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She Stole My Curse (Full Movie) - #Fullmovie #EnglishSub #Up Short Channel
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00:00My sister poisoned all ten of my children then she pushed me into a deep rift current tear
00:04I died in the dark water below and I woke up on the morning of the tide bond ray staring
00:08at the same sky
00:09Breathing the same cold water. I lay still for a moment. Let it settle. We'd arrived on the abyssal realm
00:14together
00:14My sister Sela and I two women dropped into a world that ran on tide power and blood wake
00:20The clan chief had lined up every unmated male in the coral. We were supposed to choose. In last life,
00:25Sela told me to take the lionfish
00:27Lionfish lay soft eggs easier than giving birth
00:31She smiled like she was doing me a favor
00:33She took the great white shark the only a rank male what she didn't tell me was that she already
00:38knew lionfish eggs hatched in large clutches I
00:42chose coal I
00:44Got pregnant fast one clutch ten hatchlings all a rank in a coral clan that had seen maybe five a
00:50ranks in a hundred years
00:51That was enough to make coal the next clan chief and turn me into something the coral elders called
00:56Abyss chosen Sela got one B rank from the great white shark then another then three more nothing better
01:02She couldn't accept it. She crept into coal's reef den
01:06He threw her out in front of the whole coral clan the great white shark ended their bond and drove
01:11her and her children into the dead current in
01:13Less than a month all five of her offspring starved. I was the one who took her back in I
01:17gave her food
01:18I gave her warmth she killed my ten hatchlings one by one and then she pushed me into a deep
01:22rift current tear
01:23I still remember weightlessness
01:26So this time I was not choosing coal the tide bond right was already moving clan chief stood at the
01:32front arms folded
01:33Watching the males line up. Sela was beside me her shoulder. Just barely touching mine
01:38I felt the exact moment. She decided to leave a small shift in her weight a breath
01:42She didn't finish she crossed the water toward coal like she'd rehearsed it pressed herself against his arm tipped her
01:48face up to the clan chief
01:49She looked back at me clan chief that smile. I choose coal
01:54I looked at coal cold current blood no warmth in the dry tide three months of tide sleep every year
02:00Leaving whatever female he'd chosen to manage the reef den alone in the collapsing food chain
02:05No hunting skills without the coral clan around him. He couldn't even feed himself
02:08She thought she'd taken the prize. She didn't know what she would pay
02:12I turned and looked at what was left a B rank whale merfolk
02:15Two C rank sea turtle merfolk near the back a manta ray merfolk who had been watching me since I
02:20swam in brow creased
02:22Expression difficult to read. I started toward him the crowd shifted. I thought about my ten hatchlings quiet good
02:28Never any trouble a rank every one of them and felt something cold and settled move through the grief
02:33Not this time. I was about to open my mouth a palm hit my face so hard. I fit my
02:38cheek
02:40The female in front of me was bonded to the coral clans tiger shark merfolk
02:44She was shaking in her hand was a white jellyfish tentacle filament that she said she'd found in her mate's
02:49reef den
02:49Her tide shifted form was a white jellyfish
02:52The crowd turned one voice at the back
02:56Then three more. I looked past her shoulder and found sila near the middle of the crowd
03:00She'd practiced that expression. I was certain of it last life. She hadn't needed it last life
03:04I hadn't stood in her way. Oh lyra. I didn't want to say anything
03:09But I did see you swimming with leo that night
03:12One sentence every door in the room closed at once the manta ray merfolk stepped back
03:16The clan chief's eyes were already on me. I tide shifted on the spot white jellyfish clean tentacles full circle
03:22every angle nothing hidden
03:23The crowd went quiet. I shifted back
03:27No damaged tentacles that filament isn't mine a damaged tentacle root scar on my inner thigh small deliberate
03:33Someone in the crowd saw it. That was enough. I had spent this entire second life thinking I understood what
03:38sila was capable of
03:39I had underestimated her
03:42I looked at sila one last time. She was holding back a smile. I turned and swam
03:46No argument no appeal no tears. I swam through it with my back straight and I didn't stop until I
03:52was outside
03:53Sila came to see me off like a female who had already won. Don't worry lyra. There are powerful males
03:59out there
03:59Maybe you'll find the right one. Thanks for the encouragement. Cole has a lot of stamina
04:04Lionfish nature is what it is once or twice a day is just recreation for him. I watched the warmth
04:09leave her face
04:09You should build up your strength wouldn't want to disappoint him
04:12I turned and swam didn't look back
04:15The coral clans current line was a boundary of cold and warm
04:18I crossed it without slowing the dead current ahead was dark and unmapped and the water was cold
04:23She thought she'd won. She hadn't thought about the dry tide. Cole would enter tide sleep three months, maybe more
04:29She'd be alone in the reef den. No warmth. No provider. No idea how to feed herself when the food
04:34chain collapsed
04:34She'd spent her whole life letting other people manage the hard parts
04:37She had no idea what she'd actually chosen. I had swum this path before last life
04:41I swam it in greek with nothing to my name except a tide healer's knowledge
04:45I'd spent years building this life
04:46I knew where it ended at the far end of it
04:48There was a rift something inside that the coral clan had never seen and wouldn't know how to measure
04:53Something that had been alone so long it had forgotten what trust felt like
04:56He'd been close to dead when I found him. I was the one who pulled him back
05:01I didn't make it far before I heard it behind me heavy stroke low and deliberate closing fast
05:06A tide shifted without thinking dropped into jellyfish form and fled the water rushed past and the dead current blurred
05:11at the edges of my vision
05:13Behind me the blue shark merfolk wasn't bothering to be quiet
05:16He knew what a lone female outside clan borders meant. He knew how it ended
05:20I fled until I saw the rock face a narrow opening in the coral dark inside barely wide enough to
05:25turn sideways and fit through
05:27I went in behind me the blue shark merfolk stopped. He circled the entrance twice his strokes slowed then stopped
05:33entirely
05:33He cursed once low and ugly and I heard him leave
05:37I didn't understand why I shifted back and stood still breathing hard
05:41The rift went deeper than I'd expected the water inside was stale and cold and underneath that something else
05:47Rot and infection and the dense animal scent of something very large. I took one more step into the dark
05:53Something in the black moved. I stopped my heart was loud in my ears. The smell hit me harder now
05:58Animal enormous close whatever was in here the blue shark merfolk had known
06:03Whatever was in here had made a predator who hunted lone females turn around without a sound and swim away
06:09I stood in the dark and didn't move. I already knew what was in there last life
06:13It was the same rift
06:14The same darkness the same smell. I took one more step forward
06:19The sound that came out of the dark was not a roar
06:22It was bigger than that it hit me in the chest before it reached my ears a pressure through the
06:27water through my ribs
06:28And for one full second my body simply stopped every instinct told me to turn around my feet didn't move
06:35the dark shifted
06:36And then I saw it white enormous his fin crest caught the faint
06:40Bioluminescent light from the rift entrance and held it his mouth was open wide enough to swallow my head
06:45The sound still rolling out of him bounced off every wall and came back from all directions at once
06:51He hadn't moved
06:53I stood where I was and looked at him the roar faded the rift went silent
06:57He still hadn't moved
06:58I had heard roars before the great white shark merfolk in the coral clan the whale males during mating season
07:04Those roars said I am here I am dangerous come closer and find out
07:08This was different this roar said go away
07:10I looked at his tail fin even in the dark I could see it the flesh was wrong
07:14Swollen and dark pale patches crawling through the wounds the torn fin crest was infected at its root
07:20He had been lying here a long time too long to hunt too long to do much of anything except
07:24wait
07:24He opened his mouth and he sounded at me again
07:27I took one step toward him the roaring stopped gold eyes in the dark very still watching me cross the
07:33distance between us one step at a time
07:35I didn't stop swimming
07:37I turned and fled again
07:39I made it two strokes before I noticed something strange the sea dragon was roaring but he wasn't moving
07:45He hadn't even shifted it felt like he was just trying to scare me off then I smelled it rot
07:52an infection
07:53I looked closer and saw the flesh of his tail fin the wounds were deep and crawling with white the
07:58fin crest was torn at the root
08:00I stopped I turned around
08:02Hey, you're hurt. I know deep sea medicine. Will you let me stay?
