It was another boring day in the lost empire of Atlantis, where nothing at all interesting had happened for what felt like an eternity. Once upon a time, interesting things had happened. Once, Atlantis had been a thriving center of culture, a place where extraordinary things happened on a daily basis. It was famed for its residents' ability to use magic. Plant, construction, beast keeping, potions, oracle, abomination, illusion, bard, and healing – that was the magic Atlantis was known for, and people traveled from the four corners of the Earth to learn from them. It seemed like a perfect utopia where everyone was content.

But trouble was brewing. Atlantis had long been distrusted by her neighbors. While they worshipped the Olympian gods, the Atlanteans worshipped the Olympians' forebears, the Titans. They said that their magic was a gift from Kronos, the leader of the Titans and father of the Olympians, defeated and chopped up by his own son Zeus. (Of course, some would point out that Kronos kind of had it coming because, you know, he ate Zeus, but politics, as always, is complicated.) Many leaders of the neighboring nations believed it was only a matter of time before the Atlanteans decided they'd take revenge on them to avenge the defeat of their god.

Unfortunately, this turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. A basilisk named Vee had been rescued from slavers by an Atlantean warship and adopted into the royal family. Vee was a kindhearted person who had a way with words quite unlike any other member of the family, and so it was no surprise she found her way into the diplomatic corps. While on a diplomatic mission to the Kingdom of Hopkinsia, Vee's party was ambushed by the forces of King Jacob. Jacob captured Vee and sent her colleagues back to Atlantis in pieces. After days of horrid experimentation, King Manny sent a force to invade Hopkinsia and rescue Vee. It was said that Queen Camila herself personally executed Jacob.

This started an eighteen year long war between Atlantis and all of her neighbors. Manny's ruthlessness was legendary. He showed no mercy, took no prisoners. All would kneel before Atlantis or die, he vowed. All would suffer for daring to harm his daughter. The victory of Atlantis seemed inevitable. Yet one day, as if by the intervention of the gods themselves, Atlantis sunk beneath the waves. No one was sure what had happened. It was thought in the end that the gods had damned Atlantis, and thus it was decided Atlantis would be spoken of no longer. All records of its existence were destroyed and on the surface, the empire that had once nearly brought the known world to its knees became nothing more than a legend.

Things weren't much clearer beneath the waves either. The city of Atlantis had survived and it was both cursed and blessed in equal measure. Manny had disappeared and was never seen again. Camila became the new ruler. Camila was just as ruthless as her husband had been, but in a different way. She saw creativity and imagination as the source of all of Atlantis's ills and struck at it wherever she found it. Slowly but inexorably, in the name of trying to get her citizenry to stop being held back by a fantasy world, Camila eroded the culture that had made Atlantis a powerhouse. People even lost their ability to read their own language, and a new one would form in time.

Whatever had taken Manny from the people had two very significant side effects. Firstly, it had completely robbed the Atlantean people of their ability to do magic. They were as powerless as those they had invaded had been. And secondly, it had gifted them with immortality. No one had aged, been born, or died since Manny's disappearance. Vee was thirty-two and had been thirty-two for thousands of years. The Atlantean people eventually faded into a humdrum existence where nothing really changed from day to day. Vee and the crown princess Luz (if such a title meant anything anymore) kept on begging Camila to change things and let outsiders into the city, but Camila was immovable. Atlantis, it would seem, would never change again. Or so Vee had thought.

The years had hardened Vee and the girl who once had naively believed that all peoples could believe in peace was now responsible for destroying all outsiders who tried to conquer the city. Sometimes, she had doubts, but then she remembered the cold knives and even colder heart of Jacob and she steeled her heart to accomplished the duty her mami had laid upon her. At least she had friends to shoulder her burden, she told herself. Lord Michael, Lady Starla, and Liege Masha – the latter of whom was her partner – were some of the most loyal friends one could ever have. It could have been worse. She could have no friends at all like Luz.

