“I'm sorry, dear,” Hedva said. “I did not mean to interfere with your interest.”

  “I wondered why he loved you,” the siren continued. “I studied you, Hedva, and in time came to appreciate your qualities. In fact I came to love you myself. That was why I took that bullet.”

  “I wondered,” Hedva said.

  “And that was why I offered you the serpent's blood. Do you know why I finally agreed to accept it myself, knowing what it would do for me?”

  “I do not.”

  “It was because I realized that there was another way to help you, and perhaps to win something I treasured: the love of Neris. And after I took the blood, and to my surprise lost that love, I spared Neris because I knew it would hurt you, Hedva, if I killed him, and ruin our relationship.”

  Hedva shook her head, bemused. “A novel reversal. You helped me for love of him, then spared him for love of me.”

  “Yes.”

  Now Neris spoke. “So you will continue to help Hedva. But that should not mean that you want anything more to do with me.”

  “Yes. But having experienced months of that love, I discovered that I was happier with it than without it. I think I could love you again, Neris, on my own, if you agreed.”

  “I will soon be gone,” Hedva said. “There should be no further barrier.”

  “Oh, but there would be. Neris would mourn you, not love me. He would always be fearful that I would kill him in a moment of ire, and ordinarily he would be correct. I can't have him that way.”

  “I do not understand, dear,” Hedva said. “What is it that you contemplate?”

  Siphon put the edges of her wings on Hedva's hands. “I am offering you my body as host for your soul, when your own body dies.”

  Hedva shook her head. “I fear you do not understand what a soul is, dear. It carries the entire experience of the living host, and it dominates. Your mind and personality would be subsumed beneath mine. You would be captive again.”

  “Yes. But I know you, Hedva. You would be a beneficent mistress. You would not suppress me; you would give me freedom to express myself when I wished to.”

  “Well of course! As did Neris. But still you would not be free.”

  “It is a freedom I no longer care for. And in that state, I could finally win the love of Neris.”

  “Oh, my,” Hedva said, understanding. “And I could be free at last to express myself similarly, with a body that was capable.”

  “And you would have the time you need to complete your search for the catalyzer.”

  “Oh, my!” Hedva exclaimed, gratified.

  But Neris did not understand. “Siphon captive to Hedva? Hedva's mind governing Siphon's body? Why should I love that?”

  “Hedva's personality,” Nerine said. “Siphon's body. That's your ideal woman, idiot.”

  “He may require some persuasion,” Hedva said, smiling.

  “Shall we do it?” Siphon asked. She glanced at Neris. “With her soul governing, you would need to have no fear of me. I would be bound again. That was what I declined to tell you before.”

  “True,” Nerine murmured. “It's probably the best offer you'll ever get, Neris.”

  “I don't trust this at all,” he said, unpleasantly bemused.

  “We shall,” Hedva said. “I thought I faced death, and you are giving me life.”

  “As you did for me,” the siren agreed.

  Something passed between them, perhaps only a tremor of Hedva's hands and Siphon's wings. Then the chemist sagged back. Neris knew immediately that she was dead.

  The siren stood. She gave him a direct look.“Well, Neris?” Hedva's voice inquired.

  “Take it,” Nerine told him.

  The siren's body stepped toward him. “Which of us do you want first?” Hedva asked. “You know we both have marriage in mind.”

  What could he do? Neris stood as they came and embraced him and then kissed him. Who was destined to be captive here?

  Epilogue

  Others saw to the formalities of Hedva's seeming death, which had been long anticipated. Her body was duly honored and buried. A new chemist was brought in to continue the work, but she was a figurehead. Only close friends and the regular castle staff knew the truth, and they were of course discreet. There were no further attacks.

