The King and the Sea
The great king Hebarden took the continent and the whole world as his own long ago. On his many conquests, he found upon a maiden in the tidal pools of a series of islands. When she spoke, it was like the great crashing of waves on cliffs, and at the same time as delicate as birdsong from the trees above. Instantly, he fell in love with the wild-haired maiden, and they spoke for hours in the tidal pools. As the tide came in, she did not move, not even as the waves rose up around her legs, to her waist, to her chest. She was unmoving and serene.
"What are you?" Asked the king. "Maid, or mer?"
"I am the sea." Replied she, "and the sea is me." The king did not understand, and took her with him on his ship, so deeply he'd fallen in love with this woman and could not bear to leave her. Instantly she grew melancholy as she stepped onboard.
He gave her robes of fine silk and gold to replace the simple rags she held around her. She did not wear these robes, still clad in simple rags that smelled of the sea and hung with kelp and fish bones. When they returned to his grand palaces he showed her what she would own, and she said nothing. The voice that had shook him so no longer echoed off stone and water. She said nothing, looking out to sea. She continued to say nothing, when presented with fine clothes, soft beds, jewels and riches from all the places he'd conquered. She took nothing of what he offered, refusing the rich foods and delicacies. He watched as she ate only fish, breaking each open with her hands, saying nothing.
Finally he asked, "what do you wish? Ask, and I shall give it to you."
She replied, "give me the sea."
And so, he had his slaves and labourers build a palace for her, deep greens and blues painted on its walls, the halls like the jagged underwater cliffs and coral reefs, floors like tidal pools. Still she was melancholy.
"What is wrong? Are you not happy? What else do you desire?" He asked her.
"I desire the sea." She said.
And so, he had his slaves and labourers build a deep pool in the courtyard of this palace, filling it with sand and seawater, planting reeds and trees among the rocks dragged from the bay far below to his palace. She said nothing, watching and then vanishing into the depths of the pool, not emerging for hours. When she came back, he asked if she was now happy, that he'd brought the sea to her. She was not.
"Bring me the sea. This is a pool, empty and dead."
And so, he had his labourers bring fish to fill it, opening up the pool to the sky above. Again he asked if she was happy. Again she said no, and he worked to make his creation for her the same as the great ocean beyond his walls. She grew thin and grey, frail and weak, wrapped in thin blankets and stumbling along cold floors.
"My love, what will make you happy?" he asked, kneeling at her feet as she stood, looking out to the great grey ocean and its unknowable depths.
"The sea." She said.
I have brought you the sea, and you have not wanted it. What more could you desire?"
"I desire the sea. In all its vast depths. In all its freedom."
"How can I make you happy?" He asked. Finally, she looked down at him.
"By letting me go. Sending me back to the sea." He looked up at her as his heart threatened to break. She saw this, and knew he didn't mean harm, though he still had. "Let me go, and I will not go far. Just as you cannot live whole in the sea, so too can I not live whole in your halls. If I go, I will not go far, for I do love you as well, but I love the sea more."
Hearing this the great king wept at her feet, but knew he could not hold her prisoner any longer. He went with her to the great grey sea, and kissed her hand as she sank to the depths, vanishing from sight.
She did not go far, as promised. At each turn, she stepped onboard his ships, guiding the winds favourably, and casting storms to enemy fleets. The king gave her gifts of exotic fish and beads, and she took these gifts.
At the end of his life, he stood on the deck of his ship, painted in the greens and blues of the southern seas, as the woman sat below him in the tidal pools. He went to her, and she took him in her arms, laying him down in the water.
"I do not want to be apart from you." He said.
"You will never be apart from me." She told him, and as he sank into the water, she followed. He expected to drown, but found he could breathe just as clearly as he could on land. She took him in her arms once more, and dove with him to the bottom of the great grey ocean, to her home in the canyons and cliffs of the depths. There they remained, far beyond humans' eyes.
Historical Basis
Excerpt from a study of Continental myths
Multiple versions of this myth pop up in different regions, all specifically mentioning tidal pools and grey oceans, which lock it in the Aquimore and Jestoanan regions. No account of a king conquering 'the whole world' exists for the time period, and no evidence of the palaces supposedly built exist either. In addition, there is no way a mer could turn a human into another mer, and vice versa-- mer also don't die if removed from water.
However, if looked at less literally and instead with the same mindset of how most legends use metaphor to create morals and story, it becomes more clear what is actually happening.
There has been evidence of a kingdom on the area from roughly Vaoleva in Aquimore to the southern portion of the Continent that vanished in the early 10s of the Premonition Era. That could very well have been much of the known world for this group, and therefore the king mentioned had indeed conquered the entire world. From what has been recovered of the art and architecture, a seafaring people were in this region and conquered multiple other areas. From there, it's possible that a king took a mer as a wife.
It is important to remember that ultimately it teaches a lesson: to not attempt to control the sea. Whether it's still advocating for sea travel or demanding we stay on land is up to interpretation.
Spread
The legend specifically is rooted in the region of Aquimore and Jestoania, though the same concept appears in mythology around the world.
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