But a part of the girl she once was still remained within her. Every time she destroyed a ship just going about its business, she felt a crushing guilt. Those sailors had families. People who loved them. And Vee had used her still intact shapeshifting power to turn into a leviathan and destroy them. The guilt kept on building up. And with it, resentment. Those people could have helped the people of Atlantis regain their soul. Vee had occasionally brought debris from those ships to Luz and Luz had told her grand stories of how the surface people, while mortal, had not stagnated like Atlantis.

So when the Owl House showed up, Vee decided enough was enough. Maybe the people within were evil. Maybe they meant Atlantis harm. But maybe they weren't. Maybe they were gentle, kind sailors who meant well and didn't deserve to die. And even if they meant harm, the people of Atlantis were immortal. How much of a threat could the outsiders really be?

So after giving a warning tap on the side of the ship, Vee did the one thing she hadn't done for thousands of years. She spoke to someone from outside of Atlantis. "Hello? Anyone out there? This is Princess Vee of Atlantis!"

Unbeknownst to Vee, the specific frequencies of her voice carried onto the radio system of the Owl House, allowing her to communicate with them. Vee could have sworn she heard a high pitched squeal of excitement.

"Oh my gosh," a woman's voice, the source of the squeal, said. "It's real! I was right! Atlantis is real! And, holy crap, the Atlanteans are still alive!"

"No doubt nothing more than ill-mannered savages," another woman's voice sneered coldly. Vee couldn't help but shudder. This woman was evil. Vee could feel it in her bones.

There was a slamming sound and the evil woman yelped in pain. "Don't mind Odalia," a third woman's voice called out. "She's got issues. I'm Eda. We're a scientific expedition looking for the lost city of Atlantis. I'm here with my niece Amity and my trusty, totally sane crew."

"PH'NGLUI MGLW'NAFH CTHULHU R'LYEH WGAH'NAGHL FHTAGN!" a spine-chilling voice of pure eldritch horror warbled.

"Shut up, Hooty!" Eda hissed. "Please let us pass. We don't have any weapons…we don't have any weapons, do we? Okay, scratch that, Odalia probably armed this thing to the hilt, but we still won't use them on you. You wouldn't deny an old lady her dying wish to see the lost city, would you?"

Vee was more torn than she'd ever been in her existence. On the one hand, letting the crew pass would be high treason of the highest order, even if Eda was telling the truth about her not meaning any harm. She could be condemning the people of Atlantis to degradations worse than those Jacob had inflicted upon her. But on the other hand, Vee was just sick of bringing death to the surface dwellers. She was the only person still willing or indeed able to inflict death upon others now and Vee yearned to once more turn back to the person she once was instead of the engine of destruction she become.

Before Vee could say anything, there was a snarl from Odalia. "Enough of this! This is clearly a trap, or have you not noticed the hordes of ships led to their doom by this wretched creature! Open fire!"

In an instant, Vee's mind was aflame with rage, though she didn't really consciously feel any of it. Nor did she hear Eda immediately belay the order. At the same time as the rage filled her, her mind brought her back vividly to that horrible dungeon where she was listening to Jacob's ramblings. He swore he'd dissect her and figure out why the Atlantean were stealing teeth to build a portal to Mars and came within a hairsbreadth of doing so. The sound of the knife being sharpened, the feel of the chilly stone floors on her scales, they were just as vivid now as they'd been thousands of years ago.

Aboard the Owl House, there was sheer pandemonium. Eda had turned into some sort of weird owl like beast and had knocked Odalia down with a blow to the head. She was snarling at everyone in the vicinity except for Raine and Amity, both of whom were working together to sooth the Owl Beast. But it was hardly all that easy when Vee was slamming her massive bulk against the walls of the submarine with vicious abandon. Willow was doing her best to keep the structural integrity of the vessel intact, but it was not easy. The ship had not been built to withstand a full scale assault from a sea serpent that hit even harder than the mightiest torpedoes out there.

"I told you!" Odalia said triumphantly. "I told you that beast couldn't be reasoned with!"

"Beast?!" Hunter responded incredulously. "She's not the beast; you're the beast! She was trying to negotiate with us when you ordered us to attack her! Of course she's trying to kill us now! From her perspective, we struck first!"