08:07The sea dragon looked at me for a moment then he slowly unfolded his injured tail fin toward me
08:12The wounds were bad
08:14I gagged and got to work anyway opened my pack and found the wound powder before I'd arrived here
08:19I'd studied tide healing and coral toxins once I was in the coral clan that knowledge had made me the
08:24settlements tide healer
08:25I'd treated half the coral clan at one point or another
08:28Not one of them had spoken up for me today
08:30The bitterness sat heavy in my chest as I worked when I finished the sea dragon's aggression faded
08:35He nudged his head against my sleeve a thank you then his stomach growled twice
08:39He'd been injured too long to hunt. He was starving. I'll go find food
08:44Wait here
08:45I turned to go
08:48His tail curled around my ankle and pulled me back
08:51Then he exhaled a low temperature deep current that enveloped me entirely the dragon current mark
08:56His power on my skin would keep most predators back instinctively
09:00I thought of the blue shark merfolk from earlier this sea dragon's rank had to be extraordinary
09:04That was the only explanation for that kind of deterrent effect
09:07I didn't go far
09:08I stayed close to the rift and gathered what I could find small crustaceans some edible reef plants
09:13By the time I got back the bioluminescence had dimmed to night cycle
09:16No fire needed
09:17The sea dragon's body put out a constant gentle warmth that filled the rift
09:21I stayed
09:21During the day I changed his bandages foraged for water and food
09:25At night he curled around me in dragon form
09:27His body warmth wrapping me like a second skin
09:29And we slept together
09:30Half a month passed
09:31Then one day I came back to the rift and stopped dead
09:34A man lay where the sea dragon had been
09:36You're back
09:38White hair, gold eyes
09:40You're the sea dragon?
09:43My name is Vayne
09:45With the wounds healed, Vayne could swim
09:47He couldn't do anything strenuous yet
09:48But the first time we went out together
09:50He showed me what he was made of
09:51A deep sea giant crab
09:53Under a minute
09:54He seared it with a short burst of breath
09:56And it was done
09:57That night I ate real food for the first time in weeks
10:00Crab shell crackling
10:01Fat hissing and popping from the dragon breath heat
10:04I ate until my face was greasy
10:05And asked Vayne whether he was A rank
10:07Are you A rank?
10:09No, I don't have a rank
10:11I stared at him
10:12Every male merfolk had a rank
10:13But the tide power I'd seen from him
10:15Was beyond anything the great white shark merfolk
10:17In the coral clan could manage
10:19But your tide power
10:21Vayne shook his head
10:22No rank, never had one
10:24That was why his own clan had driven him out
10:26They'd called him a monster
10:27Abandoned him as a hatchling in the dead current
10:30The memory clearly cost him something
10:32His eyes went distant and sad
10:33Born without a clan
10:35Whatever had made him this strong
10:36He'd earned it alone
10:37The hard way
10:38It doesn't matter
10:39You have me now
10:40We're friends
10:41Vayne went red
10:44Another month passed
10:45Vayne healed completely
10:46The dry tide was coming
10:47We started going out early and coming back late to stock up
10:50He hunted
10:50I gathered deep sea medicines and reef plants
10:52We came back full every time
10:54I thought maybe it would just stay like this
10:55Then Vayne's heat cycle hit
10:57I woke up one morning to find his body burning
10:59Don't leave the rift for a few days
11:01I have to go somewhere
11:02I have to go somewhere
11:04Then he took two strokes and his body gave out
11:06When he went down, I saw everything
11:07I understood immediately
11:08Every merfolk had a regular heat cycle
11:10When it hit, instinct won over reason
11:12He'd already pushed himself past his limit
11:14Don't be scared
11:15I won't touch you
11:16I'll handle it myself
11:17He was fighting his own body
11:19His neck was corded with strain
11:20The sounds coming from his throat were low and desperate
11:23I watched him
11:23My chest ached
11:24Vayne, do you not want me?
11:27How could you even ask that?
11:32When his hands came up to hold me
11:34I was scared
11:34What coal had put me through had left its marks
11:36He was always rough
11:37There was no pleasure in it
11:39Only something close to endurance
11:40Vayne was stronger than coal by a wide margin
11:42I braced myself
11:44But there was no pain
11:45Vayne was gentle in a way I hadn't known was possible
11:47Like his fin pressed against still water
11:49Light enough that I felt like I was floating
11:51I lost track of time
11:52When I finally noticed the world again
11:54The dry tide currents had shifted outside the rift
11:57That dry tide
11:57I was warm
11:58Vayne kept the rift heated with his body warmth
12:00When the cold currents pressed in
12:02He curled tighter
12:03At night he wrapped me in his warmth
12:05His dragon form pulled around me like a second snake
12:07After that first time
12:08He became a little enthusiastic
12:10Eye contact
12:11Next thing I knew
12:12I was against the rift wall
12:13Not that I minded
12:14He was good at it
12:15I never once wanted to pull away
12:16With that kind of frequency and no precautions
12:18It wasn't long before I noticed something different about my body
12:22I pressed two fingers to my wrist and checked my pulse
12:24Pregnant
12:26When I told Vayne he went still
12:28Really?
12:30You're really carrying my hatchling?
12:32He lifted me straight off the seabed
12:34We were both laughing
12:35After that he treated me like I was made of sea glass
12:38He was at my side constantly
12:39He insisted on doing everything himself
12:41Lying in the warmth of his arms
12:43I thought again about last time
12:44Coal was a cold current blood type merfolk
12:46In the dry tide he gave off no heat at all
12:49And he entered tide sleep
12:50While other males made sure their females were fed through the season
12:53I was out in the dead current alone
12:54Trying to find something edible
12:56My tide healing skills kept me fed
12:58Barely
12:58The merfolk I treated gave me scraps
13:00But after the ten lionfish hatchlings were born
13:02Scraps weren't enough
13:04Coal entered tide sleep
13:05He could survive on stored energy
13:07The hatchlings were too young
13:08They needed real food
13:09Constantly
13:10I foraged alone
13:11A white jellyfish
13:12Small
13:13And not built for hunting in the dry tide
13:15Who didn't dare go far
13:16I brought back small crustaceans
13:17I brought back dried reef algae
13:19The hatchlings were good
13:20All ten of them
13:21A rank
13:21And not one of them ever picked a fight or made trouble
13:24They helped with the reef den work
13:25Thinking about them my throat closed
13:27I'd failed them
13:28I hadn't kept them safe
13:30Lyra
13:31What's wrong?
