Alistair’s sleep that night was fleeting and filled with nightmares. More than once, his mind showed him images of Aila being massacred by the sea-monster, the priests, or even the knights. He couldn’t take any longer. Especially with her words about the Shrine to Sedna still vivid in his mind. The answer to his prayers close by, but he had promised Aila not to go.

  Torn between his biggest wish, Aila’s safety and staying true to his word, he twisted and turned around on the hard mattress filled with hay and covered by some fleeces. One way or the other. He couldn’t have it all. He had to choose. Unable to fall asleep again, he fetched his coat and boots and decided to go on a walk. He could think better anyway when moving around.

  Once again, fog had drifted into the village, making it difficult to see more than just a few feet ahead. Unbothered by it and the cold, Alistair continued to walk without a real destination in mind. He was too occupied by his worries to really pay any attention to his surroundings. But soon he could not only smell the strong salty tang of the sea but also hear the soft rush of small waves splash against the rocky shore. While still out of sight, Alistair stopped and smiled to himself. At least his feet knew where he wanted to be, but once more he thought about Aila and the monster. Perhaps it was somewhere down there, beneath the water. Waiting. Lurking.

  The idea of it hiding there made the thought to go and jump into the sea even less appealing beyond the natural dangers of those waters. Dangers such as the fog and some of the currents, that even amidst calm waves, were alone dangerous enough. Especially, those currents hiding behind the calmer parts of the ocean’s surface, could spell certain death.

  “If death isn’t worth the risk to prove your love, then none of my skins shall be worth your soul, halfblood.”

  Alistair froze as if turned to ice. There was no way he had just heard those words, spoken by a very rough sounding older woman.

  “Hah! Damnable oaf! And you say you love one of my daughters? Has your tree-climber-blood made you daft?”

  It seemed the voice originated from the ocean, yet at the same time it seemed to be directly beside him.

  “I don’t see what she sees in you, but since she genuinely loves you, I’ll refrain from drowning you right now, right here”, continued the woman, who could only be Sedna herself. “Should you be able to push past your tree-climber-blood, you better swim within the next fifteen minutes towards my shrine as the tide leaves the shore. If you make it, we talk sealskins. If not, well, you know what will happen, halfblood. And now off with you! Time’s of the essence, so don’t waste it!”

  With a loud splash, something big jumped into the water. Judging by the sound, it had been much bigger than Alistair or even his boat.

  With a gasp, he took such a deep breath as if she had already tried to drown him. Trembling, he immediately looked towards the open sea, but only saw the almost perfect murky wall of fog, which seemed to close in on him like a deadly trap.

  The cold had never been a problem for him due to his nature. Yet, this time, it seemed foolish to strip and swim out into the sea. Beyond the cold, there was also still the fog. But Sedna had been clear. He had no time if he wanted to use the out flowing water of the low tide to at least save some energy on his swim. He also had no doubt that she wouldn’t listen to him should he swim out the following day or even the next low tide.

  “I… I’m sorry, Aila. I… I don’t want to break my promise, but Sedna herself has shown me that it’s the right thing”, he murmured and undressed.

  He placed his clothes between some rocks, he knew it wouldn’t be touched by the sea even by high tide, and immediately walked into the water. The moment his webbed toes touched the ice-cold water, he involuntarily gasped. This was his last chance to turn around. Reluctant, he looked over his shoulder in the direction of the village, which was hidden behind an almost perfect grey wall. To Alistair, it seemed like he was trapped in an alternate universe, where just he, the sea, and what or whoever had spoken to him existed.

  “If Aila were to see me, she would run up to me and drag me from the shore”, he murmured and turned back towards the ocean. “I’m certain of it.”

  But she isn’t there.

  “I’m so sorry, Aila”, he said after a moment with tears in his eyes. “Please, forgive me. I can’t keep this promise. I just need to do it. For you. Because I love you, Aila. Because I love you.”

  Alistair took a deep breath and made his way into the water. The cold was unpleasant, but before it could overwhelm him, he grew accustomed to it. This surprised him, but ultimately, he ascribed this to his Selkieblood. Even the near constant pain in his webbed feet vanished once he started to use them to swim.

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  It felt almost too easy to find the water streaming out with the tide. Too easy to navigate the shoreline despite it being not just hidden by fog but also the dark of the night. Strangely, Alistair felt born for this. As if he were meant to swim the ocean like this. Not on a boat but with the water as his vessel.

  As he reached Sedna’s shrine, he stayed a moment in the cold water. He used this time to take everything in, since the fog seemed unwilling to as much as approach the general area of the shrine. The structure of it consisted of a pile of rocks with one flat one at the top like a table. On it were various figurines of marine animals, carved from driftwood, polished stone, shells, bones and what appeared to be tusks. There were also ornaments made from animal bones and more shells, all arranged to look like guardians to this place of worship. Alistair felt as if he committed some vile desecration of the shrine by simply looking at it. Yet at the same time, he felt watched by something wishing him harm, should he stay any longer within the water.

