History Literature / MermaidsSong

* PsychicLink: When [[spoiler:the Seadragon goes on a rampage]], Elan completely opens her mind to his in order to calm him down. From then on, the two can feel each other's emotions. The Seadragon's sorrow and despair is so strong that Elan almost loses the will to live, while Tia tells her that the link with her mind is the only way the Seadragon can feel any peace.

* DeathByChildbirth: Elan's adopted mother, the mogmaid Maadu is a few days away from giving birth, so Elan searches for effron, a rare plant that can help a maid survive childbirth. But when she arrives at the caverns with the effron, Maadu's biological daughter Tsui thinks it's some Merra poison, rips it up, and scatters it on the currents. Elan can't find more before Maadu goes into labor. She and her child both die.

* ChildByRape: Kagor was conceived when the cruel Ghrismog Groff raped the Merra Tia as punishment for not obeying him. When he learned she was pregnant, he had her imprisoned so she couldn't go to a healer for an abortion. Shortly before Kagor's birth, Tia escaped and fled into the open ocean to raise him in peace. Groff tracked her down almost three years later and kidnapped Kagor to raise as his son, but it soon became apparent that Kagor had no feeling for anyone, and grew into a remorseless hunter who takes great delight in watching the sharks he controls rip his victims to shreds. Groff wonders if the violence of his conception and Tia's hatred for Groff caused him to turn out that way.

* ChildByRape: Kagor was conceived when the cruel Ghrismog Groff raped the Merra Tia as punishment for not obeying him. When he learned she was pregnant, he had her imprisoned so she couldn't go to a healer for an abortion. Shortly before Kagor's birth, Tia escaped and fled into the open ocean to raise him in peace. Groff tracked her down three years later and kidnapped Kagor to raise as his son, but it soon became apparent that Kagor had no feeling for anyone, and grew into a remorseless hunter who takes great delight in watching the sharks he controls rip his victims to shreds. Groff wonders if the violence of his conception and Tia's hatred for Groff caused him to turn out that way.

* ChildByRape: Kagor was conceived when the cruel Ghrismog Groff raped the Merra Tia as punishment for not obeying him. When he learned she was pregnant, he had her imprisoned so she couldn't go to a healer to lose it. Shortly before Kagor's birth, Tia escaped and fled into the open ocean to raise him in peace. Groff tracked her down three years later and kidnapped Kagor to raise as his son, but it soon became apparent that Kagor had no feeling for anyone, and grew into a remorseless hunter who takes great delight in watching the sharks he controls rip his victims to shreds. Groff wonders if the violence of his conception and Tia's hatred for Groff caused him to turn out that way.

* BottomlessPits: The last trial in the Choosing requires maids to swim into a pit that leads to a series of caverns that are so far down that the pressure makes it hard to breathe and threatens to crush their ears. Maids with Merra ancestry can hear voices in the pit, telling them to swim down to their deaths. A few Merramogs (people with Merra and Ghrismog ancestry) succumb to the voices. Elan has organized a group of Merras to sing at the exit hole, and follows their voices to safety.

* NuclearMutants: After the Seadragon reaches his DespairEventHorizon, Elan finds him curled up around a wrecked submarine full of radioactive materials, inhabited by creatures including crabs with too many legs, fish with eyes in the wrong places, and an eel with two heads.

* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: After [[spoiler:the Seadragon goes berserk and kills scores of merfolk]], several characters feel the resulting upset in the Balance from miles away.

* BottomlessPits: The second test in the Choosing requires maids to swim into a pit that leads to a series of caverns that are so far down that the pressure makes it hard to breathe and threatens to crush their ears. Maids with Merra ancestry can hear voices in the pit, telling them to swim down to their deaths. A few Merramogs (people with Merra and Ghrismog ancestry) succumb to the voices. Elan has organized a group of Merras to sing at the exit hole, and follows their voices to safety.

* SynchronizedSwarming: The first test in the Choosing requires the mermaids to control schools of lightfish and get them to swim in certain ways. Kili, Elan's rival, has her fish form a mantle around her. Elan, however, wins the competition with her fish's complex, constantly changing patterns, and is so good at it that as less skilled maids lose control of their fish, they join Elan's school.

* BottomlessPits: The second test in the Choosing requires maids to swim into a pit that leads to a series of caverns that are so far down that the pressure makes it hard to breathe and threatens to crush their ears. Maids with Merra ancestry can hear voices in the pit, telling them to swim down to their deaths. A few Merramogs (people with Merra and Ghrismog ancestry) succumb to the voices. Elan has organized a group of Merra to sing at the exit hole, and follows their voices to safety.

* EyeScream: While fighting with Kagor and his sharks, Elan digs one shark's eyes out with her thumbs.

* FantasticRacism: There are two main races of merfolk - Ghrismogs and Merras. Ghrismogs have duller coloring, and are more practical-minded than the artistic Merras. Centuries the two races lived in harmony, until another race called the Olaki arrived, plotting to take over the Caverns because of the abundance of food in the region. The Ghrismogs saw the danger, but the Merras [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil had no conception of greed]], and continued to trust the Olaki until it was too late. The Olaki massacred most of the Merras and enslaved the Ghrismogs, subjecting the males to CripplingCastration so that for a generation, all Ghrismog children were half-Olaki. Eventually the Ghrismogs rebelled and overthrew the Olaki, but ever since then, the Ghrismogs have hated the Merras and blamed them for the Olaki invasion. Merras are so mistreated that although once all Betweens were Merras, social pressures have prevented them from participating in a Choosing ever since.