The Priestess & The Heart of the Ocean
Once upon a time, the god of the sea found himself lonely. Gazing upon the mortals with a weight in his stomach, seeing their love, their affection, he wondered…What would it be like to experience such tenderness? Was there no one who might share his life with him? The gods were unkind, obsessed with power, cruel to their fellows. So the Ocean God resolved to create something that was both of the earth, and of the divine. He reached down from the storm clouds and plucked a grain of sand from the earth, then blew upon it.
As it floated down to the ground, it began to expand, lengthen, turn white. What landed was no longer a speck of dust, but a fully formed woman, dressed in blue priestess robes. Immediately, she felt compelled to hasten to his temple, and the Ocean God rushed to meet her. And because he was waiting within those walls, he missed the slavers that captured her on the way. By the time he spotted them, she was bound upon their vessel, where they were casting off to head south. Enraged, the god of the sea sent an enormous wave that rolled over their boat, sending wreckage onto the shore and the criminals to the depths. But his anger had an unintended effect. Only minutes after her creation, The Priestess drowned in the waters she was born to serve.
For many lifetimes, the god of the sea searched for her, until he had exhausted every magical possibility. Weary and hopeless, he gave up his immortality, and was born again in human form.
Years passed, and finally Fate took pity upon him. She drew them together like magnets, electrifying lines across the earth, calling the unknown lovers closer, and closer, until one day they became entangled. In an instant, The Priestess recognized her beloved, though she knew not how. Yet the god of the sea saw only danger in her embrace.
“Here,” she said. “I am yours. Will you have me?”
The sea god did not understand. She felt comfortable, and warm, and loving…yet he did not understand these sensations. But there was something, perhaps…a long forgotten memory, playing like a song at the back of his mind…
“Here,” said he. “I will place you in this box, and we will see what happens.”
The Priestess willingly entered the box, though it offered her little room. The Ocean God took her home, touched her tenderly, and listened to the words she whispered in his ears. They frightened him. It seemed that this woman believed him to be someone he surely was not.A god? He was nothing, no one, barely making it through each day. Yet he could not bring himself to be rid of her. Within his chest, his heart constricted, growing smaller. Safer.
“Here,” said he. “Your box must be smaller, for I have no room for you.”
Nervous but feeling the force of the connection, she assented. And he kept her in the box, and made her laugh, and wondered what on earth she was for.
For four years, The Priestess remained in a series of ever-tinier boxes. She grew frustrated with the Ocean God, but knew he was doing his best to remember himself. In quiet moments, he would allow her to love him, to caress his face, to hold him in his hour of need. And then the box would shut, and she would wait in panic for her freedom to come again. Every time, his heart shrank more, and more, until she could barely feel him at all. In time even his touch was lost. He was a ghost of himself, and she did not know how to bring him back.
Finally, she asked the Ocean God “...do I have your heart?”
The Ocean God looked down at her, considering. She had been by his side so long, but every time he thought of her, he felt frustrated. Angry. Vulnerable. Out of control. She wasn’t what he wanted, wasn’t the right size for the box he had. What to do with her? Why must she ask for his heart?
With icy eyes, the Ocean God looked down at her, and said “No. I do not love you. And never shall.”
The Priestess said nothing, but turned and walked into the ocean, and was seen nevermore.
It is said that as the god of the sea turned away, his heart shrank to the size of a grain of sand. Many years later, he felt it burning in his chest, and remembered how full it had been with The Priestess by his side. He plucked it from his chest and threw it into the waves, where her spirit caught it and held it close, never to be parted from her love again.
9/10/2024 1460