  He took a deep breath and swam the rest of the remaining distance to the shrine and climbed out. To his surprise, the air felt welcoming and warm. Almost as if the spring sun were shining on him. But this pleasantness vanished a second later as he heard a loud splash behind him. Almost as if forced by a strong hand on his shoulders, he fell on his knees in front of the shrine and lowered his head.

  “So you do seem worthy of my consideration, halfblood”, Sedna said from everywhere and nowhere at once — the form of the shrine made her voice reverberate in strange ways. “But don’t just think your trials have ended here. Oh no, they’ve just begun. But before that, tell me, halfblood, what is it you desire?”

  “I… I desire a sealskin, as befitting my ancestry”, he said after swallowing hard.

  “Is that so? But you only share in half of my children’s blood! The other half trembles even now in fear! How do you fathom to be able to withstand the deep when being here on dry land makes your tree-climber-blood freeze in your veins?”

  “I don’t desire it for solely my own benefit”, he continued, tense. “I do wish for a sealskin to protect the woman I love, who is also a daughter of yours.”

  “Many tree-climbers steal my daughters and sons! They imprison them by robbing their sealskins and force them into loveless marriages to create abominations like you! Countless tears have I shedded over their plight, and you dare to come into my domain?! You dare to tell me you love one of my daughters?”

  “Yes! Yes, I do lover her. With all of my heart, with all of my being!”

  The was another loud splash behind him, followed by what sounded like something truly gigantic flopping onto the shore. Alistair could feel flecks of water sprinkle on him like glass shards, but he didn’t dare to turn around and look. At the same time, Sedna said something in what sounded like the same language Aila knew Sedna’s Curse in. Yet, her words sounded angry and hatful.

  “You only speak about yourself, tree-climber! Do you truly know how my daughter feels about you? Do you know her heart as good or even better than your own? Or are you just telling me what you want to hear yourself? Or worse, what you think I would like to hear?!”

  “I know that she loves me the same as I love her!”

  “Then what would you do if I made her hate you? Would you force her still into a one-sided marriage? Would you steal her skin for your own use? Would you make her miserable? Would you kill her if she were to leave your side to return into her true mother’s embrace?”

  “I wouldn’t”, said Alistair with a thin voice as he felt the unbearable hot breath of the enormous thing behind him. “I wouldn’t force her into anything. I only want her to be happy and if her happiness lies within the waves alone, I would let her go and follow her into the depths dead or alive, it wouldn’t matter to me.”

  Massive claws scabbed across the stone close to his back. Suddenly, Sedna started to laugh. It was an earth-shattering, ocean stirring laugh so intense Alistair thought it alone could kill him.

  “You’re telling the truth”, she finally said. “But your tree-climber-blood still mars your soul.”

  His heart sank. After all of this, she wasn’t going to give him a skin? Despite his fear, he didn’t dare to address her in the matter.

  “Yet, since you’re willing to give your life to me for my daughter, I’ll give you your mother's sealskin”, she continued after a moment. “Under one condition.”

  “Which would be?”, he asked timid.

  “You need to prove that your heart not just belongs to my precious daughter, but also to her people, my children. I won’t suffer a halfblood weeping for it’s tree-climbing brethren, so you have to prove to me your willingness to cut your ties to this land-dwelling filth.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “There’s a halfblood in your midst who has not just taken a sealskin by treachery but by murder! I want you to find this cursed scum, kill him and return the skin until the next new moon to me without telling anyone about it. Should you do so without hesitation and remorse, I’ll not just gift you your mother's skin forever, but I shall bless you and name you among my sons. But should you fail or hesitate, the curse shall be yours to bear, and with it all the hatred I harbor for those land dwellers.”

  The giant mass behind jumped into the ocean with a great plash. A moment later, something large and wet was flung at him. The impact threw him prone on the ground and knocked the air from his lungs. He remained for a long time splayed out on the ground, not daring to move or even look at what could only be his mother’s sealskin on his back.

  “The tide…”, he murmured and woke himself up from his stupor. “I need to return with the high tide…”

  Slow he sat up and pulled the sealskin from his back. While he had seen Aila’s sealskin plenty of times, he had never really paid much attention to it. Yet, his mother’s skin seemed to look much like hers, but also wholly different. Slightly apprehensive to climb into it, he hugged it close to his chest and looked out at the ocean. Somehow he thought to remember feeling the soft fur once before, a long time ago. Involuntarily, tears flooded his eyes, and before he knew it, he was crying. Crying because he finally held not just a sealskin, but his mother’s in his hands, and crying because of her memory.

  “The tide…”, he reminded himself once more between sobs. “I must go…”

  Still crying, he took the skin into the cold ocean, which somehow appeared more welcoming and even warmer to him despite it remaining frigid. Tentatively, he climbed into the skin. It felt right. As if he had been his whole life drowning and just now learned how to breathe underwater. Slow he pulled the hood of the skin up and found himself consumed by his seal-nature.