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Short filmTranscript
00:00My sister poisoned all ten of my children.
00:02Then she pushed me into a deep rift current terror.
00:05I died in the dark water below.
00:06And I woke up on the morning of the Tidebond Rite,
00:08staring at the same sky, breathing the same cold water.
00:11I lay still for a moment. Let it settle.
00:13We'd arrived on the Abyssal Realm together,
00:15my sister Sela and I.
00:16Two 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 Club.
00:23We were supposed to choose.
00:25In Last Life, Sela told me to take the Lionfish.
00:27Lionfish lay soft eggs.
00:30Easier than giving birth.
00:31She smiled like she was doing me a favor.
00:34She took the Great White Shark, the only A-rank male.
00:37What she didn't tell me was that she already knew
00:38Lionfish eggs hatched in large clutches.
00:42I chose Cole.
00:44I got pregnant fast.
00:45One clutch, ten hatchlings.
00:47All A-rank.
00:48In a Coral clan that had seen maybe five A-ranks in a hundred years,
00:51that was enough to make Cole the next clan chief
00:53and turn me into something the Coral Elders called Abyss Chosen.
00:57Sela got one B-rank from the Great White Shark,
01:00then another, then three more.
01:01Nothing better.
01:02She couldn't accept it.
01:03She crept into Cole's reef den.
01:06He threw her out in front of the whole Coral clan.
01:09The Great White Shark ended their bond
01:10and drove her and her children into the dead current.
01:13In less than a month, all five of her offspring starved.
01:16I was the one who took her back in.
01:17I gave her food.
01:18I gave her warmth.
01:19She killed my ten hatchlings one by one
01:21and then she pushed me into a deep rift current tear.
01:24I still remember weightless.
01:26So this time, I was not choosing Cole.
01:29The tied bond right was already moving.
01:31The clan chief stood at the front, arms folded,
01:34watching the males line up.
01:35Sela was beside me, her shoulder just barely touching mine.
01:38I felt the exact moment she decided to move.
01:41A small shift in her weight, a breath she didn't finish.
01:43She crossed the water toward Cole like she'd rehearsed it,
01:46pressed herself against his arm, tipped her face up to the clan chief.
01:49She looked back at me.
01:51Clan chief.
01:52That smile.
01:53I choose Cole.
01:54I looked at Cole.
01:55Cold current blood.
01:57No warmth in the dry tide.
01:58Three 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.
02:06Without the Coral clan around him, he couldn't even feed himself.
02:09She thought she'd taken the prize.
02:10She didn't know what she would pay.
02:12I turned and looked at what was left.
02:13A B-rank whale merfolk.
02:15Two C-rank sea turtle merfolk.
02:17Near the back, a manta ray merfolk who had been watching me since I swam in.
02:21Brow creased, expression difficult to read.
02:23I started toward him.
02:24The crowd shifted.
02:26I thought about my ten hatchlings.
02:27Quiet, good, never any trouble.
02:29A-rank every one of them,
02:31and felt something cold and settled move through the grief.
02:33Not this time.
02:34I was about to open my mouth.
02:36A palm hit my face so hard I bit my cheek.
02:41The female in front of me was bonded to the Coral clan's tiger shark merfolk.
02:44She was shaking.
02:45In her hand was a white jellyfish tentacle filament that she said she'd found in her mate's reef den.
02:50Her tide shifted form was a white jellyfish.
02:53The crowd turned around.
02:55One voice at the back, then three more.
02:58I looked past her shoulder and found Sela near the middle of the crowd.
03:00She'd practiced that expression.
03:02I was certain of it.
03:03Last life, she hadn't needed it.
03:04Last life, I hadn't stood in her way.
03:06Oh, Lyra.
03:07I didn't want to say anything.
03:09But I did see you swimming with Leo that night.
03:12One sentence.
03:13Every door in the room closed at once.
03:15The manta ray merfolk stepped back.
03:17The clan chief's eyes were already on me.
03:18I tide shifted on the spot.
03:20White jellyfish, clean tentacles, full circle, every angle, nothing hidden.
03:24The crowd went quiet.
03:25I shifted back.
03:27No damaged tentacles.
03:29That filament isn't mine.
03:30A damaged tentacle root scar on my inner thigh.
03:32Small, deliberate.
03:34Someone in the crowd saw it.
03:35That was enough.
03:36I had spent this entire second life thinking I understood what Sela was capable of.
03:39I had underestimated her.
03:41Out.
03:42I looked at Sela one last time.
03:44She was holding back a smile.
03:45I turned and swam.
03:46No argument.
03:47No appeal.
03:48No tears.
03:49I swam through it with my back straight, and I didn't stop until I was outside.
03:53Sela came to see me off.
03:55Like a female who had already won.
03:56Don't worry, Lyra.
03:57There are powerful males out there.
03:59Maybe you'll find the right one.
04:01Thanks for the encouragement.
04:02Cole has a lot of stamina.
04:04Lionfish nature is what it is.
04:06Once or twice a day is just recreation for him.
04:08I watched the warmth leave her face.
04:09You should build up your strength.
04:11Wouldn't want to disappoint him.
04:12I turned and swam.
04:14Didn't look back.
04:15The Coral Clan's current line was a boundary of cold and warm cold meeting in the water.
04:19I crossed it without slowing.
04:20The dead current ahead was dark and unmapped, and the water was cold.
04:24She thought she'd won.
04:24She hadn't thought about the dry tide.
04:26Cole would enter tide sleep.
04:28Three months.
04:28Maybe more.
04:29She'd be alone in the reef den.
04:31No warmth.
04:31No provider.
04:32No idea how to feed herself when the food chain collapsed.
04:35She'd spent her whole life letting other people manage the hard parts.
04:37She had no idea what she'd actually chosen.
04:39I had swum this path.
04:41Last life I swam it in grief.
04:42With nothing to my name except a tide healer's knowledge I'd spent years building.
04:46This life I knew where it ended.
04:47At the far end of it, there was a rift.
04:49Something 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 looked like.
04:57He'd been close to dead when I found him.
04:58I was the one who pulled him back.
05:01I didn't make it far before I heard it behind me.
05:03Heavy stroke.
05:04Low and deliberate, closing fast.
05:06A tide shifted without thinking.
05:08Dropped into jellyfish form and fled.
05:09The water rushed past and the dead current blurred at the edges of my vision.
05:13Behind me, the blue shark Murphroke wasn't bothering to be quiet.
05:16He knew what a lone female outside clan borders meant.
05:19He knew how it ended.
05:20I fled until I saw the rock face.
05:22A narrow opening in the floor, dark inside, barely wide enough to turn sideways and fit through.
05:27I went in.
05:28Behind me, the blue shark Murphroke stopped.
05:30He circled the entrance twice.
05:31His strokes slowed, then stopped entirely.
05:34He cursed once, low and ugly, but I heard him leave.
