[ChicletPrime]

i am aghast. i did not expect that. AT ALL.

• the sound of waves crashing on a shore, but i'm back in the palace.
  
• "I dreamed a long dream. No gray waves, no lonesome islands. A desert of blue - I think if the desert is azure, it ought to look like the sea. In boundless blue, a young man, the God of the Sea, holds a girl's hand. They walk to the horizon. The God of the Sea gestures for waves to bloom under the girl's feet. Fish swim. White gulls circle overhead and sing as they land on her shoulder. To the God of the Sea, this is the happiest day of his life. And when he kisses her, he devotes the entire ocean to his beloved."
  
• Waking up from my dream, I don't recall how the God of the Sea appeared.
  
• oh. Natasha. yeah. i do seem different, don't i? 
  
• i am not sure why either. did i misplace something? 
  
• time skip? 
  
• i ask if Natasha knows who gifted me the fish in my rooms. she says "Your Highness' most important person."
  
• time skip?
  
• why am i by the lake again? Natasha is distraught by it. yet i have feel i have walked on this peaceful surface before.
  
• (i double dog dare me to try)
  
• oh. oh, no. i actually did step in. my feet are submerged in water, the impulse was so strong. 
  
• time skip
  
• my life is calm and boring yet i have no will to leave the palace. a dark shadow is burning my heart like a flame.
  
• (THE WOMB TATTOO. sorry. just thought of that.)
  
• falling into this abyss, i am slowly being eaten away.  Natasha tries to convince me to see a new development in the city. the guards have found the enemy's base.
  
• that was my thought too!  "The enemy?"
  
• ah, the Lemurians responsible for the recent assassinations. The king wants to capture them all and leave them to dry in the desert. Natasha thinks {he wants to do it} because their ultimate plan is to awaken the seas, even though they have long since dried.
  
• "To awaken the seas," I say slowly. Then: "Where's Rafayel?"
  
• oooh! i am stunned the moment this name drops from my lips. howso is this so familiar? 
  
• Natasha thinks that was the name of the young Lemurian boy i was gifted as a child.  within my mind, something bursts forth like a butterfly from a cocoon.
  
• I go to my pillow and from underneath it bring forth... "The Fishtail Beacon?!" Natasha exclaims. hey. Nat. how do YOU know what this thing is?  well, she recognizes it as a Lemurian weapon.
  
• it's ... reminding me of things. when i saw it on my balcony.  a note i was waiting for. a cut line in my palm. and.. "I'll be able to sense Your Highness' presence, holding it like this." 
  
• Tinkerbell, I believe!
  
• Natasha, I have an important meeting today. Clear my schedule. No, the slightly glowing weapon in my hands has nothing to do with this. Bring me my nice city slippers.
  
• oh. finally i do something appropriate and hug Natasha for all she'd done for me over the years. 
  
• i pay no attention to the city, once the object of all my wishes. i run through the streets, grasping the beacon. i don't realize my hand is bleeding.
  
• everything i've forgotten is a dream left behind in the Island of Songs along with the burnt remnants of the ancient Lemurian prophecy. I am a dreamer waking up from her dream. I remember everything.
  
• "Rafayel you have to wait for me!" 
  
• the beacon glows but i'm too busy to notice.
  
• Amund and Rafayel wait at the city's edge. Amund remarks that Rafayel is the first God of the Sea who dared rewrite the Tome. (is that approval or censure I hear?) "Refusing to take her heart, Your Quintessence's life must burn away. Your..."
  
• "What matters is our opportunity to return home."  
  
• eh? 
  
• oh ... no? this is seems like very much an OH NO moment but i'm willing to hold out hope.
  
• "A sensation akin to sprouting vines slowly climbs from his heart, ensnaring his very soul." 
  
• pain sound. i do not like the pain sound.
  
• Amund, bright eyed Elder spots the glowing Fishtail Beacon. "Didn't your Quintessence say the bond was destroyed?"
  
• I AM GREATER THAN ANY TRITE ELEMENTAL BOND, BITCH
  
• "Rafayel turns back. Among the humans, he can only see a disheveled white robe. She is a butterfly, or rather a silvery white fish swimming towards him."
  
• "How...?"
  
• I LOVE YOU RAFAYEL DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT ME I DIDN'T PACK ANYTHING BUT MY DEVOTION I HOPE THAT'S OKAY
  
• i mean
  
• uh
  
• i skid to halt somewhat near the object of my utmost desire. "You're going to abandon me and leave alone?" I cry for gods and the heavens and half the city street to hear in my best harridan voice. "If gods do exist in this world, then Rafayel, you must be the worst one." 
  
• sing it, sister island song
  
• "How could you leave your follower behind?"
  
• i'm not crying, you're crying. its all onions here.
  
• "You also promised to show me the sea. I am not the one who easily forgets." 
  
• your honor, i would like to enter into evidence that my client has good intentions but seems incapable of honest self reflection
  
• Rafe: "Do you even know where we're headed?"
  
• nope. don't care neither. i... forgot a waterskin. you have more, right? 
  
• aww. "Our vow is eternal. You'll have to do more to be rid of me."
  
• "You've decided then?"  He helps me mount the white camel, sliding into place behind him. "I may actually take your heart." 
  
• IN MATRIMONY. and possibly some bedtime shenanigans, but i'm willing to be patient if you need to work up to it.
  
• "I told you before. If you are a god who can claim my heart, then... claim it. Take me away." 
  
• yay!
  
• ooooh
  
• we ride off on the white, divine camel. deep in the palace, the little blue fish slowly turns to a silver scale and sinks to the bottom of the glass bowl.
  
• Philos' seas have dried up for 30,000 years. The prophecy of gold has faded. Maybe there will never again be churning rivers or boundless seas. The Princess with a god's heart, the God of the Sea who saved her - the Lemurian who rescued her from a cage time and time again... they will meet once more."
  
  
• "Rafayel, where are we going?"
  
• "Didn't you want to visit the sea? We'll head to Whalefall City."
  

And I earn the title of Princess!