, a she-ra and the princesses of power fanfic

div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Georgia Pro', 'Georgia Pro_EmbeddedFont', 'Georgia Pro_MSFontService', sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="auto"Author's Note:/span span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Georgia Pro', 'Georgia Pro_EmbeddedFont', 'Georgia Pro_MSFontService', sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"This story is an H.P. Lovecraft take to my canon-adhering She-Ra fic. You /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"don't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" need to read that one to dive into this one, as all that fic does is flesh out the hobbies our favorite moody and deadpan mermaid does behind the scenes of the show. If you want to read it, please go for it!/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Georgia Pro', 'Georgia Pro_EmbeddedFont', 'Georgia Pro_MSFontService', sans-serif; color: #2a2a2a;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Georgia Pro', 'Georgia Pro_EmbeddedFont', 'Georgia Pro_MSFontService', sans-serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"With that out of the way, enjoy my first take of fanfiction!/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Georgia Pro', 'Georgia Pro_EmbeddedFont', 'Georgia Pro_MSFontService', sans-serif; color: #2a2a2a;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: center;"span class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Georgia Pro', 'Georgia Pro_EmbeddedFont', 'Georgia Pro_MSFontService', sans-serif; color: #2a2a2a;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: center;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; font-weight: bold;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Chapter 1: Trident/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #2a2a2a;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #2a2a2a;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"The washing of waves against a stony shore lulled Eliza into nostalgia. She remembered the beaches she would visit in her adolescence, staring out into the harbor, her fascination with ships and the sea running wild through imaginations. The size of these vessels /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"were/span span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"mighty impressive/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" to her, even as she grew into an adult - an engineer, no less, that could /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"operate/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" such complicated ships, while also surviving the trials of the ocean./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Eliza harked on that difference in perspective, that shift from seeing the ocean as majestic and wonderful, to seeing it /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"for/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the wasteland of dangers that it truly is. When a spray of saltwater sprinkled over her, she felt a shock of fear, a jolt that brought her motionless body back to life. She coughed, realizing then that her throat was painfully dry and numb, and soon after did she /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"learn/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" just how fatigued her body was, battered and bruised all over. She slumped onto her side, her fingers digging into fabric - a waterproof tarp, like the ones from /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"the ship/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"After a long squint to unblur her vision, Eliza looked to the ends of this tarp. It was spread out flat on a rock-solid ground, a perfect square that she had laid center of until she awoke. The questions that it begged, however, began to pale as her field of vision widened with increasing clarity. Far beyond the strangeness of the tarp was the mystery of the shipping containers that were scattered around her; mangled and damaged, these dull-colored steel boxes trapped her in a circle made by their haphazard placements./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"These, too, were from /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"the ship/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". She recognized the serial numbers, but not the condition they were in. Her curiosity inspired her to crawl up to her feet and investigate, but when she looked further past these /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"initial/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" few containers, she saw even more strewn past them - many more, some piled atop one another, some twisted and broke open, some halfway into the seawater. Eliza's throat became dryer as she /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"comprehended/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the finality of her surroundings; in the middle of the ocean, she was stranded on an island of only silk, a spread of bed sheet ground that went no wider than a soccer field./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Eliza's face contorted into a pained grimace. She stumbled in her crawl forward, slipping off the relaxed fabric that she used for support before finally finding the urgency to stand. The winds made her sway with imbalance, the cold touch reminding her that she was nude, stripped of her horde outfit, but that was a weak concern. Upon hearing a rumble that was unlike anything the ocean could produce on its own, Eliza's head turned to the overcast sky, gawking at what truly cast shade across her desolate location./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"A massive figure lurked overhead. A body, a woman's figure, unmistakably; high above where Eliza stood astonished were two globes of preposterous size, breasts that hung outward with some incomprehensible weight. This giant was a titan, putting on display her natural skin tone of a brown color. A plait of turquoise hair ran over this immense /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"shoulder/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", the tips falling over her nipples for happenstance obscurity, but that was the farthest Eliza could see. Other than the creature's navel, which was pushed onto the beach of one half of the isle, the engineer could view only this much of the giant; the distant picture was in her head, that this gigantic being was casually leaned onto the island with her elbows dug into the ground like utility towers./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"And following those arms up to where they met, Eliza nearly fell backwards in surprise. She then heard a metal whining, followed by a powerful /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"pop/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" of steel; in the giant's hands was a shipping container, turned about in her grasp like it was a palm-sized package. With a single finger from a hand /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"was this monster/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" able to break open the locked doors, peeling them apart so that she could peer inside with one opened eye. Eliza blinked, baffled as the face craned forward into view, revealing to her a chestnut-brown eye./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Then, a mighty rumble, an intense feeling that no ordinary earthquake could create. The sound was a plop, followed by a flowing torrent; Eliza shuddered back as it whipped into view, some