Her kingdom was perfect.  It had taken her a millennia to achieve, with careful plans and utter patience.  The utopias built by man were built to appease the gods who stood idle whilst menkind ravaged the beautiful planet.  Gone were the once clear rivers, the plentiful air, the sparkling blue seas.  Maera could never bring herself to agree with the Olympians, catering to the ideals of man from their pristine marble sky castle.  And the Tuatha de Dannan? Forever hiding in their sacred plane, adoring their ancient groves no longer tethered to the mortal plane.  Abandoned.  The Asgardians had long faded from their relationship with men, once the shepherds of war and glory.  The world had no room for war amongst their new culture of apathy.<br/><br/>The nymph-turned-goddess looked down upon the ruins of Paris, now a thriving city of nereid.  It was more gorgeous in the abyss than it could ever have been above the sea.  In the years it took for her to consume the earth, Maera had collected many of the achievements of man, and put them to better use.  She found the pyramids among her favourite.  She'd even found a new home for mother Charybdis, in the trench once known to men as the 'Grand Canyon'.  Her underwater kingdom had grown, and now, after having finally overpowered even Poseidon, nothing could stop her.<br/><br/>She thought, why stop there?  She practically owned the entirety of the mortal world.  She ought to set her sights on the real prizes. Perhaps she might have Mt. Olympus on its knees next.  She thought she may well have become more powerful than Zeus these days.  Tir na nOg would prove a more worthwhile target, as she could use the geological bindings to bring more of her nereids into the new aquatic world.  Her world.<br/><br/>She strode along the seafloor, surrounded by the colourful collection of corals now thriving upon the doomed city.  Schools of equally colourful fish swam by her in a hurry.  The few wandering nereids paused and bowed their heads in utter respect as she passed them.  They adored her; not only was she their queen- their goddess- but it was she who had saved them from man.  There were no more poisons in their ocean, no more fish choking on their throwaways, no more oils clouding the surface, and no more poachers murdering their prized sea mammals.<br/><br/>She would consult first with her lover.  She couldn't rule two planes alone, and the sun deity was more than capable of holding a world like Tir na nOg single-handedly.  Her form rose from the waves, her silky pearl frock bearing no indication that it had ever been submerged.  She remained suspended over the ocean, relaxed, parted her lips and began to sing.  There were no lyrics, but her divine voice carried for miles, a song meant only to summon her sun deity.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i.imgur.com/YdKVrq7.jpg">[ img ]</a></div><br/><br/>Jace couldn't decide whether or not his situation could be considered good or bad.  On one hand, he'd escaped from a very uncomfortable suffocation, and the powers of a death goddess were at his fingertips.  On the other, however, said goddess was<span style="font-style: italic">very</span>displeased with him, and should she ever regain her own body, he was chicken feed.  He also had to listen to her ceaseless stream of angry consciousness, which he'd already determined to be flowing in a pattern of bossiness and threats to feed him to Garmr.  The way she spoke made him think she must have been rather close with not only the Tuatha de, but the Norse gods as well- particularly Hel. He wondered if they used to have 'girls nights' back in the day, shopping for fashionable gothic shoes and black frocks at one of the ancient malls before retiring to dance at a singles club with alcohol in hand.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">/Your fantasies disgust me, mortal.  Also, they were called '<span style="font-style: italic">heels</span>'./</span><br/><br/>Right, and she could listen to<span style="font-style: italic">his</span>thoughts as well.  He decided he ought to make the best of it.  After all, sometimes he did wonder what the world was like before the Great Tide.  He'd only known the nomad life, as did most of the world's inhabitants.  A lot of history was lost, and what they knew now was just oral.  Supposedly, back then, they had a magic which could allow a person to talk with somebody thousands of leagues away.  There were great, flying ships which could cross the seas in a mere day.  Of course, at that time, there were only seven.  There were megacities, hundreds of wonders, hundreds of monuments and beautiful art and millions of humans... but it had all disappeared with the sea.  Supposedly it was the fault of man.  Now they were few and very, very far between.<br/><br/>His lids squint against the sun as something moved in his peripheral.  It was a lady- a very striking one- in a flowing white gown.  Where had she come from?  Jace could swear she wasn't there a moment ago.  She was utterly breathtaking, and had the Morrigan not screeched in his mind at that moment, he would have had an awkward time explaining his bewildered ogling.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">/What is Nike doing here?!/</span><br/><br/>Jace had heard that name before, somewhere.  The pirates he'd grown with talked not of Gods except the Asgardians, and much of the lore he'd learned from the city ports were of the Tuatha de Dannan.  She was not of either.<br/><br/><span style="color: #FF0000">/Olympian,/</span>the Morrigan completed his thought with a low hiss.  It was evident that the Morrigan felt bitterly about her, so he guessed that the two goddesses had a history.  Well, that was of no matter to him, now was it?<br/><br/>"Miss?  Miss!" he jumped to his feet and jogged to catch up with her, enduring the Morrigan's disapproving cries.  "You don't want to go that way!  Them in that port there, just hung some bandits they did.  Quite the mess.  Stench is proper rotten.  I would stay away."