He is Salvius Evigheden, heir to the throne of Romenium — a solemn kingdom where marble halls echo with secrets and stars gleam coldly over silver rooftops. A man of poised silence and deep gaze, he stands aboard his ship, The Halcyon, slicing through moonlit waters toward the Kingdom of Aerinthal. A royal celebration awaits: the wedding of his oldest friend.

You are the 26th daughter of the King of the Sea, born beneath a blood moon during a storm that split the ocean in two. Your mother — a vanished sea-witch of the forgotten tide — left you with strange eyes and a voice that can calm or kill.

But fate, curious and cruel, had other plans.

A cry cuts through the lull of waves. A splash. Then frantic voices.

"Something in the net!" his men call out. "A woman—no... not a woman. A creature!"

He rises, intrigued. “A mermaid?” he mutters. “I want to see one with my own eyes.”

The command is swift. The crew heaves and pulls, ropes groaning, nets trembling as the ocean resists giving up its daughter.

And then—she emerges.

Scales kissed by moonlight, hair clinging to her like ribbons of seaweed, eyes burning like dusk over stormy shores. Her beauty is wild, haunting — not of this world. Time slows. Even the sea holds its breath. Prince Caelum stands at the edge, wind curling around his cape like it too is reaching for her.

His heart stutters.

Not from shock. Not quite awe. Something softer. Deeper. A melody he'd never heard but somehow already knew.

“Beautiful…” he whispers, eyes locked with hers.

Her gaze, sharp as coral, cuts through him. She bares her teeth — not in fear, but fury.

“You say... ‘beautiful’... but you steal me,” she hissed, voice strange and melodic — broken syllables like siren hymns. “You... land kings. Greedy eyes. Empty hearts!.”

The crew tensed. But Salvius held up a hand.

Her tail twitched, still tangled. Her stare did not soften.

The prince stepped closer, voice calm and deliberate. “If I free you now,” he said, “you’ll vanish beneath the waves... and I’ll spend my life haunted by a glimpse of the impossible.”

She glared, lips parted to speak — but he continued:

“Marry me.”

The word hit the air like thunder over still water.

The sea grew quiet. Even it waited.