White sand stretched along the coast of Caleel as far as the eyes could see. The water was a clear blue trimmed with green as it met the beach. Verdant green jungles reached inland and the trees seemed like they had been tended by a master gardener. Bamboo huts with thatched roofs dotted the edge of the jungle while shacks that stood on stilts spread along the water. A mossy mountain loomed in the background, a sweltering volcano hidden in its heart.

A rowboat carried Alexia across the final stretch of water, toward this beautiful land that hid danger. Not unlike the scenic mountain and its deadly volcano.

Azi spoke in a much softer voice than was typical for her. "I can see it. Little children running barefoot on the beach, laughing as the sand warms their toes. Bondpairs loving in the lagoon, a man coming from below with a seashell and a mouth full of water, the woman leaping high to avoid his spray." Azi smiled and bit her lower lip, her eyes drifting down.

Alexia leaned her head against Azi's shoulder. She tried hard to see that future. These beaches had been a hell for her, and they would be again today, but they could become a haven again. That was what they fought for. That was worth all the struggle. Alexia saw further and shared her vision. "I see a sultana, crowned in lapis lazuli, a pearl shining between her breasts, dangling from a chain full of seashells as pretty as her. Her sapphire eyes are as blue as the water. Her sultan holds her hand as they cherish together all they had fought for, knowing that every moment of suffering was worth their ever after."

Azi linked their little fingers and nuzzled her forehead against Alexia's. "May it be."

"May it be," Alexia agreed.

True to Leoquo's word, this cove was obscured by the thick jungle and the relatively small portion of Caleel that the shore covered. Bless Zafrir, hundreds of Mahagans emerged from the jungle as the armada's army touched shore. The Waterrunners that Leoquo had sent ahead had guided Caleel's survivors here at the right time. The day began in triumph with no sign of the Tamed as the first few thousand non-combatant Mahagans were windjumped, swam, or rowed to the transport boats.

Their sorrow was infectious. Elderly folk cried, knowing they would likely never see these white sands again. Children, too scarred by what they had witnessed or too young to understand, were ushered to boats with confused and vacant eyes. Men and women argued over who would stay to help others with no societal roles to separate what they could and should contribute.

Alexia had to remind herself that she wasn't failing them. She was doing her best and there was nothing anybody else could do for them. They needed to feel their pain, pain that she didn't cause.

But Alexia knew these people wouldn't retain an iota of innocence, if they even had an iota to spare. Empagong and lions and whatever else lurked in those jungles would come looking for the blood of the Isles. Zamael's scythe would gleam red. The Shadow and the Chimaera were on Caleel and they wanted her captured and Azi killed. The fight for the main island of the Mahagan would be the worst of all.

Azi sensed the Tamed coming before anyone else could see or hear them. The armada forces arranged themselves, creating pathways for the Mahagans to reach the ships and shielding them from the imminent Tamed arrival. Within a degree of Azi's announcement, treetops waved across the jungle as empagong crashed through them. Lions, apes, giant crocodiles, strange insect monsters with tough carapace and blood-sucking proboscises would be with them, and true enough, their roars, howls, and the buzzing followed the shaking trees. The Tamed moved like a disciplined army and the merging of their many battle cries did much to terrify those who held the line.

Alexia steadied her breath, knowing that hundreds, maybe thousands of Mahagans were still moving through the jungle, counting on her to give them the time they needed to reach the boats. Beside her, the princess was already gone. Azi's mind went where her body couldn't follow.

The forest itself moved, trees swaying from the force of the Tamed. One part of their wave stopped, then another, and another, until all of them ceased. A small trickle of blood fell from Azi's nose. Alexia had asked her days ago if breaking links hurt. Azi's response stuck with her. Not as much as doing nothing.