distance behind the woman. A Salinan serpent- a body/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none",/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" of a /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"roughly wrinkled/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" tank-top, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"rising up/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" from the bed in a strong /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"draw/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" of breath before submerging again with another /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"powerful q/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"uake./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"A mermaid, like something out of the legends or at a Horde training class. But while these princesses were already remarkable for their power, /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"this/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none" was nothing like Eliza had considered. This massiveness had only one comparison: the Horde./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Upon thinking that, Eliza collapsed backwards, hard onto her rear. Her head was heavy, struck with flashbacks of a terrible, nightmarish sequence of events. Her ears rang as she remembered the crack and tear of metal, her skin crawled as she remembered the cold flood /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"run/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" over her body. The longer she stared at the mermaid, the more knotted her stomach became, but everything, all at once, faded in significance when she felt /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"gravity/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" beam onto her – the eyes locked onto her with heavy bangs, and those lips curled with scornful /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"yawn ./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Finally /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"awake..?/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" I knew /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"you'd/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" come around eventually./spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" boomed out from the beast, an eruptive voice that pierced through the sighing of the room. The shipping container, no longer of interest to her, was shifted into being precariously held between two fingers. Her attention fell squarely /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"ont/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the lone, diminutive human, her carelessness teased like the sharpness of her teeth behind her mouth. /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;""/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Don't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" worry, I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"won't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" tell the others /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"you've/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" been captured. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"It's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" not like /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"they'd/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" believe me /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"anyways/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"."/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Eliza stuttered on the verge of tears. She watched as the mermaid's free hand gently drifted to her wall-like belly and stroked it with two fingers. Her stomach appeared so soft, but that unbreakable brown skin could only possibly bend to those equally massive digits. Eliza remembered as /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"much,/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" how futile it was to injure the mermaid in /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"the Horde's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" desperate counterattack./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Before becoming lost in those memories, Eliza gasped with a pained voice as the mountain ahead began to collapse after her. She shivered up to her feet and dashed away, between two sideways shipping containers wedged in the sheets. Behind her, noticed in a /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"lightning fast/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" glance, Eliza saw the mermaid's hand crashing into the ground, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"it's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" size meaning nothing to the island that Eliza dwarfed; discarded containers were swallowed underneath the flesh, as was a fraction of the island, as the mermaid stretched forward in a pose that made her get up from the soft sheets. That smugness persisted, now overbearingly close to Eliza with enough pressure to freeze her in place inside the grip./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""Fucking Hell. What the fuck am I supposed to do with you?"/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none" she continued in a quiet yet slight mumble. "/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I guess I can go ahead and introduce /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"myself, if/span span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"you're/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" so alert and all. I like to be just /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", or whatever./span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Eliza mouthed the name after it had /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"been rumbled/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" from above. A short, quick name that seemed ill-fitting for a creature that stood well over /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"300 meters/span /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"above sea level,/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none" with surely another 300 meters more in her tail. Even if her scale was disregarded, Clo was a stunning specimen to behold, her figure mythically attractive and adorned with ornaments that heightened her superior presence. Her deep teal downpour of hair was brightened with a rubber band in place, and similarly designed accessories decorated her fingers down to their black-covered nails. Jewelry made from conventional materials also shined from her as fashionable features, including clip earrings of gold and wrist bracelets, and a turquoise-yellow scale tracksuit that emphasized the broadness of her bare pauldrons./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" sighed again, a breath dispelled out her nostrils that briefly blew away the coldness in the air. After that pause, she continued with her explanation, "/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Because of the Horde keeps attacking the Sea Gate and it's, like, super rude and I'm over it, I'm thinking of keeping you."