  It took Siphon some time to acclimatize to Hedva's soul. There were so many constraints, regardless of who was running the body at the moment. Hedva was glad to let Siphon take over to accomplish the routine of the homeless shelter, and that was best, because the staff would not really have understood the dedicated chemist. But even so, Siphon could no longer do things merely because they were expedient; she had to consider whether they were ethically appropriate, and that led to some awkward missteps. She was no longer as effective as she had been.

  The worst was at night. She had expected to share Neris' bed, and to have frequent sex with him, now that the woman he loved was with her. But Hedva remained diffident, still seeing him as her student, not right for sex despite her love for him. She had embraced him by day, and he had accepted it, but at night they both hesitated. “Maybe that sort of thing is best left to Siphon,” Hedva said.

  So it was Siphon who was with him the first night. She opened her wings to him, but he held off. “You're not Hedva,” he said. “You don't love me.”

  “She is here,” Siphon said.

  “I am here,” Hedva agreed. “I merely prefer to watch rather than to participate.”

  “Siphon doesn't love me,” he repeated. “This would be a burden for her.”

  “I think you must settle that with her directly,” Hedva said delicately, and retreated.

  “You don't love me, Siphon,” he said again. “And I don't love you.”

  What could she say? The soul prevented her from lying, even if she had been inclined to. “I don't love you. But I believe I could learn to love you, in time. I want to; I enjoyed it before. Meanwhile sex is no burden for me. I like it and I am good at it, and I am ready to do it any way you like, as I was before. Take me, enjoy me, and in due course I should come to love you again, this time naturally, and you may love me.” She smiled. “In fact you could close your eyes and pretend I am Hedva. She will not object.”

  It was a reasonable compromise, yet he was unsatisfied. “You're no better than a whore. Come to me when you love me. Then I will surely enjoy sex with you.”

  “I could sing passion for you. Then you should enjoy it.”

  “And it would be artificial. That's still prostitution.”

  Unfortunately, he has a point, Hedva thought.

  Siphon tried again. “Neris, I want to do this with you. I appreciate the effort you made for me, to save my life, and I want to make you glad of it. Hedva wants you to do it, so that she can enjoy it without guilt. She merely is unable to initiate it herself.”

  “I can't do it,” he said stonily.

  Damn, Hedva thought.

  And so it was that they left him and went to Rosie. “Neris has a hangup,” Hedva told her.

  “And you don't?” Rosie asked wisely.

  “I do,” Hedva agreed. “I thought I could enjoy it as a voyeur, but he won't do it with Siphon until she loves him, and at present she can't say she does. He sees it as prostitution. So we are at impasse. Go to him.”

  “He's a fool. He was always a fool. Maybe Nerine could talk sense into him.”

  “No,” Nerine said. “I already told him, but he won't heed me in this. He's got a fouled up moralistic streak.”

  “Damn.” But Rosie went. She would console Neris, for she loved him too, in her fashion, and understood him.

  The impasse continued as time passed. They worked on the catalyzer, singing to endless samples of catalysts and polluted sea water, and gradually made progress. Meanwhile the congressional effort slowly advanced, starting to cut the pollution. But it made little difference, because other nations continued polluting unabated, heedless of any dreams sent them. Nullification of existing pollution was the only really effective remaining option. Eventually they found the elusive key, and had it. Hedva and Siphon hugged each other, mentally. Victory at last! All that remained was to ceremonially initiate the process in the sea.

  And they thought of a strategy to deal with Neris. “Neris, you are coming of age,” Hedva informed him. “The legal age of consent. Marry me, and I will share with you on our wedding night. I can do that, in that circumstance.”

  He was definitely interested. “Oh, Hedva, I would like that. But what of Siphon? It's her body.”

  “Her memory of when she loved you has been persuasive, as is my love, which constantly bathes her mind. She is coming to love you again, and if you can accept her, it will be full blown and real, not magical.” She fixed him with a steely authoritarian gaze. “If you marry me, you will also marry her. She is my host; without her I would be dead in spirit as well as in body. If you do it with me, you will also do it with her. Is that understood?”