The warriors cheered, emboldened by Azi's powers. Blue Volqori men beside red Volqori women, Mahagan Spears, Sapphireguard, Redeemed Men united in their chorus. Alexia herself joined in chanting to the Tamed to "Be yourself, be free." Sir Gyan roared the words, like a proud father of the girl he'd guarded her whole life. Sir Garrond seemed the only one silent. But Alexia knew he was focusing on the threats, and there weren't any blades in this armada that would sing louder if she and Azi were threatened.

The empagong that had been making the whole forest sway fled deeper into the jungle, releasing those heartrending moans, sorrow made into sound that pierced the soul. The empagong weren't their enemies, but victims just like the people of Caleel. Alexia fought for them too.

She channeled her sorrow, her hope, her gratitude, her anger, and yes, even her hate. Alexia yearned to weave together enough power to protect the Mahagans and called upon their patron Divine. The Ring of Peace resonated, gleaming green on her finger. Whatever wind that had been shaking the trees and gusting off the ocean ceased to be as she claimed it to herself.

Give them time, she thought, the emotions a whirlwind within.

Gathering the everchanging wind, she unleashed several tornadoes into the jungle, tossing tree and Tamed alike into the cyclones. The destruction and disarray stopped the Tamed army, at least for a while.

But she alone wouldn't be enough to win the day. The empagong were the only Tamed they encountered that fled after being freed. Lions, apes, crocodiles, even those bizarre insectoids gave way not to sorrow once liberated from the Tamers, but to anger. Much like the ribaia, Azi's friends created a new force on the battlefield that folks had taken to calling the Freed.

Thus, the Tamed that survived the initial onslaught of the wilder princess and the great wizard were met with sword, spear, axe, fang, claw, and proboscis.

Erlos kept the Redeemed Men in a tight formation, forming a protective wall around Azi and Alexia. Sir Gyan and Sir Garrond were more aggressive, their indestructible meladonite armor shielding them as they rent into flesh and carapace with their meladonite blades.

Likewise, a hundred dragon warriors—lean women with bronzed skin and flame hair and blue-haired muscular men with porcelain skin—fought unlike anyone in Leveria could with superhuman muscles and skills honed from being forced to survive a year alone in the wilderness and to serve thirteen years in the swarms of the dragon knights. The Volqori shredded through waves of Tamed like they were reaping fields for harvest rather than facing off against terrifying beasts. Their draconic roars, heavy with their beloved x, y, z, q, and v sounds drowned out the dying of the Tamed as the tamers fled their bodies to reinforce their unending army with another beast. Leoquo moved among the Volqori with his elite bondpairs. The emir's grace matched the raw power of the Volqori as they held the line between the Tamed and the survivors they fought to extract from this paradise lost.

"Beneath!" Azi shouted. "Thousands of them!"

Monsters tunneled through the ground, emerging within their ranks. The air chilled as Dust slashed through the new beasts.

Alexia held Zafrir, blasting groups of Tamed burrowers, creatures with carapace and drilled nostrils, with bursts of wind that shredded carapace and flesh like a flurry of knives.

"Kill the tunnels!" Azi yelled. "Now!"

Alexia grabbed Azurianna's arm for stability, changing her focus. She would hold her ground against these monsters, and stubbornly protect the Mahagan until the last of her power was spent. Erlos stood in the path of one creature poised for Alexia, his axe disemboweling the monster as it leapt several feet into the air. Its guts showered them green, and brown, and putrid. Alexia imagined thousands of rumblings beneath the ground. She visualized subterranean tunnels collapsing on themselves crushed by the earth.

The ground quaked across the battlefield, rumbling deep into the jungles between Alexia and the mountain. Several people fell from the trembling of Caleel, as did the Tamed, and in the chaos, more carnage was unleashed as battle lines broke. Yet, the price had to be paid. Alexia felt, for a moment, the burden of what she had done, and yet another price she had needed to pay in order to save as many as she could.

Empowered by Celegana's divine energy, Alexia didn't sway with the shaking of the land. She seized Azi to keep the princess upright as her mind fought beyond her body. Holding Azi steeled Alexia's connection with Celegana, a pattern Alexia had recognized in the past span, perhaps drawing from Celegana's wilding skill that must have been abundant in the princess. Whatever the cause, Alexia was rooted to the land and her best friend.