/span span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"As this announcement spurred despair within Eliza, it was noted with a delicate point of /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" finger onto the little person. "/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I bet the Horde /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"wouldn't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" expect to find one of their own soldiers in the possession of the ocean princess. Serves '/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"em/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" right for being so damn predictable./span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Paralysis kept Eliza from speaking. She was stone solid, staring up at /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" in pure shock. She listened to her words and understood them well, but nothing could /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"seemingly shake/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" her out of her stunned state. /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" remained patient with her, continuing to fidget with her like she had, her eyes /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"drifing/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" side to side as she waited for a reply. Eliza still did not respond; her head spun sickeningly, just like the tsunami that debuted this monstrous woman. The sea, she remembered, was when it all began, and she gradually recalled what had occurred to lead her to being chosen as this mermaid's plaything./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"The sky was overcast with a deep gray, but the navigator had promised that morning a day of smooth sailing. No storms were expected, and whatever winds that were riled up would surely pose no problem for the Horde, a veteran shipping vessel that had endured many travels. Even if it did drizzle outside like the sea was known to do, Eliza knew she would be safe and dry in the depths of the engine room./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"The droning and grinding of powerful machines /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"was/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" an unusual shelter for Eliza. She was accustomed to this environment, adapted to the heat and tight spaces. Following her routine job brought her comfort and content, especially in the wake of so many unfamiliar faces. Only a month ago had Eliza been enlisted in the crew of the imperial army, and not yet in that time had she socialized much with her shipmates. There was the customary camaraderie, that which came from working alongside anyone for days at a time deep at sea, but otherwise, Eliza was slow to form any relationships outside of rank and order./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Eliza was not one to make a strong impression, not unless it was related to her job. Engineering was her passion and absorbed most of her life. She felt comfortable underneath the weight of her gear, the water-resistant leathers that often ended up stained with oil and grease. She appreciated the heat and steam of engines, never concerned about how it frizzled her dark hair or flushed her freckled face. When at work, she was most alive; the moment her shift was over, there was little to remark about Eliza, other than her average appearance and passive personality. She managed to live a quiet life - ironic, for a sailor aboard such a huge and busy shipping vessel./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"A review of the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"numerous/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" engines and their output had been conducted ordinarily when Eliza first heard the groan of the ship. Everyone inside heard the whine of metal, that of the ship's course being forcefully redirected. Alerts blared for the crew to readjust their angle, orders trickling down the ladder of command until all were afoot. It was chaotic and loud, but there was a calm to it all, an understanding - this was not particularly new, Eliza thought, for something in the sea to pull the ship aside. Like the other engineers, she assumed it was a change in the current, or /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"perhaps a/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" storm really had brewed into something worthwhile./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"When the ship whined again, it ended its wailing with an abrupt quake. The entire vessel jostled, clapped by something heavy and unforgiving outside. The inner workings of the ship creaked in complaint against this pressure, sharing the stress with the diligent engineers within. Eliza was shaken enough to fall onto one knee, but she was one of the fastest to recover, responding swiftly to the barked commands. She applied herself to her job, but she could not ignore the unusual tension that something worse was upon them./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Eliza was realigning dislodged pumps when she first heard the mutterings of what was happening outside - allegedly happening. She nodded along with the idea that it was an ambush of a storm, sweeping in against them with an onslaught of winds, but there were disagreements among the engineers. Someone must have heard /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"wrong, or/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" had hit their head and /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"came up with/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" a crazy concept: a sea serpent/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", supposedly, was/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" attacking the ship. Camouflaged with the ocean, this beast was /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"apparently lurking/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" around them, spinning vortexes with its lengthy body that rocked the ship back and forth./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"It was a tall-tale, whimsical enough to bring a smile to Eliza's oil-speckled cheeks. Entirely untrue, she thought, but silently did she wish that fantasy world /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"was/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" real. It would be more magical, certainly, than the blunt labor it was to endure yet another storm./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"In the midst of/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" work, as steam spewed from pipes that were working under unreasonable pressure, gravity suddenly began to change. The crew noticed only when the tilt became too extreme, when unstable tools and equipment began tumbling in the same direction. Before long, they too were tripping over themselves in a stumble down that incline, which continued to rise steadily. Soldiers barked at one another as they scuttled for safety, clinging to anything to /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"maintain/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" balance - but Eliza, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"in an attempt to/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" grab someone else that needed help, slipped into the tilt, suddenly in a swift slide towards the other end of the engine room./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Eliza slammed into the wall, collapsed there along with several other engineers that fell like she did. In trying to decipher gravity's direction, she clumsily stood up, only to be thrown back down when the ship's angle /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"was put/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" back to