrain herself from shouting how dumb and naïve Sonata was. Instead, she grabbed her shoulder and shook her lightly.

“Forget what Adagio says. What do you think? Do you still have hope, after all the time we’ve been stuck here? All the times we’ve failed to find a lead?”

Sonata pushed Aria away, then looked up pensively for a few seconds.

“Maybe you’re right,” she finally said, twiddling her fingers. “But, if we’re really stuck in this world, then how come you’re not trying to enjoy it more?”

Aria blinked. “What?”

“I remember what Adagio said yesterday. You don’t care about anything in this world. So…”

Great. Just the one thing Aria was struggling not to think about. She tried to push her thoughts into a far corner of her mind.

“There must be something you like here, right? Besides singing and eating magic, I mean. Even if this place sucks compared to Equestria. For example, I like the food. And the toys. And the festivals.”

Aria shook her head and raised her voice. “No, Sonata. I can’t enjoy anything in this world. It’s not just bland; it’s also barbaric. I’ve never liked ponies, but at least they don’t burn other ponies, you know? But above all, what I really liked back at home was swimming and flying. And I can’t do that with this lame body,” she said, knocking her chest, before turning away. “I have nothing to care about here.”

“Well, you have us!”

Aria groaned, massaging her forehead and mentally cursing Sonata’s inability to understand the gravity of the situation. As if being together was making things any better. “You are so stupid.”

“No, you!”

Aria rolled her eyes and decided to ignore her. She walked to a window and peeked outside, hoping to spot a distraction of some kind.

A dozen yards away, a horse-drawn cart trotted along the street, and suddenly bumped into a man who was transporting a barrel, knocking him down. The man painfully got up and shouted at the cart’s driver, who shouted back. Aria couldn’t make out the words, but it was clear these two were arguing, and to her, that only meant one thing: free food.

She rushed to Sonata. “Give me a hood!” Sonata complied, then Aria opened the door, hood on the head. “Just stay here, I’ll be right back.”

“But Adagio said –”

Aria left the warehouse, closing the door behind her.

A cloud of green mist appeared around the two troublemakers, who were now all but fighting, while Aria approached as nonchalantly as possible. She chanted a simple but beautiful melody, lost amidst the clamor, but it didn’t matter if no one heard it. It was not intended to control people; it merely triggered her feeding. People started to gather around the commotion, none of them noticing the mist as it swirled into Aria’s pendant, leaving her heart a little less empty than before.

She had gotten what she wanted; it was now time to return to the warehouse. Before she walked away, the crowd caught her attention. It seemed like a dozen of people had popped up around her out of nowhere, and she could recognize some of them, who had been surrounding Sonata just a few minutes earlier. She tried to keep her head cool, telling herself that they were not looking at her.

An armored soldier, the same one who had held onto the cart, emerged from the pack, and addressed the two men in the middle with a firm voice. “Stop this at once. You are breaching the peace.”

They both immediately quieted down, though still looking at each other with defiance.

“Now,” he continued, this time to the whole crowd, “we are looking for escaped witches. Three young maids with much hair. Has anyone seen them?”

Aria swallowed and slowly backed away. She could feel sweat forming on her forehead. But there was no reason to worry. They couldn’t recognize her now that she had covered her hair and changed her dress, could they?

“Oh, I’ve seen them!”

Everyone turned towards the one who had spoken, a little girl pulling a toy horse. Aria remembered passing by her earlier, but at that time, she had believed the girl hadn’t been paying attention to the sirens.

The girl pointed at the warehouse which was still housing Sonata. “They went in there.”

Aria froze, watching helplessly as the mob rushed to the building.

* * * * * *

Alone in the warehouse, Sonata sat on a crate, cuddling a rag doll she had retrieved from the inn room. Her satchel lay on the ground below her. Her leg was slowly healing, and she was now able to walk, albeit with difficulty.

She couldn’t stop replaying the events of the previous minutes in her head. She had always been ashamed when Adagio was angry with her, and this time was no exception, but this was the first time Adagio considered dumping her. Aria occasionally mentioned it, but she was just a meanie, and Adagio never listened. Sonata had always believed they would stay together. The prospect of Adagio abandoning her made her heart sink.

The door opened with a slam, and sergeant Iron Blade stepped in, followed by a multitude of townsfolk who soon surrounded Sonata.

“There’s the witch!”

“Hang her!”

“Burn her!”

Sonata squeezed the doll against her chest, quivering. She wanted to hide behind a crate, but her body refused to move. What had Adagio said? “If someone enters, sing.” Sonata decided to do just that, but as the first note left her throat, Iron Blade grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to her feet.