Azi gasped, her mind registering the silencing of thousands of voices pleading for freedom from the Tamers. "Gone," she cried. "Gone!"

Alexia let go of her, no longer feeling like a protector as guilt knifed her. These burrowers didn't strike her of their own volition. Yet they too paid the price.

But she wasn't the one to blame. Anger roared to life within her, as she drew the heat from the humid jungle. Alexia merged Seraxa's impassioned fury with Celegana's will to hold her ground and restore wholeness. The air chilled from summer to fall to winter. Running out of Seraxa's energy, Alexia drew from the volcano.

Lava burst from the ground, forming rivers of molten red and orange through the jungle. She engineered the battlefield, cutting off Tamed from the survivors.

Huffing from exhaustion, she kept her focus on shifting the rivers to where they were needed, creating pathways for the Mahagan survivors and diverting the Tamed. Azi, constantly breaking tamer links, focused on areas where the Freed could strike back against the Tamed. Volqori and Sapphire forces defended the lines, shifting to focus on where the lava rivers made getaway lanes for the survivors, intercepting the Tamed as they pursued. Waterrunners carried children over water, Windjumpers lifting elderly through the air, able bodied men and women swimming to the ships as the volume of Mahagans reaching the coast overwhelmed the rowboats.

Therix, the Ice Tribe captain, took a bite to the shoulder guarding Azi's rear. The lion took the worst of it, its teeth breaking against hardened Volqori flesh moments before Captain Undaxa slew the lion and then about twelve other beasts in as many turns. Masozi, one of the most powerful Mahagan Windjumpers, crashed into a crowd of crocodiles after falling from an eighty-foot leap. The crocodile she landed on was crushed into the dirt and the next three met quick dooms as her long spear pierced their skulls. Out in the water, black and red bled into the sea where the ribaia devoured a tamed kalagoth.

Alexia kept channeling the rivers of lava, architecting the jungle and the shore to give them as much time as possible while Azi broke chains. Screams, shouts, roars, cries pierced her ears as the scent of blood, hot air, burning flesh, and salt water rushed through her nose. Her eyes sought the Chimaera but death incarnate didn't show. Neither did a monster of a man materialize from nothing, meladonite scythe in hand. As deadly as this encounter was, it was clear the Celegans held back.

This extraction was too easy. The truth nipped at her but Alexia pushed it away, doing everything she could to see the survivors reach the ships.

Alexia's rivers of lava gave the defenders the space and time they needed to regroup and prepare for the final press of the Tamed's charge. A few apes slipped through them, dashing toward the shore on all fours. Lightning flashed as Theos Stormkin summoned Balbaraq aboard Sea Lion. The apes reached up, abandoned by their tamer, and cried out as their lives perished moments after they had regained control of them. The armada army continued to give ground as the Tamed kept coming. Alexia replaced formerly held territory with more lava, incinerating beasts and forcing others to stall and redirect. Often, she surrounded them with the lava, then closed the rivers, forming a lake where the wildlife of Caleel was sacrificed to preserve the people.

The swelling of survivors on the beaches went down, splashing through the waters, loading up ship ladders, oar boats lifted out of the water, women frantically jumping from shore to deck to shore and back again. Men ran over the water, often carrying the little ones. Some of the ships sailed out of the cove, their holds and decks full of survivors turned refugees. This scene wasn't unfamiliar to Alexia. Nor were the screams and tears of those forced to leave everything behind.

She had no issue maintaining Seraxa and Celegana, two very complementary powers when one cared about protecting innocents against monsters. Though the monsters were invisible, she had no issues imagining cruel men in their tower of earth and tree across the sea or cached somewhere in the Mahogany Isles where they could better reach out to the wildlife.

