24
To wear the heartbreak to free it
W e stepped cautiously out of the temple, and reached the crew that was waiting for us outside, the air thick with the scent of salt and damp stone.
Before us, the stairs led down into the water, the last few steps completely submerged, barely visible beneath the dark surface.
From this view, I could see the fullness of Marble’s Rest, ancient, worn by time and tides, and the sea stretched before us like a vast, unknowable creature, waiting.
The heart, true in aim, must sink before it can rise, for only in drowning will the seas be saved, Lady Love.
My heart pounded as I clutched Thalassa’s Veil in my hands. The delicate crystals and stones caught the fading light, casting strange reflections on my face.
I knew what had to be done. A heart must sink. And it had to be me, a daughter of the sea .
I needed to submerge myself with it to unlock the secrets hidden within the veil.
Captain Pierce stood by my side, his gaze fixed on the horizon. “Are you sure this is what you need to do?”
I looked at him, my voice low and trembling. “She told me. Only a daughter of the sea can see through it.”
The crew was silent, waiting. Ela’s brow furrowed as she crossed her arms. “This feels like some twisted fate,” she muttered, glancing at the water. “Do you trust this, Pink Arrow?”
“I trust her. She told me I need to do this, and I trust the sea.”
“Alastair.” Calico’s voice was like a question and a warning, as if he was looking for answers or some other way to do this.
“Legends say that the soul that wears the veil will drown with the weight of the heartbreak it carries within,” said Alastair.
Everyone muttered their disagreements, but I took a step forward, going down one of the stairs that led to the water.
“Donna.” It was the captain’s voice that stopped me.
I looked back and said, with my voice breaking, “A heart true in aim will rise.”
And I took another step down, and then another, the water was already up to my knees and my heart was racing faster.
You must wear it, Lady Love. You must wear the heartbreak to free it.
And when I closed my eyes and raised my arms to put the veil over my head, a scream interrupted me.
“Don’t!” Calico’s voice cut through my every bone .
“You need this map. We have traveled all this way for this, and you knew what was going to happen,” I said with a shaky voice, and took another step forward, the water now by my waist.
“It's an order from your captain!” His voice sounded angry, frustrated and lost, as if he wished this had been another way.
“You can’t order me that!” The water was already up to my chest when I started to put on the veil.
“I’m your captain and I can order you whatever I want. Get out of the water, sailor!” His voice was completely different from the one I knew, and for a moment, I thought about whether he had already experienced a situation similar to this and failed.
“I am a pirate!”
“Donna,” he warned.
“No!” I screamed back. “This is not about me. It’s something greater, a force that not even you can control, Captain. I'm going to get into the water. And please know, all of you, that I did it willingly and unafraid.”
“This is not the time to play the loving hero,” he said, coming towards me.
“No, you stop!” I put my arm forward to stop him. “I do not care if you don't want to understand it, I made peace with this outcome and you must too.”
He was suddenly there, grabbing my arm and clenching his jaw. “There are things you don't know that your Goddess may not have told you, and I don't care if I’m being a bloody selfish idiot right now, but I won't be able to live in peace knowing that you— ”
“The only thing I need to know is that I'm doing this on behalf of something bigger than me, something bigger than us.”
“There’s nothing bigger than us.” He was shaking, and I was now too.
I took a deep breath. “What are you—”
“You don’t understand, I’m begging you to step out of the water and ask your Goddess. There’s something that we cannot control and I am afraid—I’m afraid of not knowing what will become of me if—” He was cutting himself off as if he wasn't able to tell me what he was trying to say.
“Why wouldn’t you just tell me!”
“I can’t!” He grabbed me tighter. “I can’t, damn it!”
“Then please let me do this.”
“You are afraid, I can see it in your eyes, love. Just get out of the water.”
“How could I not be? I am always afraid, not of battle but of what I could become if I lose the part of me that loves. So let me go, or I’ll start losing that part of myself I’ve been fighting to keep alive since you stabbed me in that church.”
His eyes were pure shock and sadness. He started shaking his head, and carefully released me. And when he took a step back, I said, “I'll let you make me walk the plank if I survive this, Captain.”
He swallowed but didn’t smile. “A heart true in aim will rise. And you have the best aim in all the Four Kingdoms of Marethys, Pink Arrow. ”
My lips formed a smile, and his finally did too. And with that last view, I took the final step and drowned.
My breath trembled as the veil settled over my hair, the crystals and stones cool against my skin.
A quiet calm took over, leaving only the pulse of the sea in my ears.
And when I closed my eyes, I saw everything.
At first, it was only darkness. But then, faint glimmers flickered before my eyes, forming shapes—images. They rippled like whispers across the veil, the stones shifting and glowing.
And then, I saw a secret wedding, hidden away in the heart of the ocean.
Two figures standing before each other, their love was palpable, the kind of love that made time stand still.
My heart ached as I felt the weight of their bond, stronger than the currents that swirled around me.
A love I could feel had birthed a gift. Something I couldn’t yet quite see.
And then the vision shifted.
Darkness seeped in at the edges. The air thickened with death as Mornatos entered Thalassa’s life.
I saw the seas boil with storms, monstrous creatures rising from the depths, ships torn apart.
Thalassa, lost in her own waters, pleaded for help from Ventus, the one who had always known the seas as intimately as she did. Because the wind had been kissing the sea since the moment they were created. Because the winds and the seas were long-time lovers.
