Gwen was writing something on a large tome—large enough to completely cover her face, only leaving a small part of her head to observers from the other side—when he passed by. She seemed to be engrossed in whatever she was writing, and that was when he noticed the ever-faithful Viserys hovering nearby.

"Her Highness is recording her visions." Ever since their last encounter, after he had mistakenly thought the prince was harassing his mistress while the opposite was true, Viserys had tried to warm up to the human. Allen noticed and appreciated his efforts by engaging him in conversations when possible.

"Some visions are not specific to certain subjects and Her Highness' visions are not time-bound," the dolphin further explained. "Such visions will be recorded for future references."

"You know her very well, don't you?" he asked. "It seems to me that you know her even better than her own family."

His question led the dolphin to recall his first meeting with the mermaid. He was casted out by his pod after losing a fight with another member, and he was almost sure that he was going to die from the wounds. It was then the princess came and nursed his wounds. After he was fully healed, three days later, she asked him whether he wanted to stay with her.

"Outcasts should stay together… it is easier when you know there's someone who will let you in, right?"

"It takes one to know one."

Gwen's soft voice interjected their conversation. Both of them turned to find the princess was already standing between them. Gwen directed her ice-cold gaze towards Allen. However, somehow today that gaze didn't seem to be as icy as it used to be.

"Anything you need from me?" her voice was still formal, though.

"…Nothing in particular."

"You are concerned about your brother," Gwen pointed out.

Instinctively, Allen knew Gwen was referring to Neil. "Damned if I'm not," he admitted. "He does it for me, although I'm more than capable to do it myself—being the man I am."

Gwen took another look at the human prince. "Being the man you are…" she echoed.

Somehow, when that statement rolled back to him from her tongue, it felt utterly different. She stripped the statement from its inherent pride, yet it was not turned into an insult as well.

Just like everything else the Seeress said, it became a statement of fact.

Reine was singing throughout the course of their noticeably more laid-back journey, erasing the silence that would otherwise reign over the small party. Her voice was just like the sea in its entirety: thunderous wave at the beginning, calmer currents as you delved deeper. Whichever part you stepped on, you would get washed away just the same.

Neil felt like she was buying time but he couldn't understand why. Why should they go to that deep-water settlement? And why she was taking her own sweet time as if they had the whole time in the world?

Unbeknowst to him, Reine had been waving her hand in front of his face as he was dwelling in his head. Finally losing her patience, Reine slapped him using her tail. The force of that slap was softened by the water resistance around them, reducing it to something more akin to a caress than a slap per se, but it still did its office nonetheless.

"What was that for?!"

"Bursting bubbles in your head," Reine quipped. "We're going to see Mama Orca first."

"What for?! Why?!" Neil finally burst out, unable to dam his emotions any further. "You think we have all the time in the world? Maybe you do, but I don't!" He went even further. "This is my job and head on the line, princess—the faster I get Allen back to the surface, the higher probability they wouldn't cut me off when I get back!"

"You think I don't know that?" Her voice raised by half an octave, her scarlet eyes glowered at him as if she could light a fire with that glare. "We have different priorities."

"What the hell you're even talking a—"

He was interrupted when he saw her suddenly turned stiff. That ever-so-familiar infinity symbol slowly surfaced on her eyes, branding them. This time, it was shorter than the other two, but she woke up violently from her trance and she immediately burst into a sprint.

Viv and Neil immediately chased her. "Reine! What happened?!" Viv tried to ask in between panting for dear life.

"Can't explain now!"

She rushed, without stopping, to the deep-water settlement she said she wanted to visit earlier (before the Mama Orca). However, instead of rows of thatched shelter made from hardened corals and wild weeds, this time Neil saw chaos and bubbles everywhere.

Reine was struck silent. She was too late.

"Oh, no…" Viv lamented.

Reine skimmed the place carefully for any survivor. Her hope began to dim as she could only see crushed corals and weeds floating aimlessly on the water, released from the knots that held them together. However, her eyes then noticed a figure of a young merchildren with gray tail.

"Mika!" Reine called.

The mergirl turned her head at the call of her name, and when she saw Reine, she smiled. "Rei…ne…" she called back meekly.

