00:00My sister chose the lionfish fae. She left the whale shifter, the one nobody wanted for me.
00:06It was fate, a drift born for a beast. Instead, I saved a shark lord by accident. He took me
00:14as
00:15his queen. After the bonding, I bore five heirs for the shark bloodline, a clan that had gone
00:21generations without children. I became a legend across the deep realm. My sister, bonded to the
00:27lionfish fae, was cast out for barrenness. I came home with my youngest. My sister poisoned my bowl,
00:34me and my child, both. And I woke. It was the day of the right again. Everyone present is a
00:41worthy son
00:42of their bloodline. Choose freely. The hall filled with glances, with offered flowers, with quiet
00:48negotiations between bodies and bloodlines. I didn't want any of it. In my last life, childbirth had
00:55nearly killed me. I wasn't doing it again. I stood alone. Then the doors blew open. He arrived in a
01:03surge of volcanic current. A shark lord in his full power. And he had his arm around my sister's waist.
01:11Thessaly saved my life. From this day forward, she is my true mate. A shark lord choosing one of ours.
01:17Choosing her as first and only. It hadn't happened in living memory. I knew then. She'd been reborn too.
01:25Now I looked at her. Draped against the shark lord. Already victorious. She thought she'd won.
01:31She hadn't thought through what it would cost her. Shark lords are of the volcanic current element.
01:37Their mates sleep in volcanic current. Bathe in volcanic current. Eat volcanic current food.
01:43For a bloodline like ours. Deep current by nature. That's not a marriage. It's a slow execution.
01:50Last time I had no choice but to pretend to like it. Every day. I smiled through the sacred thermal
01:55vent
01:55walks. Through the scalding baths. Through the meals that felt like swallowing coals. By the time I was
02:01pregnant, my core was already cracked. The children drew what was left. Thessaly was deep current too.
02:08She just didn't know what she'd agreed to yet. The whole keep celebrated. Every unmated girl in the
02:15order delayed her own bonding to help prepare Thessaly's. The gift list ran ten feet long.
02:21The high warden nearly emptied the sanctuary's vaults. I was the only unmated woman left.
02:27That made me the obvious choice for handmaid. Thessaly stood over me and smiled.
02:33Before you were the elder, I deferred to you. How does this feel, sister?
02:37I said nothing. She stepped forward and struck my face. The high warden has already agreed.
02:42You belong to me now. I'll hit you when I want. Praise you when I want. You have no say.
02:48Start
02:49learning. A courier arrived from the shark lord. A volcanic silk mantle. Vita's seafoam. Heat resistant.
02:56Enchanted for speed. Thessaly touched it with both hands. I knew that mantle. For volcanic current
03:03bloodlines, it was a treasure. For deep current bloodlines, it was a punishment. I'd worn it
03:09every day of my first marriage. It had carved away at my core for years. Thessaly would find that
03:15out eventually. Then a girl came swimming fast. Volcanic current damage on the sacred reef. What an awful
03:21omen. Today of all days. I didn't wait. I swam. The sacred reef was burning hard when I arrived.
03:30Black clouds of silt screaming from inside the coral line. The covenant warden stood at the edge and
03:36wouldn't know. That volcanic current belongs to a shark lord. We interfere. We offend. One of them said.
03:42Your sister's bonding is today. Don't make trouble. They're only low rank folilius. I looked at him
03:48for a long moment. Then I went in. The silt blinded me fast. The thermal current scorched my scales.
03:56But I was deep current. Wherever I moved, cold spread behind me. It slowed the thermal currents enough
04:01to matter. I remembered what my foster mother taught me. Clear a line. Deny the thermal current somewhere to go.
04:08I tide shifted to full form and called out. Shark. Manta ray. Swordfish. Sea turp. They came.
04:15They carried cold hardened vessels in their jaws. A whale used its mouth. Sea urchins and mantis shrimp
04:21worked the thermal breaks. We were losing. Then we worked. Then the reef shook. The seabed split open.
04:29A sea serpent came out at black. Ancient large enough to block the light from above. He opened
04:35his mouth and cold water poured. The thermal current died. The sea serpent's voice didn't come from one
04:42direction. This reef is mine. Who damaged it? The covenant wardens said nothing. A thousand
04:51tidal cycles in this valley. And nobody had thought to check whether something older already lived here.
04:56Then Thessaly pointed at me. Look at her. Ash everywhere. Burned scales. It had to be her.
05:03Every eye turned. I was standing there with my hands at my sides. Charred. Bleeding in two places.
05:09The same hands that had just spent an hour fighting the thermal current. I was certain someone would say
05:15it. Any of them. They'd all seen me swim in. The covenant warden looked at me for a long time.
05:20Then he bowed. The sea rank and sovereign. Our wayward daughter did this. She is yours to punish.
05:27We offer her freely. I stood still. Not one of them spoke for me. I had bent myself in half
05:33for
05:33these people in my last life. I had scalded from volcanic current. From the inside out. Carrying
05:41children for a clan that wasn't mine. For a man who never once made me warm. I'd done it for
05:48them.
05:48Kept them safe. Kept them proud. And now. They were handing me to a sea serpent. Just to buy
05:55themselves quiet. I looked at the covenant warden. The volcanic current was shark made.
06:01Everyone here knows that. I'm deep current. How would I produce sacred thermal current?
06:07Thessaly cut in immediately.
06:09You're my handmaid. You had access to my husband's tide brands. Easy enough to steal a spark.
06:14Sea serpent sovereign. The evidence speaks for itself. She damaged your sacred reef.
06:19I held up my hands. The skin had peeled back in places. If I started it, why did I try
06:25to
06:25stop it? To look innocent. I laughed. It came out wrong. Too much feeling in it. What do I have
06:36to gain? Any of it? What exactly do you think I wanted? The covenant warden stood.
06:43Sylvain. Just admit it. That was my name. Sylvain. I looked at him for a long moment.
06:50I'm done with this covenant. All of it. Every debt between us is settled.
06:55The sea serpent spoke again. Quieter this time. Enough. The girl comes with me. Whatever she is to
07:02you, she isn't anymore. The darkness rolled toward me. I closed my eyes. When I opened them,
07:09I was somewhere else. Bioluminescent light. Stone. A ceiling so high, I couldn't see the end of it.
07:16He was in surface form. Black robes edged in silver. He sat like someone who had never once
07:21needed anything from anyone. He was watching me with something almost like amusement.
07:28Go ahead. He said. Say what you want to say. I straightened. You knew. You knew the whole time
07:35what happened. Why play along with them? Because you needed a reason to leave. He tilted his head.
07:42And the abysmal palace considerably more comfortable than a tide pool. I thought you might prefer it.
07:48I thought about what he'd said. In my last life, he had sent me a tear pearl during my labor.
07:55He
07:55hadn't explained why then either. Only later did I understand. The wreath was his. I had defended it.
08:02He remembered. I knelt. Thank you, my lord. I'll serve faithfully. Don't do it again. Do what?
08:11Throw yourself at people who aren't worth it. He stood. Get dressed. We're going to watch the
08:16bonding ceremony. He handed me a gown. Black. Covered with shimmering scales. I put it on and stood
08:24beside him. And we looked like we matched. I felt my face go warm without meaning to.
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