Odalia sniffed dismissively. "Well, whatever. Status report, Half-an-Engineer Willow!"

"Don't you talk about my wife like that!"

"It's not looking good!" Willow called out. "We're losing structural integrity by the moment! I think we're going to have to abandon ship!"

Odalia nodded curtly. "Very well. Launch the escape pods! This is a mere object. So long as we have our crew intact, our journey continues." As much as Hunter didn't like her and distrusted her, he had to admire her ability to think under pressure.

Everyone hurried over to the escape pods while the still homicidally enraged Vee kept on trying her best to pulverize the ship. Raine couldn't help but blush ferociously as the Owl Beast tried to nuzzle their face. They'd taken on the job because they felt bad about how they left things with Eda, but no one had told them they'd have to deal with shapeshifting exes, a psychotic mercenary, or a homicidal sea serpent. But they weren't about to give up now. Scratching the Owl Beast behind the ear to encourage her, Raine gently led their ex into the nearest escape pod. Amity went along with the two of them.

The pods launched and just in the nick of time, because not more than a few minutes later, the Owl House exploded. The force of the explosion would have killed Vee if she was mortal. As it were, it merely knocked her unconscious. When she awoke, her mind was clear once more and she felt an incredible, overwhelming sense of shame. She had destroyed yet another ship filled with mostly peaceful scientists over a misunderstanding. Or so she had thought. She soon saw the escape pods sailing away from the wreckage and followed it.

"This is all your fault," Eda, who had been brought to her usual self through the application of her medication, accused Odalia as soon as they'd assembled what was left of the crew. A large percentage of Odalia's handpicked crew members were dead.

"My fault?" Odalia said with an arched eyebrow. "I seem to remember a certain leviathan being responsible. There are hundreds of ships, thousands of dead, down there. The balance of probability suggested the princess had hostile intentions. And given that she just killed hundreds more people, I don't think you can say I'm wrong!"

Amity sighed deeply. "She kind of has a point. But you still should have waited for permission to fire."

Odalia sneered at her. "Oh, very well, the next time we encounter a horrible monster, we'll let your darling aunt call the shots. Not that she isn't one herself," she added in a much quieter but still quiet audible tone.

She turned to see a pistol pointed straight at her head, held by Raine with a rock steady hand. "I'm sorry, were you saying something, Odalia?"

"Nothing important," Odalia ground out and stalked away.

"All right, peeps, we had a setback, but the good news is we know this isn't a wild goose chase anymore," Eda said. "Atlantis is down here, and we're going to find it! Who's with me?!" A cheer erupted from the crew.

Eda opened her mouth to say something else, but then she spun around, a gun of her own in her hands, and pointed it at the creature approaching them. Everyone else raised their own weapons as Vee approached, hands up and a look of fear in her eyes. "No one fire until I give the word!" Eda shouted, glaring pointedly at Odalia. "What do you want?"

"I want to apologize," Vee said in a very humble voice. She was now in her regular form, that of a basilisk not that much larger than a regular human. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone. When I heard your friend wanting to kill me, I just snapped. I'm…I don't like hurting people. Even though I do it a lot…"

Hunter stepped forward, a sympathetic expression on his face. "I know what that's like. I used to be a weapon myself for a horrible man I thought loved me."

"Mami loves me," Vee snarled. "How dare you imply she doesn't?!"

"No, no, that's not what I meant," Hunter said quickly, though in truth he had indeed meant to do just that. "I just mean I understand how you feel. Please let us visit your city. We really don't want to hurt anyone."

Vee nodded. "I don't know if I can convince my mami, the queen, to let you in, but I'm going to try my best. But I have to go with you to keep an eye on you."

"Deal," Eda said, holding out her hand. Vee stared at it uncomprehendingly. "Uh, yeah, human thing, never mind. The more the merrier. And if Odalia tries to hurt you, she's a dead woman walking." Odalia glared at her ferociously, but said nothing.

Vee couldn't help but smile. The die was cast. She was going to prove to her mami that outsiders had more to offer than just mindless war. Atlantis would once more become the great nation it once was, and it would all be because of her. Nothing could possibly go wrong.