normal. Water crashed up loudly outside the ship as it rocked violently back into balance; the vessel had just endured an incredible wave that lifted and dropped it. Eliza was in disbelief, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"never before/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" having experienced such a ride, but when sirens began to wail, she understood there was no time to make sense of it all./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"The crack of steel echoed down the compact corridors, accompanied by the distinct gushing sound of water. Leaks were springing across the halls as the vessel was battered by the outside storm, tears widening into long gashes as seawater flooded in at incredible force. Eliza, staggering to her feet, first noticed just a puddle at her boots, dripping through the grates ineffectively - before long, little waves were continuously pouring down the halls, threatening to swipe at her knees if she, and the rest of the crew, did not find /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"highground/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"But there were procedures to follow, and machines to halt. Without powering down the engines and the machinery that went along with them, there were untold amounts of trouble that could snowball into even larger problems. Eliza hesitated by a doorway while others rushed around her, stalled under the pressure of decision making, but the ability to choose was swiftly taken from her when a loud /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"break/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" of water suddenly jetted into the engine room./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Eliza screamed, feeling the ship tilt and teeter as torrents of water filled the lower chambers. It came with bull-like power, pinning /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"squadrons/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" into walls or trapping them in the railings, more than a few being flooded out from corners they took refuge in. Eliza /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"watched, but/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" was helpless to their plights; with the water constantly rising to her, she stuttered an apology to the crew she was leaving behind, and closed the door in a rush away from the engines./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"The lights flickered and faded as the vessel continued to rock without a steady rhythm, knocking Eliza /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"into/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" wall after wall as she raced through the halls. Water, it seemed, was /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"seeping/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" in from these areas as well, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"likely breaking/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" in through portholes or filling in from above deck. Stretches of the halls were ankle-deep in water, but anything lower would be a swim - Eliza thought only to continue up, feeling as though that breaking through the door to the outside would be the daybreak to this nightmare, fresh air that would relieve her of these dangers./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"As soon as Eliza stepped outside, she stood still, only moving because the panicked crowds around her ushered her forward. A mist of saltwater sprayed all over the outside of the ship in clouds sparked up by sloshing waves crashing up against the hull. The large and /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"numerous/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" shipping containers whined and shifted with imbalance, demanding crews of sailors at a time tend to /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"tightening/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" their harnesses. Yet none of this is what put such a gawk in Eliza's expression as the very source of this ordeal, the cause behind this unpredicted storm - a Mermaid, whose form conquered the horizon with an awe-inducing size./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Eliza was shoved aside to the railing in her motionless stare, her head locked into an angle that struggled to /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"comprehend/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the impossible beast - the thing she would come to know as /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". Even beginning to understand the start and end of the monster was difficult as the tail swirled around their ship, ripping up waves in its circular motion that kept the ship destabilized and trapped. It was this realization, that this one sea creature had surrounded them completely, that was draining the hope from other sailors, a plague of doubt that brought many to an exhausted collapse./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"But far up in the sky, bellowing with chime-like noises that could be heard over the crashing currents, was the shape of something human. The tail transformed part way up its length, the shimmering turquoise scales ending at the hips, where the body then became brown-colored skin. This young princess rose like a skyscraper out in the middle of the ocean, the harshest waves bouncing off her waist and tail without repercussion, but any movement she made posed dire consequences to the Horde. None of that /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"seemingly weighed/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" on her as a responsibility; though /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"nearly out/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" of view, eclipsed by a far-forward bust, her expression was unmistakably annoyed and eager, A groan nearly coming out of her lips./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I thought I noticed something swimming in my waters/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Well, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"you're/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" not exactly making yourselves welcome. Look at how fucking tiny you all are/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"There must be so many of your friends traveling inside you…"/span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" was silently laughing over what she had discovered - hence the chiming that haunted the sailors. Their misery was her entertainment, though the sheer lack of playfulness in her tone could be interpreted as her interest being merely serious. Indeed, it was known by all beneath her that a creature her size could sink the ship with as little as a free hand. To her, the proud ship floated at the surface like a toy, small enough to be picked up in one hand with as much effort as it would take to lift a handbag. At any moment, that judgement could swamp the ship; the Horde desperately wondered what, then, she intended to do./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Eliza blinked back into the chaos around her, having nearly fallen deaf in a trance focused upon the giant - /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"A giant mermaid,/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" she specified, wishing she had something to log this moment in. As fantastical of an encounter as it was, survival was more important than marveling at what could destroy the ship. She stumbled back into the