05:37I didn't understand why.
05:38I shifted back and stood still, breathing hard.
05:41The rift went deeper than I'd expected.
05:42The water inside was stale and cold, and underneath that, something else.
05:47Rot and infection, and the dense animal scent of something very large.
05:51I took one more step into the dark.
05:53Something in the black moved.
05:55I stopped.
05:55My heart was loud in my ears.
05:57The smell hit me harder now.
05:59Animal.
05:59Enormous.
06:00Close.
06:01Whatever was in here, the blue shark Murphroke had known.
06:04Whatever was in here had made a predator who hunted lone females turn around without a
06:08sound and swim away.
06:09I stood in the dark and didn't move.
06:11I already knew what was in there.
06:13Last life, it was the same rift.
06:15The same darkness.
06:16The same smell.
06:17I took one more step forward.
06:20The sound that came out of the dark was not a roar.
06:23It was bigger than that.
06:24It hit me in the chest before it reached my ears.
06:26A pressure through the water.
06:28Through my ribs.
06:29And for one full second, my body simply stopped.
06:32Every instinct told me to turn around.
06:34My feet didn't move.
06:35The dark shifted.
06:36And then I saw him.
06:37Light.
06:38Enormous.
06:39His fin crest caught the faint bioluminescent light from the rift entrance and held it.
06:43His mouth was open wide enough to swallow my head whole.
06:46The sound still rolling out of him bounced off every wall and came back from all directions
06:50at once.
06:51He hadn't moved.
06:53I stood where I was and looked at him.
06:55The roar faded.
06:56The rift went silent.
06:57He still hadn't moved.
06:58I had heard roars before.
07:00The great white shark Murphroke in the coral clan.
07:02The whale males during mating season.
07:04Those roars said, I am here.
07:06I am dangerous.
07:07Come closer and find out.
07:08This was different.
07:09This roar said, go away.
07:11I looked at his tail fin.
07:12Even in the dark I could see it.
07:13The flesh was wrong.
07:15Swollen and dark.
07:16Pale patches crawling through the wounds.
07:18The torn fin crest was infected at its root.
07:20He had been lying here a long time.
07:22Too long to hunt.
07:23Too long to do much of anything except wait.
07:24He opened his mouth and he found at me again.
07:27I took one step toward him.
07:29The roaring stopped.
07:30Gold eyes in the dark.
07:31Very still.
07:32Watching me cross the distance 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.
07:42The sea dragon was roaring.
07:44But he wasn't moving.
07:46He hadn't even shifted.
07:47It felt like he was just trying to scare me off.
07:50Then I smelled it.
07:51Rot and infection.
07:53I looked closer and saw the flesh of his tail fin.
07:56The wounds were deep and crawling with white.
07:58The fin crest was torn at the root.
08:00I stopped.
08:01I turned around.
08:02Hey, you're hurt.
08:04I know deep sea medicine.
08:06Will you let me stay?
08:07The sea dragon looked at me for a moment.
08:09Then he slowly unfolded his injured tail fin toward me.
08:12The wounds were bad.
08:14I gagged and got to work anyway.
08:16Opened my pack and found the wound powder.
08:18Before I'd arrived here, I'd studied tide healing and coral toxins.
08:22Once I was in the coral clan, that knowledge had made me the settlement's tide healer.
08:26I'd treated half the coral clan at one point or another.
08:29Not one of them had spoken up for me today.
08:31The bitterness sat heavy in my chest as I worked.
08:33When I finished, the sea dragon's aggression faded.
08:36He nudged his head against my sleeve.
08:37A thank you.
08:38Then his stomach growled.
08:39Twice.
08:40He'd been injured too long to hunt.
08:42He was starving.
08:43I'll go find food.
08:44Wait here.
08:46I 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.
08:56The dragon current mark.
08:57His power on my skin would keep most predators back instinctively.
09:00I thought of the blue shark merfolk from earlier.
09:02This 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.
09:11Small crustaceans.
09:12Some 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.
09:22During the day, I changed his bandages.
09:23Foraged 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.
09:32Then 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.
09:39Gold 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.
09:49But the first time we went out together, he showed me what he was made of.
09:52A 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.
10:06And asked Vayne whether he was A rank.
10:08Are you A rank?
10:09No.
10:10I don't have a rank.
10:11I stared at him.
10:12Every male merfolk had a rank.
10:14But the tide power I'd seen from him was beyond anything the great white shark merfolk in the coral clan
10:18could manage.
10:19But your tide power...
10:21Vayne shook his head.
10:22No rank.
10:23Never had one.
10:24That was why his own clan had driven him out.
10:26They'd called him a monster.
10:28Abandoned him as a hatchling in the dead current.
10:30The memory clearly cost him something.
10:32His eyes went distant and sad.
10:34Born without a clan.
10:35Whatever had made him this strong, he'd earned it alone.
10:37The hard way.
10:38It doesn't matter.
10:40You have me now.
10:41We're friends.
10:42Vayne 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.
11:03I have to go somewhere.
11:04Then he took two strokes and his body gave out.
11:06When he went down, I saw everything.
11:08I understood immediately.
11:09Every merfolk had a regular heat cycle.
11:11When 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.
11:18He was fighting his own body.
11:19His neck was corded with strain.
11:21The sounds coming from his throat were low and desperate.
11:23I watched him.
11:24My chest ached.
11:25Vayne, do you not want me?
11:28How could you even ask that?
11:32When his hands came up to hold me, I was scared.
11:35What coal had put me through had left its marks.
11:37He was always rough.
11:38There was no pleasure in it.
11:39Only something close to endurance.
11:41Vayne was stronger than coal by a wide margin.
11:43I 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.
11:50Light enough that I felt like I was floating.
11:51I lost track of time.
11:53When I finally noticed the world again, the dry tide currents had shifted outside the
11:56rift.
11:57That dry tide.
11:58I was warm.
11:58Vayne kept the rift heated with his body warmth.
12:01When the cold currents pressed in, he 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, he became a little enthusiastic.
12:10Eye contact.
12:11Next thing I knew, I was against the rift wall.
12:13Not that I minded.
12:14He was good at it.
12:15I never once wanted to pull away.
12:17With that kind of frequency and no precautions, it wasn't long before I noticed something different
12:21about my body.
12:22I pressed two fingers to my wrist and checked my pulse.
12:24Pregnant.
12:26When I told Vayne, he went still.
12:29Really?
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, I thought again about last time.
12:44Coal was a cold current blood type breath.
12:46In the dry tide, he gave off no heat at all.
12:49And he entered tidesleeve.
12:50While other males made sure their females were fed through the season, I was out in
12:54the dead current alone, trying to find something edible.
12:56My tide healing skills kept me fed, barely.
12:58The merfolk I treated gave me scraps.
13:00But after the ten lionfish hatchlings were born, scraps weren't enough.