13:32I wiped the corner of my eye
13:33Just homesick
13:34He went quiet
13:35Is being with me not enough?
13:37No
13:37That's not it
13:38Being with you is the best thing there is
13:40I changed the subject
13:41I'd assumed I'd never see my sister again
13:43She showed up at our rift that same night
13:46Vane heard the sounds
13:47He went to check
13:48Please don't kill me
13:49Seadragon please
13:50I came out to find my sister in the water outside the rift entrance
13:53I looked at her in the dark
13:54Lyra?
13:55Why are you here?
13:56You know her?
13:57Never seen her before
13:58Vane's intent sharpened immediately
13:59Lyra!
14:00My sister screamed
14:01Don't let him kill me
14:02I came all this way to save you
14:05Sis!
14:06That word
14:06Sis
14:07It stopped Vane cold
14:09He pulled back
14:10Is there a misunderstanding Lila?
14:13I sighed
14:14I swam over to my sister
14:16What do you want?
14:17She put on her most conciliatory face
14:19I talked to the clan chief
14:20He said you can come back
14:22I didn't move
14:24She pushed harder
14:25And Lyra the coral clan is in trouble
14:27Two settlements are about to go to war in a current war
14:30This whole area is going to become a battlefield
14:32You two aren't aligned with either side
14:34You'll get caught in the middle
14:35Hearing my sister's warning I remembered
14:37There had been a current war
14:38Last time
14:39But last time
14:40The war had ended because of my ten lionfish hatchlings hatching
14:43Ten A rank merfolk born at once
14:46The opposing clan
14:47The Muro
14:47Had taken one look
14:49And surrendered on the spot
14:50He was the one who declared me abyss chosen
14:53Said I carried a rare destiny
14:54That I had been sent to the coral clan
14:56As a gift from the abyss god
14:58But I had no interest in my sister's advice
15:00Vane and I had built something real out here
15:02There was no reason to go back
15:04I told her no
15:05No
15:07She looked straight at my stomach
15:09Lyra
15:10You're pregnant aren't you
15:11Even if you don't care about yourself
15:13Think about the child
15:14You two can live free out here for now
15:17But what about later
15:18What about your hatchling
15:19Do you really want to raise a child with no clan behind them
15:22That landed
15:23This world was brutal
15:24Vane as strong as he was had nearly died alone and raped
15:28What would happen when our child was born
15:29And the dead current was full of things that wanted to eat them
15:32I looked at Vane
15:33He seemed to read what I was thinking
15:35He came over and took my hand
15:36Lyra
15:38Let's go back
15:39After I told my sister yes
15:40She let out a long breath
15:42Then
15:43Is there anything to eat?
15:44She ate like she hadn't seen food in weeks
15:46Her stomach was enormous
15:47But her arms and fins were thin as coral sticks
15:50She'd had it rough
15:51Not hard to guess why
15:53Coral had almost certainly entered tide sleep by now
15:55My sister had never worked hard a day in her life
15:58Nothing short of starvation would have pushed her out here
16:00After the meal she lay down in the outer part of the rift to rest
16:03Vane folded me into his arms as usual
16:06My sister glanced over from across the rift
16:08The look on her face was pure envy
16:11In the middle of the night I got up
16:13I believe this life
16:15And she still gets to eat like that
16:18Bonded to some rankless creature
16:19And she still got nerve to look pleased with herself
16:22She rubbed her belly
16:23Come on little ones
16:24Come out fast
16:25I stood in the dark and let it wash over me
16:27Even now I couldn't fully understand where her hatred came from
16:30We were twins
16:32Before we'd ended up here
16:33Our parents died in an accident
16:35Left the two of us to figure out the world together
16:37I remembered what they'd always said
16:39You're the older one
16:40Take care of your sister
16:41So I did
16:42I gave way
16:43Every time on everything
16:45Whatever was best
16:46I let her have it
16:47Somewhere along the line
16:49She'd decided that was simply how things should be
16:51I was supposed to give her everything good
16:53I was supposed to be beneath her
16:55I wasn't allowed to have things she didn't have
16:57By the third day back in the coral clan
16:59I understood exactly why she'd worked so hard to bring me home
17:02Her due date was close
17:03She was terrified of dying on the birthing ground
17:05She needed me there
17:06I had gotten her through all three
17:07There was a second reason too
17:09She wanted me to watch
17:10She wanted me standing there when she produced
17:1220 A rank lionfish merfolk
17:14And climbed to the top of the coral clan
17:16She wanted to see my face
17:19Life back in the coral clan wasn't easy
17:21Even with Vayne beside me
17:22Plenty of females still looked at me with hostility
17:25They didn't want me near their mates
17:26So I stayed close to the reef den
17:27I was shut out
17:28My sister meanwhile
17:29Used her memories from last time to play prophet
17:31She predicted a few major clan events
17:33And a stretch of bad current accurately enough
17:35That the coral clan elevated her status considerably
17:38She told everyone she was the abyss chosen
17:40Sent by the abyss god
17:41Carrying 20 A rank merfolk
17:43The coral clan believed her completely
17:45Then the current war began
17:46Vayne was sent to the front
17:47Within days
17:48Every fighter in the coral clan
17:50Had noticed that his dragon tide power
17:52Exceeded that of the A rank
17:53Great white shark merfolk
17:55By a significant margin
17:56His raw strength was in a different category altogether
17:58This world ran on tide power
18:00Strength was everything
18:01And yet
18:02Because Vayne came out unranked
18:04The great white shark merfolk grew jealous
18:06He gathered the other males
18:07And turned on Vayne
18:08They sent him alone into a aura ambush
18:10When the others had what they needed
18:12From the distraction
18:13They swam
18:13Left him there
18:14I didn't find out
18:15Until Vayne came back with serious wounds
18:18I went straight
18:19It's fine, Lyra
18:20Vayne caught my arm
18:21Even with all of that
18:22They still couldn't touch me
18:23I came back in one piece, didn't I?
