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Clara awoke with an ache in her back and a hazy sense of frustration lingering at the edges of her memory. The faintest ray

of light was shafting down from the crack far above her. The chill had returned, and she shivered, rolling over to find Maurits

and any warmth he might offer her. Falling asleep in Maurits’s arms been transcendent. There was a hot, fluttery feeling in

her chest that was dangerously close to what she thought must be love. For love was a double-edged sword, a driving force

that told her she must act to save those she cared about, as well as a drowsy sort of luxury that she wanted to wrap herself

in. And she did not have time for the latter.

But as she reached over, her hand only met with the soft crunch of more seaweed. Maurits was not there. Thinking he must have

gone to fetch something for her to eat, she took the time to comb her hair and lay out her clothes to dry. Anything to keep

her hands busy, her mind occupied so that she could not dwell on what was to come next.

The light grew stronger, and still Maurits did not return. She paced the rocky ledges as much as they allowed, willing herself

to remain calm. Perhaps he had ventured back to land, trying to find something he knew she would like to eat, perhaps he had

been waylaid by Neese or another friend. If there was a more sinister possibility for his disappearance, she tried not to

let herself dwell on it.

She had resigned herself to her fate, and the delay was a cruel prolongment.

But whether Maurits was here or not, she would still go through with it.

She would wait until the light was at its highest peak, and if he had still not returned, she would slip into the water and let it take her as it would.

The spiritual rapture she had never experienced in church washed over her now, as she felt the overwhelming need to pray to

something, to someone. She poured out her heart between sobs, begged for forgiveness for whatever sins she had committed,

wished that there was more time, not to delay her death, but to map out the love she held for Maurits in her heart. To die

with regrets, even if it was honorably, was a punishment beyond all cruelty. She had always assumed that there would be time

to forgive him, to come to terms with all the hurts. Which meant that somewhere deep in her heart, she knew that all was absolvable,

that he was hers.

The light above was piercing through the crack, shafting down in a sharp line. Her knees were sore and bloody from kneeling.

But before she could get to her feet, there was the sound of water splashing. She cried out in relief. Maurits was back, and

she would not have to go alone. But the heads that surfaced were slick and scaly and full of sharp teeth.

The basilisks gave a hiss of greeting, then began circling below her. “You came back.”

“Foolish little girl.”

“Did you think that you could solve yourself what has been wrought by centuries of wrongdoing?”

“How human to believe that a solution could be reached by one creature itself.”

She ground her teeth. “Where is he?” she asked.

The creatures continued circling.

“What about Neese?” she asked. “Surely she can find him?”

“The nixie?”

“She is gone.”

“Thade found out that she was carrying messages to the prince.”

“So he took her as well.”

“Took her away.”

Clara didn’t want to consider what might become of the nixie at the hands of Thade.

“Where is Maurits?” she asked again. “I know you know.”

“He has gone,” they said in cold unison.

Clara had been expecting as much, but the finality in their words still made her head go light. “Gone where?”

“Deep.”

“Very, very deep.”

She had thought herself past the point of feeling anything besides numbness, but the basilisks were driving her to madness

with their evasive replies.

Clara dug her fingernails into the damp stone behind her, forced herself to drag in a deep breath. “What has he done? TELL ME! ”

The basilisks finally stopped their circling, and seven pairs of black marble eyes blinked back at her. “Come, look at what

his love for you has done.”

They arrived at a palace in chaos.

The basilisks had towed her along, depositing her in the throne room. Doors to chambers stood ajar, furniture was upturned.

Merfolk were hastily throwing belongings and treasures into trunks, barely sparing her a glance as they shot down the halls

and out into the deep.

Clara turned to ask the basilisks what was happening, only to find that they had disappeared and she was alone with Thade and a flurry of harried advisors.

This wasn’t how she’d imagined her next and last encounter with Thade.

She had thought that there would be a sort of calm that would fall over her, a sharp clarity that would guide her to her fate.

There would be a final, beautiful farewell between her and Maurits, and all grievances would be forgiven.

She would be brought before the king, bow her head, and she would be enveloped in serenity as she stepped into the unknown.

“I’ve come...” Clara started, her words no match for the overlapping chorus of frantic voices.

Thade looked up from the scroll in his hands.

She tried again before she lost her nerve. “I’ve come to offer myself as penance. To fulfill the terms of the bargain so that

there will be no need for a flood.”

He looked at her as if he had forgotten who she was. “What? What makes you think that is how it works?”

She had no time to form a response, for an advisor was immediately in Thade’s ear again.

He gave an irritated wave. “Yes, yes,” he told the merman. “Have the spear division ready for fortifying the palace.”

The advisor gave a short bow and left. Thade shifted his tail to legs, strode to the throne, and sat heavily in it. Behind

him, Maurits’s voice hovered in its bubble. Thade looked about the room for a moment, before finally setting his gaze on Clara

again. He gave a weary sigh. “Do you know what he has done? Do you know how—how fucking stupid your lover is?”

Heat rushed to Clara’s cheeks, and she shook her head, both desperate and afraid to know.

“He enlisted the help of a dire whale to escape,” the king said, in a tone that told her that whatever a dire whale was, it

was not good, not good at all. “The very same whale that I had guarding him—the mercenary creature! And then if that was not

enough, he bargained away his life in exchange for the toppling of the whole fucking kingdom.”

The room went fuzzy at the edges. Green algae pulsed and flickered, alive.

No, he wouldn’t have done that. Maurits might have been impulsive and cocky, but he wouldn’t have sacrificed himself.

Not without telling her first. Not without saying goodbye.

All the times he had deceived her, and this cut her the hardest. She struggled to make sense of it.

How could the kingdom topple? What did that mean?