13:04Coal entered tidesleeve.
13:05He could survive on stored energy.
13:07The hatchlings were too young.
13:08They needed real food, constantly.
13:10I foraged alone.
13:11A white jellyfish.
13:12Small and not built for hunting in the dry tide.
13:15He didn't dare go far.
13:16I brought back small crustaceans.
13:18I brought back dried reef algae.
13:19The hatchlings were good.
13:20All ten of them.
13:21A rank.
13:22And 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.
13:31Lyra, what'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, that's not it.
13:39Being with you is the best thing there is.
13:40I changed the subject.
13:41I'd assumed I'd never see my sister again.
13:44She showed up at our rift that same night.
13:46Vayne heard the sounds.
13:47He went to check.
13:48I heard a familiar shriek.
13:48Vane, don't kill me!
13:49Sea dragon, please!
13:50I came out to find my sister in the water outside the rift entrance.
13:53I looked at her in the dark and I almost laughed.
13:55Why are you here?
13:57You know her?
13:57Never seen her before.
13:58Vayne's intent sharpened immediately.
14:00Lyra!
14:01My sister screamed.
14:01Don't let him kill me!
14:03I came all this way to save you!
14:05Sis!
14:06That word, sis, it stopped Vayne cold.
14:10He pulled back.
14:11Is there a misunderstanding, Lyra?
14:13I sighed.
14:14I swam over to my sister.
14:16What do you want?
14:17She put on her most conciliatory...
14:19I talked to the clan chief.
14:21He said you can come back.
14:22I didn't move.
14:24She pushed harder.
14:25And Lyra, the Coral clan is in trouble.
14:28Two 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, the war had ended because of my ten lionfish hatchlings hatching.
14:44Ten A-rank merfolk born at once.
14:46The opposing clan, the Huro, had taken one look and surrendered on the spot.
14:51He was the one who declared me abyss chosen.
14:53Said I carried a rare destiny.
14:55That I had been sent to the Coral clan as a gift from the abyss god.
14:58But I had no interest in my sister's advice.
15:00Vayne 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.
15:10Laya, you're pregnant, aren't you?
15:12Even if you don't care about yourself, think about the child.
15:15You two can live free out here for now.
15:17But what about later?
15:18What about your hatchling?
15:20Do you really want to raise a child with no clan behind them?
15:22That landed.
15:23This world was brutal.
15:25Vayne, as strong as he was, had nearly died alone and wrecked.
15:28What would happen when our child was born?
15:30All in the dead current was full of things that wanted to eat them.
15:33I looked at Vayne.
15:34He seemed to read what I was thinking.
15:35He came over and took my hand.
15:37Lyra, let's go back.
15:39After I told my sister yes, she let out a long breath.
15:42Then, is there anything to eat?
15:44She ate like she hadn't seen food in weeks.
15:46Her stomach was enormous, but her arms and fins were thin as coral sticks.
15:50She'd had it rough.
15:51Not hard to guess why.
15:53Cole had almost certainly entered tide sleep by now.
15:56My sister had never worked hard a day in her life.
15:58Nothing short of starvation would have pushed her out here.
16:01After the meal, she lay down in the outer part of the rift to rest.
16:04Vayne folded me into his arms as usual.
16:06My sister glanced over from across the rift.
16:09The look on her face was pure envy.
16:11In the middle of the night, I got up.
16:14This life, and 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,
16:34our parents died in an accident.
16:35Left the two of us to figure out the world together.
16:38I remembered what they'd always said.
16:39You're the older one.
16:41Take care of your sister.
16:42So I did.
16:43I gave way.
16:44Every time, on everything.
16:45Whatever was best, I let her have it.
16:47Somewhere along the line,
16:49she'd decided that was simply how things should be.
16:52I 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'd gotten her through all three.
17:08There was a second reason, too.
17:09She wanted me to watch.
17:10She wanted me standing there when she produced 20 A-rank Lionfish Merfolk
17:14and climbed to the top of the Coral Clan.
17:17She wanted to see my face.
17:19Life back in the Coral Clan wasn't easy.
17:22Even with Vayne beside me,
17:23plenty 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.
17:28I was shut out.
17:28My sister, meanwhile,
17:29used her memories from last time to play prophet.
17:32She predicted a few major clan events
17:33and a stretch of bad current accurately enough
17:36that 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.
17:48Within days,
17:49every fighter in the Coral Clan
17:50had noticed that his Dragon Tide Power
17:52exceeded that of the A-rank Great White Shark Merfolk
17:55by a significant margin.
17:56His raw strength was in a different category altogether.
17:59This world ran on Tide Power.
18:01Strength was everything.
18:02And yet,
18:02because Vayne came out unranked,
18:04the Great White Shark Merfolk grew jealous.
18:06He gathered the other males and turned on Vayne.
18:08They sent him alone into a aura of ambush.
18:10When the others had what they needed from the distraction,
18:13they swam,
18:14left him there.
18:14I didn't find out until 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?
18:25I looked at the cuts across his body.
18:27Vayne, 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.
18:34Back to the rift.
18:35No.
18:35He was suddenly urgent.
18:36If we go back,
18:37you'll be homesick again.
18:39We 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.
18:53Let's go.
18:54Just the two of us.
18:55I'd almost convinced him.
18:58Lyra,
18:58get 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,
19:10it was the great white shark Murfolk's fault.
19:12His build was large.
19:13The offspring inherited the size.
19:14The head got stuck.
19:15But lionfish eggs were soft and small.
19:17They should have come out easily.
19:18I got my answer fast.
19:19I helped her deliver 10 eggs.
19:21Then I felt more inside.
19:22I was reaching for the next one
19:23when my sister's body seized.
19:27She's combusing.
19:28Nobody here knew that word.
19:29I shouted instructions.
19:30They found a smooth piece of coral
19:31and pressed it between her teeth
19:33so 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.
19:38She passed out when it was done.
19:39I mixed a tonic and got it down her throat.
19:41If she makes it through tonight,
19:42she'll live.
19:43If she doesn't,
19:43there's nothing more I can do.
19:44I turned to leave.
19:46Cole 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.
20:03I'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?
20:15With wounds that bad,
20:16you 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.
20:30I brought him back to our reef den.
20:31Pushed him until he talked.
20:32He cried harder.
20:34Vane had been waiting outside my sister's reef den the entire time.
20:37He'd heard everything.
20:38He hadn't known that was what birth looked like.
20:40He hadn't known it could be like that.
20:42He was terrified.
20:43If I went into labor out in the dead current,
20:45and something went wrong,
20:46there would be no one to help me.
20:47I felt tears on my own face before I realized.
20:50Vane,
20:50not everyone has a labor like hers.
20:53Maybe 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.
21:03That 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,
21:10he let it go with a smile.
21:11Vane,
21:11who 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.
21:20She watched over them every day,
21:21and brought half the Coral Clan in to look.