And then I saw the wedding again, but this time, it was them. Thalassa and Ventus, winds and seas. Together, they crafted a map, the veil I now wore, forged from their love—a powerful, unbreakable thing. A love that had birthed this same map, sealed within the veil, showing the safest paths across the Nine Seas. This was the gift from their love. A gift to sailors, a promise from the Gods.
And then I saw Mornatos. His reign at sea failed because of this union, so his grip on land was tightening, giving rise to the Virelanth religion, twisted priest who spread terror and falsehood about the Gods.
I saw glimpses of the chaos that followed—streets filled with fear, evil churches rising, offerings drenched in blood.
And suddenly, I started feeling the weight of the water. I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t hold it any longer. I had to get out. But I couldn’t. Something was pulling me down. The weight of the veil, the water… I didn’t know. But I was feeling that fear again.
Don’t fret, Lady Love. We are here with you. A heart, true in aim, will rise. Focus your heart, Lady Love. You will rise soon enough.
Her words felt like a breath of fresh air. A beautiful paradox. I felt like I could breathe underwater.
And then, the scene shifted again.
I saw a child. A little boy with striking green eyes, a boy who loved the sea .
Time sped forward. He grew into a man, his heart bound to a beautiful woman with auburn hair…like mine… And I could hear the voice of the man calling her name tenderly, “Donna.”
My breath caught.
I could see that this woman named Donna was pregnant with the man’s child, but trapped in a web of royal lies. She was supposed to marry a King. And then I saw it. A young King Thadrius.
She was supposed to marry King Thadrius, but her heart belonged to the man with green eyes.
The King and the man fought. The clash of their swords echoing in my mind.
And then, The King spat a word, enraged as he banished the man and imprisoned the woman he loved. “Brother.”
The man was a prince. King Thadrius’ brother.
Flashes of desperation.
The prince sailing the seas, rising as a pirate. A well known and very loved pirate.
And then, the vision slowed, closing in on his face as he carried a baby—a girl.
My heart raced. This baby… I was her… I was looking through her eyes.
The prince turned pirate looked down at me, and I could now see his face very clearly.
My father.
Ezequiel Balboa, was the prince turned pirate.
I could feel the tears streaming down my face even underwater .
And then, his voice a ghost in the depths, as he said, “You will be a pirate, like your father… and like your mother always wanted to be.”
The images sped up once more—My father seeking a way to protect sailors from the horrors Mornatos had unleashed again. Desperation led him to Heartbreak Harbor, where he made the ultimate trade. He gave up his most valuable treasure. A baby. Me.
He didn’t get Thalassa’s mark. I did. He gave it to me, hoping I was the one destined to restore the seas.
Tears mixed with the water around me as I saw the final moments of my father’s life. Again.
But now I knew what he was really killed for. Not because he was a thief, as The King proclaimed to the entire Kingdom, but because he loved. He loved the wrong woman and he was murdered by his own brother out of spite.
I saw him returning from Heartbreak Harbor for me. I could see inside his mind, his thoughts of taking me with him to the ocean, of raising me as a lover of the sea because I had a purpose. I needed to save the seas.
He tried to return, only to be caught by King Thadrius. Then I saw it. The noose. The death of the man who had loved both the sea and his daughter enough to sacrifice everything.
And then I heard her voice. Soft, ancient, and filled with sorrow, as if now that I had revealed the secret, she could speak to me from the truth.
Wear the veil every time you need to know the safe way. It is yours now, Lady Love. You were the lost daughter that didn’t know if she belonged to the seas. Now you are the runaway bride who must save them. Your love will save the seas, Lady Love. A heart true in aim will rise.
In that moment, the waters shifted around me, a force unlocking deep within me.
I understood now—my destiny wasn’t just to sail the seas as I once dreamed. I was bound to them, to Thalassa since I was a child. I was meant to save the waters from Mornatos.
But after what I had seen, who would save the land from him too?
My heart thundered in my chest. The water pressed in around me, the ancient currents swirling as if they recognized me now, as something greater.
My fingers tightened around the edges of the veil, its stones still softly glowing with the secrets it had revealed. I had descended into the depths unsure, hunted by questions and the ghosts of a past I hadn’t fully understood. But now, every answer pulsed through my veins. My purpose was clear.
With a deep breath, I let the water guide me upward.
The sea parted slowly, the surface shimmering like glass as I emerged, the veil still draped over my head. My face broke through first, and the air above felt different—heavier, charged with something ancient and powerful. It was as though the seas themselves stilled in reverence.
I had entered the water as a lost daughter. And now, I rose not only as an heir, but as the loving bride Thalassa once was, when she protected the waters with all she had. Love .
The veil clung to my skin, beads of water slipping off the fabric like scattered pearls, each one glinting in the sunlight as though touched by stunned silence at the edge of the temple steps, their faces painted with awe and fear alike. Even Captain Pierce took a step back, as if he were witnessing the arrival of something divine.
My eyes, sharp as the horizon, scanned the faces of the crew before finally settling on the captain.
His breath hitched, his usual smirk replaced by something deeper. The wind picked up, playing with the edges of the veil like it was alive, like Ventus himself was welcoming me back.
I lifted my chin, feeling the shift inside me, like a tide I could no longer resist.
A quiet murmur rippled through the crew, their expressions turning from wonder to devotion. They saw it too.
The veil on my head shimmered, the symbols etched into it flickering faintly, as if Thalassa’s love still lived within its fabric, guiding me, empowering me.
I looked to the horizon, where the sea stretched endlessly, and I knew Mornatos’ curse awaited me out there. But I had no fear. And people listened to the brave.
I would restore what had been lost, and I would bring the death and the waters back into balance.
No matter the cost.