She supposed if there was no Water Kingdom then there was no need for the bargain to be fulfilled; there was no flood.

Would Maurits have truly allowed the entire kingdom to crumble, just to spare her life?

A low, piercing wail echoed through the hall, and everyone went still, from the frenzied servants and advisors, to Thade who

had been slumped in his seat. The hair along the back of Clara’s neck lifted, and suddenly, being in this room with Thade

seemed like the safest place she could be. For whatever was out there , was not something that she could explain. The cry came again. None of Helma’s stories could have prepared Clara for the

deep sense of wonder and sadness that ran through her. It was mournful and terrible and achingly beautiful all at once.

“Five centuries the dire whales have haunted the darkest depths, and left us to our own devices,” Thade said to seemingly

no one in particular. “And with one reckless bargain, he has undone it all. Do you know what that means?” he asked, pinning

Clara with his steely gaze. Her mouth too dry to answer, she just shook her head. “It means that there will be no more Water

Kingdom. The throne will be destroyed, and chaos will reign. There will be no one to keep the humans in check. It is what

the dire whales have always wanted. Free reign of the waters. Chaos.”

Clara thought of the gentle whale that had escorted her and Neese to the queen. She thought of the dead whale on the beach.

Could a dire whale truly be so very different from the creatures she had encountered? But it didn’t matter. Maurits had charted

a course for destruction of his world, all so that she would not be beholden to the terms of the bargain.

“I can see from your face that you did not know he was planning this. After all the lies and deceptions, I wonder if you can ever forgive him for this final betrayal? Although I suppose he will be dead, so it matters little.”

“He is your brother,” she forced herself to say, shocked at the indifferent cruelty of his words. “How can you bear to speak

of his death?”

“Because the Water Kingdom is bigger than him, bigger than either of us or our mother!” Thade said, exploding off his seat.

“Long after we have succumbed to the tide, the kingdom will remain. If I can speak about his death without shedding a tear,

it is because we were born to serve a cause greater than ourselves. That is what you humans fail to understand. You think

only of your worldly pleasure, and dress it up in the name of Church and God so that when you die you are absolved of your

responsibilities. But you leave behind a world rotting with disease, crumbling from greed. Is it any wonder that the wealthy

burghers gambled away the futures of their children? What did they care for what comes after them? They bear no effects of their actions. They have their worldly spoils, and then they are dust.”

At some point in Thade’s speech, all the advisors and guards and other creatures had disappeared, leaving the throne room

in echoing silence. The whale called again, closer this time, vibrating the ground and shaking loose pearls from the pillars.

Thade lifted a heavy head. His gray eyes had gone dull. “I would leave now, if I was you. It will be here soon, and it is

ravenous.”

“Where would I go?”

The corner of Thade’s mouth kicked up in a weary smile. “Isn’t that the grand question of our time? Where to go, where to

go. Go back to land, and pray that the dikes hold, that the dire whales do not send a flood of their own. Or stay in the water,

adapt as we did, until eventually there is nothing left. It hardly seems to matter.”

The shaking grew closer, more rocks and coral coming loose and scattering into the water.

Had Maurits really died for this? It seemed a poor trade, his life for more destruction.

Perhaps he thought it bought both worlds more time.

Perhaps he had only been thinking of her, blinded by a love that she was only now beginning to grasp.

Now she knew how he had felt watching her agree to go to her death; rage, helpless rage.

There was an explosive crash, and then the whole facade of the throne room was caving in. Clara dropped to her knees, covering

her head. A few small rocks grazed her, one slicing down her arm and drawing blood. So this was how it would end. She braced

herself for everything to go black, to be smothered and crushed, her breath stolen in the end not by water, but by the crumbling

palace.

But no blackness came, and the stones settled, miraculously avoiding her. All went deathly still.

“So,” came Thade’s quiet voice, “you found a bargain better to your liking from my brother.”

He was not speaking to her. Just an inch, Clara lifted her arm so that she could see the recipient of these words.

In her mind, she had pictured a whale, bigger and more fearsome than anything she had ever seen before. Large, gnashing teeth,

and serpent eyes. But the creature that had come through the wall and was now floating amidst the destruction had none of

those things. It was large, but so had been the whale that had escorted Clara and Neese before. Continents of barnacles clung

to its back and its fins, tendrils of seaweed crowning its head. Its eyes were cloudy, its flesh cross-hatched with healed

scars. It was old, so old. Clara felt as if she should prostrate herself before this ancient being, beg its forgiveness for

trespassing in its domain. But she was frozen to the floor, too awed to do anything other than watch this final moment play

out.

Yes , came a voice, echoing both inside Clara’s head and the crumbling hall. A kingdom falls and a people rises. It is a good trade. A fair trade.

Thade’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the arms of the throne, but he did not shrink back, and Clara could not help but admire

him for his conviction. Had she been in his place, she did not think she could have suffered being the sole object of the

dire whale’s attention. “I was born to sacrifice my life for this kingdom.” He rose, his jaw locking. “Get it over with.”

The dire whale said nothing, its cloudy eyes tracking Thade’s every movement. Then it opened its creaking jaw. The groan was

low and long, and Clara felt it in her teeth, her hair. Closing her eyes, she put her hands over her ears, but it did nothing

to stop the sound from crashing around her, through her, like a wave.

When at last the terrible roar had died away, Clara chanced to open her eyes again. The whale was still where it had been,

but Thade was gone. His crown lay at the foot of the crumbling throne.

There will be balance. There will be peace , came the dire whale’s disembodied voice.

The dire whale slowly, slowly turned back the way it had come through the wall, but not before fixing her with its cloudy

stare that seemed to see right through her.

There will be no revenge. Let this be the end of it.

And then it was gone.