A/N: Wow, chapter seven already! This is the penultimate chapter, that's right, only one more left!

As always, I love hearing from you, the readers! Thanks to all who so much as sneeze at this story!

No warnings.

Claimer: I OWN IT! I OWN IT ALL! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Jimli XD


Chapter 7

Psyche awoke to feeling of cool water flowing around her. At first, her confused mind thought she'd fallen asleep in the tide, and the vision of Llyr's face before her eyes actually strengthened that idea.

Did I fall asleep and dream about being married to Llyr?

She turned away, blushing at herself before her brain finally caught up to her senses. She jerked, looking around at her surroundings. She was inside a blue and green lit carved room and the feeling of flowing water was all around her body. She looked back at Llyr, who had the same neptune-coloring he'd had when they had first met. She glanced at herself, a scaly tail stretching down from her pregnant belly.

"How did this happen, Psyche?" Llyr asked, concern bordering on panic in his voice.

Her disorientation faded, and she frowned, a little hurt and angry at his reaction.

"That's the first thing you ask? In that panicky tone? 'How did this happen'?"

He shook his head. "I don't mean it like that, I just-"

"There were some of your scales in the bottom of the tote. I remembered what you'd said about how to return to the sea. I couldn't bear not trying. I missed you. I missed Shell and Llirán. I didn't want to be without my family anymore, not when I could try."

"Psyche," he said, cuddling her, "we've missed you, too, but you shouldn't have done this. I left the way I did so you wouldn't do this."

Tears came from her eyes, mingling with the sea water all around her.

"Why? Do you not want me anymore?"

"No!" he exclaimed. "No, Psyche, it's just that you're a land-seal. Land-seals aren't meant to come to the sea this way. It doesn't work."

"But it does! Look!"

Llyr looked at his wife. She made a beautiful salacia with her dark pink hair and tail. Her eyes were still the same soft sand color, something rare, perhaps even unique in the sea. He felt all the longing and desire he'd suppressed since leaving her hit him, but he couldn't even bring himself to kiss her.

"Psyche, you don't understand," he started again, "the effects won't last. Depending on how many scales there were, how much blood was used, a lot of other factors, you may only have days before you turn back into a land-seal."

She looked horrified, and his heart thumped painfully in his chest. Her horror cleared, replaced by an achingly familiar look of determination.

"I don't care," she said softly. "Being alone was killing me anyway. I'll live long enough to birth our little boy, and then he can be here with his father and siblings, too."

She paused.

"Llyr, about the baby. Is he already a neptune, or will you need to change him?"

She caressed her belly as the little one started kicking her.

"The histories where princesses have returned to the sea gravid never mention the need for changing the baby. I'm sure the Keepers could do an examination of you and him to be certain."

She nodded. "See? Then everything will be okay."

Llyr started shaking his head, but she smiled at him, cupping his face.

"I really couldn't bear it, Llyr. If you'd been dead, or even if you'd disappeared, I probably could have, but knowing you and our children were here, alive? 'So close and yet, so far' was killing me."

He nodded. He'd felt sort of the same, but he'd at least had Shell and Llirán, as well as Adaro. Psyche had no one, really. Her parents were distant, both physically and emotionally, and she'd been an only child. The family she'd created with Llyr was all she had, and he'd left, taking almost all of that family with him.

"All right, Psyche."

He smiled. "I know two little nereids who are eager to see you, as well as my brother, Adaro."

They found Shell and Llirán with Adaro, and Psyche was quite surprised at all three of them. Shell's hair had become a bright, vivid pink, with only the faintest hints of its coppery color, although her tail was coppery. She swam at her mother ferociously.

"Mommy!" she cried, crushing herself against Psyche's breasts and throwing her arms around her neck. "We missed you Mommy! Daddy said you couldn't return to the sea with us! Can you now?"

"Yeah, sweetie, I'll stay as long as I can."

The neptune who could only be Adaro had Llirán's hand, guiding him as he swam clumsily towards his mother. She scooped her son into her arms.