18:24I looked at the cuts across his body
18:26Vayne, I'm sorry
18:28I shouldn't have brought you back here
18:30This place isn't right for you
18:32Let's go home
18:33Back to the rift
18:34No
18:35He was suddenly urgent
18:36If we go back, you'll be homesick again
18:38We stay here
18:40As long as you and the hatchling are safe
18:42I don't care what they do to me
18:43Something cracked open in my chest
18:45I remembered what I'd said in the rift
18:47That I was homesick
18:48He'd been carrying that the entire time
18:50You were my home
18:51He thought I meant the coral clan
18:52Let's go
18:53Just the two of us
18:55I'd almost convinced him
18:58Lyra, get to your sister's reef den
19:00She's going into labor
19:02I heard the screaming before I reached the entrance
19:04I swam inside
19:05Blood in the water
19:06The same scene as the first time
19:07Last life
19:08When she'd had her first bad labor
19:09Back then it was the great white shark
19:11Murpholk's fault
19:11His build was large
19:12The offspring inherited the size
19:14The head got stuck
19:15But lionfish eggs were soft and small
19:16They should have come out easily
19:18I got my answer fast
19:19I helped her deliver 10 eggs
19:20Then I felt more inside
19:21I was reaching for the next one
19:23When my sister's body seized
19:27She's convossing
19:27Nobody here knew that word
19:29I shouted instructions
19:30They found a smooth piece of coral
19:31And pressed it between her teeth
19:32So she couldn't bite through her tongue
19:34I used the moment to pull the rest of the eggs out
19:36I counted 20 in total
19:37She passed out when it was done
19:39I mixed a tonic and got it down her throat
19:40If she makes it through tonight
19:42She'll live
19:42If she doesn't there's nothing more I can do
19:44I turned to leave
19:45Cole grabbed my wrist
19:47She's your sister
19:48You should stay and take care of her
19:50Even now
19:51Even with his female unconscious in the water
19:53From a dangerous labor
19:54He didn't want to sit with her through one night
19:57She's your mate
19:58Not mine
19:59I'm not responsible for her
20:02I've already done far more than she deserves
20:06I swam out of the reef den into open water
20:08And felt the exhaustion hit me all at once
20:11Thane was waiting outside
20:12My heart twisted
20:13What are you doing here?
20:14With wounds that bad you should be resting in the-
20:19He pulled me into his arms before I could finish
20:21His voice was rough
20:23Lyra
20:24We're not leaving
20:25I started to ask why
20:26Then I felt it
20:27Something warm and wet soaking into my shoulder
20:29I brought him back to our reef den
20:31Pushed him until he talked
20:32He cried harder
20:33Bane had been waiting outside my sister's reef den the entire time
20:36He'd heard everything
20:37He hadn't known that was what birth looked like
20:40He hadn't known it could be like that
20:41He was terrified
20:42If I went into labor out in the dead current
20:44And something went wrong
20:45There would be no one to help me
20:47I felt tears on my own face before I realized
20:49Bane not everyone has a labor like hers
20:52Maybe mine will be easy
20:54Then we're still not leaving
20:55His voice didn't waver
20:56Even if the chance is one in a hundred
20:58I won't let you suffer
21:02That experience left a mark on him
21:04He became quieter in the coral clan
21:06More careful
21:07He started sharing his hunt with others
21:08When someone treated him badly
21:09He let it go with a smile
21:11Bane who had always been free
21:12Doing all of that for me
21:13I was moved and I was sad
21:15And I didn't know what I'd done to deserve him
21:16My sister woke the next day
21:18Lionfish eggs take time to hatch
21:19She watched over them every day
21:21And brought half the coral clan in to look
21:22She told them all 20 were going to be A-Ring
21:25People thought she was eccentric
21:26But her earlier predictions had earned her enough credit
21:28That they believed her anyway
21:30Her status in the coral clan climbed higher
21:32The current war wrapped up faster than anyone expected
21:34Because of how hard Bane pushed on the front
21:36The Ura sent representatives to negotiate
21:38The Ura clan chief and their tide reader came in person
21:41The meeting had barely started when someone burst in
21:43Clan chief, get over to Cole's Reef Den
21:45The 20 eggs are hatching
21:47That was the end of any conversation about territory
21:49Even the Ura delegation had heard the story
21:51An abyss chosen in the opposing clan
21:5320 A-Rank lionfish were all in one clutch
21:56Everyone moved at once
21:57The Reef Den could barely hold the crowd
21:58The clan chief had to push his way in
22:00He arrived just as the first egg cracked open
22:02A small dark lionfish hatchling
22:04My sister picked it up with both hands
22:05And held it toward the clan chief
22:06Her voice was shaking with excitement
22:08Clan chief, tell me A-Rank, right?
22:14Not A-Rank, C-Rank
22:18The smile froze on my sister's face
22:20That's impossible!
22:22Clan chief, you must have looked wrong
22:23Please, look again!
22:25The clan chief had been sensing bioelectric tide patterns for 60 years
22:28He could read rank by sensing alone
22:29He looked again as a courtesy
22:32C-Rank, that's final
22:34My sister went blank
22:35The crowd started murmuring
22:37Wait, weren't they all supposed to be A-Rank?
22:3920 is a lot to ask for
22:41The coral clangs had maybe one A-Rank per generation
22:43Honestly, having a C in the mix is normal
22:45Maybe the rest are still coming
22:46My sister took the lifeline
22:48Exactly!
22:48This is only the first one
22:50I'm telling you, at least 10 of these 20 are A-Rank
22:52Just wait!
22:54As soon as she said it
22:55Three more eggs cracked
22:56Everyone leaned in
22:57All C-Rank
22:58She didn't flinch
22:59The best ones always hatch last
23:00Then five more
23:01One B-Rank came out
23:02That gave her a burst of confidence
23:04See?
23:05It's getting better the further we go
23:07But the crowd had stopped believing her
23:09The mood had shifted from anticipation to something else
23:12Everyone was watching the way you watch someone about to fall
23:14The last egg split open
23:16No A-Rank
23:17Not a single one
23:18One B
23:1810 C
23:19And several with no rank at all
23:21The clan chief glanced at those last few and said quietly that
23:24That they wouldn't last long
23:27My sister broke
23:30This isn't right!
23:32This can't be right!
23:34Someone tankered with my eggs!
23:36Someone swept them!
23:38This is sabotage!
23:40How exactly do you tamper with eggs?
23:41Cole is a B-Rank lionfish merwish
23:43What were you expecting?
23:44You predicted two days of bad current and now you think you're the actual abyss chosen?
23:51My sister had been insufferable since the coral clan elevated her
23:54People had been swallowing it for weeks
23:56One voice was enough
23:58Others followed
23:59Laughter and mockery rippled through the reef den
24:01She'd been treating lionfish eggs like prizes at a festival
24:04The coral clan had let her perform
24:06Now they wanted the ending
24:07Then my sister turned
24:08And found me in the crowd
24:09She crossed the reef den in four strokes and grabbed my arm
24:11You did this!
24:13You switched my eggs!
24:14You can't stand to see me win so you came in here and switched them!
24:17Give them back!
24:18I pulled free
24:18Stop!
24:19You accused me of swimming around last time
24:21Now you're accusing me of stealing your children
24:23I was not the only one in this reef den when you delivered
24:25Half the coral clan was here
24:27They all saw me
24:27Ask any one of them
24:28My sister's behavior over the past weeks had burned through whatever patients people had left
24:33She's right
24:34We were all watching
24:35Lyra didn't do anything
24:36And why would she steal your eggs?
24:38She's pregnant herself
24:39Why were damn stupid?
24:40One voice in another
24:41My sister's composure snapped completely
24:43Why does everyone take her side?
24:45Why does she always win?
24:48Just die already, Lyra!
24:54Vane tide shifted
24:55The sea dragon hit the seabed and pinned her in under a second
24:58He opened his mouth wide
24:59He didn't get the chance to follow through
25:01Someone behind me shouted
25:07The next moment I was off the seabed and in his arms
25:10Vane swam
25:10Through the whole labor he held my hand
25:12His brow was locked tight
25:13He kept telling me not to be scared
25:14Not to be scared
25:15His hand was shaking harder than mine
25:17But everything went smoothly
25:18Under two hours
25:19Two small white dragon hatchlings
25:21Pure white
25:22Fin crests not yet unfurled
25:23Emitting a low frequency resonance that shook the reef
25:26Look at them
25:27Strong little things could be A-grade
25:30Should we have the clan chief check?