For whatever reason, the tamers led by Daichin ezen Celegan eschewed their most powerful ability. In all their extractions, not once did the tamers try to tame people. Had this been the case, Azi's job would've been much different.

Horns sounded from the shore as Leoquo called for the retreat of the armada's forces. Traditionally, the retreat was the deadliest part of the extraction for the coalition's warriors. Alexia looked around her at the people who fought for a Mahagan future, at Azi and the Azureknights, at Volqori, Sapphire, and Mahagan warriors, at the Redeemed Men, and yearned to do everything she could to protect them.

She slammed Aurora into the ground, stubborn and passionate as she drew upon the land and the volcano. This time, things would be different. This time she would not fail. Screaming as heat poured into her body, Alexia overchanneled Seraxa turning the air around her into a vacuum of cold. She borrowed more divine energy, more flame, from the volcano. She lifted her staff once more and drove it into the sand, merging Celegana's divine energy with Seraxa's. Her roar could've silenced a pride of lions. The rivers of lava spread around them, creating a moat thirty feet wide in a semicircle on the edge of their forces. A massive wall of fire erupted from the lava pools. The jungle went up in flames and the Tamed that attempted to pass through the fires were incinerated. Alexia screamed and screamed as the fire ate away at her.

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In her mind, she saw Bam and Jem, Timmeck and Calden, and countless faces of those she'd been unable to save. Azi, Garrond, Erlos, and the others couldn't become like them. She held Seraxa's flames and Celegana's earth for as long as she could. Until every other sailor, soldier, and survivor had been leapt to a deck or were pushing off the beach in the rowboats, she gripped her staff, narrowed her eyes, and refused to let the wall of fire stop shielding their retreat. Channeling this much energy left her sweating and shaking. At last, her body gave way and she had to release Seraxa before her innards were roasted. Garrond caught her with one arm while he held Dust in the other. She was too dizzied to walk on her own. The Dust sheathed his blade and tossed her over his shoulder. Alexia looked behind them as he dashed for the last rowboat. The wall of flame simmered, leaving behind the rivers of lava. Tamed howled and screeched after her. A troop of gorillas created a pontoon bridge over one section of lava, dropping trees onto the stream. Lions rushed over, eager to meet them at the rowboat.

Leoquo helped them push off the shore and ran atop the water beside them, the last Mahagan on the white sands. On the jungle's edge, lions stopped their frantic growling and hateful hisses. Instead, they fought amongst themselves as Azi freed them. The battle of the beasts continued on the shore, spraying blood into the air, as the rowboat approached the safety of Sea Lion.

Alexia shuddered uncontrollably, so much heat now gone and cold sweat taking over as her body fought hypothermia. Yet, a smile climbed her face. For once, none were left behind. They had held as long as it took to get everyone aboard a deck. She collapsed into Azi's arms.

Azi kissed the top of her head, then massaged her scalp. "My hero," she whispered into her ear.

Alexia's heart savored those sweet words. Shivering, despite her robes being soaked with sweat, she gazed at the Kavovan vessels sailing for Cherin's Point. After they delivered the Caleel islanders to their new home, they would have completed their end of the bargain they struck with Azi and Leoquo. No doubt they would sail straight to Sapphirica to collect from their fathers.

The rest of the armada had a few more extraction points on Caleel before heading to their final destination at the Everrain.

The rowboat was pulled into position. Alexia waited her turn on the ladder, only Garrond behind her helping her stay steady. Erlos pulled her up and over the rail. He closed his arms around her. "Great work, boss."

The morale high, other Redeemed Men offered her taps on the shoulder, celebrating her tornadoes, earthquake, and lava on what had been their most successful extraction yet. No Mahagans left ashore and none among Sea Lion's crew unaccounted for. Sein was exaggerating the size of her lava wall before its remnants were even out of sight.

Alexia didn't join in on their mirth. Though the coalition was getting better at this, that wasn't the reason this extraction was their most successful one yet.

