The ship groaned underfoot, wood threatening to give beneath the weight of each step. Tables and chests were lightly coated in dust, suggesting perhaps a few weeks but no longer.

Kealie held onto the thick beams along the wall, sure to test every place she walked before following through. The oak pricked her fingers as they slid from plank to plank, the old, damp surface splitting from the wreck.

"What happened here..." she murmured to herself.

The whispers intensified, brushing into the air like evaporating steam. Thousands of tiny ghosts drifting up, flickering over Kealie's eyes, a vision fading in and out.

Wreckage. Fatality.

The storm.

She felt the wind slicing against her cheeks from the sheer cold, saw boards snapping and falling into the water.

Millions of images fluttering through her mind all at once.

And then nothing.

Kealie gasped for air and braced herself on the table, taking deep, drawn out breaths as pain radiated through her.

She didn't understand.

It was not her choice, the voices were showing her. Speaking to her.

Chanting in her ears.

Louder and louder.

An uproar of screaming voices refusing to be silenced.

She had to get out of here.

Kealie started running back the way she came, sliding past fallen beams and keeping her knees high as she cleared the wreckage. She ignored the groaning and creaking, launching herself for the gaping hole she'd crawled in through.

Her eyes locked onto the first cleaving in the floor, the length of a royal carriage and took a deep breath.

She just had to be fast enough.

Jump high enough.

So she gave everything she had to that final leap.

Kealie kicked her legs out in front of her, aiming to land on the nearest lip of jutting wood. Only one took hold. The rushing weight of her body snapped the plank like a twig, gashing her cheek and forehead with force.

The pain piercing her skull was unbearable.

She lost seconds of time to the darkness.

She barely felt the water swallow her frame, cradling her arms and legs. The cold waves held no temperature at all, her eyes open in thin slits.

Everything was dark.

Don't breathe.

Can't breathe.

Her arms twitched at her sides as she willed them to move. To swim. They paddled intermittently, the ringing in her ears turning into an alarm.

The wretched human lungs she was cursed to bare began to burn, her vision fading into the static blue.

Kealie pushed herself, flailing, shoving her legs through the water and gaining traction.

She was able to break through, taking in every bit of air she could get down and throwing her arms out.

Fingers grazing the boards above her, Kealie kept treading the water. Each time she came close to getting a hold.

Her hand found a plank, latching on and giving her legs a moment to rest. Kealie's soaking clothes became cement heavy, trying to suck her into the depths. Giving everything she had left, she swung up her left arm and pulled.

She made it up to her chest, eyes level with the floor, but the wood groaned against her.

Kealie shifted her body against another plank, trying to distribute the weight quickly.

But It snapped.

She fell straight back into the water, the wood landing on her head and neck.

Everything slowed around her as she slowly realized there was nothing left to tap into. Not in this weak, fragile human body.

Kealie closed her eyes and considered all her options. Everything led back to that castle or to her demise.

And for just a moment, the latter sounded sweeter.

So Kealie smiled slightly and took a deep breath.

And the world went black as water filled her lungs.

~~~~~~

Darkness was a strange, dense sensation. Lead flowed through every vein and muscle, sand encasing every limb. Kealie couldn't move, couldn't breath. There was only this sensation of being without gravity.

Both solid and empty.

She felt her chest convulsing as if it were an out of body experience. Deep, swift pumps repeating against the underside of her sternum.

One, two, three.

Something rose in her throat, burning and choking her. Another set of pumps forced her head to the side, throwing up the sea salt and bile hiding within her.

Kealie's eyes crossed before opening to the blurry figure above her.

At first she could only focus on the rippling sandy brown hair and the enchanting blue and gold scales lining their hairline. The pointed features, like curved ears and sharp bone structure swaying in and out of focus. Then the way their cropped hair fell just over those jade marine eyes came to life.

Kealie coughed, taking in the deepest breaths she could manage. Her voice came out raspy and uncertain, but there were no words, only broken sounds.

"Easy now," he said, his tone gentle and soothing. "You were under for a long time, I didn't actually think you'd wake up."

"How did..." she coughed "...you find me?"

The Nerydian male looked out towards the sea, eyes clouding as he squinted. "It's hard to miss the sound of someone drowning," he said.

Kealie shook her head, still choking down full gasps of air. "No... Not it..."

"You've known me for two seconds and you already think I'm lying? I just saved your life."

Immobilizing shivers took over Kealie's body, her teeth beginning to chatter uncontrollably. "N-not lying... Con-f-fused.."

"I don't understand," he muttered, brows furrowing. "They came to save you..."

Kealie blinked more water from her vision, focusing in on the man before her now. She noticed the way he seemed lost in thought, in consideration, and tossed a glance to the sea.

There, two small draconian heads bobbed above the surface, tails wagging in and out of the waves.

Leviathans.

Kealie swallowed roughly, eyes wide.

No wonder the Nerydian male was so confused.

One, a female with gorgeous crystalline scales, arched her head back and let out a small, sweet cry. It echoed through the space between them and into her chest.

For just a moment, Kealie forgot about the miserable cold, and smiled.

She ached to take off the stupid necklace, to claw the elixir from her veins as if it were possible. She ached to sing to them.

And yet even in disguise, they recognized her.

"What are you...?" he asked, a whisper to himself.

Kealie tried to answer, her lips parting only to remember how truly frozen she was. Bound by magic and conscience not to mention even a word.

Instead her teeth chattered and her body wracked itself with shivers.

Every time she went to speak, she failed.

"-oh, nevermind. We need to get you warm, fast..."

She couldn't argue as the tall man scooped her off the sand and jolted her into his arms. She felt feather light, his arms steadfast and strong around her.

Immortal strength, she realized.

"W-where are we going?" Kealie demanded, teeth still clacking together.

"Care to give me a destination?" he asked, half-smirking down at her.

It was then that Kealie's eyes and brain began to communicate in a strange whirlwind of memories and emotions. When she stared at the man holding her, his golden skin and scales, the information punched into her gut the way that elixir had all those years ago.

Many Nerydian's bore scales, but most were green and orange or sometimes shades of purple.

Never since had Kealie seen bright gold and blue scales since they were on her own face.

"Uh..." she fumbled over the words on her tongue. "I..."

"I guess I could always let you freeze to death on the shoreline..." he chuckled, still walking up the path I'd come from. His grip didn't waver. He had no intention of leaving me behind. "I don't know much of hypothermia, but I've been told it's an unpleasant way to go."

Kealie huffed a frozen laugh, her breath frosting the dusk air.

She knew she could chuck her necklace into the ocean, forfeit both the life she knew and the one once offered to her, and at least pass away more peacefully than this hellish cold. But Kealie couldn't bring herself to even lift her arm.

Instead she thought back to that stormy night, being dragged to Natansia in the dead of night. After drowning three sailors for stabbing a Leviathan on the coast of Luverie.

They were the monsters, not us.

Those were Naida's words.

But casualties were casualties and her fateful visit with the Castor had...

Kealie blinked, looking up at her rescuer.

"How far away is Natansia?" she asked, her voice a wavering, but solid gravel now.

The male snorted. "Do you have a death wish I don't know about?"

"It's the only place I'll be safe..." Kealie murmured, meeting his eyes.

He seemed to catch the meaning in her stare, the truth, because he did not question her again. Instead he adjusted Kealie's body ever so slightly and began the silent march to Natansia.

The home of many Nerydian's.

As well as the Caster.

Word Count: 1,513 Total Word Count: 4,983