flow of traffic, unsure of what to do other than to keep moving. There was plenty to help with, of course, as men and women were slammed around the deck anytime /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" cast a wave their way, or whenever the ship steered into a dip of a vortex./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"The snapping of cords came with a pained chant from a crew of guards. Any shipping sailor would recognize the pattern, that a container was breaking loose - if not more. It was inevitable under such conditions, and it had been the priority of the crew to fortify the cargo before anything fell overboard. When the tilt of the ship became severe enough, top-loaded containers slipped off their perches and dove into the water, instilling a domino effect on all those beneath what fell - a wall of containers was bound to collapse if they were not reeled back into position./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Eliza, needing a purpose to stay alive, rushed up the slick stairs to get to where others were pulling hard at broken chords and ropes knotted to a container. She approached a cluster of strong sailors, all putting their weight into retrieving the cargo, and joined them by grabbing at someone's shoulders. She wanted to be more proactive, noticing others breaking protocol and standing atop other containers to push back what was about to tumble into the water./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Suddenly, the gathering of /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"nearly twenty/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" sailors was completely overwhelmed. Where it had before been a close contest between their strength and the container's weight, an unexpected shift in power took them off guard. The container was not just pulled away, but /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"plucked/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none" by two fingers and thumb, each digit thicker than several men put together. As simply as that, their efforts were defeated, and the container was removed from the ship not by nature, but a mermaid's whim./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Fuck, okay. Your iron is, like, crushed, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"dude/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"."/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none" span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" had ripped out the container into her grasp, casually rocketing it away into the sky without understanding how much weight was balanced between her fingertips. If she were to drop the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"relatively crumb-sized/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" rectangle, it could potentially blast into the ship's deck./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Releasing it, however, was not /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Mermista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" will. Her eyes narrowed on what she had taken, specifically the tails of ropes and those clinging to them. In front of her face, several sailors dangled helplessly, having been pulled along with cargo when it was spontaneously ripped away from the ship. They struggled to keep their grips, but the high-altitude winds were choppy, their bodies were heavy and wet with seawater, and of course, there was a ferocious grin ablaze beside them, taunting them with a glimpse of huge teeth curved into a /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"smug smile./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"When a rope broke, and a man went /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"spiralling/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" in a scream to the ocean far below, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Mermista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" reaction was delayed and lackluster, like watching dust be scuffed off an old object. Her attention beamed back onto the others; "/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"That was easier than I expected./span span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Was this something you needed?/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"" Mermista bobbed the container in her fingers, creating peril for those clinging to it. "/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Well, it won't help you much now, whatever it is./spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Whether noticed in her long stare, or heard in the subtle shift in pitch, there resonated an air of suspense after /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" words trailed off. The shipping container, they began to understand, was not what interested her; it was the /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"sailors/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" clinging to the box, desperately trying to climb atop it. Their struggles were just amusement for the mermaid that held them, but when that entertainment ran dry, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" lurked forward and extended her tongue outward from her grin./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"The soldiers were in an uproar, shuffling up the container with greater urgency, though it could /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"provide/span span class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"them/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" no defense against the serpentine tongue. It coiled around one side of the container, its adhesive touch abducting the toughened sailors like rice /spanspan class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"off of/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" a fork. Their little bodies simply disappeared from the perspective of the ship, the crew of which had slowed under the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"horrorshow/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" playing out above them. Five men, hardened by a history of the princesses, were licked away to their demise; /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" eyes continued to become pleasured above the five that remained, which she then licked off with even less concern./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Having /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"witnessed/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" fellow crewmates disappear behind those devilish lips, those aboard the ship rushed in a fluster, to anywhere but the sides of it. They sought refuge towards the center, but it was there where the shipping containers were most unsettled, forced loose out of their bindings and slamming around the deck. Eliza was among them taking that risk, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"ducking/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and lunging between faces she barely recognized./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"There was a heavy splash beside the vessel, a geyser of water created where the shipping container had fallen. Since it had been licked clean /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"of/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the sailors, the container itself was unimportant, and so she dropped it into the ocean like discarding trash. /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""That's the best you can do?" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"she hummed to herself, her stare angling down at the ship. Her fingers curled playfully, "/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"What to take next…? What else are /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"you/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" horde shipping?/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Mermista hovered above the ship with that earnest torture drilling into whatever caught her eye. With just a push of her fingers, she was able to unload a large square of containers into the water, shoving overboard a duo of sailors with them. Their time in the water was dangerous, their struggles quickly consumed by the ravaging waves - Eliza caught as much happening, when she glared out from the ship and at the mermaid's powerful tail whipping out of the surface./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"The tail was huge, of course. Its boomerang-like shape made her /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"descents/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" slower when it smacked the water, but it also expelled harsh winds and controlled the pattern of the waves. As Eliza raced with others to a higher deck, she kept an eye on that tail, watching as it sank underwater. It was not long until it rose again, heavy with water, on the opposite side of the ship. It cracked upwards like a bolt of lightning, before /spanspan class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"falling down/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" over the ship./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"A flood of water blasted through the main deck, sweeping sailors off their feet as the tail's shadow darkened all they could see. Many were blind to the torrents that barreled /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"down stairs/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and between shipping containers, blasting them into piles of people that the water would trample over. Eliza was /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"nearly among/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" them, lunging to grasp the railing of a stairway when the tail came careening over the ship. She was fortunate enough to grab hold and withstand a hard splash in the face, but it was a debt paid with the soreness of her arms, pulled to their limits as they were tangled around the bars./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"When the water was finally relieved and washed off most of the desk, Eliza still struggled to /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"breath/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", unsure if she was able to. She staggered up the stairs like she had been, enduring forward onto the next level of the halls, but along with all her bruises and aches, she was slowed by the beast's wicked cackle; a giggle, truthfully, from /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" amusement. Though Eliza and the other victims were fighting for their lives against an impossible storm, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"she/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" was playing around in the water, entertaining herself with their turmoil./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"And now that her tail transformed /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"to/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" legs made her appear even larger, everything and everyone on board truly belonged to her. They were now possessions /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"to/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" this princess of the /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"sea, and/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" would be for as long as they stayed. There was no effort they could scrounge together to resist the mermaid's whims, but there was the bleak possibility of escape - a select few evacuating on row boats and praying for the best. If ever they had the chance, it was going to be as soon as possible./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Ahead of Eliza was a group of sailors clustered together, wrestling over each other in a complicated attempt to arrange the next emergency /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"row boat/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;". More people gathered over time, creating more chaos and confusion with their own shouts and additions; Eliza found herself helpless and pushed around in the crowd, drowning between soldier men and women just as much as she would in the raging waters. Her heart raced like never before, wondering with uncertainty if she would even /span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"reach/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" a lifeboat, or if they would all be taken up by then. But there was always a greater worry hovering above it all, the literal shadow that haunted this miserable effort /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"of/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" escape. Unlike her peers, Eliza always looked up, gawking at the amazing princess that had decided their vessel should be sunk./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Loud cracks and creaks of metal were heard behind the sailors. Another coil of /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" hand had formed around the hull, and within its twists was a tightening pressure. Her strength openly teased how she could cut open the huge vessel whenever she pleased, but that she chose to draw out the ship's suffering was specifically for her own fulfillment. Unfortunately, where the sailors had hoped this would occupy her attention, they were gravely wrong, and when the first of the inflatable, bright-orange rafts were prepared, so too was /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Memrista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" interest drawn to them./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"More than a dozen men at a time crammed into the lifeboats, with several more jumping on top of them out of desperation before the rafts could be undocked. As they were being lowered, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" face drew near, highlighting her utter massiveness with how every feature was fantastically big; no one could ignore the glimmer of interest in her pool-like eyes, how her lips curled with mischievous intent, or how her nostrils flared at the scent of horde discord. Suddenly, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun AdvancedProofingIssueV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlAdvancedProofingIssueV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"as a result of/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" her frightening presence, the tides of the crowd shifted, spreading out in all directions; Eliza was again carried by their movement, forced away in her paralyzed state./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"But those on the lifeboats were committed to their getaway and could not change their course. As they were being lowered, a webbed finger pointed out towards them, driving itself effortlessly through the ropes the rafts were attached to. Instantly were the lives of many wound up in a tangle hanging by the mermaid's finger; Clo rose them high into the air, swirling that digit once more so that it was tightly wrapped for her to appreciate./spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Trying to run away? Heh, I /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"don't/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" think you can /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"possibly get/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" away from me, you know./span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"" /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" laughed into the faces of horrified sailors, her serene calm in total contrast to the bloodied and beaten humans that grappled her finger. Some hung by the torn ropes of the raft, kicking in the wind, while others clung to her skin, constantly searching for a place to hold themselves - but many others were cast aside, dropping from the finger down into the sea. "/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"There's no reason for you to even try, so you won't be needing the rest of these, will you?