A selkie is born of salt and storm.
She sheds her seal-skin to walk among men.
If a man finds it, he owns her.
Without it, she cannot go home.
I was born of salt, too.
Not from waves.
From blood.
But I did not drown in grief.
I calcified.
Because salt does not mourn.
It preserves.
No one teaches a princess how to bury her family.
They only teach you how to smile at the men who will.
So, I traded silk for steel.
Soft hands for bloodstained ones.
Then the ocean receded.
And what it left behind was no longer a princess.
It left something that does not wait to be rescued.
They sent The Butcher after me.
A blade carved from the same salt and ruin that made me.
He was meant to turn me in.
He almost did.
Then he chose me instead.
Now, he holds my skin.
Not as proof of ownership.
As proof of loyalty.
I did not inherit my father's throne.
I rebuilt it atop the ruins of the men who tried to erase us.
Men inherit thrones.
Women bleed for it.
They say a selkie must choose between land and water.
That's what the men who wrote the legends decided.
I refuse.
Skin or no skin.
The tide will answer to me.
She sheds her seal-skin to walk among men.
If a man finds it, he owns her.
Without it, she cannot go home.
I was born of salt, too.
Not from waves.
From blood.
But I did not drown in grief.
I calcified.
Because salt does not mourn.
It preserves.
No one teaches a princess how to bury her family.
They only teach you how to smile at the men who will.
So, I traded silk for steel.
Soft hands for bloodstained ones.
Then the ocean receded.
And what it left behind was no longer a princess.
It left something that does not wait to be rescued.
They sent The Butcher after me.
A blade carved from the same salt and ruin that made me.
He was meant to turn me in.
He almost did.
Then he chose me instead.
Now, he holds my skin.
Not as proof of ownership.
As proof of loyalty.
I did not inherit my father's throne.
I rebuilt it atop the ruins of the men who tried to erase us.
Men inherit thrones.
Women bleed for it.
They say a selkie must choose between land and water.
That's what the men who wrote the legends decided.
I refuse.
Skin or no skin.
The tide will answer to me.
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Used availability for Stasia Mars's Selkie's Tear