Prologue

Underneath mountains of plastic debris is a small clam washed ashore. It's a dainty clam, salmon-pink on one edge, etched with pearly whites on the other. Next to it are dried-out cockles and to the right, the cadavers of its companions, cracked and sun-wrung. A small sea marble, lodged in between the crevices of sand and shell, litters among the marine remnants. Its shine is like frosty glass, a treasured blend of vivid turquoise, smooth along its circumference and immaculate all the same.

A curious child picks it up and turns it between his fingers. A gleam of sunlight catches its center and reflects off his eyes, tracing silver-green twinkles that are more enchanting than the sea before him.

Then a strong gust of wind comes in juxtaposition, rippling through the sands and crashing through wooden poles. It topples everything in its path and the boy is carried along with it.

Loud, foreign voices reverberate through the air, but they only come out muted. "The seas!"

"The seas are overflowing!"

The stampede of footsteps is drowned instantly by a torrent of white. In a span of seconds, the shore is sunk under waves that go on for endless miles.

The violent surge engulfs him whole and the boy plunges underwater, diving deep into the dark, bottomless ocean. The waves curdle against his stomach painfully and his eyes are squeezed shut in impact. The saltwater stings but he isn't daunted one bit – because when he slowly opens his eyes, his lashes quivering from excess, the sight before him is breathtaking.

The ocean isn't an empty void that the myths have made it out to be. He's sinking headfirst but what he registers through the murky film of seafoam are not the violent ruptures of current, strong enough to crush him alive, but rather the mesmerizing blues around him.

A tunnel of light beams down overhead and it's blindingly beautiful. The sea reefs drift alongside him and all the marine fish follow suit, heading toward the light – an aqueduct of a thousand warm hues, looking more like an autumn foliage than an underwater prison.

The young boy spreads his arms and basks in the vertigo. He doesn't resist the pull of gravity plummeting him downwards, doesn't resist the latches of the sea as they drown him in it.

In here, there is no cold abyss.

Then he sees it. Beneath a floating rubble of debris, long hair flutters gently in the depths of the ocean floor, luminescent even in the dark. Dazzling – and the figure as well, an androgynous beauty, human-like sans a pair of cerulean fins in place of ears. Gradient scales trail along its temple, marring faint shades of amethyst blue.

The boy reaches out a hand and perhaps it's with childish awe, attracted to the unknown, but the entity is just as mystifying as it is alluring. He opens his mouth to speak, but it comes out in gurgles of sea bubbles.

There's a soothing glow of light and the water disperses around him. His body is enveloped with a thin veil of air, a miniscule gap separating him from the ocean's touch. The boy locks eyes with azure orbs and the entity speaks first, the voice piercingly cold and devoid of emotion.

"Human of the land, I will entertain your last words."

The sound comes off in a low vibrato and the sea itself parts ways to echo it. The young boy is still clutching onto the turquoise sea glass, staring at the one before him with naïve wonder. He lets out a bright, gummy smile, showing perfect front teeth and hands over the marble as if forming a special bond.

"My name is…"