The wind smelled of salt and sorrow the day Elias first saw her. She was standing at the edge of the cliffs, the ocean crashing beneath her feet, her hair catching the light like fire in a storm. Her name was Isolde, a singer whose voice was said to tame the sea itself.
Elias was a shipwright, a man of wood and silence, building vessels that carried others far away while his own life stayed tethered to the shore. He was not meant to fall in love with her. She was promised to a wealthy noble whose ships Elias had once repaired, a man who saw her voice as a trophy, not a gift.
But love has no regard for promises.
Night after night, Elias would sneak away to the cliffs where Isolde sang. Her voice wrapped around him like a prayer, softening the loneliness that had always weighed heavy on his chest. One night, as the moon poured silver into the waves, she stopped singing and whispered:
"If you stay here, listening forever, you’ll drown before you even touch the sea."
"Then let me drown," Elias answered.
From that night, they became inseparable. They met in stolen hours, under the cover of storms, in empty chapels, beneath ships half-built and hidden from the world. Their love was fierce, fragile, and entirely forbidden.
But the noble discovered them.
He sent Elias away on a doomed voyage, ordering him to build and board a ship meant to fail. When Isolde heard of it, she defied everything, her name, her promise, her safety and fled to the harbor. Rain tore through the sky as she called for Elias, her voice breaking against the storm.
The ship was already at sea.
Elias, clinging to the wheel as the vessel splintered under merciless waves, thought of her not of death, not of fear, only her. In his final moment, he swore he heard her singing through the storm, as though her voice were the only thing keeping him from sinking into nothingness.
When word of the wreck reached the shore, Isolde walked to the cliffs where they first met. She sang one last song, a melody so haunting that even the sea grew still. And then, with a final step, she vanished into the depths, chasing the man she loved where no promise could keep them apart.
To this day, fishermen whisper that when storms rage near those cliffs, you can hear a voice rising from the waves, not a cry for help, but a love song unfinished, echoing through eternity.
