"The purpose of my life never involved being seated on their throne of blood and bone," Shiri murmured to herself, inhaling the crisp west wind as it blew through the rocky coastline, pressing her deeper into the cliffside.

    Hands stretching, seeking and securing, Shiri scaled the side of what many in the Kingdom called Rán's Road, a slice of land that ran so deep into the heart of the sea that many believed it to be the home of the sea goddess' Rán. Known for seducing ships into her watery grasp with little more than a net and her voice, it made sense that one of her prized possessions would be held atop the dangerous entrance to her domain. Or so everyone said.

    Heat settled in the tips of Shiri's fingers, scalding her skin as she scurried higher and higher, ignoring the rocks that fell away under the weight of her toes.

    "Damn idiot," she muttered, the empty chain around her neck burning into her flesh. "I told him, ten minutes. Ten minutes, and I'd be able to get in, get out and go. All I needed was a safe pick up, but does he listen? Nope. Sends me up a pointy rock and tells me it's not like I'll fall flat on my ass."

    Her breath hitched in her chest as she pressed her forehead into the rock, the wind rocking her back and forth as it cried against her shoulder.

    Jin had forced her up here, although he claimed it was the last step in the grand scheme of things, and if that scheme resulted in her death she supposed it made sense with how everything was turning out lately.

    Brushing the red strands of hair from her mouth, Shiri pulled herself up over the last incline of stone and rose to her feet. Her hands shook with the force of the flame racing through her blood stream, steaming and scorching her as it flared towards the ocean.

    She peered over the rocks and into the darkened chasms that riddled the shore, her knees quaking. "We just need the coin. We find the coin, we're done with the missions, that's all we need to finish this." Shiri shook her hands out, fiddling with her collar as she whispered, "Get in, get out and go."

    "Get in, get out and go."

    Backing up until her spine met more rock, Shiri smiled, loosening her jaw and relaxing her shoulders as the fire in her screamed for release, barreling down her veins with the fury of a pistol with its safety on.

    She cracked her knuckles, closing her eyes. "Get in."

    The sun sank, slipping beneath the waves and sizzling as its light went out.

    "Get out."

    It was only a few hundred feet, surely the water would break her fall?

    Her eyelids flashed open, irises singed and the air fleeing her lungs.

    "Go."

    Giving herself no time to think, Shiri launched off the rocks, clothes whipping and hair flapping as she fought to force her muscles into position. If she bent too much she would smack the water and have no form of protection, if she didn't bend enough, her spine was as good as a snapped sail.

    Water sprayed when she hit the surface, sending her rocketing through the foam while her fingers dug into center of her chest. There was a reason these oceans were feared amongst her people. There was a reason she was feared amongst her people.

    Sinking, sinking, sinking...

    Deep into the dark and empty graves left behind by so many other sailors before her.

    Sinking, sinking, sinking...

    Pain ripped through her ears, aching and pounding from the inside out as her eyes fluttered open. Her lungs cried out, but she couldn't relieve them, and soon colors began to dance in her head, spreading themselves out in the ancient dance of the living and the dead. Would there be an end to this? Would she reach a bottom?

    Sinking, sinking, sinking...

    How odd to not need air to breathe, eyes to see or ears to hear. Shiri's senses fell away from her, while the molten magma in her body slowed to a stop, congealing her body in a state away from time or space.

    Was this what it felt like to die?

    "No, but you will be soon, young one,"  A voice whispered in the darkness, "Hurry. Let your request be made known to us, before you have no spirit left to barter."

    The currents tugged at her skin, willing her to lay down the burden she had carried for so long. Why was she still resisting? "I am here for your coin," she whispered, bubbles gurgling past her lips as she continued to sink, "and that is all, my lady. A coin and nothing less."

"How curious. A token from the gods to end your kingdom's suffering, young one? Or would you wish for the suffering of your own to end?"

The darkness shifted, drawing her in further, and Shiri could've sworn she felt the sleeves of a gown wrapping around her and tugging her to safety, to warmth.

A sigh sounded from her left. "The coin is not what you think. Its powers were never meant for mortal hands. It cannot hold physical form without the promise of a human soul to wield it."

Shiri's limbs curled in on her body, settling. Her flames licked at her fingers, sparking, sputtering... gone again. There was no point. Why was she here?

"Never had a soul to begin with. Mortality is a bore," she smirked, snuggling into the silence.

"A bore you say?" The being chuckled. "For as badly as you seem to desire my coin, young one, you appear to have no skill in bartering for it."

Shiri shrugged, tugging at the chain around her neck. "Bartering, dying... about the same thing yes?"

Another sigh. "I suppose you will die then. This conversation has been my first in centuries with a human and yet I find it just as boring as your choice of death. Mayhap your kingdom will survive on its own without you then."

"My kingdom." Shiri slurred, her fingers sparking again. She was forgetting something, she knew she was. "I need...I need your coin."

"Give me reason to trust you, young one. What will I gain in return?"

Ropes rested themselves around Shiri's wrists, slithering to the skin of her ankles and the backs of her knees, pulling her forward.

"What will I gain in return, Shae of Roxbury?"

Air stirred in her lungs, fanning her flames when the woven strands launched her from the waters to the silty sands.

"My soul," she gasped, tears pouring from her eyes as she opened her hand to find a silver coin, the figure of a woman holding a net between her fists emblazoned on the front.

Flames tore through her body, rising to the surface until she was encapsulated in a sphere of fire. The tears evaporated from her skin, the light returned to her eyes, but that dark whisper still crawled beneath her flesh, burying her vow in the arteries and caverns of her heart.

   She tugged at her bottom lip, a sob breaking through her as she collapsed to the ground, murmuring, "You will have my soul."

~*~*~*~*~