  By “it” she meant sex. He yielded. “Oh, yes. May I kiss you now?”

  She was gracious in victory. “You may.”

  They kissed, sealing the agreement. Both Hedva and Siphon loved it, albeit with different perspectives. Hedva saw love; Siphon saw sex. “That's so sweet,” Nerine murmured, and went about the arrangements.

  The day Neris turned 18, Nerine guided him to the sea, along with their key friends. Siphon and Hedva did not travel with him, hewing to the tradition to stay as far clear as possible.

  It was one huge party in the castle of Sea God Nereus. Officially it was for Neris' 18th birthday and his marriage to Hedva/Siphon, but there was more going on. The 50 nereids were showing the guests to their quarters. No one had trouble breathing, though it was underwater and stray fish were swimming through, curious about the activity.

  Doris, Neris' mother, was there, the guest of her friend the goddess Doris. Kelsey was present as a friend of the groom, and Rosie Scenario. Even Rhea, mother of the gods, was benignly present.

  They assembled in the morning for the grand events. Hedva, cloaked by partly spread wings so as to be almost invisible to her betrothed, stepped into the center with a single small vial of fluid. She unsealed it and let its content spill out into the dusky water.

  There was a coruscating swirl of colors as the catalytic reaction occurred. A miniature whirlpool formed, its color expanding as it ascended in the castle courtyard and moved beyond. The water in its center clarified, showing its new purity.

  Nerine dived in, literally, doing a cartwheel within the clarity. “It's clean!” she exclaimed, spreading her arms and legs in sheer bliss. Even her greenish hair seemed to brighten as it spread around her, no longer dulled by pollution.

  Then her 49 sisters joined her, all of them frolicking in the marvelous purity. They formed an acrobatic pyramid, then joyfully let it collapse in a tangle of lovely limbs and torsos. Their father Nereus smiled benignly; his effort to generate Neris was at last paying off.

  Now Hedva returned to the center, still modestly cloaked. “I wish to announce my retirement from chemistry, at least for a while, after tonight's ceremony. My job is done; I'm going to travel the world, mentally visiting all the places that interest me. I will leave the dull routine of the married state to my host.”

  This was news. “How will you travel?” Rosie asked. “I mean, without the body?”

  “Via projective telepathy. I will quietly enter the minds of folk, without disturbing them, and tune in on their activities for a while before moving on. It should be an interesting tour.”

  “But you're not a telepath.”

  “Ah, but my traveling companion is. We have been in touch, and come to an understanding. My mind will be the guide, his mind the power.”

  “His mind?” Rosie was hardly the only one surprised by this; Siphon, in observer mode, was aware of their reactions. “Whose mind?”

  “Ouroborus, of course. He doesn't get to travel much.”

  The others were amazed. “He wants to travel?” Rosie asked.

  Oh, yes. Now I have the opportunity. There was no doubting that powerful thought that came to all of them. Siphon knew that the great serpent's interests were not limited to seeing conventional sites; they would be quietly dipping into the minds of couples courting, fighting, and making love. But of course Hedva would not say that.

  Now it was Siphon's turn to speak. She contracted her wings to show her splendid torso, knowing all the males present, including especially Neris, would focus closely. “I sought meaning in my life,” she said. “My destiny was not what I anticipated. It turned out to be my acquisition not of blood, but of a soul. Now at last I am whole, and in love. I shall be happy to be fulfilled by the rigors of marriage.”

  At this point they proceeded to the ceremony itself. It was simple. Neris strode forward, singing the summoning. Siphon turned to face him, singing the siren call with both her voices. It was an amazing duet, or trio, affecting both men and women, and by the time they met in the center with a passionate kiss, most of the onlookers were also kissing each other. Including Kelsey and Nerine, Siphon noted as she looked around immediately after it, who seemed finally ready to consummate their muted courtship, now that she could retire from nurse maiding Neris. And Rhea and Rosie: now there was a really interesting temporary pairing, the goddess and the lesbian. There were things about Rhea that few others seemed to know about.

