The Tears of Zin

This is a story about human perseverance in the midst of disaster. Such disasters often come with a human face, and sometimes come as an act of God. Both of these are imagined in this tale. We all know some of the cruelties that people and rulers can inflict on those around them. How have we reacted, or would react, under such pressure? We're also familiar with some of the great flood stories of human mythology. How would we react if we were born into such a time? This story asks if we are truly alone when disaster strikes, or is there help to be found in the love and comradeship of others? It also asks us if God (or the gods) are in the eye of our chaos? Here is a story that combines the three greatest flood myths of ancient times - Atlantis, Noah and the Gilgamesh epic. Welcome to The Tears of Zin.

A character is approached by a boy who has had a dream -
He approached shyly, with a deeply serious expression, and grabbed the scone from my offered hand without the slightest thanks.
“Are you a fish?” he asked between mouthfuls.
“Excuse me?” I choked in surprise.
“A fish. Are you a fish?” he insisted.
“No. Of course not! Why do you ask?” I questioned him.
“I saw you come out of the sea and take off your fish skin and leave it on the beach,” he said, without blinking.
“You obviously have a good imagination,” I replied. “I just came ashore from a ship. I have no fish skin – just this.” I showed him my pale arm. He thought I was offering him the tart I was just about to eat. He took it.
“I saw you last night in a dream,” he went on, between mouthfuls. “You swam to the shore as a fish, stepped out of your fish skin and walked inland. The goddess Sheah greeted you, but you ignored her and carried on walking. Sheah was angry and started banging on an anvil to call up her nymphs. But before they could catch up with you the Emperor arrived and scattered them with his many soldiers. He found your fish skin, chopped it up with his sword, then threw the pieces into a huge fire on the beach. The flames reached the sky and went so high that they scorched the face of Zin. She cried with the pain and her tears splashed into the sea. Then the sea god, Dargon, took the tears and gathered them into a wave so big that no-one could see Zin or the sky anymore. The wave swept over the beach, the fire, the Emperor and his soldiers, and went on; following you inland, drowning everyone in its path. It was you, definitely you, that I saw,” he finished emphatically. What does it mean?
Later the dream seems to be becoming partially true -
I feel strange thinking about it. I can’t take it all in: This outrage of murders and human sacrifices: This rule of fear set in motion by the emperor and our new masters. I keep waking up hoping it was all a bad dream. But then I look around and here we are bobbing on an ocean which seems to have covered Allantia and all the other lands we have known. These lands will never be the same again, and maybe that’s a good thing, and maybe it’s not. I think I want this time to be a time of new beginnings. I think Asha and I would like to be married.”
The ship's captain isn't happy -
“Here we are with no land to shelter us from the whim of every sea that Dargon chooses to throw at us,” he ranted. “Do you imagine we have a future just because of your daft dreams? No! I tell you: It’s simply a matter of time before disaster strikes. We have no future at all in this world of the living. The gods have decided to make an end of all humanity and they are merely playing with us here on the Sphenx: You’ll see! They’re dangling hope, but waiting to see how long it is before we go mad. They’re dangling hope, but then dashing storms and waves at us until we rant and scream and laugh hysterically and jump into Dargon’s embrace because we simply can’t bear it anymore. Leave me alone, Fools!” So they left him in his darkness and asked Foecrif and Grivo instead.