21:23She told them all 20 were going to be A-ranked.
21:25People thought she was eccentric,
21:26but her earlier predictions had earned her enough credit
21:29that they believed her anyway.
21:30Her status in the Coral Clan climbed higher.
21:32The current war wrapped up faster than anyone expected,
21:35because of how hard Vane pushed on the front.
21:37The Ura sent representatives to negotiate.
21:39The Ura Clan Chief and their Tide Reader came in person.
21:41The meeting had barely started when someone burst in.
21:43Clan Chief,
21:44get over to Cole's Reef Den.
21:46The 20 eggs are hatching.
21:47That was the end of any conversation about territory.
21:50Even the Ura delegation had heard the story,
21:51an abyss chosen in the opposing clan.
21:5320 A-rank lionfish murphoon,
21:55all in one clutch.
21:56Everyone moved at once.
21:57The Reef Den could barely hold the crowd.
21:59The 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.
22:07Her voice was shaking with excitement.
22:08Clan Chief,
22:09tell me,
22:10A-rank, right?
22:14Not A-rank.
22:16C-rank.
22:18The smile froze on my sister's face.
22:20That's impossible.
22:22Clan Chief,
22:22you must have looked wrong.
22:23Please,
22:24look again.
22:25The Clan Chief had been sensing
22:26bioelectric Tide patterns for 60 years.
22:28He could read rank by sensing alone.
22:30He looked again,
22:30as a courtesy.
22:32C-rank.
22:33That's final.
22:34My sister went blank.
22:35The crowd started murmuring.
22:37Wait,
22:38weren't they all supposed to be A-rank?
22:4020 is a lot to ask for.
22:41The Coral Clangs had maybe
22:42one A-rank per generation.
22:44Honestly,
22:44having a C in the mix is normal.
22:46Maybe the rest are still coming.
22:47My sister took the lifeline.
22:48Exactly!
22:48This is only the first one.
22:50I'm telling you,
22:51at 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.
23:01Then five more.
23:02One B-rank came out.
23:03That gave her a burst of confidence.
23:05See?
23:05It's getting better the further we go.
23:08But the crowd had stopped believing her.
23:09The mood had shifted from anticipation
23:11to something else.
23:12Everyone was watching the way
23:13you watch someone about to fall.
23:15The last egg split open.
23:16No A-rank.
23:17Not a single one.
23:18One B,
23:1910 C,
23:19and several with no rank at all.
23:21The clan chief glanced at those last few
23:23and 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.
23:37Someone swept them.
23:38This is sabotage.
23:40How exactly do you tamper with eggs?
23:42Cole is a B-rank lionfish merwish.
23:44What were you expecting?
23:45You predicted two days of bad current
23:47and now you think you're the actual
23:48abyss chosen?
23:52My sister had been insufferable
23:53since the Coral Clan elevated her.
23:55People had been swallowing it for weeks.
23:56One voice was enough.
23:58Others followed.
23:59Laughter and mockery
24:00rippled through the reef den.
24:02She'd been treating lionfish eggs
24:03like 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
24:10in four strokes
24:11and grabbed my arm.
24:12You did this.
24:13You switched my eggs.
24:14You can't stand to see me win
24:15so you came in here and switched them.
24:17Give them back.
24:18I pulled free.
24:19Stop.
24:19You accused me of swimming around last time.
24:21Now you're accusing me
24:22of stealing your children.
24:23I was not the only one
24:24in this reef den when you delivered.
24:26Half the Coral Clan was here.
24:27They all saw me.
24:28Ask any one of them.
24:28My sister's behavior
24:29over the past weeks
24:30had burned through
24:31whatever patience 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 would you do it?
24:40One voice, then another.
24:42My sister's composure
24:43snapped completely.
24:44Why does everyone take her side?
24:46Why does she always win?
24:48Just die already, Lyra!
24:54Vayne tide shifted.
24:56The sea dragon hit the seabed
24:57and pinned her in under a second.
24:58He opened his mouth wide.
25:00He didn't get the chance
25:00to follow through.
25:01Someone behind me shouted,
25:03Vayne, get your female
25:05to the reef den right now.
25:06She's in labor.
25:07The next moment,
25:08I was off the seabed
25:09and in his arms.
25:10Vayne swam.
25:11Through the whole labor,
25:11he held my hand.
25:12His brow was locked tight.
25:13He kept telling me
25:14not to be scared,
25:15not to be scared.
25:15His hand was shaking
25:16harder 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,
25:24emitting a low frequency resonance
25:25that shook the reef.
25:26Look at them.
25:28Strong little things
25:29could be A-grade.
25:30Should we have the clan chief check?
25:32No.
25:32I said it before I thought about it.
25:33Vayne and I had already talked about this.
25:35Rank didn't matter.
25:36As long as the hatchlings were healthy,
25:38we didn't care.
25:38Vayne had been cast out of his
25:40birth clan
25:41because of this exact thing.
25:43I didn't want to put that weight back on him,
25:44but I wasn't fast enough.
25:46The clan chief had already come in.
25:47The uratide reader was with him.
25:49The clan chief took one of the hatchlings
25:50and looked it over.
25:51He frowned.
25:53This hatchling is strong,
25:54but there's no rank showing.
25:56I looked at Vayne.
25:57His expression was controlled,
25:58but I saw the old fear underneath it.
26:00It 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
26:09about these hatchlings
26:10the moment I saw them,
26:11and I helped deliver them.
26:12Coral Clang has S-rank Murph in now.
26:15Two of them.
26:18The reef den erupted.
26:19Vayne and I stared at each other.
26:21Neither of us had words for it.
26:22The news spread through the coral clang.
26:24My sister shoved her way
26:25through the crowd today.
26:26She saw the two small
26:28white dragon hatchlings.
26:29She saw the word S-rank
26:30moving from mouth to mouth.
26:32Something in her cracked entirely.
26:35This is a lie!
26:37Lila, how are you getting
26:38S-rank hatchlings from him?
26:39He doesn't even have a rank.
26:41You had to have cheated.
26:42You swam with someone else.
26:44The celebration in the reef den
26:46cooled slightly.
26:47People looked at each other.
26:48They'd forgotten.
26:49Vayne had no rank.
26:50They started looking at me
26:51differently again.
26:52Before a single voice
26:53could speak up against
26:54the Ura Tide Reader
26:55stepped forward.
26:56Vayne has no rank.
26:58That's not possible.
27:00He's an S-rank sea dragon.
27:02The reason the Ura
27:03had agreed to surrender
27:04wasn't just exhaustion.
27:05It was because they'd
27:06watched Vayne in the ambush.
27:09Dragon scale markings.
27:11Tide power wave.
27:13Hatchling resonance cry.
27:14Three confirmations
27:15from ancient records.
27:17No clan with a fighter
27:18like that could be beaten.
27:19That was the moment
27:20people understood.
