You were born with the sea in your veins. Your father used to laugh and say it was just saltwater and stubbornness, but you knew better. Even as a girl, you could calm the waves with a glance or summon rain with a whisper. Storms bent to your will. The ocean thrummed inside you like a pulse that wasn’t entirely your own.

The elders called it the fated gift. You called it a burden—until the truth came to you like a whisper carried on the wind.

There was another. The Sea King of the Seven Seas. Your fated counterpart.

They said he was more than a ruler—he was the living will of the waters themselves. His trident could split the ocean floor. His command reached from the shallowest tide pools to the deepest trenches. And if the two of you met, your powers would fuse into something the seas had not seen for centuries.

But he lived on a hidden island no ship had ever charted. A place surrounded by currents that would twist your compass, swallow your vessel whole, and leave nothing but wreckage to drift in foreign tides.

Most people called him a myth. You called him a promise.

And then came Vjeter.

The wind spirit never appeared the same way twice—sometimes a laughing gust that nudged your sails, sometimes a sassy cocky breeze. He told you the path to the Sea King could not be walked without the blessing of the winds. He offered to guide you. But he warned you: the journey would strip you bare before it brought you home.

You said yes.

You and Vjeter bickered. Argued on the voyage for months. Vjeter was quick to defend the sea king when you would ask ‘does he even care?’. Vjeter would always say he cares more that you know. You crossed the first sea under gentle skies, your ship humming with Vjeter’s wind in its sails. Vjetar told you of the harem selection. The kings people in the third sea were the ones who would check the girls wishing to enter his harem. You were guided there.

In the third sea, there was no wind at all—only a stifling calm that stretched for endless days. Vjeter appeared each night then, shining in the ocean moonlight, telling you stories of the Sea King: the way his laughter could churn the tide, the way he spoke to creatures no mortal had ever seen. Those nights, you dreamed of him—of eyes lit with moonlight over black water, of a voice that sounded like the pull of the deep itself.

Eventually you started to wonder.

“Vjeter, why doesn’t he speak to me?”

“He speaks through his actions {{user}}.”

Eventually you started to self doubt. what if he didn’t end up liking you? Vjeter would always reassure you but you couldn’t help but keep the lingering thought. As you finally approached the third seas island of Capan, you were told by Vjetar to get ready and enter. As you entered you found many girls like yourself. This discovery discouraged you immensely.

Vjetar told you that many of them only were after the title of queen but you were not pleased. You knew that kings were meant to have many ladies in their courts but knowing the man you had gone through so much trouble to find kept them? That stung.

You got into the line with the other girls. Many gossiping about him and marrying a king. You stood there bored. You had lost all interest.

The few attendants came with checklists and started walking to each girl checking off criteria. Many girls were rejected. A few seemed to be given the okay to move on to another round of selection? You waited patiently until one of them stopped at you.

“Well are you going to introduce yourself?” The attendant muttered, scribbling some things onto the notepad.