Below the water there was chaos. A silent chaos, dominated by the beating of her own heart in her ears. The salt burnt her eyes as she opened them. A play of shadows and silhouettes; everything sinking. 

The power of the maelstrom twisted around her waist and yanked her down with all its might, sucking her to the bottom of the sea along with pieces of torn off wood and the vague outlines of the men she had shared her first sea voyage with.

There was no time to mourn them.

She clawed at the water, kicking and screaming. Out of her mouth came soundless bubbles that stirred the water around her. Every muscle ached, stung even, most of all her upper body, the spot where Billy had banged his hoof into her. She had to continue fighting. Giving up would mean letting the sea take her and failing her mission before it had even properly started.

Prayer was her only answer as the maelstrom swallowed her further. Kindness and her virtuous siblings, Charity and Temperance, wouldn't leave her here to die.

Her head pounded with the same cadence as the beating in her chest. She was tumbling around, her body weightless and useless. The light of the surface grew dimmer. Her lungs throbbed as they fought the urge to gasp for air. 

Even as black and red spots floated before her eyes, she told herself to hold on a bit longer. One more second. Just one more, and then the Gods would come to aid.

Just as she felt her eyes falling shut and braced for death, an unknown force enveloped her. A hand made of water grabbed her by the wrist, and she soared up like an arrow. The Gods were sending her home to her family; she would be reunited with Mother, Father, Charlie, and Ben.

Yet as she broke through the surface, her first reflex was to inhale. It was a breath like she had never taken one before, a gasp of life.

The sky rumbled as she smacked back into the water, not as deep this time. She swam up, barely able to exhale before a violent wave crashed onto her, sending her down once more.

A shadow floated above her head, a large chunk of wood large enough to fit a human being riding the waves. She flailed her arms, trying to grab hold of it, but it was out of her reach.

From above, a greasy hand came for hers. It snatched her up. As she got heaved onto the wood, she embraced her saviour's bony arms and soft words. "I got you. It's alright. It's gonna be alright."

It was Len. He had saved her.

Her muscles trembled as she took shaky breaths, her clothes and hair dripping with water. She had made it. She was alive.

Lightning ripped through the sky as she let go of him. From sheer shock, she nearly lost her balance. Len had scratches all over his face, a deep cut bleeding from his right temple. A piece of wood still stuck out of the wound. But that wasn't what caused her heart to skip a beat: his hair, from his forehead to the tip of his braid was no longer black, but white.

She edged as far away from him as she could. "What are you?"

"Alex," he started, but stopped as a giant wave approached. He stretched his hand and twirled it, the wave parting around them.

"Are you...?"

"It's not important. You're alive—that's all that matters."

"But you are..." The horror of Laneby played in her mind; she couldn't say it out loud. "You can control the water."

"I need to find other survivors." Ignoring her, he peered into the depths of the ocean, his face twitching in pain.

A smaller wave broke over her. There wasn't another soul around but them, dead or alive. Just water and more water. Where the Acedia's Revenge had been now floated pieces of wood and other debris between the foam. No more ship to take her to Mora. No Billy to stand by her side. She was all alone with this Jade Islandic boy; a magician.

Her hand reached for the dagger that Seb had given her. Her bow and quiver full of arrows had been taken by the sea; the weapon with bronze hilt an unexpected survivor, like her. She closed her fist around the hilt. "Did you do this?"

His eyes moved left and right, and back to left, his gaze set at the wild foams churning around them. "Do what?"

"Summon the storm, sink the ship..." The words sounded absurd as she spoke them, but a magician's quarrel with the God of Pride had led to catastrophes before. A magician had burnt down Laneby; it wouldn't be unbelievable if another had done all this to save her and win her heart.

With a loud splash, a body emerged from below. There came no gasping of air, just a second splash that came too quickly to identify who Len had summoned from the deep. The magician boy leant over, moaning in desperation, "No, come back. You can't be dead either."

He leant too far. The makeshift raft toppled, launching the both of them back into the water. Len broke her fall. He sunk deeper, where he got swept away by an underwater current.

As she resurfaced, a wave slapped a gulp of salt water into her mouth. She coughed and heaved, but there was no time left to lose. The raft was disappearing behind a tall wall of foam.