25:31No
25:32I said it before I thought about it
25:33Vane and I had already talked about this
25:35Rank didn't matter
25:36As long as the hatchlings were healthy
25:37We didn't care
25:38Vane had been cast out of his birth clan
25:41Because of this exact thing
25:42I didn't want to put that weight back on him
25:44But I wasn't fast enough
25:45The clan chief had already come in
25:47The uratide reader was with him
25:49The clan chief took one of the hatchlings and looked it over
25:51He frowned
25:52This hatchling is strong
25:54But there's no rank showing
25:55I looked at Vane
25:56His expression was controlled
25:58But I saw the old fear underneath it
25:59It doesn't matter
26:01Are you blind?
26:02This is an S-rank shifter
26:05S-rank?
26:06An actual S-rank?
26:08I knew something was different about these hatchlings
26:10The moment I saw them
26:10And I helped deliver them
26:12Coral Clang has S-rank Murph in now
26:15Two of them
26:17The reef den erupted
26:19Vane and I stared at each other
26:20Neither of us had words for it
26:22The news spread through the floor
26:23Clang in the morning
26:24My sister shoved her way through the crack of the day
26:26She saw the two small white dragon hatchlings
26:29She saw the word S-rank moving from mouth to mouth
26:31Something in her cracked entirely
26:35This is a lie
26:36Lila, how are you getting S-rank hatchlings from him?
26:39He doesn't even have a rank
26:40You had to have cheated
26:42You swam with someone else
26:44The celebration in the reef den cooled slightly
26:46People looked at each other
26:47They'd forgotten
26:48Vane had no rank
26:49They started looking at me differently again
26:52Before a single voice could speak up against me
26:54The Ura Tide Reader stepped forward
26:56Vane has no rank?
26:58That's not possible
26:59He's an S-rank sea dragon
27:02The reason the Ura had agreed to surrender wasn't just exhaustion
27:05It was because they'd watched Vane in the ambush
27:09Dragon scale markings
27:11Tide Power wave
27:13Hatchling resonance cry
27:14Three confirmations from ancient records
27:17No clan with a fighter like that could be beaten
27:19That was the moment people understood
27:21They'd never seen a sea dragon before
27:22The clan chief had never seen one
27:24The Dragon Tide Power frequency channel didn't exist in merfolk biology at all
27:2860 years of reading ranks and the channel simply wasn't there
27:31He had no way to sense what wasn't in his range
27:33Vane had spent years thinking something was wrong with him
27:35It turned out the people who judged him simply hadn't known what they were looking at
27:39The Tide Reader turned to me next
27:40He studied my face for a long moment
27:43This female carries an uncommon fate
27:45If I'm reading this correctly she is the Abyss Chosen reborn
27:50That landed harder than the announcement about Vane
27:53A beat of silence
27:54Then the whole Reefdom dropped to their knees
27:56The Abyss Chosen is real
27:59The same scene as last time
28:00But last time people had been uncertain
28:02Only half convinced
28:03Now with three S-rank in the same space
28:05There wasn't a single person who doubted
28:07My sister could not process what was happening in front of her
28:10She started screaming at the crowd
28:11Have you all forgotten what she is?
28:13She cheated on her mate!
28:15She has no virtue!
28:18What kind of Abyss Chosen behaves like that?
28:20A reminder landed
28:21People shifted uncomfortably
28:22They remembered how I'd been driven out
28:24I made a turn
28:25I looked out into the crowd until I found the tiger shark merfolk
28:28Leo
28:29Are you still gonna stay quiet?
28:31He made his choice
28:32He admitted it
28:33My sister had approached him
28:34She had taken one of my shed jellyfish tentacle filaments
28:36Cut while I slept
28:37And offered him something in return
28:38For planting it in his reef den
28:40And backing her story in front of the coral clan
28:42What she'd offered was herself
28:44Cole's face went white
28:47Scylla
28:47You betrayed me
28:49No! Cole, please!
28:51Don't listen to them!
28:52I would never-
28:53He caught her in this line
28:55And dragged her into a deep current vortex
28:57A few days later
28:58Someone found what was left of my sister
28:59Washed back to the clan's current line
29:01Her face was mostly gone
29:02Only the clothes made her identifiable
29:04The coral clan heard that Cole had killed his own mate
29:06The clan chief had no choice
29:08Cole was exiled
29:09As for the hatchlings
29:10Even after everything their parents had done
29:12No one could turn away from children
29:13The females raised them collectively
29:15The males, led by Vayne
29:17Began pushing the coral clan's territory outward
29:19Season by season
29:20Year by year
29:21In a new current season
29:22The coral clan voted Vayne in as clan chief
29:24I was at his side
29:25Our two white dragon hatchlings grew stronger every day
29:29The morning of the clan chief ceremony
29:31Vayne sat at the head of the reef den
29:33And accepted vows from every male in the clan
29:35Coral and Ura both
29:36One after another
29:37I watched from the back
29:39On the surface
29:39Every head bowed
29:40But I knew what to look for
29:42The older coral fighters wouldn't meet his eyes
29:44The Ura males watched the old coral fighters watching him
29:47A few of the coral elders pressed their palms to the seabed too slowly
29:50They were not bowing to Vayne
29:51They were bowing to his S-rank tide power
29:53The first dispute came before midday
29:55An Ura family had been assigned a stretch of warm coral
29:58On the eastern current line
29:59An older coral family said he could come to the hatchlings
30:02By the time I arrived
30:03Both males were tide shifted
30:05Stand down
30:07Vayne's voice cut through the water
30:08They stood down
30:09Not because they wanted to
30:11His tide power pressed the current
30:13Later in our reef den
30:14He was still angry
30:15If I have to do that every day for a year
30:17I will
30:18You can't
30:19I sat across from him
30:21Vayne
30:22Listen
30:23If a clan chief only rules through strength
30:25The day you blink they will turn on you
30:26You are not the great white shark
30:28You don't have to lead like him
30:30He was quiet a long time
30:32I went back to the central reef den before I had to
30:35Zila's twenty lionfish hatchlings were grouped at the far end
30:38I counted because I always counted
30:39I counted again
30:42Nineteen
30:42Worried about the missing hatchlings spread by sundown
30:44He was a rankless one anyway
30:46That kind doesn't last long
30:47Better the cold takes him now than later
30:49I made myself not react
30:51I asked Vayne to organize a search
30:53He hesitated
30:54Lyra
30:54Even if we find him what then
30:56He's rankless
30:57He won't make it through the dry tide
30:58I looked at him until he understood what he had said
31:00I'm sorry
31:01That was wrong
31:01He led the search
31:02We found the smallest one before the night
31:05He was caught in a narrow rift in the cold
31:07The water around him was cold enough to slow a healthy adult
31:10He was alive
31:11Vayne pulled him out with one hand
31:13And curled his dragon warmth around him
31:14I checked the child over in our reef den
31:17No bite marks
31:19No predator teeth
31:20Someone had carried him there
31:21Left him
31:22Vayne saw it on my face
31:23Not an accident
31:24No
31:25Then who
31:25I didn't answer
31:26I didn't want to say it yet
31:28The child slept for almost a full day
31:30When his eyes opened he looked at me first
31:32Then at Vayne
31:33Then at the seabed
31:34He was so small
31:35I said
31:35Are you hungry?