“Where are your two companions?”

“They aren’t here,” she replied with a trembling voice. “They –” She was about to tell the truth, but quickly realized that it would be a terrible idea. “Think before you speak,” Adagio had said. And Sonata would never let Adagio or Aria get in trouble, no matter what happened to her.

“They’re already out of town. They left me behind because I hurt my leg and I can’t run,” she continued, telling the first lie that came to mind. She hoped it was convincing; she had never been a good liar. That had always been Adagio’s thing.

Thankfully, Iron Blade seemed to believe her and released her, though she was quickly grabbed by other people. “Bring her to the jail,” he commanded as he led the way. They dragged Sonata out of the warehouse, but as soon as she was outside, protests emerged from the crowd.

“Wait a minute, she’s already escaped!”

“Twice!”

“She could use her powers on us anytime.”

“We’d better kill her right now.”

“We cannot allow a witch to live.”

“Let’s burn her!”

Sonata felt dizzy. She let her doll slip out of her hand and wrapped her arms around her chest as much as she could. The world around her became a blur, and she could barely hear Iron Blade hopelessly ordering the crowd to stop while she was dragged away.

She couldn’t hold back her tears. She feared she now understood what they meant by “burn”, and worst of all, she knew she was alone. No one was going to rescue her this time.

* * * * * *

“I’d be happy to transport you aboard my ship, beautiful lady,” captain Moonwave said, proudly showing the vessel moored to the wharf behind him.

“I knew you would agree,” Adagio replied, a sinister smile plastered on her face.

The harbor was quiet at that hour, with only four ships docked, and barely more dockers and sailors walking around and working in the warehouses lining the riverside. Adagio had easily found an opportunity to charm them without people around who could have suspected something. Captain Moonwave, who was planning to leave for the next town downstream a little later, would take her aboard, and the dockers would let them leave the harbor without questions. They wouldn’t have to travel on foot this time.

“So, will you transport my companions as well?”

Moonwave scratched his head. “Hum, well, I can take them, but I’ll have to charge a fee. I’m just making an exception for you.”

“Oh, of course. They will give the payment once they’re on board.” Or they will simply sing and make him forget about the fee. “I’ll go and bring them. Please wait a minute.”

He shrugged. “No need to hurry. It’ll take a while before the rest of my crew comes back.”

She jogged to the warehouse, and when it came into view, she halted and gasped. A crowd had amassed in front of the building. They marched away while she stood there, her heart palpitating as she feared the worst. For a moment, she stayed immobile, not daring approach the warehouse.

“Adagio!” a voice said in a loud whisper. She turned her head as a girl ran to her side. On second look, it was actually Aria, wearing a hood and… one of Adagio’s fancy dresses?

She wanted to ask how and why this had happened, but decided against it since there were more pressing issues. What mattered was that Aria was safe. Adagio let out a small sigh of relief, though she couldn’t ignore that one siren was still unaccounted for.

“Where’s Sonata?”

Panting, Aria replied between two breaths, “They got her. They’re going to burn her on the town square. Right now.”

Adagio’s chest became heavy. She frowned, looking at the street where the crowd had disappeared, and tried her best to keep her composure and clear her mind to think of the best course of action.

“So, what do we do?” Aria asked with a wavering voice. “I know you said you wouldn’t save her…”

Despite what she had said, Adagio didn’t actually want to abandon Sonata, especially to such a horrible death. But she had no choice. She shook her head. “We cannot save her. We can’t charm everyone at once, and if we try, we’ll just be captured like her. We have to leave her behind.” She felt every word hurt her throat as she spoke them.

Aria stared at the ground and nodded slightly. Adagio moved towards the docks and motioned for Aria to follow. “Come, I’ve found a ship for us.”

“Wait, I think her bag is still inside. I’ll fetch it.” Aria ran to the now deserted warehouse, picking up a discarded doll on the way. Adagio guessed it couldn’t hurt to bring whatever Sonata had retrieved from the inn. Aria came back with the bag across her shoulder, stuffing the doll inside and shuffling through the contents.

As they walked to the docks, Adagio threw a last glance back, before deciding to stop thinking about Sonata.

Meanwhile, Aria commented on her findings. “Here’s her Aria toy…” Adagio raised an eyebrow, but didn’t ask. “My knife? Nice. And… huh?” Aria pulled out a leather-bound book and blinked.