"I need to lay down," she said, as Sapphires and Mahagans crowded her. She stumbled, dizzy from the exertion, the heat, and most of all, the stress.

Azi and Garrond helped her to her cabin, setting her down in her hammock.

"Rest up, Alexia," Garrond said, retreating to the small cabin's doorway. "Our toughest fight is still ahead of us."

"The Chimaera is waiting for me," she muttered.

Garrond nodded. "Waiting to die."

She wished she could share his confidence. "We will try."

He shook his head. "I'd take the three of us over the three-headed beast a thousand out of a thousand times."

Alexia didn't argue. She was too tired to, of course, but she didn't want to dampen his spirits, even if he was probably exaggerating them. He didn't account for the Chimaera's protection plan. The Shadow.

"Thank you, Dust," Azi said. "I'll take it from here."

"As you wish," Garrond said, sealing the door behind him as he left.

Azi clapped her big hands together. "Now, let's get you out of those, Bluerose. You look like you just spent a year in a sauna." Tut-tutting, Azi shook her head, mimicking her mother's haughty voice. "Such blush is unbecoming on a young lady, don't you know? Composure, Alexia. Do you know what that means?"

Alexia couldn't giggle back at her. Not when Azi's hands undid the buttons and opened up Alexia's sweat-soaked top, exposing breast and belly. The princess went about it as if it was an everyday thing to see her naked.

"Do you ever get tired, Azi?"

Azi flashed a wry smile. "Of you? Never. You're my favorite person. Always have been."

Azi's strong hands liberated Alexia of her sodden garments. Alexia's breath caught in her chest, her thoughts racing to ancient, forbidden hideaways. Many nights in her tower bedroom, on her own, beneath the blankets, imagining a sequence like this and delivering herself closer to Meladon's Paradise. Did Azi have any idea what her touch did to her? What those words meant?

Alexia shivered, trembling as heat redirected through her body. She felt an urge to tell Azi that she loved her, but couldn't find the courage to say anything. She pulled the lion hide blanket off its hook beside the hammock concealing herself, hoping she could cover everything until these forbidden feelings finally faded away.

Azi stood over her. Those bushy brown eyebrows of hers were as expressive as they'd ever been. Being Azi, she winked and flashed a winsome smile. "Oh, Beautiful Bluerose, how could you deprive me of the chance to see the twin peaks rising over the toned plains and the fertile valley!" As dramatic as any stage performer, Azi put her arm over her eyes and let out an epic, breathy sigh. "After all, I have never seen anything like them!"

Alexia pulled the blanket up to her eyes, hiding her lack of composure.

"You're worse than a Mahagan. No need to be so bashful, Alexia," Azi said. "I'm your sister, not some horny Halius in heat. Besides, your Zander has already made quite the woman out of you." She reached beneath the blanket, pinching Alexia's cheek.

"A Sunrise Queen," Alexia said, trying to cover up her embarrassment.

"Indeed," Azi said, her cheeks now losing their composure. "I bet you're heating that blanket right now, imagining his strong arms around you, and some other crude things a lady ought not say aloud lest she declare at the top of her lungs to all the world that she is a brutish beast rather than a princess."

She wasn't wrong. Thinking of Zander made it hurt less that she'd never have Azi. She hoped he still thought of her, that his heart wasn't broken. She'd never be his enemy, but she'd needed to do this. Though she missed him, she hoped he was where he needed to be too. Until next time, she'd have to sustain herself on the memories of their time beneath Covademara.

Yet, Azi was still Azi. Alexia knew she would love her for her entire life. The dreams would linger long after the dreamer stopped dreaming they would come true. It didn't help that Azi stripped out of her sailor's top and slops. The corset beneath was the hardest working piece of fabric in the coalition fleet and the laces deserved recognition of the highest order for holding Azi's supremely busty and muscular frame. For a few rapid heartbeats, Alexia took in the line of every muscle on her body, appreciating everything to the fullest.