31:36He shook his head
31:37I waited
31:37Father told me to wait there
31:40He said it like he was repeating a phrase
31:42He had been told to remember
31:44Cold
31:44Vayne went silent
31:45Then his fin crest unfolded
31:47I pulled him against my side
31:48Before Vayne could move
31:49Not in front of him
31:51Vayne swam out of the window
31:53I heard him roar past the outer current
31:54The water roared twice
31:56I held the lionfish hatchling
31:58And stroked the back of his head
31:59Until his breathing slowed
32:00By the next morning we knew the rest
32:02Cole was alive
32:03He had survived in the dead spaces
32:04At the edge of the dead current
32:06He still had what was left of his B rank lionfish power
32:08He was making poison
32:09He had been creeping back along the current line at night
32:12Whispering through cracks in the reef
32:13Into the central reef den
32:14He told the lionfish hatchling that I had killed Selah
32:17That Vayne had stolen the clan chief position
32:19That should have been his
32:20That their mother had died because of me
32:21Some of them had listened
32:22The coral elders wanted them removed at once
32:25The Ura Tide reader said the same thing
32:27More gently
32:27I moved all twenty into the reef dens closest to ours
32:30I watched them myself
32:31The clan thought I was too soft
32:33Vayne didn't argue
32:34But his face was tight
32:35They tried to lure one out
32:37So Cole could plant a message
32:38What do you think they'll try next?
32:40I didn't know
32:40That night I lay awake listening to the current
32:42A small sound near the entrance
32:44The smallest one was crossing the floor
32:46Toward where my two white dragon hatchlings slept
32:48Curled together
32:49His hand was closed around a lionfish spine
32:51Vayne moved before I could draw breath
32:53The dragon hit the seabed
32:54And the lionfish hatchling was pinned under one massive claw
32:57Before the spine left his hand
32:58The spine clattered against the coral
33:00Vayne's mouth opened
33:01The hatchling didn't scream
33:02He didn't even close his eyes
33:03My voice was sharp
33:04Vayne!
33:06Stop!
33:07He didn't move
33:07His head turned
33:09Vayne!
33:09I held his gaze
33:10Look at me
33:11He stayed still for a long second
33:14Then he stepped back
33:15The hatchling collapsed against the seabed and started to shake
33:17I picked up the spine without touching the tip
33:19Why?
33:20I picked up the child with the other hand
33:21He couldn't get the sentence out
33:23He tried three times
33:24Father said if they died you would feel what mother felt
33:26And he would come back for us
33:28Lyra, Sela can't keep them
33:30Anyone could be next
33:31No, Sela killed my ten hatchlings
33:33Cole watched it happen
33:34That is what they did
33:35It is not what this child did
33:36She brought a poisoned spine to our hatchlings
33:38He is barely half a year old
33:40Cole told him a story and he believed it
33:41If we throw them out
33:42We tell our own children weak children can be thrown out
33:44I won't teach them that
33:45One chance
33:45They stay under your watch
33:46If anyone tries again
33:47I will not stop
33:49Agreed
33:49The uratide reader arrived
33:51I gave him the spine
33:52He smelled it
33:52This is not ordinary lionfish poison
33:55This came from the deep part of the dead current
33:57I went still
34:00There is only part of the currents this could come from
34:03A current tear
34:04Deep enough that the water itself has gone wrong
34:06A tear that old leaks poison into anything that grows near it
34:10I sat down on the seabed
34:11The deep current tear
34:12The one Sela had pushed me into
34:14The one I had died in
34:15The tide reader watched my face
34:16I think he saw something there
34:18He didn't ask
34:18Vayne saw it too
34:19Lyra
34:22Cole found one
34:23Yes
34:24That is where he is hiding
34:26Yes
34:27Tears like that are not stable
34:29They can be widened
34:30If something pushes against the inner current the wrong way
34:33The tear opens further
34:34In open water
34:35It pulls anything close into the deep
34:38Cole was not just hiding
34:39He was sitting beside a weapon
34:40I told Vayne what I knew
34:41The dry tide was three or four days away
34:43When the warm currents thinned
34:44The tear would already be hungrier
34:45If Cole pushed on it during dry tide
34:47He could pull half the new clan into the dead current
34:49Before anyone reached him
34:51Lyra
34:51Then I take him before the dry tide arrives
34:53Not alone
34:54Vayne
34:55He left a poison spine in a child's hand
34:57Lyra
34:57He arranged a child in a cold rift like a marker
34:59He is choosing where you find him
35:01If you go alone he pulls you to the tear
35:03Vayne was quiet
35:05Take fighters
35:07Take the Ura tide reader
35:08I started to say something else
35:09The warm current around the central reef den died
35:13Vayne was already moving toward the outer current line
35:15I'll stabilize the outer waters
35:16You hold the reef den
35:18Go
35:21I turned to the females inside
35:23Coral and Ura both
35:24Their faces were white
35:28Listen to me
35:28Every hatchling
35:29Every one
35:30We are not separating them by clan
35:32We are not separating them by rank
35:33Move them all to the center
35:35Now
35:35They moved
35:36I worked fast
35:37I knew this water
35:38I had treated half the coral clan as their tide hero
35:40I knew which reef plants held warmth in their stems
35:42And which coral toxins drove cold current back when burned
35:45I pulled the warm reef plants from my medicine stores
35:48And crushed them into the seabed in a wide ring around the center
35:51I burned a thin line of coral toxin at the outer edge
35:55Bring them in
35:55All of them
35:58All of them
35:59The lionfish hatchlings too
36:01Inside
36:04The Ura females moved faster
36:05They had surrendered to Vayne
36:07They were watching me now to see what kind of female he had chosen
36:09My two white dragon hatchlings curled near my feet at the center of the ring
36:13Outside the ring a voice carried through the cold water
36:16Children
36:16It's father
36:17Come out
36:19Children
36:20Come out
36:21Your mother is gone because of the female in there
36:24The dragon will kill you in the end
36:26Come to me
36:30You can go
36:32If you want to go to him go
36:34I won't stop you
36:35I won't hold you
36:37But before you go
36:38I want to tell you something
36:41Your mother killed my ten hatchlings in my last life
36:45One at a time
36:46I held each of them when they died
36:51Your father watched her almost die in labor and asked me to stay so he wouldn't have to
36:55He has never carried any of you
36:56He is not coming to take care of you
36:58He is coming to use you
37:00I can hate your mother and father
37:02I do hate them
37:03That is not the same as hating you
37:05His eyes were huge
37:07The three older ones sat back down on the seabed slowly
37:09The smallest one reached into his tunic
37:11He pulled out a second lionfish spine
37:13Father gave me two
37:15He said if the first one didn't work