It had to be one of Aria’s books; Adagio had possessed books before, but Aria was the only siren who had kept any with her. Aria opened the cover. On the center of the first page, the words “Memories of a better world” were written. With a groan, Aria put the book back in the bag.

“What’s that?” Adagio asked.

“Just stuff I wrote a while ago. About home.”

This piqued Adagio’s curiosity and she mentally noted to try to read it later. But something bothered her. “Why do you seem unhappy about it?”

Aria gritted her teeth and looked away. Before Adagio could ask more questions, they had reached their destination and captain Moonwave spoke up.

“There you are, lady. Hmm, I thought you said you had two companions?”

Adagio held her hands behind her back and faked a smile. “Yes, she… cannot come with us. In any case, can we stay in your ship until you’re ready to leave?”

“As you wish. Get on board,” he said, showing the ramp between the ship and the wharf. “You may even stay in my cabin.”

Aria advanced first; Adagio followed her after thanking the captain. As she walked up the ramp, her thoughts focused on the book. In a flash, her own memories of Equestria flooded her mind.

* * * * * *

Adagio Dazzle was born in the Spiral Reef, below the western Equestrian seas, among a small colony of sirens. They led a simple life, swimming, singing, cultivating seaweeds, breeding mollusks, hunting fishes, and occasionally attacking ships.

When they spotted a ship on the surface, sirens would emerge and sing, luring the sailors, usually ponies. Even when their jewels were empty, their voices had a minimal amount of power, and two or three sirens working together could charm a pony and turn it against its peers. The resulting altercation would feed the sirens with negative energy.

This energy increased the power of their voices, but that wasn’t the reason they caused disputes. Aside from the feeling of euphoria it provided, it was well known that absorbing negativity increased a siren’s lifespan.

Adagio wasn’t satisfied with such a life. She knew she was capable of much more. Ponies lived on the land; they could find more ponies there in a day than on the seas in a lifetime.

They could soar to the land, charm a single pony, get a little energy, become more powerful, charm more ponies, and repeat indefinitely. They could get enough power to make all of Equestria adore them. It was the perfect plan.

But no other siren realized this. They said it wouldn’t work, that it was too dangerous. They pointed out that unicorns weren’t affected by their spell, ignoring that this problem would be solved by gaining more power. They said that the land was not for sirens, that they couldn’t grow seafood there and that they couldn’t stay overwater for more than a few hours. Some even called her crazy. No siren understood her genius.

Except for Sonata Dusk.

Adagio and Sonata had known each other roughly since the latter’s birth, but at first, they weren’t particularly close. Until Sonata lost her parents to a kraken attack. The rudimentary siren society didn’t have anything to tend orphans, so Sonata was left fending for herself, and was doing pretty bad at it. Out of pity, Adagio decided to care for her once in a while, sharing food and spending some time with her. Before long, Sonata was following her every move, despite Adagio’s protests, and the two sirens were teaming up to charm sailors.

Although Sonata was an idiot in most situations, she could at least recognize how brilliant Adagio’s plan was. It had been, in fact, Sonata’s idea to leave the Spiral Reef and find sirens from other colonies to join them. Adagio didn’t like associating with strangers, but it was worth a shot.

But after visiting half a dozen other reefs, they had made little progress. No siren, aside from Aria Blaze from the Emerald Reef, wanted to join them in their quest for Equestria’s conquest. Adagio gave up trying to enlist more followers, and stuck with Sonata and Aria.

The three of them flew to the land, and quickly absorbed more power than they could ever imagine. Their bliss lasted for a dozen of years, until they met a bearded unicorn wizard. After a fierce confrontation, the sirens were sucked by a vortex he conjured, and sent across dimensions to this magic-less world.

Adagio had to find a way back, but she had no idea how. Her only strategy was to look for traces of magic, hoping there was a portal somewhere. Although she never admitted it, Adagio had always felt their predicament was her fault, for it had been her plan that started it all. It was now her responsibility to bring Sonata and Aria back to Equestria.

* * * * * *

Her responsibility.

Adagio stopped in the middle of the ramp as these words echoed through her head.

“I can’t do this.”

“Do what?” Aria asked, looking at her from the deck.

Adagio clenched her fists. “Abandon Sonata.”

“But you just said it was impossible to help her!”

“I know, but… I have to try. I have to do something, no matter what.” Adagio turned away and walked down, ignoring the part of her mind that was telling her how irrational she was acting. Passing by Moonwave, she told him, “I’ll be back soon.”

“No worries,” he said, tipping his hat.