27:21They'd never seen
27:21a sea dragon before.
27:22The clan chief
27:23had never seen one.
27:24The dragon Tide power
27:25frequency channel
27:26didn't exist in
27:27merfolk biology at all.
27:2860 years of reading ranks
27:29and the channel
27:30simply wasn't there.
27:31He had no way to sense
27:32what wasn't in his range.
27:33Vayne had spent years
27:34thinking something
27:35was wrong with him.
27:36It turned out
27:36the people who judged him
27:37simply hadn't known
27:38what they were looking at.
27:39The Tide Reader
27:40turned to me next.
27:41He studied my face
27:41for a long moment.
27:43This female carries
27:44an uncommon fate.
27:46If I'm reading this
27:46correctly,
27:47she is the Abyss Chosen
27:49reborn.
27:50That landed harder
27:51than the announcement
27:52about Vayne.
27:53A beat of silence.
27:54Then the whole reef
27:55down dropped to their knees.
27:56The Abyss Chosen.
27:58He's real.
27:59The same scene
28:00as last time.
28:00But last time,
28:01people had been uncertain,
28:02only half convinced.
28:03Now, with three S rank
28:05in the same space,
28:06there wasn't a single
28:06person who doubted.
28:07My sister could not process
28:09what was happening
28:09in front of her.
28:10She started screaming
28:11at the crowd.
28:11Have you all forgotten
28:12what she is?
28:13She cheated on her mate!
28:15She has no virtue!
28:18What kind of Abyss Chosen
28:20behaves like that?
28:20A reminder landed.
28:21People shifted uncomfortably.
28:23They remembered
28:23how I'd been driven out.
28:25I turned.
28:26I looked out into the crowd
28:27until I found
28:27the tiger shark merfolk.
28:28Leo,
28:29are you still going
28:30to stay quiet?
28:31He made his choice.
28:32He admitted it.
28:33My sister had approached him.
28:34She had taken one of my
28:35shed jellyfish tentacle filaments,
28:36cut while I slept,
28:37and offered him something
28:38in return for planting it
28:39in his reef den
28:40and backing her story
28:41in front of the Coral Clan.
28:42What she'd offered
28:43was herself.
28:44Cole's face went white.
28:47Selah,
28:47you betrayed me.
28:49No!
28:50Cole, please!
28:51Don't listen to them!
28:52I would never...
28:53He caught her
28:54in his line
28:54and dragged her
28:56into a deep current vortex.
28:57A few days later,
28:58someone found
28:59what was left of my sister
29:00washed back
29:00to the Clan's current line.
29:01Her face was mostly gone.
29:03Only the clothes
29:03made her identifiable.
29:04The Coral Clan heard
29:05that Cole had killed
29:06his own mate.
29:07The Clan Chief
29:07had no choice.
29:08Cole was egg-sized.
29:09As for the hatchlings,
29:10even after everything
29:11their parents had done,
29:12no one could turn away
29:13from children.
29:14The females raised
29:15them collectively.
29:15The males,
29:16led by Vayne,
29:17began pushing
29:17the Coral Clan's
29:18territory outward,
29:19season by season,
29:20year by year.
29:21In a new current season,
29:22the Coral Clan voted Vayne
29:23in as Clan Chief.
29:24I was at his side.
29:26Our two white dragon hatchlings
29:27grew stronger every day.
29:29The morning of the Clan Chief
29:30ceremony,
29:31Vayne sat at the head
29:32of the reef den
29:33and accepted vows
29:34from every male in the Clan.
29:35Coral and Ura both.
29:36One after another.
29:38I watched from the back.
29:39On the surface,
29:40every head bowed,
29:41but I knew what to look for.
29:42The older Coral Fighters
29:43wouldn't meet his eyes.
29:44The Ura males watched
29:45the old Coral Fighters
29:46watching him.
29:47A few of the Coral Elders
29:48pressed their palms
29:49to the seabed too slowly.
29:50They were not bowing to Vayne.
29:52They were bowing
29:52to his S-rank tide power.
29:54The first dispute
29:54came before midday.
29:56An Ura family
29:56had been assigned
29:57a stretch of warm coral
29:58on the eastern current line.
29:59An older Coral Family
30:01said he could come
30:01to the hatchlings.
30:02By the time I arrived,
30:04both males were tide-shaped.
30:05Stand down.
30:07Vayne's voice
30:08cut through the water.
30:09They stood down.
30:10Not because they wanted to.
30:11His tide power
30:12pressed the current.
30:13Later,
30:13in our reef den,
30:14he was still angry.
30:15If I have to do that
30:16every day for a year,
30:17I will.
30:18You can't.
30:20I sat across from him.
30:21Vayne,
30:22listen,
30:23if a clan chief
30:24only rules through strength,
30:25the day you blink,
30:26they will turn on you.
30:27You are not
30:27the great white shark.
30:29You don't have to
30:29lead like him.
30:30He was quiet a long time.
30:32I went back
30:33to the central reef den
30:34before I had to.
30:35Fila's twenty lionfish
30:36hatchlings
30:37were grouped
30:37at the far end.
30:38I counted
30:38because I always counted.
30:40I counted again.
30:41Nineteen.
30:42Worried about the missing
30:43hatchlings
30:44spread by sundown.
30:45He was a rankless one anyway.
30:46That kind doesn't last long.
30:47Better the cold
30:48takes him now
30:49than later.
30:50I made myself
30:50not react.
30:51I asked Vayne
30:52to organize a search.
30:53He hesitated.
30:54Lyra,
30:55even if we find him,
30:56what then?
30:56He's rankless.
30:57He won't make it
30:58through the dry tide.
30:58I looked at him
30:59until he understood
31:00what he had said.
31:00I'm sorry.
31:01That was wrong.
31:02He led the search
31:02to see him.
31:03We found the smallest one
31:04before the night
31:05he reached.
31:05He was caught
31:06in a narrow rift
31:07in the cold air.
31:08The water around him
31:09was cold enough
31:09to slow a healthy adult.
31:10He was alive.
31:11Vayne pulled him out
31:12with blood.
31:13He curled his dragon
31:14warmth around him.
31:16I checked the child
31:17over in our reef den.
31:18No 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?
31:26I didn't answer.
31:27I didn't want to say it yet.
31:28The child slept
31:29for almost a full day.
31:30When his eyes opened,
31:31he looked at me first.
31:32Then at Vayne.
31:33Then at the seabed.
31:34He was so small.
31:35I said,
31:36Are you hungry?
31:36He shook his head.
31:37I waited.
31:38Father told me
31:39to wait there.
31:40He said it like
31:41he was repeating a phrase
31:42he had been told
31:42to remember.
31:44Cold.
31:45Vayne went silent.
31:46Then 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 wind.
31:53I heard him roar
31:54past the outer current.
31:55The water roared twice.
