Noctis floated out over the waves, straining against the edges of their bond with little prickles of pain in her heart and down her arms, his wings held wide to catch the wind as the grey waves crashed below.

Elizabeth clutched tight to the railing, her eyes shut, her senses drinking in the world around her through texture and smell alone.

The heavy weight of sea salt left its taste in the back of her mouth and nose, and the smooth wood beneath her boots never did stop its gentle, constant swaying.

The pain from their bond sent goosebumps running down her limbs, but she silently urged her daemon to fly farther, farther, to hang out above the waves as though he were alone in the ocean, without the ship, without her father, without the crew, without her.

She didn't have wings, but she wished with all her heart that she did. She would jump off of the ship in an instant, she would leap out over those grey waves and the cold spray of the water, she would lose herself in the endless expanse of the sky and the water, she would fly away and never look back.

Noctis flew farther, so that the pain in her chest sharpened into glass, and she winced despite herself, her hands tightening around the railing so that she was sure her knuckles would be white if she opened her eyes to look at them.

But she was focusing with all her might on Noctis, and the sensations flooding in from him.

He floated out over the waves as light as a ghost, suspended in the air as though gravity didn't exist, as though he were the only thing in existence. Endless water below, endless sky above, and nothing in between except for him, and the wind that kept him aloft as though it had formed gentle arms to carry him on his way.

With her eyes closed, feeling the wind caress feathers that she didn't actually have, she could forget, for a moment, that her feet were pressed firmly into polished wood, she could forget that her hands were still clutching tightly to the wooden railing infront of her, she could forget the pain in her heart that told her this wasn't actually real.

And Noctis flew farther.

Despite the pain in her chest that was starting to make it hard to breathe, despite the way she could feel it weighing down his wings because he felt it too, he edged just a tiny bit farther out over the waves.

And then-

The strangest thing happened.

Beneath her feet, she could feel-something. The swaying of the ship changed, slowed. Now she could feel something else beyond it, something deeper.

Somehow, she knew that the ship was slowing down.

And, at the edge of her hearing, she could have sworn she heard singing.

With her eyes closed, the weight of her arms and legs slowly fading to be replaced with an albatross wings and feathers, she watched the darkness behind her eyes start to swirl with a pale, golden light, pulsing and weaving in time to the song haunting the edge of her senses, dancing along her skin like the feather-light touch of butterfly wings.

Distantly, she was aware that the level of noise around her had increased in volume. Confused questions were thrown back and forth along the busy deck, daemons squawking and calling in an endless array of variance.

But the song at the edge of her awareness was growing louder too, drowning out the meaningless words of the men rushing behind her, trying to right whatever wrong had stalled the ship in the water.

And they had stopped, she suddenly remembered, as the song grew even louder in her mind, something like words almost intelligible, almost within her grasp. The ship was sitting still in the ever-moving waves, though the wind strained against the sails and the current pushed futilely against the hull.

Noctis had to flap his wings to keep himself airborne in the sudden stillness.

And then there came a shout, and though she knew she should have been able to understand it, the meaning was suddenly lost to her, even as the golden song dancing through her mind continued to weave a web drawing her closer to understanding.

More shouting followed the first.

And then-so suddenly it was almost agonizing-a rough hand landed on her shoulder and dragged her back away from the railing, away from the water that was starting to swirl and churn, away from the golden song that wanted her to understand.

Suddenly her body was heavy again, suddenly the pain in her chest was back again, stronger than ever before, and this time there was no song to dull the pain. Agony spiked in her head, and even as she opened her eyes to stare wildly around her, she could see the golden light as it ripped itself away from her like a recoiling snake, overlaying the world around her like the afterburn from staring at the sun.

Colors spun wildly, and a voice shouted in her ears, before a face planted itself infront of hers, staring wide-eyes and anxiously into her eyes so that she couldn't look away.

"Girl, call your daemon back here right now! You hear me? Get him back on this ship now, before you doom us all!"

She was shaken roughly by the shoulders, and only the annoying flutter of wings right in her ear finally snapped her out of the fog that had clouded her mind without her noticing.

Mr. Gibbs was holding her by the shoulders almost painfully tight, and it was his moth daemon that was causing the irritating noise in her ear.

"Call your daemon back here, right now." Mr. Gibbs said sternly, something like relief coloring his expression when she scowled at him, but his voice didn't waver from its harsh tone. "Call him back now, girl, or you'll regret it 'til the day you die."

It was only then that Elizabeth realized that Noctis was still flying out over the waves. It was only then that Elizabeth realized that all of the daemons of the crew that could fly were in the air, screaming and shrieking and wheeling towards her daemon, calling out for him to come back to the ship before he was killed. But he was flying far beyond any of them could travel, and through him, but muted now, she could still hear that golden siren song luring him to the open waves.

