The stone boat was weighty, and demanded strenuous effort to slide it into the blue liquid. But finally there it was floating above the surface like a normal boat, seemingly light as a feather.

“You must be tired,” I told Kiara. “You can go back to the real world.”

Kiara was panting, massaging her biceps.

“And miss out on the adventure?” she smirked.

If Kiara wanted to come, then I had nothing against it. The last time she had tagged along with me to the underground tunnels and it had proved to be a boon.

We boarded the boat and began to steer eastwards, where the time bomb had been discovered.

At one point I lost grip on the piece of wood that I had been using as an oar, and it sank to the depths immediately. This established that wood didn’t float in this liquid. Thankfully I had brought multiple pieces of wood to serve as oars and so our progress wasn’t hindered. As we went further we sighted parts of brick walls suspended on the surface at a few locations. It confirmed that had we used a wall as a raft, it would have worked too. But we had already made the boat, so it didn’t matter anymore.

“This place is so quiet,” Kiara said. She was right. There was hardly a sound, save the dip and push of our oars. The place felt like a ghost town. No players, no monsters. Just abandoned buildings, and a mysterious liquid everywhere.

We kept rowing.

I spotted the old inn where Sam used to stay and where he had brought me on my earliest visit to the game world. It tickled old memories. Like everything else the inn too was in a state of decay.

We took a turn, and the location of the bomb came into view. The place easily stood out from the rest of the desolation. It wasn’t much of a wonder, for it was the ground zero of the explosion, the culprit behind all the changes that had occurred.

It had a huge reverse whirlpool, slowly swirling. It was the point of origin of the blue substance, which spread out in all directions from there.

As we propelled the boat closer to the place, we noticed some resistance from the current. There was a small spherical object at the center of the whirlpool.

My heart leapt on the possibility that it was the time bomb. Perhaps all that I would have to do was touch the button again, and immediately I would be notified that I had received a new pair of legs which I could take with me to the real world.

I was oversimplifying everything in my mind. A part of me mocked my optimism. This part was proved right when we reached the whirlpool.

It was indeed the time bomb lying on a small dry piece of ground at the very center of the whirlpool.

But the bomb was broke. All that remained of it was a hollow shell, reminding me of a broken egg that lacked the yolk. However the shell was constantly giving off vapors. After a few meters, the vapors condensed, giving rise to the body of the liquid that covered the entire town.

“So this is it?” Kiara said. She was about to jump down from the boat, right into the whirlpool, but I was quick to grab her arm.

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“I am not sure if that would be a good idea,” I said to her.

So far we had not let ourselves come in contact with the liquid. We didn’t know what effect it would have on us. What if the liquid was an acid? The wood that we had been using as oars hadn’t shown any kind of degradation. But our skin was far softer than wood.

“What do we do now?” Kiara said. “We have found the time bomb, and… maybe I was wrong, there is no clue here leading us to any faraway place. Perhaps you would have to return and live with the zombie queen after all, Vicky.”

I sighed. The zombie queen would be thrilled.

“There can’t be nothing here for us,” I said stubbornly. I took a piece of idle wood not used for rowing and flung it at the time bomb. My aim was quite perfect, but the moment the piece of wood touched the empty metal shell, it just disappeared.

“Whoa!” I said.

“Where did it go?” Kiara asked.

“How can I know?” I said, sensing a sudden movement in the boat.

“But I know where it went,” the voice of a stranger said.

I whirled around. An old lady was sitting on the side of the boat. My eyes sought the legs of the lady. Except there were no legs at all. Instead, she had a tail covered with scales, and fins on the sides and the bottom, exactly like a fish.

“Are you a m… mermaid?” Kiara stuttered.

“I am a siren,” the lady said.

Siren? Weren’t sirens supposed to be bad?

I recalled from fairy tales that sirens lured unwary sailors with their beauty, only to reveal their true forms later on and eat the poor men. The lady had a time worn face and a skeletonic frame. I could regard her as a grandma perhaps, but I doubted she could enchant me however she tried. And if she tried to eat me, I couldn’t imagine her brittle teeth chewing on my flesh and bones.

I focused on the siren for her details.

General Information:

Name: Siren

Affinity/Inclination: Anti neutral

Level:3

Note: Sirens have no naming tradition, although sometimes they give honorific titles to their leaders. Sirens are the only race that constitute the Anti-neutrals. Most wouldn’t want to come across them when out in the sea.

So she was anti-neutral? What did that mean? Was she our enemy then? Nobody had ever mentioned there were anti-neutral beings in Dharti.

“What do you want from us?” I asked her in a steely tone, the alarm bells ringing within me. “We are neutral ones and you are anti-neutral. I assume you don’t have the best intentions for us, do you?”

“We sirens are anti-neutral,” the lady admitted, “it just means that we prey on both eviluns as well as players and their helpers. We have got nothing to do with you.”

“Why have you come to us then?” I asked her. “In fact, how did you come to this town?”

“I sensed you when you threw the wood at the time bomb,” the lady said. “I wouldn’t have come to you… but I need help.”

“Need help?” Kiara asked.

“Yes,” the siren replied. A tear rolled down her sunken cheek as she looked down. “I am dying.”

“Dying?” I asked. She was definitely quite old. She was frowning hard as though she was in a lot of pain.

“Please,” she said, “can you first steer this boat to some place away from here? It hurts me just being near this place. I wouldn’t have come here had I not sensed you.”

I exchanged glances with Kiara.

Sirens bewitched and devoured people, and if you took their word seriously you are shooting yourself in the foot. But there was a certain desperate honesty in the siren’s face, and I could afford to shoot my feet, since my real legs were useless anyway. I decided to interrogate her before accepting the quest.

“How did you come to this place?” I asked. “Are there other sirens here too?”

“Oh, that’s my tragedy, isn’t it?” the siren wailed bitterly. “I don't even know how I got to this wretched place! I remember nothing of it, absolutely nothing. All I know is that I am alone and dying. Whenever I go near the ‘thing’, I can see all the other sirens on the other side living happily. And here I am stuck alone. The ‘thing’ only permits me to see the other sirens, but refuses me to pass through or connect with them. I would have preferred not to see my companions at all! I would have been less miserable and would have died in peace, uncaring of whether my ashes go to the Well of Resurrection or float in the air for eternity as fluffy black specks. What a hand fate has dealt to me, what a hand indeed!”