Pushing himself from the door Gulian neared her, standing in front of her. "I want you to stop seeing 𝙝𝙞𝙢, that's what I want." Kyomi scoffed as she shook her head. "Why would I stop doing that? Just 'cause you call yourself asking nicely?"

As the future Olo'eyktan of the Metkayina, Aonung prides himself on control-over the reef, over others, over himself-until Kel 'Hani disrupts it with a single laugh and a look held too long. She tells herself she dislikes his arrogance; he tells himself she's too stubborn. Yet the space between them tightens all the same, heavy with things unsaid and moments unfinished. Where restraint is tested, denial becomes habit, and the sea quietly shifts along with something neither of them is ready to face.