Feature: The Mermaid of the Month is Adante! (Part Three)

Happy Halloween!  To conclude the month of October, I’m posting one last Mermaid of the Month feature on one of my minor antagonists, the Venvian Psyne named Adante.  In Luminous, Adante experiences the wonders of ‘first love’ but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.  For the first time, she’s unsure of herself and she feels out of control which is a sensation she’s not familiar with and doesn’t like in the least.  Many of us have experienced that feeling of ‘first love’ as well as the inevitable choice we face:  do we pursue it even though we risk getting our heart broken or do we shun it, at the cost of regretting the decision the rest of our lives?

For my Venvian Psyne, falling in love is extra complicated.  They are taught to hate humans, especially human men.  Adante’s emotions are confusing to her, to say the least. For the Psyne, falling in love with a human doesn’t mean there will necessarily be a happy ending.  Succumbing to emotions such as love is seen as far too human and is one of the cardinal rules strictly enforced in their society.  If a Psyne decides to become human in order to stay with the object of her love, she doesn’t need to seek out a sea witch for the spell.  All she has to do is use her own magic, denying her Psyne form and embracing her human form in its entirety from that moment forth.  But choosing love comes with a price:  by becoming human, she will have a fear of the ocean for the rest of her life and the touch of saltwater will always feel like acid to her skin.  As if that isn’t bad enough, there is the danger of being discovered by the Bahree, the Psyne Council’s secret police, whose job it is to hunt down Psyne-turned-humans, otherwise known as defectors, and take them away from their human love, torture them, convert them back to their Psyne form and take them back to the Council to be sentenced to an eternity of imprisonment on the exile planet, Dervitika.  If only love was simple…

Adante Trivia:  The inspiration for her name came from a fellow classmate I knew in high school.  Adante is an unusual name and to me, it exudes strength and mystery.  Names are important in fiction and this name fit my character like a glove.