And the ship was moving again, slowly, struggling to turn its massive bulk towards her daemon, everyone onboard shouting orders and running even more frantically than before.

Fear suddenly surged through her, and seconds behind it was the reason why.

Suddenly, suddenly she knew.

That golden song still dancing through her bond with Noctis-it was something horrible, something more horrible than she would ever be able to comprehend.

And it was surging straight towards her daemon.

She broke free from Mr. Gibbs' hold with strength she didn't know she had, and sprinted for the edge of the ship, sprinted towards her daemon so far away.

"NOCTIS!" Her voice left her throat in a raw scream, the terror in her veins making her almost want to throw herself overboard just so that she could be closer to him, so she could protect him from the water roiling and churning below.

Because there were shapes in the water around this ship now, shapes she knew that only she and Noctis could see. Darker shadows twisting and writhing through the water, flashing faster than dolphins, speeding with more cold malevolence than sharks.

And Noctis was all alone, still floating over the churning water in the albatross form that let him fly without ever needing to put in any effort, so that it felt as simply as breathing.

And any moment, Elizabeth knew, any moment he would get too close to the water, and one of those dreadful shapes would snatch him out of the air and drag him under.

She leaned out so far over the railing she almost thought she would fall in, but this time she made sure her legs were wrapped around the railing even as her hands clutched it so tightly it hurt, straining with all the energy she could to tug on her bond with Noctis, the drag him out of the song the way Mr. Gibbs had for her, to pull him back from the edge of the abyss before it was too late, before she lost him forever "NOCTIS!"

Seagulls and fish-eagles and song birds were spiraling in helplessness halfway between her and her daemon, none of them able to venture any farther without excruciating agony.

Now, awake for what felt like the first time in as long as she could remember, Elizabeth couldn't imagine how she had managed to bear being so far from her daemon.

The pain was like a knife in her heart, twisting deeper with every moment they were apart.

Tears of pain and fear blurred her vision against her will, and she hated herself for ever daring him to fly so far.

And then there was a sudden streak of white flashing by past her head, and even through blurred eyes she could recognize Kioda, her snow-white feathers standing out in sharp contrast to the churning waves.

Lieutenant Norrington stepped up beside her, and something in his stance gave her the confidence to take her gaze off her daemon for as long as it took to look up at him.

Norrington's gaze was locked onto the horizon, locked onto Noctis, his expression steely and determined and calm.

A second passed, and she saw the tension in his expression increase by a fraction.

She looked out back over the railing, out towards the waves, tears still blurring her vision and her heart in her throat.

Kioda had caught up to Noctis.

Far beyond what any bond should have been able to endure. Far beyond what Elizabeth would have ever been able to bear had she not been entranced. It was agony in her chest and scalding, terrifying dread in her bones, it was terror in her veins and sorrow in her heart.

And Kioda had braved all of that just to reach Noctis.

The ship was still turning, slowly inching closer to where her daemon floated so far out of reach, fighting against the churning water and the evil shapes that flickered beneath the surface that fought to hold it in place that only she could see.

She couldn't feel anything from her daemon anymore, not the perfect stillness of the wind, not the peaceful calm of the ocean and the sky.

All she could feel was the pain in her heart, and all she could see were those ominous shapes writing just below the surface of the water, waiting, waiting, just waiting for her daemon to get close enough to be dragged under.

She wanted to cry, and sob, and scream again, for Noctis to come back to her before it was too late, but her voice was lost, swallowed up by the horror clawing its way through her veins.

She was going to lose him. She was going to lose him.

And the ship was turning too slowly to stop it from happening.

She could see Kioda far out over the waves, climbing higher and higher into the air, far above Noctis, far above the churning waves and their deadly shadows, up and up and up and even farther away from the ship until it must have caused her more pain than Elizabeth could imagine and then-

She folded her wings suddenly, and dived.

She fell like a stone, like a bullet, like a cannonball.

Straight towards the water. Straight towards Noctis.

It all happened so quickly, there wasn't even any time to think, any time to prepare-

-and then, for a moment, Elizabeth wondered if this is what it felt like to die.

The air was torn from her lungs so violently that she was almost knocked backwards off her feet, so sudden and terrible was the pain, but within that same moment-even if what felt like bruises blossomed across her chest and side-the pain in her heart lessened, and suddenly she could feel Noctis again.

Confusion and terror were racing through him, and even as she dragged her blurred gaze back towards him on the horizon, even as she watched him falter in the air, shifting from shape to shape too quickly to keep track of, she could feel his pain as though it were her own, and she knew that he was trying to fight back against the siren song still singing through their bond.