"Oh, you're so big!" she told him, listening to his happy noises. "And you look just like your daddy!"

She looked at the adult neptune, feeling a little nervous.

"I am Adaro. You must be the lovely land-seal my brother insists on telling us about," he said, smiling.

"You and Llyr look so alike," she commented. "From what he described, I guess I expected you to look old and dreadfully serious."

He laughed. "I won't repeat what he's told everyone about you. Just don't be surprised at anyone's reactions to you."

He cocked his head, gazing at her. "Your eyes are very lovely, just as captivating as Llyr described. Is that truly what sand looks like on the beach?"

She blushed. "I doubt it. He has a dreadful habit of exaggerating or downplaying things."

"Yes, he never stays in-current, does he?" Adaro agreed, smiling. "I'm sure you're still exhausted, swimming all this way in your condition, and no doubt you'd like to catch up with your nereids. Llyr, might I speak with you a moment?"

Llyr nodded and followed his brother down the corridor.

"She intends to stay?" Adaro asked as soon as they were safely out of earshot. "You did tell her that she will die?"

Llyr was touched by the amount of concern in his brother's tone.

"I did. She said she wanted to birth our third child, let him stay here. If she dies, she dies. She said she missed us too much."

Adaro looked at his twin shrewdly. "You intend to take her back ashore before she is taken by the sea."

"I'm not going to let her die," Llyr replied softly. "I can't. I'm just not selfish enough to keep her here."

His brother nodded. "The Keepers who examined her believe she has no more than a tide-cycle, enough time to bear your neptune, I suppose. How are you going to take her back, and what are you going to do about the baby?"

Llyr sighed. "I don't know. I thought I'd talk to the Keepers; there is an ocean's worth of land-seal lore, there might be a way to make her forget. They'll be examining her anyway; she asked about the need to change the baby."

"Is that going to be necessary?"

"Not from everything the Keepers always told me," Llyr replied, shaking his head.

Adaro nodded. "You've been in land-seal studies since we were young. I think only Elder Keepers know more than you do."

"I was still woefully uninformed," Llyr chuckled softly. "I'll watch for any signs: trouble breathing, scales peeling away, tail splitting."

"Perhaps her coloring changing as well," Adaro commented. "I can only assume that she was not colored like that as a land-seal, not based on everything you said about her."

Llyr frowned.

"No. Odd, isn't it? The stories always said that a land-seal who came to sea still looked like a land-seal. That's how you could tell if a child could return to the sea with its neptune parent, by its coloring. Psyche, though…" he trailed off, looking at his brother.

Adaro shook his head. "I'm not sure. Perhaps the Keepers can answer that as well."

Psyche was introduced to the kingdom formally as Llyr's princess, and a three-day celebration was given in her honor. Out of respect for her pregnancy, however, she was then given her privacy, and she spent her time with her children - nereids - and Llyr.

Llyr spent the next few weeks floating between spending time with Psyche and his offspring and doing research with the Keepers. Nothing could be found to make Psyche's transformation permanent, and very little on wiping her memories seemed promising. They also found no reason for the completeness of her alteration. Not even the most dark-depthish stories could they find land-seals who turned completely neptune.

"Here is the only thing I could find, my prince," one venerable old salacia said, pointing to an old seaweed scroll. "A princess who brought back not only an offspring when she returned to the sea, but her land-seal husband. His family had handed down an old tale about one of his grandmother's grandmothers being 'selkie', and he wanted to see if the princess's city looked like the one in her story. He had figured out what she was because of his ancestor's tale. It says that he became prince of the kingdom, but it never mentions the sea taking him."

Llyr frowned as he examined it.

"It doesn't mention if he looked fully neptune, though. I'm not sure how practical this is, but it is interesting."

He sighed. "Let's keep looking tomorrow, okay? I'm tired, and I have a beautiful princess waiting in my rooms."

He grinned at the Elder Keeper, who shook her head.

"Youth," she muttered, putting the scrolls away.