Reine rushed over to her side and realized that she was even paler than she usually was. There was no superficial wounds, but her paleness suggested bleeding still.

Internal haemorrage, Neil concluded inwardly.

Reine must've come to the same conclusion, as she gently took the little mergirl into her arms and cradled her. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I should've come faster…"

"Reine…" Mika's voice came just slightly louder than a mere whisper as her strength faded out. "I wonder… how it feels… on the surface. You told me… a lot…"

"You wanna go up and see?" Reine offered.

Mika nodded against her embrace and Reine tightened her arms around the mergirl protectively.

Neil and Viv followed without any question as Reine began to surface. The sun's kiss used to be a friend of his skin, but it felt foreign to him when he felt it again. Like a lover from a whirlwind summer romance that had changed throughout the three seasons they were separated.

Mika, unaccustomed to the intense light, winced her eyes. However, her eyes still greedily devoured the new sight before them. It was then she felt a warm drop of water on her cheek. She then looked up to Reine, who was still holding onto her. There were droplets of water trickling down her face, but there were two obvious trails—one below each eye. "Reine…"

"…are you crying…?"

"No," she immediately replied. "It's just the seawater."

"…they said… tears are salty, too…"

Reine couldn't suppress a chuckle. Mika knew many interesting trivias which she exchanged with stories from the shallower waters where the fishes were more colourful and gentler.

"Reine…"

"Yes?"

"They said… merfolk will dissolve when they die…" the little mergirl tightened her arms around Reine. "…then I guess… I'll go to shallow waters…"

"You really should," she agreed.

"It's agreed then," Mika replied cheerfully, as her body started to dissolve into the water as seafoam. "Thank you, Reine…"

It started from her fins, then it travelled up until Reine was holding nothing but empty air. Her body trembled as she clenched the empty air, trying to catch the essence of the newly departed mergirl.

There was nothing, of course.

She was sitting alone on a rock underwater. She hadn't said a word ever since Mika's passing, and Viv's was at her wits' end with Reine (her fear of awakening Reine's grief-induced wrath was partly a factor, too). As counter-intuitive as it might sound, Neil decided to give it a try and Viv was more than happy to let him. Their earlier argument was now so petty when he looked at her lacklustre eyes, looking more maroon than scarlet. Besides, those eyes had reopened an old wound in him—the moment when his mother was struck by a horse carriage and died in front of him. He saw the carriage coming, shouted at his mother, but still… it was no use.

It was so easy to know one when you were one, too.

Neil, not knowing what to say, decided to sit in front of her vision field. She looked with an empty gaze at him that he began to wonder whether she was aware of his presence at all.

"…I saw it," she murmured. "Those hungry sharks… they just attacked that place."

Neil could see her tears began to flow again, although they quickly join the sea as soon as they left her eyes.

"Perhaps the sea is built on mermaids' tears…" she remarked with a failed attempt to sound light-hearted about it.

"It's okay to… cry."

"You told me I could protect those I care about with my power," Reine said. "But… the opposite just happened. I saw it, but couldn't do anything about it. She slips right through my fingers, Neil—and she still has so many years before her."

Neil braved himself to swim closer to the mermaid. "Sometimes… things happen no matter how we don't want it to."

"Then, what the use of Seeress? Just let Fate has its roll, then."

"You told me you see choices, right?" he reminded her; her display of vulnerability allowed his gentler side to surface. "Then, perhaps it's not as bad."

"Show me."

Neither of them could fathom what had possessed them. However, when Neil wrapped his arms around Reine and pulled her to him, or when Reine felt the warmth of his skin and the caress of his shirt, or when he put a hand on her had and stroke it gently and soothingly like he would do to a stranded dolphin, or when she decided to wrap her own arms around his lean body, they knew it was no matter of Fate.

What will happen next?

Stay tuned to find out!

Thanks for reading! Please rate and review! ^^

A/N: This chapter basically shows the limitation to Gwen and Reine's power. Gwen is forced to see the continuum of time as Fate wishes to reveal, while Reine, although seemingly more relevant to the present need, is powerless to change many things despite knowing it's coming.