/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"" And /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"so/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the dread multiplied as another finger cut through the ropes and took claim of the rafts and /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"its/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" evacuees, gathering a pitiful handful of /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"soldiers/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" that she stared down upon./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"You've made it even easier for me,/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"" /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" chuckled, smug with the lives she held in her palm. She was tickled by the people scurrying along her skin, but they could not satiate her for long. They were raised closer to her eyes, level with the glare that beamed onto them, but despite rising, there was a sinister sinking feeling among them. "/span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"I can't let you all run loose yet, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"It's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" not fun if too many of you get to live./span/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none""/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Segoe UI Web', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: center;"
p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Without any further explanation, a tilt in /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermsista's/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" palm drove the sailors into the direction of her mouth. Her hand cupped into her lips as they spread apart, revealing a huge maw that approached closer to those falling into it. Horrified screams piped up as the sailors dug into the skin to resist the incline, but even those with the strength to do so were soundly defeated in that next moment, when the glistening wet tongue of the mermaid gushed the welcomed /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"soilders/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and plucked away any stragglers. Nothing remained in her palm, not even the wreckage of lifeboats; everything belonged in her mouth like crumbs, and just as pathetically were they forgotten in favor of the ship's plethora of playthings./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Eliza, as well as the rest of the crew within sight of the terror, /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"awed/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" at the violence they /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"witnessed/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", but even that was a privilege to be stripped away. As they stared up at /spanspan class="NormalTextRun SpellingErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlSpellingErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"Mermista/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" and wondered what their odds of survival were, they were attacked from behind when the middle of the vessel collapsed. Steel and wood alike were shredded by the hand's twist of /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"merciless/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;", and geysers of water blew in from every conceivable crack, furthering the ship's deterioration. As floods overtook the inside of the ship, its bow and stern were propelled skyward into a V-shape. Within seconds, those two halves were broken apart entirely, and they slammed against the wild tides, rupturing the hull with forces it was never meant to handle./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"Though she had been bound to fall backwards into the ocean while the bow was pushed up, Eliza was saved when a fellow crewmate grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her onto an inclined wall. A broken window made for an entrance into the sleeping quarters, and those nearby drained into the room desperately. Eliza dragged herself after them, wanting to follow and take shelter, but when the bow rocked forward at breakneck speeds, she was flung forward- /spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"bam!/spanspan class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" A hard hit with her head, directly /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"into/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the floor of the lopsided ship./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"span class="LineBreakBlob BlobObject DragDrop SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: WordVisiCarriageReturn_MSFontService, Calibri, Calibri_EmbeddedFont, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif;"span class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanbr class="SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; text-wrap: nowrap !important;" /spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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p class="Paragraph SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space-collapse: preserve; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; color: windowtext; text-align: center;"span class="TextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" lang="EN-US" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; color: #241e12; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif;" xml:lang="EN-US" data-contrast="none"span class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;"Water traced her form where she lay, motionless and pale in the freezing waters. Her vision fogged, and the cacophony of her crewmates continued until it was a vague concert blurred in her hearing. Still alive, she lifted a hand forward, but not to seek help - to /spanspan class="NormalTextRun ContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2Themed SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: var(-urlContextualSpellingAndGrammarErrorV2, ); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent;"reach at/spanspan class="NormalTextRun SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;" the princess, an incredible distance away, in a wish to grab hold of her and make this madness stop./span/spanspan class="EOP SCXW158399836 BCX0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 21.5833px; font-family: 'Times New Roman', 'Times New Roman_EmbeddedFont', 'Times New Roman_MSFontService', serif; color: #241e12;" data-ccp-props="{:259}" /span/p
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