31:56I held the lionfish hatchling
31:58and stroked the back of his head
31:59until his breathing slowed.
32:01By the next morning
32:01we knew the rest.
32:02Cold was alive.
32:03He had survived in the dead spaces
32:05at the edge of the dead current.
32:06He still had what was left
32:07of his B-rank lionfish power.
32:09He was making poison.
32:10He had been creeping back
32:11along the current line at night,
32:12whispering through cracks in the reef
32:13into the central reef den.
32:15He told the lionfish hatchling
32:16that I had killed Selah.
32:17That Vayne had stolen
32:18the clan chief position
32:19that should have been his.
32:20That their mother had died
32:21because of me.
32:22Some of them had listened.
32:23The coral elders
32:24wanted them removed at once.
32:25The Ura Tide reader
32:26said the same thing,
32:27more gently.
32:28I moved all twenty
32:29into the reef dens
32:30closest to ours.
32:31I watched them myself.
32:32The clan thought I was too soft.
32:33Vayne didn't argue,
32:34but his face was tight.
32:36They tried to lure one out
32:37so Cole could plant a message.
32:38What do you think
32:39they'll try next?
32:40I didn't know.
32:41That night I lay awake
32:41listening to the current.
32:43A small sound
32:43near the entrance.
32:44The smallest one
32:45was crossing the floor
32:46toward where my two
32:47white dragon hatchlings
32:48slept curled together.
32:49His hand was closed
32:50around a lionfish spine.
32:52Vayne moved
32:52before I could draw breath.
32:53The dragon hit the seabed
32:54and the lionfish hatchling
32:55was pinned under
32:56one massive claw
32:57before the spine
32:58left his hand.
32:58The spine clattered
32:59against the coral.
33:00Vayne's mouth opened.
33:01The hatchling didn't scream.
33:02He didn't even close his eyes.
33:04My voice was sharp.
33:05Vayne!
33:06Stop!
33:07He didn't move.
33:08His head turned.
33:09Vayne!
33:10I held his gaze.
33:10Look at me.
33:11He stayed still
33:12for a long second.
33:14Then he stepped back.
33:15The hatchling collapsed
33:16against the seabed
33:17and started to shake.
33:18I picked up the spine
33:19without touching the tip.
33:20Why?
33:20I picked up the child
33:21with the other hand.
33:22He couldn't get the sentence out.
33:23He tried three times.
33:24Father said
33:25if they died
33:25you would feel
33:26what mother felt
33:26and he would come back for us.
33:28Lyra,
33:29Selah can't keep them.
33:30Anyone could be next.
33:31No, Selah killed
33:32my ten hatchlings.
33:33Cole watched it happen.
33:34That is what they did.
33:35It is not what this child did.
33:37She brought a poisoned spine
33:38to our hatchlings.
33:39He is barely half a year old.
33:40Cole told him a story
33:41and he believed it.
33:41If we throw them out
33:42we tell our own children
33:43weak children can be thrown out.
33:44I won't teach them that.
33:45One chance.
33:46They stay under your watch.
33:46If anyone tries again
33:47I will not stop.
33:49Agreed.
33:50The 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
33:56of the dead current.
33:58I went still.
34:00There is only part of the currents
34:02this could come from.
34:03A current tear.
34:04Deep enough that the water itself
34:06has gone wrong.
34:06A tear that old
34:07leaks poison into anything
34:09that grows near it.
34:10I sat down on the seabed.
34:11The deep current tear.
34:12The one Selah had pushed me into.
34:14The one I had died in.
34:15The Tide Reader watched my face.
34:17I think he saw something there.
34:18He didn't ask.
34:19Vayne saw it too.
34:20Lyra.
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
34:31against the inner current
34:32the wrong way
34:33the tear opens further.
34:34In open water
34:35it pulls anything close
34:37into 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
34:42three or four days away.
34:43When the warm currents thinned
34:44the tear would already be hungrier.
34:46If Cole pushed on it
34:46during dry tide
34:47he could pull half the new clan
34:48into the dead current
34:49before anyone reached him.
34:51Lyra.
34:52Then I take him
34:52before the dry tide arrives.
34:53Not alone.
34:54Vayne.
34:55He left a poison spine
34:56in a child's hand.
34:57Lyra.
34:57He arranged a child
34:58in a cold rift like a marker.
35:00He is choosing
35:00where you find him.
35:01If you go alone
35:02he 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.
35:10The warm current
35:10around the central reef den died.
35:13Vayne was already moving
35:14toward the outer current line.
35:15I'll stabilize the outer waters.
35:17You hold the reef den.
35:19Go.
35:21I turned to the females inside.
35:23Coral and Ura both.
35:24Their faces were white.
35:28Listen to me.
35:29Every hatchling.
35:30Every one.
35:31We are not separating them by clan.
35:32We are not separating them by rank.
35:34Move them all to the center.
35:35Now.
35:36They moved.
35:36I worked fast.
35:37I knew this water.
35:38I had treated half the coral clan
35:39as their tide healer.
35:40I knew which reef plants
35:41held warmth in their stems
35:43and which coral toxins
35:44drove cold current
35:45back when burnt.
35:46I pulled the warm reef plants
35:47from my medicine stores
35:48and crushed them into the seabed
35:50in a wide ring
35:50around the center.
35:51I burned a thin line
35:52of coral toxin
35:53at the outer edge.
35:55Bring them in.
35:56All of them.
35:58All of them.
35:59The lionfish hatchlings too.
36:01Inside.
36:04The Ura females moved faster.
36:06They had surrendered to Vayne.
36:07They were watching me now
36:08to see what kind of female
36:09he had chosen.
36:10My two white dragon hatchlings
36:11curled near my feet
36:12at the center of the ring.
36:13Outside the ring
36:14a voice carried through
36:15the cold water.
36:16Children.
36:16It's father.
36:18Come out.
36:19Children.
36:20Come out.
36:21Your mother is gone
36:22because of the female in there.
36:24The dragon will kill you
36:25in the end.
36:26Come to me.
36:30You can go.
36:32If you want to go to him
36:33go.
36:34I won't stop you.
36:35I won't hold you.
36:36But before you go
36:39I want to tell you something.
36:41Your mother killed
36:42my ten hatchlings
36:43in my last life.
36:45One at a time.
36:46I held each of them
36:47when they died.
36:51Your father watched her
36:52almost die in labor
36:53and asked me to stay
36:54so he wouldn't have to.
36:55He has never carried
36:56any of you.
36:56He is not coming
36:57to take care of you.
36:58He is coming to use you.
37:00I can hate your mother
37:01and father.
37:02I do hate them.
37:03That is not the same
37:05as hating you.
37:05His eyes were huge.
37:07The three older ones
37:08sat back down
37:09on the seabed slowly.
37:10The smallest one
37:10reached into his tunic.
37:11He pulled out
37:12a second lionfish spine.
37:13Father gave me two.