Adagio turned back at Aria, who was frowning. “Are you coming?”

“No.”

Adagio couldn’t blame her. Without another word, she rushed to the town square.

* * * * * *

Standing near the center of the town square, Sonata helplessly watched the townspeople prepare her execution. Some were gathering fagots or straw bales; others were bringing a stake. Most were merely spectators.

They had tied her up around the chest and arms, and two men, one on each side of her, stood guard, the one on her left holding one end of the rope. She couldn’t escape. Even if she charmed these two, she wouldn’t go far before the rest of the town caught her again.

Sonata wondered if Adagio would have found a way out had she been there. Adagio had always been able to escape from the most dangerous situations or solve any problem… except when it came to returning to Equestria. Maybe Aria was right, and they would never go back.

It no longer mattered anyway, for she was about to die. She only had one question now: would she be reunited with her parents?

Regardless of the answer, she resolved to do the one thing sirens can always do: sing. If she was going to die, she would die singing.

* * * * * *

Aria groaned in frustration as Adagio disappeared behind a warehouse. This enterprise was an utter waste of time at best, and suicide at worst. Now all she could do was wait, and hope Adagio would come back.

As she dropped the bag on the deck, her thoughts wandered to the book inside. In the past, reading it would fill her with soothing nostalgia. Now, thinking of Equestria, knowing she would never return, just made her bitter. While she couldn’t bring herself to get rid of the book, she wanted to forget about it and its contents.

But now that the memories had invited themselves back to her mind, she couldn’t make them leave.

She remembered her childhood in the Emerald Reef. During her first years, she would accompany her parents everywhere, but as soon as she was big enough to swim alone, she did.

She didn’t socialize much, being more interested in seeing how fast she could swim or fly than playing with her peers. She enjoyed straying away from the reef and exploring every corner of the ocean floor, no matter how dangerous it was.

Then, she met Adagio and Sonata from the Spiral Reef. They had this big plan about flying to the land and charming every pony. She loved it. She admired them for how ambitious they were.

The conquest of Equestria had indubitably been the best time of Aria’s life. So much power, so much delight. Something in her changed permanently, and she now needed power; she no longer tolerated holding just a small amount. She suspected the same change affected Adagio and Sonata as well.

Then, they were banished, and the nightmare began.

The three sirens eventually realized that, as long as there was some power in their pendants, they were essentially immortal. They didn’t know why. Maybe it was due to their new, alien bodies; maybe the large amount of power they had absorbed from Equestria had changed their jewels permanently; or maybe it had always been that way, and they had never noticed because no siren under the sea had ever kept power for a long time.

Thus, the three of them had to spend the rest of their endless lives in this bland, pathetic world. Even after all these centuries, even knowing he was probably long dead, she would never stop hating the unicorn wizard for that.

No one could understand her pain. Except maybe for Adagio and Sonata, who, as Sonata had said, were in the same boat as her. But they were gone. Sonata was about to burn, and Adagio may be caught as well. Then Aria would be alone.

Solitude had never bothered her back in Equestria, and in this world, she had never considered it. But the prospect of ending up alone was becoming more and more likely, and it was frightening. As much as she loathed relying on others, she had to admit that in this world, she wouldn’t know what to do without Adagio’s guidance.

And then there was that voice in her head telling her that her life here was a waste of time anyway. Attempting to save Sonata may be suicide, but the alternative was not worth living.

Aria opened the bag and took her knife, then disembarked and ran after Adagio.

Comments

[Imperator Knoedel]

I might have mentioned it already a few times, but it bears repeating: I really love this story.

[Awesomo3000]

Go on, Aria. Though you may find Sonata annoying, she's still your closest friend. Go and save her.

[Lonarion]

5713536 Thanks, I'm really glad you like it. Since this is my first story, I wasn't sure how it would turn out. It makes me happy to know other people enjoy it. I hope you'll like the final chapter.

5714072 Thanks for all your comments. I'm glad enjoy my story enough to keep reading.

[Imperator Knoedel]

5717486 Final already? But but but there's so much left to explore! Whole centuries worth of backstory to the Sirens! Ah well, I guess I can see this particular story ending with them leaving the town after they succeed at their doing rescue of Sonata. Still, I'm enjoying the Medieval setting so much and would love to read more about how the Sirens lived through the past millennium.

[Tennis Match Fan]

“Well, in fact I asked for three of them. But Adagio made us leave the city before the others were finished.”

That's so sad!

[ColdGoldLazarus]

Man, this story has taken a turn for the feels. Excellent work!