Few in town agreed on when the feud began. The fishmongers believed it began the morning of the Birthing Feast honoring their first born daughters, when Oona purchased the mongers' entire supply of Beluga caviar knowing full well her sister Caro would be relegated to the scraps for her daughter’s special day; serving white fish to her guests? Oh, the shame. The fortune teller, backed by her crystal globe, swore it began the day five-year-old Caro fell from her mother’s lap into the sea. Found two hours later, smiling with a pearl clutched in her tiny fist and floating atop a clump of seaweed, her return was deemed a miracle. Townsfolk whispered that perhaps Caro’s father was a Selkie for why else would the sea return the babe but Oona would sulkily point out that Caro couldn’t possibly have a Selkie father for that would mean Oona had one too--they were twins, weren’t they? This is where the midwife stepped in. The feud began with their birth, she stated. Tearing out of the womb, arms wrapped around necks, so entwined the midwife could not determine who was born first. No matter how loudly the townsfolk gossiped and speculated, the answer remained a mystery—and maybe the two women preferred it that way. Caro said little but smiled much, and Oona offered such conflicting explanations that the townsfolk sometimes wondered if the sisterly feud was a...performance?

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