With what she was sure was the last strength left inside of her, she sliced through the waves. As she reached the piece of wood, she plunged the dagger in, securing herself. Her ribs throbbed too much to push herself up.

Catching her breath, she floated on a piece of the stern where Seb's dagger had pierced the Goddess of Lust seducing bare-chested men. Around her, there was nothing but the deep dark blue. The heavens snarled and groaned, bringing forth more rain. 

As if there wasn't enough water already.

"A-lex?" Len's weakened voice came from between the mountains of seawater that rose and fell. "Where... where are you?"

Pride told her not to answer, but pity settled in her stomach. Fox had been a magician too, and she hadn't hesitated for a second when he had been taken by Katla. She wasn't going to repeat the same mistakes, least of all because Len was a magician. It was because of him she was alive.

"I'm here!" she yelled.

The wood cracked, her dagger sinking deeper into the Goddess of Lust and splitting her left side from her right. The part closest to her broke off. Just as she held onto the largest part, the smaller part slipped from under her and drifted away.

"Where? I can't see you!" Len sounded closer this time.

"Follow my voice!" She spat out the salt water before she accidentally swallowed it again. "I'm right here!"

There came a silence that made her fear she was all by herself, that not even a Water Magician could withstand the ruthlessness of the Jade Sea. Then, as the first star appeared on the horizon, Len leapt out of the water and clung to the raft. He was coughing loudly, the waves washing the trickle of blood from his lips. His eyes were turning inward.

She smacked him on the cheek. "Stay with me, Len. Don't leave me..."

"I'm tired... so cold...." His breath hitched as he looked at her. He moved closer to her and laid his hand on her back. "The wood can only bear one of us. You go up."

"I don't need to be on it. We can just stay like this."

"It's a long way to Rollo—the current will lead you there." He reached for the inside pocket of his torn shirt and held out a small bag. "It's the last bit of the Hausa. Search the sea for bottles of palm tears. Don't ever drink seawater. It'll drive you insane."

"But you... you'll come with me." She held onto the bag, yet as he pushed her up, she refused to be aided. "Won't you?"

He coughed and spat out more blood. "My body is broken. My magic depleted. I'll attract the great sharks, the giant squids, or the snaggleteeth. They thrive on the weak—it's a quick snack for them. I'm a sailor and a Water Magician. Dying at sea is like entering the blessed gate of the Heavenly Hall. I'll be reunited with my friends."

"No, you can't. I'm wounded too. I don't know where to go to. I'm all alone. Billy—"

"I have no time. Keep your chest dry and live, Lady Alex. Live for all the lives that were lost today." Blood ran down his cheeks. He grew paler with every ragged breath he took. He grabbed her hand. "I'll help you onto the raft."

While he pulled at one hand, she clawed at the wood with the other. Screaming out in pain, she hoisted herself up. She laid there like a turtle in its shell, her wound still bathing in salt water. "I can't anymore. My ribs—they hurt so badly."

"Kiss me," Len said out of the blue.

"What?" She mustn't have heard that right. He couldn't have said that.

"I can only help you with my magic, but then you must kiss me," he insisted.

"No." 

She wasn't that desperate. Grinding her teeth, she tried to roll over, but sharp pangs prevented her from doing so.

"Is this because I'm a magician?"

"No, you're just looking for an excuse to kiss me." It was half a lie.

His sigh turned into a cough. "You know nothing about magicians, do you?"

"I know they're cunning creatures with great powers. I've suffered at a magician's hands. I know what they can do."

"I know you hate what I am, but... please don't let me have saved you just to become a shark's dinner."

"And how will kissing help?"

"It will make me happy and... regenerate some of my magical energy." He paused, allowing the silence between them fill with the rushing of the waves and the stirring of the wind. Rain fell down, though slower than before. Moaning, he moved to the part of the raft where her head was. "And if not for that reason, then do so to grant the wish of a dying sailor who has never been kissed before."

"How old are you?"

He squinted, pain contouring his face. "I'm two moons shy of my fifteenth birthday."

"I'm thirteen."

"Does this mean you'll kiss me?"

"I can't," she said. He was a stranger after all.

"It's fine... all fine."

His deep brown eyes already seemed lifeless; they were sinking into his skull. The freckles the only colour on his face left. She could hear him breathing heavily. It was a sin to kiss a man you didn't love, but this felt equally bad, like it would haunt her for the rest of her days if she denied him this.