37:16He said if the first one
37:17didn't work.
37:18I took it carefully.
37:19I set it down behind me.
37:21Outside the ring
37:21Cole stopped calling.
37:22The warm voice was gone.
37:24The water shook.
37:24He was hitting the outer air.
37:26My two white dragon hatchlings
37:27raised their heads
37:28at the same moment.
37:29Their small mouths
37:29were full.
37:30The resonance came out
37:31of them together.
37:32Low.
37:32Pure.
37:32The whole reef den
37:33began to shake.
37:35The twin resonance
37:36traveled.
37:36I felt it leave the ring
37:37and roll outward
37:38through the cold water
37:39in a wave I could not see.
37:40It moved past the current line.
37:41It moved out
37:42toward where Vayne
37:42was holding the outer waters.
37:44I felt his answer
37:44before I heard it.
37:45Far out.
37:46A roar.
37:46Not the kind he used
37:47in the coral clan
37:48to keep order.
37:49The kind I had heard
37:49the first time in the rift.
37:50The roar that said
37:51go away.
37:52He was coming back.
37:52The resonance kept going.
37:53It hit something deeper.
37:54The water beneath the seabed
37:55pulled and then the floor
37:56of the reef den
37:57tilted half a degree.
37:58The deep current tear.
37:59The resonance was widening it.
38:00Cole's attack on the ring
38:02once sharp from somewhere outside.
38:04I pulled the smallest
38:05lionfish hatchling against me
38:06and pressed my hand
38:07over my white dragon
38:08hatchling's mouths gently.
38:09The resonance stopped.
38:10The seabed kept shaking.
38:11Vayne tore through the cold current
38:12and was inside the ring
38:13before I could call to him.
38:15Liar.
38:17The tear is opening.
38:18The resonance reached it.
38:20He turned at once.
38:20Cole was out beyond the ring.
38:22The water there
38:22was already moving wrong.
38:23Cole was on its edge.
38:24His B-rank lionfish
38:25fins flaring.
38:26Vayne bared his teeth.
38:27I will end him.
38:29Vayne.
38:30He looked at me.
38:30Seal the tear first.
38:32His jaw locked.
38:33Then he nodded once.
38:34He moved out
38:35into the spiral
38:35and braced.
38:36If it opens,
38:37it pulls the whole clan in.
38:39Cole won't matter.
38:41His S-rank time power
38:42flared and pressed
38:43against the inner current
38:44of the tear.
38:45The spiral slowed.
38:46I closed my eyes.
38:47I felt for the center.
38:48Something in the dark
38:49called my name.
38:50It was Sila.
38:51I knew it wasn't her.
38:52I knew before I opened my eyes.
38:54The tear was old enough
38:55to pull memory
38:55out of anyone who came close.
38:56It was reaching into me
38:57for what hurt most.
38:58It found everything.
38:59I saw my ten hatchlings
39:00in the reef den.
39:01One at a time.
39:02Their small faces.
39:03Sila's hand on the goal.
39:04I saw myself reach
39:05for the youngest one
39:06to meet.
39:06I saw Sila's hand
39:07on my back
39:07at the edge of the tear.
39:08The push.
39:09I felt the weightlessness again.
39:10The cold.
39:11I could not move.
39:12A claw closed around my arm.
39:13Cold the proper spiral
39:14on the surface side.
39:15You first.
39:16Then him.
39:18Then the children.
39:19The poison on his neck
39:20and the edge of the skin.
39:21He pulled.
39:22The edge of the tear
39:22was close.
39:23The veinsaw.
39:24He tried to come back
39:24through the spiral.
39:25The pressure pinned him in place.
39:26His roar cracked the water
39:27and he could not move.
39:29I looked at Cole.
39:30I was not in the reef den
39:31watching my hatchlings die.
39:32I was here.
39:32In this life.
39:33With my children behind me
39:34and the man who loved me
39:35holding back the dark.
39:36I caught his arm
39:36and turned him toward the tear.
39:38He staggered.
39:39He was lighter than I expected.
39:40Hunger had taken him.
39:42Say it.
39:44Say what you did.
39:45He spat at me.
39:45I pushed him another step.
39:47Say 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
39:57being beneath
39:57that rankless monster.
40:00Aurora split.
40:02Vane broke into the spiral.
40:03His dragon form
40:03filled the space
40:04between me and the dark.
40:05His claw caught
40:06the back of my arm
40:07and pulled.
40:07Cole's grip held
40:08for one stroke.
40:09Two.
40:09His fingers slipped.
40:10No.
40:11The deep current tear
40:12took him without a sound.
40:13Then it was just the tear.
40:14Still pulling.
40:15Still wide.
40:16Vane set me down
40:16on the seabed
40:17and turned back
40:17to 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.
40:23Ura.
40:23All of you.
40:24Into the ring.
40:26Tide.
40:26The older coral elders.
40:27The Ura males.
40:28The females from the reef deck.
40:29The lionfish hatchlings.
40:30Even the smallest one.
40:31Match him.
40:32Push your tide power
40:33into the inner current together.
40:35I pointed at me.
40:35All of you.
40:36Now.
40:38Coral tide power
40:38and Ura tide power
40:39met in the same water
40:40for the first time.
40:41The spiral slowed.
40:42Then it folded inward.
40:43Then it closed.
40:44The seabed was quiet.
40:45The Ura tide reader
40:46was on his knees
40:47breathing hard.
40:47He looked up at me.
40:48This is what
40:49Abyss Chosen means.
40:52Not the 10A level hatchlings.
40:54Not the title.
40:55This.
40:56You gather what was thrown away
40:58and 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
41:05press his forehead down.
41:06No.
41:07Don't kneel to me.
41:08Live.
41:09Don't become your mother and father.
41:11That is all I want.
41:13The dry tide arrived
41:14three days later.
41:15It did not break us.
41:16Vayne 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,
41:21all of them,
41:21coral and Ura
41:22and lionfish,
41:23stayed fed.
41:23My two white dragon hatchlings
41:25opened their thin crests
41:26for the first time
41:27in the center of the warm current.
41:28Vayne sat beside me
41:29on the seabed
41:29and watched them.
41:30His hand found mine.
41:31The new coral clan
41:32truly began.
41:34It had been 30 days
41:35since Vayne became clan chief.
41:36Council ran smooth that morning.
41:38Coral and Ura both.
41:39Nobody dragged their feet.
41:40That night,
41:41Vayne went out
41:41on the perimeter sweep.
41:42He came back
41:43with something in his hand.
41:44He dropped it
41:44on the seabed in front of me.
41:45A scale.
41:46Pale gold at the edges.
41:47The kind of lionfish
41:48merfolk shed when it was growing.
41:49Where did you find this?
41:52Outer current line.
41:53It's fresh.
41:54No more than half a month's old.
41:55The edge was still soft.
41:57Cole was dead.