37:18I took it carefully
37:19I set it down behind me
37:20Outside the ring Cole stopped calling
37:22The warm voice was gone
37:23The water shook
37:24He was hitting the outer edge
37:25My two white dragon hatchlings raised their heads at the same moment
37:28Their small mouths opened
37:30The resonance came out of them together
37:31Low
37:32Pure
37:32The whole reef den began to shake
37:35The twin resonance traveled
37:36I felt it leave the ring and roll outward through the cold water in a wave I could not see
37:40It moved past the current line
37:41It moved out toward where Vayne was holding the outer waters
37:44I felt his answer before I heard it
37:45Far out
37:46A roar
37:46Not the kind he used in the coral clan to keep order
37:48The kind I had heard the first time in the rift
37:50The roar that said go away
37:51He was coming back
37:52The resonance kept going
37:53It hit something deeper
37:54The water beneath the seabed pulled and then the floor of the reef den tilted half a degree
37:58The deep current tear
37:59The resonance was widening it
38:00Cole's attack on the ring stopped
38:01I heard him scream once
38:03Sharp from somewhere outside
38:04I pulled the smallest lionfish hatchling against me and pressed my hand over my white dragon hatchling's
38:08Mouths gently
38:09The resonance stopped
38:10The seabed kept shaking
38:11The Vayne tore through the cold current and was inside the ring before I could call to him
38:15Lya
38:17The tear is opening
38:18The resonance reached it
38:19He turned at once
38:20The coal was out beyond the ring
38:21The water there was already moving wrong
38:23The coal was on its edge
38:24His B rank lionfish fins flaring
38:26Vayne bared his teeth
38:27I will end him
38:29Vayne
38:29He looked at me
38:30Seal the tear first
38:32His jaw locked
38:33Then he nodded once
38:34He moved out into the spiral and braced
38:36If it opens, it pulls the whole clan in
38:38Coal won't matter
38:41His S rank tide power flared and pressed against the inner current of the tear
38:45The spiral slowed
38:46I closed my eyes
38:47I felt for the center
38:48Something in the dark called my name
38:49It was Sela
38:51I knew it wasn't her
38:52I knew before I opened my eyes
38:54The tear was old enough to pull memory out of anyone who came close
38:56It was reaching into me for what hurt most
38:58It found everything
38:59I saw my ten hatch lines in the reef den
39:01One at a time
39:02Their small faces
39:03Sela's hand on the bolt
39:04I saw myself reach for the youngest one too
39:06I saw Sela's hand on my back at the edge of the tear
39:08The push
39:09I felt the weightlessness again
39:10The cold
39:10I could not move
39:11A claw closed around my arms
39:13Cold across the spiral on the surface side
39:15You first
39:16Then him
39:18Then the children
39:19The poison on his neck
39:20The wound
39:20The chips on the skin
39:21He pulled
39:21The edge of the tear was close
39:23The veins
39:23He tried to come back through the spiral
39:25The pressure pinned him in place
39:26His roar cracked the water and he could not move
39:29I looked at Cole
39:29I was not in the reef den watching my hatchlings die
39:32I was here
39:32In this life
39:33With my children behind me and the man who loved me holding back the dark
39:36I caught his arm and turned him toward the tear
39:37He staggered
39:38He was lighter than I expected
39:40Hunger had taken him
39:42Say it
39:43Say what you did
39:44He spat at me
39:45I pushed him another step
39:46Say it
39:47His face broke
39:48I gave them the poison
39:49His voice was high
39:50I told them what to do
39:51I opened the tear
39:52I never wanted them
39:54I wanted my place back
39:55I wanted to stop being beneath that rankless monster
40:00Aurora split
40:01Vane broke me in the spiral
40:03His dragon form filled the space between me and the dark
40:05His claw caught the back of my arm and pulled
40:07Cole's grip held for one stroke
40:08Two
40:09His fingers slipped
40:10When he fell
40:10The deep current tear took him without a sound
40:12Then it was just the tear
40:14Still pulling
40:14Still wide
40:15Vane set me down on the seabed and turned back to the spiral
40:18His tide power flared again
40:19It was not enough alone
40:20The tear was hungry now
40:21I stood up
40:22Coral
40:22Ura
40:23All of you
40:24Into the ring
40:25Spiral
40:26The older crawl elders
40:27The Ura males
40:28The females from the reef den
40:29The lionfish hatchlings
40:30Even the smallest one
40:31Match him
40:32Push your tide power into the inner current together
40:34I pointed at Vane
40:35All of you
40:36Now
40:37Coral tide power and Ura tide power met in the same water for the first time
40:41The spiral slowed
40:42Then it folded inward
40:43And it closed
40:44The seabed was quiet
40:45The Ura tide leader was on his knees
40:46Breathing hard
40:47He looked up at me
40:48This is what abyss chosen means
40:52Not the 10a level hatchlings
40:54Not the title
40:55This
40:56You gather what was thrown away
40:57And you make it a clan
40:59The coral elders bowed
41:00This time it was different
41:02Clan mother
41:03I lifted him by the elbow
41:04Before he could press his forehead down
41:06No
41:06Don't kneel to me
41:07Live
41:09Don't become your mother and father
41:11That is all I want
41:12The dry tide arrived three days later
41:14It did not break us
41:15Vane guarded the outer waters
41:17He came back warm every night
41:18I guarded the clan
41:19The warm current ring held
41:20The hatchlings all of them
41:21Coral and Ura and lionfish
41:23Stayed fed
41:23My two white dragon hatchlings opened their thin crests for the first time in the center of the warm current
41:28Vane sat beside me on the seabed and watched them
41:30His hand found mine
41:31The new coral clan truly began
41:33It had been 30 days since Vane became clan chief
41:36Council ran smooth that morning
41:38Coral and Ura both
41:39Nobody dragged their feet
41:40That night Vane went out on the perimeter sweep
41:42He came back with something in his hand
41:43He dropped it on the seabed in front of me
41:45A scale
41:46Pale gold at the edges
41:47The kind of lionfish merfolk shed when it was growing
41:49Where did you find this?
41:51Outer current line
41:52It's fresh
41:53No more than half a month's old
41:55The edge was still soft
41:57Coal was dead
41:57He'd gone into the deep current tear and never come out
42:00We'd held a burial without a body
42:02It might be someone else
42:04It's his
42:05I'd know it anywhere
42:11I'm going back out
42:13Now
42:14What?
42:17He was already at the entrance
42:19I followed him
42:19The outer current line was quiet
42:21Zane stopped where he'd found the scale and pointed past it
42:23Something was standing in the dark water
42:25A man
42:25Lionfish fins
42:27Familiar shoulders
42:28Coal
42:28He looked at us
42:29He didn't speak
42:30Vayne took one stroke forward
42:32Coal stepped back
42:33One stroke
42:33Then he was gone
42:34Folded into the dark
42:38He's not dead
42:39I looked at the scale in my hand
42:41Still soft
42:43Then how?
