Epilogue
Carnaxa
Present
The prophecy will come to pass. It has to.
I don’t have any control over fate at this point, but I can try to have influence, even from the other sidie.
But even now, I wish I could do things differently.
I didn’t know what else to do, but I wouldn’t have put her in the middle of this if I knew what was to come.
But I have faith that when I give Natala, the journal today, she will find the time to give it to my daughter.
Then the pieces I’ve laid for her – the mountain and the valley – will lead to everything coming together again.
I know one day, all will be well. I love you, Carnaxa. ”
Iclose my mother’s journal, tears flowing around me, masked by the surrounding water. The leather-bound tome feels heavy in my hands.
Mother’s words echo in my mind. Her journey. Her love for Thesix. Her confrontation with Khaysus. All of it leading me – us – to this moment.
I trace my fingers over the book, feeling the words pulsing with her magic. My tail flicks instinctively, sending me in a slow spiral through the water. My blue and gold scales catching what little sunlight penetrates this deep.
“Carnaxa?” Siphonie calls, her beautiful pink tail propelling her toward me through a school of luminescent fish that scatter like stars.
I clutch the journal to my chest. “I finally read it.”
Siphonie’s eyes soften as she smiles at me. “And?” She knows how much this meant to me, to understand more of my life.
“I found more questions,” I admit, feeling the weight of my crown as it shifts slightly with the current. “But also, strength … and answers.”
She nods in understanding, her belly swollen now with child. “And what shall we do?”
“Soon …” I straighten, “I’ll contact Thylas and try to take the darkness from him, take him away from Khaysus’ hold.”
“And Ereon?” She asks, her voice dropping to a whisper.
I feel that familiar ache, the pull towards him, but I can’t leave my people.
He would respect that request, even though the first few days Siphonie and Rhenor had to hold me from leaving.
I know he is out there in the seas. I would know if that ripple had been severed.
He once waited for me, and I will do the same.
“We continue searching,” I say with more certainty than I feel.
I tuck Mother’s journal into a satchel at my waist. Khaysus is still trying to find a way into this world, a way through Thylas. I run my left arm and the red tattoos that he left there. I know I will reach him, even now as I hear the rumors that he has already set voyage to the Southern Continent.
For once in my life, however, I know exactly who I am.
I am Carnaxa Althister of Antalis, daughter of the goddess Drāhēn?, daughter of prophecy, Queen of what remains beneath the sea. And like the tides themselves, I will not be stopped.