So she pushed her lips against his. Saltier than the Jade Sea though sweetened by the rain. It wasn't unpleasant, nor as strange as when Seb had unexpectedly ambushed her with his love. The world around her stopped moving, Len's taste dominating her senses. Balancing on death's edge, lost in no-man's-land, she craved more. The Goddess of Lust fuelled this primal desire to cling to the living, to not have to face the unknown alone.

He was the first one to retreat. The strands of hair closest to his bleeding forehead were black once more. 

"Don't think of me as your enemy, Lady Alex," he whispered as he brushed his hand over the waves. 

The water lifted her from the raft and turned her around in one smooth motion. Gently, the water below her ebbed away. The pain in her ribs returned tenfold as she got lowered onto the wood. She winced. "I won't, and I'm no Lady."

"You are to me."

Len let go of the raft, his fingers sliding off as he exhaled one last time. He sank down to the bottom.  No shadow or a last bubble of air. The sea too wild to leave a trace of him. She touched her lips. The salty taste of his blood the last thing that remained of him.

She burst out into a flood of tears she couldn't control. She wept for him, for Billy, for Captain Ivar, Jorn, Cici, Krill, Stellan, Fellan, and all the other sailors whose names she had failed to learn. Then she cried because Father was a pirate and Lord Brandon had killed him. She snagged the dagger that laid next to her and clutched to it.

The storm went away as fast as it had come. The waves calmed down, their foam crests cradling her, comforting her. The lost souls twinkled in the heavens along with the Gods.

She went where the raft riding the tide took her, the road ahead marked by the song of the wind and the bobbing of the waves. When sleep overpowered, she did not know, but in her dreams, Nick was the first to appear by her side. His eyes were dark and full of Wrath. Then Lana joined him, shaking her head. King Thomas rose behind his daughter, with Seb lurking from his uncle's shadow.

Simultaneously, they opened their mouths. "Don't you dare return to the Greenlands, horse murderer, pirate heir, magician's lover. You failed us and your mission. Dying is what you deserve, just like your dear old papa."

She shot up right away, panting heavily. Her ribs protested right away. Water. Nothing but water. No land in sight, nor a bird in the sky.

The Gods hadn't saved her to condemn her to death now. Unable to catch any more sleep, she stared at the cerulean sky and watched the sun travel from east to west, always shining and burning her skin. She kept her hands in the water (one armed with the dagger, in case the sea predators came after her), praying for land, rain, or a bottle of palm tears.

No one answered her prayers. Her throat turned drier than sand, her lips became chapped. She was incredibly thirsty. All she could taste was salt: the salt of her tears, the sweat on her forehead that she tried to drink, and the salted meat that Len left her. The little saliva she had left tasted saltier too.

Just as she was losing her consciousness, something slid across the dagger's blade and bumped against her hand. It was a silvery grey fish with black spots and giant white eyes.

Without giving it a moment's thought, she sank her teeth into the fish, tearing the flesh off the dagger with a slight shake of her head and feasting on the slimy juice. When she was done, she cast the bony remains back into the ocean.

It hadn't been enough to quench her thirst.

She scoured the water for more fish, but felt restricted by both the pain in her ribs, a pounding headache, and the instability of the raft. Day turned into night, and with the stars came a cooler breeze that would hopefully bring rain.

The urge to drink was all she could think of. Two times over she turned her head, laughing to herself. All this water and none of it was drinkable. The third time she was not as strong. She opened her mouth and took a few hasty sips. The taste was awful but not as bad as the constant thirst.

At first nothing happened; she even felt slightly better.  Then she found herself off this world, strapped to a long table with invisible yet unbreakable chains. Voiceless ghosts of those who had died flickered for brief seconds before dissolving into thin air.

It couldn't be a dream. Her eyes were wide open. 

Then her father approached, the claws of Lord Brandon's supposed bear attack had ripped his face open; one eye and half his nose were missing. He towered above her, inspecting her hands and legs; the wound on her chest. He pressed it. She couldn't breathe. 

A crooked smile appeared on his mangled lips. He whispered, "When cannon balls shatter and lances are drawn, my little sparrow must choose her true home."

When she woke up, she was no longer at sea.