The cove was beautiful, deadly, and silent.
The Ningyo sat on a spur of basalt, her tail submerged in the ink-black water. She was not the mermaid of fairytales; she was a creature of fish-scales and monkey-mouth, her voice a weapon of despair. She wept, and her tears poisoned the tide pool.
She sensed a vibration in the air. A buzzing.
A single firefly drifted down from the jungle canopy. It glowed with a sickly, red light.
The Ningyo stopped weeping. Her golden eyes narrowed. She knew this was no insect. It was the Adze, the vampiric shapeshifter of the Ewe people.
The Storm and the Spark
"Go away, parasite," the Ningyo shrieked. Wail of Tempest.
She slapped the water. A sudden, violent squall erupted, whipping the sea into a frenzy. Salt spray lashed the rocks, intended to crush the tiny insect out of the air.
But the Adze was a master of evasion. Firefly Ingress.
It wove through the droplets of spray like a pilot navigating an asteroid field. It was too small to hit, too agile to catch. It moved in jagged, impossible angles, closing the distance.
The Ningyo realized her mistake. She tried to dive, to retreat into the safety of the depths.
She was a fraction of a second too late.
The Drink
The firefly landed on the nape of her neck, right where the scales met human skin.
Vitae Siphon.
It didn't just bite; it latched. The tiny insect began to pulse, expanding as it drew blood, magic, and life force from the mermaid.
The Ningyo screamed, thrashing her tail, smashing a boulder to dust in her agony. "Get off! Curse you!"
"Your curses are blood," a voice whispered in her mind. "And I am thirsty."
The Adze grew heavy, shifting mid-feed. The firefly form dissolved into the shape of a shadowy, hunched humanoid, clinging to her back like a wet cloak.
The Ningyo’s vision blurred. The storm she had summoned faltered and died. Her strength—the power to sink ships and drown sailors—flowed out of her and into the vampire.
She slumped forward, her face hitting the water. She did not sink. She floated there, a husk, while the Adze finished its meal and took to the sky, glowing brighter than before.