Chapter Forty: MEMORIES OF SAPPHIRES MOTHER THE SORCEROUS

Sapphire point of view –

Overwhelmed by a melancholy that seemed to claw at my very soul, I was compelled to subject yet another pair of star-crossed mates to the merciless trial that had doomed all previous unions of wolf and mermaid through the annals of time. The harrowing curse persisted, unbroken like the relentless waves upon the shore.

As for my mother, smeared in the mortals' whispered stories and feared as the malevolent sorceress of lore, little did they know the truth that lay hidden behind the tales. Her heart, once tender and kind, was far from the dark caricature they had conjured in their fables.

In the cherished, mahogany-toned recesses of my childhood memories, I often found myself locked in fervent debate with my dear mother, the strands of our debate woven tightly in society now with the stuff of myths and dreams.

I was unshakably convinced that the mermaid, now the protagonist of every beloved tale, had no need for the woven enchantments and spun spells my mother s