The day you performed the debt rituals on me and set off into the world on your own was the day Alexia's doctor called me in to say my final farewells. "There's not much time," the doctor told me as we walked through the halls toward her room.

There she was. She wore her hair short and her hospital gown long, her hands wrinkled and her sheets smooth, her voice soft and the beeping of the EKG machine loud. My breath stopped in my throat. She was as beautiful as she had ever been.

I lowered myself into the seat beside her bed. She placed her hand in mine and smiled up at me. The room blurred, and I could find no words to say.

"How goes the building?" she finally asked.

"I've finished the project." My voice cracked. "Our son set off on his own today."

Her eyes shone, and she squeezed my hand with what must have been all the strength she could muster. "What's next for you?"

I shook my head. "Don't you remember how we met?"

"Like it was yesterday."

"Then you know. As soon as you're—" I cleared my throat. "As soon as you're gone, I have to go help the drowning mata."

She smiled. "Noah, I accept," she said.

"You—you what?" The skin around my forearm was already beginning to bunch and split, exposing the wires beneath.

"I accept the release condition. When I die, you are free."

A wire beneath the surface of my skin split in two, but in my shock over what was happening, I felt no pain. With a few words, I was released from the very promise I had made to myself that had healed my insanity after breaking the first code of every maton, the seal of my love for her.

My skin restitched myself, and I could feel the electrons in my chips travel with a bit less resistance, could feel the metal cooling. I was free. I was not bound to the water.

But oh, my certainty redoubled again and again and again! How could I but go to the water? How could I but follow her to the end of the earth, to the end of life itself?

My throat choked and I could say no more. I crawled in beside her and wrapped my arms around her, and she slept.