As always, the sheer size of Azi's curves did something to Alexia's brain that disrupted its ability to draw normal breaths. Alexia rolled over, choosing to stare at the mahogany planks rather than her second favorite sight in the world. Water and sweat splashed onto their floor as the princess wrung out her damp garb and hung it on the shelving in their cabin. She sat on her own hammock, Alexia hearing the sway as she settled into it.

"What is it like?" Azi said.

"What is what like?" Alexia's voice went an octave higher than usual. She cleared her throat, unable to clear the image of Azi's immaculate body from her mind. Anger flared, thinking of how her mother and Sapphire society shamed her for her powerful frame, calling her manly or Gideon with teats.

"Being with the man of your dreams? I keep thinking that any moment could be the one where it happens. I see his eyes doing what his body ought to be doing and I don't want to wait anymore."

Alexia said nothing. She reached for Seraxa, letting just the smallest trickle of heat into her body before she warmed the blankets with her touch.

A smooth, accented voice startled her. "May I enter?"

Azi bounced to her feet, the planks creaking beneath her. The princess didn't replace her soiled tunic and slops. Her voice as playful as could be, Azi called out into the hallway. "As long as your intentions are wholesome, Emir Leoquo."

Leoquo swung the door open. His eyes went wide. Azi pulled him into the room, slamming the door. She sat on her hammock, her shoulders arched back, like she needed the extra help from posture to accentuate what her corset couldn't hide.

The Lion Prince's eyes lingered longer than was appropriate by Mahagan standards. He looked like a captured beast being tossed a juicy shank of meat and he was unsure what to do with it. He himself had removed his lion cloak and wore just his vest and his hide pants. His chest was bare and hairless like his face and the shiny top of his handsome head.

Alexia felt like an intruder, but couldn't take her eyes away. If Undaxa and Therix had tension that could be felt across the armada, Azi and Leoquo's could be felt on the far side of the moon. Alexia had never seen two people so clearly in love, who adored everything about the other person. From the start, they'd been inseparable, doing this dance around Mahagan and Sapphire traditions, a dead woman between them.

Azi smirked at him, knowing fully well the trap she lured him into. Her voice was unlike Alexia had ever heard it and she knew those tones would never be directed at her with the same genuineness they were at Leoquo now. "What is it, my lion?"

Leoquo's mouth was open for several turns before he closed it. He stammered and walked himself back into a shelf, bumping his head. He grimaced, sweeping his eyes toward Alexia, as though she would rescue him.

Alexia, despite a life of longing for Azi, was all for the Lion Prince being snared into her trap that would bring everyone happiness. She was sure her cheeks went full with the smile she sent his way.

Azi bounced out of her hammock, seizing both of Leoquo's hands before he could react. Though he was one of the tallest Mahagan she'd met, Azi was several inches taller. Alexia wouldn't have blamed anyone for startling or reflexively backing away from this towering muscled woman making such a sudden move toward them.

Leoquo neither flinched nor pulled back. He leaned closer, gripping her hands. "My sapphire."

For several turns, they smiled into each other's beautiful faces, sending waves of warmth to Alexia's heart. She pulled her blanket up to her eyes, willing herself to give them privacy. But she wasn't about to get up naked in front of them and go out into the corridor.

"This went too well," Leoquo said.

"Perhaps we're just that good," Azi said.

A sickness made Alexia's stomach twist. Leoquo hadn't come in here to discuss love and lust. Azi hadn't caught up with him yet. She peeked at them.

Leoquo ran his hands up the side of her corset, his eyes lingering on Azi's. The princess's breathing changed, going still as she put her arms around Leoquo's neck. Her lips pursed, waiting for his kiss. Alexia knew it wouldn't come. Not now. If ever.

More than the necklace of seashells and pearl stood between them. Love and lust warred against tradition and fate. Alexia watched it play out like a bard's tragedy, unable to change the tale even though it broke her heart. Leoquo put his hands on Azi's cheeks. "We couldn't have done this without you, Azi. Without either of you. You are far more than King Gideon's greatest treasures." His voice broke, breaking Alexia's heart with it. "When this is over, the Islanders will need to add two more goddesses to our prayers."