It was telling him to change into a dolphin, a shark, a fish, a whale, even a snake. Telling him to drop down into the water so that they could take him, so that they could change him, so that they could take him apart piece by piece and change him into something wonderful and new.

So that they could take Elizabeth, and make her into one of their own.

And then they would take the ship, and they would smash it like kindling, and drown everyone onboard in celebration of her rebirth.

Kioda was circling below Noctis, screeching up at him unintelligibly, buffeting him with her wings whenever he dropped too close to the water, finally succeeding in herding his molten shape back towards the ship, even as he went from seagull to crow to peacock to vulture to albatross and back to crow again.

Elizabeth found her voice again, finally, as Noctis changed from a sparrow into an owl. She ran back to the railing, staggering from the bruises she knew were painted across her chest now from where Kioda had struck her daemon. "Noctis, come back! Come back to me!" she screamed, sending all of her pain and fear through their bond to grab him like a net.

He was an owl, but at the sound of her voice, he changed again, this time taking on the familiar form of an osprey, his coloring and shape almost identical to Kioda's form despite their separate species.

Beside her, she knew that Norrington had frozen, staring out at both of their daemons still so far away from the ship, but now getting closer and closer.

Noctis was now flying in a straight line, rising higher above the water with every beat of his wings, until he was level with Elizabeth's gaze.

"Elizabeth!" He called out, and his voice shook with the tears she knew were slipping from his eyes.

The osprey was fast, and before Elizabeth even had time to draw in a breath to call out to him again, he was suddenly in her arms-a cat, nuzzling her chin, a bear, wrapping his arms around her neck, a snake, coiling and curling around her arm, and finally, a mouse, climbing into the neckline of her dress, and curling up right next to her heart.

Her legs shaky with relief, she had barely stumbled away from the railing, anxious to get away from the water, before her father suddenly appeared infront of her, his hat askew and his daemon trembling from head to foot by his feet.

"Elizabeth!" She yelped, darting forward to sniff anxiously at Elizabeth's dress, pinpointing Noctis' location almost instantly and calming down slightly, "Are you alright? What happened?"

But Elizabeth didn't know what to say. She opened her mouth, but it was useless.

Mr. Gibbs' voice came from behind her suddenly, along with the heavy clumping of his boots on the deck. His voice was grave, but nowhere near as alarmed as he had been before. "She became horizon-struck, sir." He stepped up beside her, and his moth daemon fluttered up to perch on his shoulder. "I've seen it happen many a time. Those who haven't been on a long voyage at sea before are usually the ones affected. They long for land so badly that they start to see it where it isn't, and their daemons try to go to it no matter how far away it seems."

Mr. Gibbs shook his head regretfully toward her father, his daemon perfectly still on his shoulder, though Elizabeth had the feeling that she was being watched very closely.

"It's a kind of sea-sickness, sir. Only, this one that affects the mind rather than the body. Especially the minds of young women-" He glanced down at her for the first time, and she knew that the warning in his tone was meant for her- "Who are not adapted for this style of life. I recommend you bring the young lass down below deck, give her some time to recuperate." By the time he had looked back up to her father, his voice had dropped the warning it carried, and sounded nothing but reasonable and concerned.

Her father was nodding, and so was Kalypso, and Elizabeth knew that there was no use in arguing.

But when her father took her by the hand and started to lead her away, she made sure to look back towards Mr. Gibbs, schooling her expression into a mask of determination hard enough to match his own.

For a moment, she thought that he wouldn't give in.

Then, just before she was pulled through the door that would cut her off from the outside world for the remainder of the voyage, she saw him nod.

She followed her father into the depths of the ship without complaint, confidant that she would receive the answers she was looking for.

That night, a small, tattered book appeared at the base of her door.

And on the cover was the illustration of a mermaid.

The next day, it was Noctis, carefully floating out over the waves in the form of an osprey again, that spotted the unconscious boy floating in the water, his daemon in the form of a drenched rat collapsed across his chest.

They brought him aboard, and her father told her that she was to take care of him.

She followed the men carrying the boy back down into the ship, but not before she spotted tattered black sails on the horizon, slipping into an impenetrable wall of fog as though it were a ghost.

Below deck, safely hidden away, she curled up in a chair next to the sleeping boy with Noctis as a snake around her shoulders, reading the book of mermaids Mr. Gibbs had given her, trying not to think how close she had come to losing everything, and wondering, in the back of her mind, what other kinds of secrets the sea had to tell her.

She would find out. This, she promised herself.