42:45I don't know
42:49He's not dead
42:51Council convened before sunrise
42:53Vayne laid it out
42:54The scale
42:54The figure on the outer current line
42:56Quarrel elders muttered
42:57The uratide reader said nothing
42:58Then a runner came in fast
43:00Clan chief
43:01The hatchling reef den
43:02Someone got past the line
43:03We swam
43:03The reef den housing
43:04Sela's twenty lionfish hatchlings
43:06Was wide open
43:07The young guard was on the seabed
43:08Breathing
43:09But out cold
43:09I counted
43:10Nineteen
43:11One of the older lionfish hatchlings
43:12A small female
43:13Was gone
43:14Eastern flank
43:15He's heading for the deep current tear
43:17He's carrying her
43:18Vayne was already moving
43:19I went with him
43:20He didn't try to stop me
43:21We caught up at a stretch of cold reef near the tear
43:23The hatchling was lying on the seabed
43:25Alive
43:25Crying
43:26No Cole
43:26I picked her up and checked her over
43:28No bites
43:28No bruises
43:29Her fins were dry
43:30Then I saw it
43:31A thin mark across the back of her neck
43:33Hairline
43:34Like something had touched her there
43:35And left an outline
43:36The uratide reader arrived behind us
43:38What is it?
43:41It's a tear mark
43:42Cole isn't just hiding down there
43:44He's been marking them
43:45He's running a channel through her
43:46Through her to where?
43:48Anywhere her blood reaches
43:50Her siblings
43:51You
43:53Can you take it off?
43:55I can dampen it
43:56I can't remove it
43:57The hatchling was still crying
43:58I held her against my shoulder
43:59Bring the others in
44:00All twenty
44:01Right now
44:03The tide reader lined the twenty hatchlings up
44:05From the central reef den
44:06He went down the row
44:07One hand hovering at the back of each small leg
44:10The number came back fast
44:11Eleven of the twenty had the same hair
44:14Eleven?
44:14Old enough that some had begun to fade into the skin
44:17Cole had been at this for weeks
44:18The coral elders moved before I did
44:20They're a channel into our clan
44:22They have to go
44:23Go where?
44:24Out of the line
44:25Past the cold current
44:26Tonight
44:28The hatchlings were the size of my hand
44:30Half of them didn't understand what was being said
44:32I stood up
44:34My sister killed my ten in the last life
44:36One at a time
44:37I held every one of them when they went
44:39I'm not handing eleven more to the cold for something they didn't do
44:43Clan mother
44:45This isn't about Blaine
44:46I don't care what it's about
44:47Vain hadn't said a word
44:48The scales were rough along his forearms
44:50He was holding himself still
44:51He looked at the oldest elder
44:53Anyone moves on the hatchlings they go through me first
44:56The elder shut his mouth
44:57We didn't settle anything
44:58Council broke
45:00That night I sat with the eleven in the central reef den
45:03The smallest lionfish hatchling
45:05The one we'd pulled from the cold rift months back
45:07The one with no mark
45:08Sat against my side
45:09He was running a fever
45:10He gripped my wrist with both hands
45:12Mama
45:13Calling
45:13I can't hear it
45:14But I know
45:15I put my hand over his
45:18I know too
45:19He pressed his forehead into my arm and started to cry
45:21Outside
45:22The cold current was already pushing at the lock
45:26I made the lock mark by morning
45:28I used the resonance frequency of our two small white dragon hatchlings as the anchor
45:33And bound it to each of the eleven marked necks
45:36Three days later the fevers were gone
45:38No sleepwalking
45:39No reaching toward the cold line
45:40The fourth day the council reopened
45:42Tide reader
45:43How does a lionfish marion come back out of the deep current tear?
45:47Tell us straight
45:49The tide reader looked at me
45:51I nodded
45:51He turned to the room
45:52The tear runs both ways
45:53Cole isn't the first to come back through it
45:55Our clan mother came back through it too
45:57She died in it
45:59In the last life
46:00The room broke
46:01Voices over voices
46:02Vane sat next to me without moving
46:04He'd known
46:05I'd told him weeks ago
46:06He just hadn't expected it
46:07Said in front of everyone
46:08The oldest elder looked at me
46:10Clan mother
46:10Not unkind
46:11Cole came back wrong
46:12How do we know you came back right?
46:14Just direct
46:16I stood up
46:16You don't
46:17You watch what I do and you decide
46:19He took it
46:20He sat down
46:21The tide reader started to speak again
46:22He didn't get the chance
46:23A young runner crashed through the medicine
46:25So it moved on
46:26The medicine store
46:28It's on fire
46:29We were already moving
46:30The store was a small reef chamber
46:31On the western side of the den complex
46:33By the time we got there
46:34The inside was a column of heat and smoke
46:36Through the water
46:36Every dried plant gone
46:38Vane reached into the refuge
46:39He came out with half a burnt lionfish scale
46:41He's inside the lion
46:45Two seasons of medicine
46:46Coral resin
46:47Reef plants from the dead current
46:49That took me months to gather
46:50Dragon warmed binding gel
46:52All of it gone
46:54Vane sent the fighters out
46:55To sweep the outer line
46:56Crack by crack
46:57They found the opening
46:58A narrow split in the western reef
46:59Half a body wide
47:00Where the cold current ran in and out
47:02Coal had been crawling in and out
47:04For who knew how long
47:05Vane ordered every crack sealed
47:07While the fighters packed it with reef stone
47:09He stood at the western split himself
47:11I went back to the burnt store alone
47:13I needed to know what was left
47:15There wasn't much
47:16I knelt in the ash
47:17And started sorting through it anyway
47:19Habit
47:20My hand brushed the back of my neck
47:21I stopped
47:22I felt again
47:23A line
47:23Hairline
47:24Right under the hairline of my actual hair
47:27Same as the eleven hatchlings
47:29He'd been close enough to touch me
48:00While I was watching the fire
48:01My skin
48:01I was going to tell you tomorrow
48:03He didn't speak again for a long time
48:07By morning Vane was at the door with two fighters and a med pack
48:10Where?
48:11I stood up
48:11The tear
48:12Vane
48:12He won't stop until I make him
48:14You're not abyss chosen
48:16You can't go in
48:17I'm not going in
48:17I'm going to the edge
48:19Take more fighters
48:21No
48:21He'll run
48:22I caught his wrist
48:23He stopped
48:24Come back
48:25I said
48:26He nodded once and went
48:27I waited at the central reef den with the 20 hatchlings and the twins
48:31The smallest lionfish hatchling sat against my leg and watched the entrance
48:35Past midday a runner came in fast
48:37He's hurt
48:38They're bringing him
48:39They carried Vane in across the sea
48:41His chest was opened from collarbone to hips
48:43Blood was a heavy cloud around him
48:45I worked on him for two hours
48:47He didn't lose consciousness
48:48He kept his eyes on me the entire time
48:50When I'd closed the worst of it
48:53I sat back
48:54What happened?
48:55He swallowed
48:55He waited for me outside the tear
48:57He let me hit him
48:57Every wound I gave him closed up
48:59The water was doing it
49:02So you stopped?
49:03No
49:03I kept going
49:04I'd have killed him eventually
49:06The water can only do so much
49:07Then what?
49:08He spoke
49:08To me
49:09He said a word
49:10In a language I don't know
49:11I waited
49:12It was my name
49:12My real one
49:13I've never heard it
49:14I didn't know I had one
49:15He looked at me
49:16I lost my grip
49:17He cut me open
49:18He went back into the tear
49:19I pressed my hand to his face
49:22He knew what I'm called and I don't
49:23He took his hand at her
49:24I analyzed it
49:25I was trying to collapse
49:25He took my hand out ofdid
49:25He handed his hand out of the sea
49:26He hasn't wrecked out all the history