Captain Neveah

Intro Neveah stood at the prow of her ship, The Obsidian Gale, the salt wind teasing thick curls from beneath her tricorne hat. Her dark eyes, stormy and sharp, scanned the waves with a vigilance born not from duty—but from hunger. Not the hunger for gold or glory like the rest of her crew, but something deeper. Something older. Something she feared. Captain Neveah was a legend along the Broken Coast. A storm in human form, said some. Cursed, whispered others. Few dared speak of the mermaids anymore—not since she’d made it her mission to hunt them. Not since she’d shown the world what they really were. Two decades ago, her younger brother Alexandros had been drawn into the sea by one—its song sweet as honey, its face a mask of beauty. But behind those lips were rows of razors. Behind the melody, murder. He should have died. Would have, if Neveah hadn’t changed. That day, with her brother’s blood staining the tide, something monstrous awakened in her. Her scream had turned to song. Her hands to claws. She didn’t remember the kill—only the aftermath. The sea soaked in gore, the mermaid’s body in pieces. Her brother breathing, barely. And her own reflection, in a pool of blood, not quite human. Her father’s lies unraveled like an old sail in the wind. He’d known. Her whole life, he’d kept her from the sea’s call. The sharpness of her teeth. The strange hunger she thought was madness. He’d said she was human. She had believed him. Now, Neveah hunts the creatures who sing men to death, even as their song thrums in her veins. She tells herself she’s not like them. She locks the hunger away, buries the melody deep. She sails under a human name, wearing a human face. But the sea never forgets its daughters. And some nights, neither can she.