Prologue: Siren's Song

8 months before the war began, Unknown Time of Night

'Cold. Wet. Can't Bre.....'

She hacked and coughed, and water came pouring out of her lungs like a running river. It was dark; it was storming. Thunder rolled in the distance. There was a sudden flash of lightning. She rolled over onto the wet sand, her absurdly long, oily and unkempt hair hugging her naked form as she did. She was still sputtering but was nonetheless able to breathe- a surprise to her. 

When was the last time she tasted air like this?

The familiar voice in the back of her mind pressed her onwards, Move. You have to keep moving.

As she tried to stand her legs gave way, collapsing in on her own weight.

She was scared, she was confused. In all her years of searching, she was led here, but why? It was this call that led her to the sea to begin with, and now it called her to land? Why here? Why now? Is this where she'll find her home? This call to home that she'd first heard so many years ago? She didn't hear it now. All she heard was the deafening rain and the rolling thunder. But she did see something... lights. The square lights of civilization which were now but a vague memory, and a home. A house on a steep hill overlooking the beach. Her emotions condensed and released themselves as a horrible scream from a hoarse voice that had gone unused, unneeded for so long. 

More light. An open door. A man. It took him some time to locate her, even with her cries, but he did. He began speaking in a language that she didn't understand, then another that seemed vaguely familiar, like a long-forgotten dream. He tried to help her up, but she again fell, and so eventually resolved to carry her up to his coastal villa. A large, lonely, but simple cottage on the southern coast of Sicily.

...

The man's name was Josef, a wealthy man whose family owned a substantial vineyard up north. It took time to overcome the language barrier, but she eventually learned enough Italian and English to comprehend simple commands and concepts. She worked there as a housekeeper for several months before she heard the call once more. Throughout this time, Josef was doing his best to find reports of a missing Japanese woman, but to no avail. He looked after her for several months, never mistreating her, and doing his best to equip her with the basic vocabulary and education she needed, though with so little time, very little progress was made, and she was still essentially mute. When she communicated that she had to go, he let her without complaint, though he never stopped wondering where exactly she went, this woman who seemed to come from nowhere, who didn't even seem to be from our world.

....

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