  Then the lovers retreated to their nuptial chamber, leaving the enchanted audience to their own devices. Siphon sank down, leaving the body to Hedva.

  “Now at last it is legitimate, dear,” Hedva said. “We are married.” She kissed Neris with such passion that even he was taken aback. It had been years in the making.

  That was just the beginning. This time Siphon was the voyeur, drinking in the overwhelming love the two were finally sharing now that the barriers of age, status, and magic had been removed. But she knew that her turn would come.

  About the Author

  All my stories and novels seem to start with stray ideas that can occur from almost any source. Some dissipate in a moment, like puffs of smoke, not being worthwhile; others I summarize in my Ideas file for possible later development; others expand into stories, novellas, or even novels. There's a hell of a lot more to a fictional narrative than an idea, but the idea is essential. It's like the fragment of dust around which a snowflake forms, though one flake, however unique, does not make a novel. It's also like the sperm cell, the one of millions that happens to find the egg cell and a compatible environment in which to grow and become all that it can potentially be. I also think of my faint brush with chemistry as a child, playing with supersaturated solutions; a speck of sand could serve as the focus for a nice prettily angled and colored crystal. But without that conducive environment, the speck would accomplish nothing. There's a huge amount of chance relating to what notion and what environment; everything has to fall into place correctly.

  Well, the key idea in this case occurred when I was reading the Sunday comics, Prince Valiant, December 15, 2013. They were on the sea, near land, the men being lured by the compelling songs of sirens, surely deadly mischief. And I thought, suppose there were a male siren who lured women? Would that reverse siren be spelled backwards, neris? I looked up the word, just to be sure it didn't already exist. It didn't, but there were some close calls, such as Nereus, a sea god, and nereid, one of 50 sea nymphs, his daughters by the sea goddess Doris. That fit suspiciously well. It was almost as if I were being supernaturally guided. I got into classic mythology, running down the sometimes scandalous lineages of the gods, and wondered just what those 50 nereids, essentially lovely bare girls, did with their time, and how Nereus felt about having all daughters, no sons. The idea kept building. And I realized that I had a prospective spicy novella or short novel. One that interested me enough to write.

  So in January 2014 I wrote it, a generous 43,000 words, featuring Neris, the illegitimate son of Nereus and a mortal woman, thus a half god. The woman would need help raising him, because a mere mortal couldn't handle a godly childish tantrum, and he would need instruction for his sea god heritage that no ignorant mortal could provide. Thus Nerine, youngest nereid, assigned for the duration. Later I needed a dragon or equivalent, and Ouroborus answered the call, being bored with his lot. He's the serpent circling the world, whom I concluded must be holding it together. I mean, haven't you ever wondered why the spinning world doesn't just fly apart? I knew of him because of E R Eddison's 1926 fantasy novel The Worm Ouroborus. As I recall, it's a terrific adventure, but Ouroborus appears only in the title, and of course he's no worm, but the mightiest of serpents. Some even consider him to be a dragon, yes. He was not done justice there, so I am trying to remedy that. After four and a half billion years of heroic service, he deserves some belated recognition, don't you think?

  And of course the siren Siphon. I'm intrigued by her, and have set her up to handle a sequel novel, if one should come to be, Siphon's Soul. There is an ecological theme in this novel, the disaster of mankind's deadly pollution of air, earth, and sea. It will take more than cleaning up the sea to save the world from things like ozone depletion and global warming. Siphon is actually a creature of the air, so this should be of interest to her. Thus one project expands from a speck and perhaps begets another. We'll see.

  This novel was proofread by Scott M Ryan and Anne White. My website is www.hipiers.com/, where I have a monthly personal column, information on my novels, a Xanth character database, and maintain an ongoing survey of electronic publishers with candid feedback from authors who use them. Visit at your own risk.

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