Princess Araxa's Arc

Chapter 5 of 14

Araxa swims through the open water with Tide beside her, watching the kelp forest shrink behind them. The creature she freed is gone and the serpent hasn't returned. She should feel relief but instead there's a weight in her chest that wasn't there before. Ahead, the seafloor rises into a structure she recognizes. A tower of reddish stone with narrow windows, the kind her people built to mark territory boundaries. The stone is carved with the same patterns as her father's hall. At its base stands a monument of three bone spears rising from fused glass, their points sharp and polished. She knows what it means. This marks her father's waters. Home is close. Close enough that she could reach it before the next sleep cycle. Tide flickers bright silver and pulls toward the tower, eager. But Araxa's hands have gone cold. She remembers now what she's been trying not to think about. Her father promised her to Kael before the storm took her. Kael with his trident and his smile that never reached his eyes. Kael who once grabbed her wrist hard enough to leave marks when she refused to swim beside him at a ceremony. Her mother had seen the marks and said nothing. Going home means going back to that. To the marriage her father arranged. To Kael's hand on her arm, on her throat, for the rest of her life. A jellyfish drifts past, its bell glowing blue and pink and purple, tentacles trailing like silk in the current. It's the most beautiful thing she's seen since the storm. These waters are full of creatures like this, things that don't exist in her father's territory. Things she'll never see again if she goes home. She reaches out without thinking and lets one tentacle brush her fingertips. It doesn't sting. The jellyfish pulses and drifts away, and she watches it disappear into the dark. Tide bumps her hand, confused, waiting for her to follow him toward the tower. Toward home. But Araxa turns away from the monument and swims parallel to the boundary instead, following the jellyfish into the open water. She doesn't know where she's going. She just knows she's not ready to stop swimming yet. The tower fades behind them. Tide flickers uncertain, his light dimming and brightening in quick pulses, but he stays with her. Araxa keeps the boundary markers in sight on her left, close enough to find home if she changes her mind, far enough that she's not heading toward it. Not yet. Maybe not ever. The thought should terrify her but instead she feels her hands unclenching, her breathing coming easier. She's bought herself time. Time to decide what home is worth. Time to decide if she can go back to Kael or if there's another way. The water ahead is dark and unmarked and full of things that glow. She swims into it.