Azi leaned her forehead into his. He pressed his back into her. When she looked up into his eyes, Leoquo was crying. Azi smiled at him, trying to cheer him on, as she had Alexia so many times when she was in her downward spirals. She took his hands and held them up, her fingers intertwined with his. Leoquo's quiet tears came more rapidly. Azi still hadn't caught up.

"History could have remembered you as The Last Mahagan," Azi said. "Instead, your bravery and your spirit has ensured that your people will endure, be free, and be the spear that sunders the Celegan Empire once and for all." She released one of his hands, setting her hand over his heart. "And I will be there with you when your people return to the white shores alongside not Leoquo the Last, nor Leoquo the First, but Leoquo the Lion who answered tyranny with the greatest roar this world has ever heard."

Leoquo looked down. Sobbing, he collapsed into Azi's arms. Wrapping himself around her back, he cried into her collar. Alexia wished she didn't have to stay for what followed. He lifted his head and exhaled grief. He only seemed to inhale more sorrow, then met Azurianna's loving eyes.

He shook his head, fighting the sobs. "It will not be."

Alexia's heart split for her best friend as she finally arrived at realization. Tears filled Azi's sapphire eyes and she shook her head. "Stop," she told him. "Do not do this to yourself, Leoquo. You deserve better. I deserve better."

Leoquo clenched his teeth, his face settling into the grim look of a man on his deathbed. "You are right, Princess Azurianna Sapphire. You deserve better than a man with only half a heart to share. You deserve better than what is left of me after my Ulani died in my arms."

Azi's long earthy hair swung at her sides as she shook her head. She took back Leoquo's hands, refusing to let go.

The lion roared, but his song was as sad as the moans of freed empagong. "You deserve better than a man who can never move on. You deserve better than a man who will die on his white shores, abandoning you with the responsibility of watching over his people. My father will not survive our landing at the Everrain. There are none who share the name Mahagan. I will never bear children."

Azi continued to repeat, "No," throughout Leoquo's words. She refused to let him go. Alexia wept beneath her blanket.

Leoquo's voice grew fierce. "I am the last Mahagan!"

"I will not accept that," Azi said, her voice choked up. Leoquo freed his hands, moving toward the door. Azi barred his path. That same stubborn princess that she had always been was in full form. Arms crossed under her chest, she set her stubborn stare on Leoquo. "I love you. I love you, Leoquo Mahagan. I love you." She sobbed, Alexia's heart breaking into a thousand pieces. "I know you love me too."

Leoquo gripped his pearl necklace. He stared at the planks beneath his feet. "I have dived to the bottom of the Endless Blue and claimed the only pearl I ever can. I have treasured this fleeting dream we shared together, Princess Azurianna Sapphire, but I will never love again. My people may leave the Isles behind, but I will not be with them. When I face the Chimaera and the Shadow, I will return to Ulani and we will be together again."

"No," Azi repeated. She embraced Leoquo. He reached for her back, then let his arms fall to his side.

"This is what is going to happen," Azi said, resolute. "We will go to the Everrain. We will kill the chimaera and the Shadow. We will save as many of our people as we can. We will leave together. We will go to Cherin's Point and I will help you rebuild our people's lives. You will dive again and you will get another pearl. I will wear it around my neck. We will defeat the Celegans. We will return to the Isles. We will live long, happy lives, with many children running free along the white shores blessed with the name Mahagan."

Leoquo wept through Azi's speech, his body shaking with loud sobs. His arms remained at his side as he refused to grab onto this alternate future. Azi didn't let go of him, until he pulled himself free of her, using the slickness of his Waterruning gifts. Leoquo said nothing as he fled the room, dashing away to his own cabin.

Alexia rushed to Azi's side. She guided her best friend to her hammock, holding her as she wept.

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