My body is cold. AmIdead? Is nothingness all there is, or am I lost?
Something’s pulling me down, over a chair, and there’s something around me, around my head. I want to push it, but cold hands stop me.
I open my eyes and find myself lying on a long chair, with weighted cuffs on my legs and waist.
I’m still underwater. Around my nose and mouth, something made of leather, something… with air.
The Sea King sits by me, his lower body a fish tail.
Exactly the fae I wanted to see.
“What happened?” I ask.
The king tilts his head. “You defeated the kraken, but then almost drowned. There are easier ways to request an audience with me, did you know that?”
“Not really. And it’s an emergency.”
The corners of his eyes tighten. “I should have sensed you earlier. My apologies. What is it?”
“How’s the kraken?”
“Alive. Recovering. Like you, I suppose.”
I look around me and see that we’re in a chamber with walls made of polished stone and a circular door, now closed.
“Are we alone?” I ask.
“Yes. What brought you here?”
I realize I never planned what to say or how to ask him for what I need, so I approach the subject carefully. “That day, when you came to the boat, you were looking for someone from the Sea Court, right?”
“Indeed.” He eyes me carefully.
“I believe she might be someone… you care about.”
His body stiffens at once. “What makes you think that?”
I’m not sure if I should skip all that and ask for the Pearl of Healing straight away, but I don’t think he’d give it to anyone. I need to explain why I think he might want to save Lidiane.
“She’s a sea fae, and was told never to go near the ocean.”
“But she did.”
“I didn’t know that. We were escaping. I was the one who brought her to the sea with no warning. She grew up in the Crystal Court, raised by a seamstress, after her mother was assassinated by the Sea Court. She mingled with the lower fae, stayed far from the shore, and that’s how she survived.”
“What was her mother’s name?”
“She never told me.”
The king frowns.
I continue, “She was on the boat that day. I hid her, but you… sensed her. I believe you know who she is.”
The gills on his neck open and close, as if he was taking a deep breath. “My daughter. I felt the connection. Despite everything, she’s mine.”
My suspicions were right, then. I breathe a sigh of relief in this strange tube, then ask, “And yet you never tried to find her?”
The king closes his eyes and shakes his head, visibly distressed. “I didn’t know she was mine. Everything led me to believe she was another man’s. But when I sensed her that day, not only did I recognize her, I realized that my son had been looking for her, probably under his mother’s orders. They’ve always known.” He lets out a bitter chuckle, then looks at me and frowns. “Howcould they know? It’s why I didn’t try to find her after that. I feared I would endanger her. Even some of the subjects I believed most loyal turned out to be loyal toher.”