41:58He'd gone into the deep current tear
41:59and never come out.
42:00We'd held a burial
42:01without a body.
42:02It might be
42:03someone else.
42:04It's his.
42:05I'd know it anywhere.
42:12I'm going back out.
42:13Now.
42:14What?
42:17He was already at the entrance.
42:19I followed him.
42:20The outer current line was quiet.
42:21Vayne stopped where he'd found the scale
42:22and pointed past it.
42:24Something was standing
42:24in the dark water.
42:25A man.
42:26Lionfish fins.
42:27Familiar shoulders.
42:28Cole.
42:29He looked at us.
42:29He didn't speak.
42:30Vayne took one stroke forward.
42:32Cole stepped back.
42:33One stroke.
42:34Then he was gone.
42:35Folded into the dark.
42:38He's not dead.
42:40I looked at the scale in my hand.
42:41Still soft.
42:44Then how?
42:45I don't know.
42:49He's not dead.
42:52Council convened before sunrise.
42:54Vayne laid it out.
42:54The scale.
42:55The figure on the outer current line.
42:56Coral elders muttered.
42:57The Ura tide reader said nothing.
42:59Then a runner came in fast.
43:00Clan chief.
43:01The hatchling reef den.
43:02Someone got past the line.
43:03We swam.
43:04The reef den housing Sela's 20 lionfish hatchlings
43:06was wide open.
43:07The young guard was on the seabed.
43:08Breathing, but out cold.
43:10I counted.
43:1019.
43:11One of the older lionfish hatchlings,
43:13a small female, was 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.
43:26Crying.
43:26No cold.
43:27I picked her up and checked her over.
43:28No bites.
43:29No bruises.
43:29Her fins were dry.
43:30Then I saw it.
43:31A fin mark across the back of her neck.
43:33Hairline.
43:34Like something had touched her there
43:35and left an outline.
43:36The Ura tide reader arrived behind us.
43:38What is it?
43:41It's a tear mark.
43:43Cole isn't just hiding down there.
43:44He's been marking them.
43:45He's running a channel through her.
43:47Through 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.
44:00Bring the others in.
44:00All twenty.
44:01Right now.
44:03The tide reader lined the twenty hatchlings up in the central reef den.
44:07He went down the row.
44:08One hand hovering at the back of each small egg.
44:10The number came back fast.
44:12Eleven 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.
44:19The 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.
44:27Tonight.
44:29The hatchlings were the size of my hand.
44:31Half 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.
44:38I held every one of them when they went.
44:40I'm not handing eleven more to the cold for something they didn't do.
44:44The clan mother.
44:45This isn't about blame.
44:46I don't care what it's about.
44:47Vane hadn't said a word.
44:49The scales were rough along his forearms.
44:50He was holding himself still.
44:52He 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.
44:59Counsel broke.
45:01That 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.
45:14I can't hear it.
45:15But I know.
45:16I put my hand over his.
45:18I know too.
45:19He pressed his forehead into my arm and started to cry.
45:21Outside, the cold current was already pushing at the line.
45:27I made the lock mark by morning.
45:29I 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.
45:41The fourth day, the castle reopened.
45:42Tide reader.
45:43How does a lionfish Marion come back out of the deep current pair?
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.
45:58She died in it.
45:59In the last life.
46:01The room broke.
46:02Voices over voices.
46:03Vayne sat next to me without moving.
46:04He'd known.
46:05I'd told him weeks ago.
46:06He just hadn't expected it.
46:08Set in front of everyone.
46:09The 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.
46:17You don't.
46:18You watch what I do and you decide.
46:20He took it.
46:20He sat down.
46:21The tide reader started to speak again.
46:23He didn't get the chance.
46:23A young runner crashed through the room.
46:26The medicine store.
46:28It's on fire.
46:29We were already moving.
46:30The store was a small reef chamber on the western side of the den complex.
46:33By the time we got there, the inside was a column of heat and smoke through the water.
46:37Every dried plant gone.
46:38Vayne reached into the wreckage.
46:40He came out with half a burnt lionfish scale.
46:42He's inside the lion.
46:45Two seasons of medicine.
46:47Coral resin.
46:48Reef plants from the dead current that took me months to gather.
46:51Dragon warmed binding gel.
46:52All of it gone.
46:54Vayne sent the fighters out to sweep the outer lion crack by crack.
46:57They found the opening.
46:58A narrow split in the western reef.
47:00Half a body wide.
47:01Where the cold current ran in and out.
47:03Coal had been crawling in and out for who knew how long.
47:05Vayne 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 and started sorting through it anyway.
47:19Habit.
47:20My hand brushed the back of my neck.
47:22I stopped.
47:22I felt again.
47:23A line.
47:24Hairline.
47:24Right under the hairline of my actual hair.
47:27Same as the eleven hatchlings.
47:30Keeping close enough to touch me.
47:32While I was watching the fire.
47:33I sat back on the seabed and looked at the ash.
47:36I didn't tell Vayne.
47:37I told myself I'd tell him after the line was sealed and the fighters had stood down.
47:41I told myself I'd tell him in the morning.
47:43That night he came in late and tired and pulled me against him without looking.
47:47His hand slid up the back of my neck the way it always did.
47:50He went still.
47:51His fingers stopped right on the line.
47:52Lila.
47:53I didn't answer.
47:54When?
47:55During the fire.
47:56He sat up.
47:57The water around him went cold.
47:59You weren't going to tell me.
48:01I could feel it on my skin.
48:02I was going to tell you tomorrow.
48:03He didn't speak again for a long time.
48:07By morning Vayne was at the door with two fighters and a med pack.
48:10Where?
48:11I stood up.
48:11The tear.
48:12Vayne.
48:13He won't stop until I make him.
48:15You're not Abyss Chosen.
48:16You can't go in.
48:17I'm not going in.
48:18I'm going to the edge.
48:20Take more fighters.
48:21No.
48:21He'll run.
48:23I caught his wrist.
48:23He stopped.
48:24Come back.
48:25I said.
48:26He nodded once and went.
48:28I 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.
48:38He's hurt.
48:38They're bringing him.
48:39They carried Vayne in across the sea.
48:41His chest was open from collarbone to hips.
48:43Blood was a heavy cloud around him.
48:46I worked on him for two hours.
48:47He didn't lose consciousness.
48:49He kept his eyes on me the entire time.
48:50When I'd closed the worst of it, I sat back.
48:54What happened?
48:55He swallowed.
48:55He waited for me outside the tear.
48:57He let me hit him.
48:58Every wound I gave him closed up.
49:00The water was doing it.
49:02So you stopped?
49:03No.
49:04I kept going.
49:05I'd have killed him eventually.
49:06The water can only do so much.
49:07Then what?
49:08He spoke.
49:09To me.
49:09He said a word.
49:10In a language I don't know.
49:11I waited.
49:12It was my name.
49:13My 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.
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