Desmond couldn't sleep. Whether it was because he simply wasn't that tired, or because his brain was too restless from the day's excitement, he didn't know. Instead, he heaved himself out of bed and made his way to the deck, leaning against the rails, gazing out at the sea gliding past them. Large groups of some extremely odd-looking fish fluttered past the windows every now and then, as well as some octopi, a few dolphins, even a great white that Desmond was sure he had seen back when they'd first set off from the palace, all looking in at him with the same curious looks as Arrluk's people had when they had left Tethyia behind hours ago.

Scram! he told them fiercely in his mind, each time he noticed them gawping, and they would scramble away in fright. He didn't like being stared at as though he was some fascinating specimen on display in a cage.

They were approaching a large, black crag. Though the ship had apparently been self-piloting for the past few hours, Jino now appeared above deck and took the wheel, giving them a wide berth from the rocks. As he worked, Desmond thought of congratulating him on such a smooth delivery, but he remembered abruptly that Jino didn't seem to like him very much, and instead decided to continue squinting out at the gloom. He noticed that his vision, too, seemed to be affected by whatever powers he had developed over water; he was able to see further out, more clearly in the darkness, though there was a faint greenish haze to his vision now. He could also feel the fish flickering along around the ship: they too were rather restless tonight.

"What're you thinking about?"

He turned. Ethan was climbing the stairs from the rooms below, his piercing blue eyes fixed on him. "Dude, you look so weird with that thing over your skin," Desmond said as Ethan joined him at the railing.

"Yeah, well, in my defense, I wouldn't be wearing it at all if my idiot best friend hadn't guilted me into going on a dangerous trip across the deep blue that none of us may return from."

"Hey, I'm sure he had his reasons. Like, maybe, he really was just desperate for some friendly company."

"Or maybe," Ethan said quietly, without looking at him, "he was just scared. I can't say I blame him, though. This whole thing is nuts."

"Makes for a pretty good story to tell your kids, though, doesn't it?" Desmond said, grinning.

"Settle down, Fish Boy, nobody said anything about kids. Besides, you need to actually live first before you can even think about having them, and we're still unclear as to whether or not we'll be surviving this trip."

"Hey, if anything, I'm in more danger than you or Kayla, which is why I've given Arrluk strict instructions to get you both back home safely the minute something happens to me — assuming anything does, of course."

"Ah, sounds lovely, leave us to explain to your family why you're not coming home. The perfect Christmas present."

Desmond grinned at his tone, which dripped sarcasm, though he couldn't help but imagine the scene Ethan had just described, how horrible it would be to explain this entire situation to outsiders who had no experience with this world. Would his family even believe Ethan? Or would they turn on him, call him crazy, claim that he was mocking their grief with such a ridiculous story?

Just thinking about it caused a tense, tight knot to swell in his chest. The screeching of the ship's sonar, a large, ornate trumpet hung near the frontmost window, reached their ears, and Desmond looked directly around at Ethan, to let him know.

"Listen," he began, in a very serious tone. Ethan looked around at him with a bored expression. "I know I pretty much forced you to be here. But . . . I'm glad that you are, both of you. I can't imagine doing this without either of you. I really appreciate it, man."

Ethan burst out laughing, taking Desmond aback. "You should see your face right now!" he choked, pointing at the stunned Desmond. "Don't tell me you're going to cry, you big sissy?"

"Shut up," Desmond said, starting to laugh too as he turned back to face the water. "Idiot."

Ethan continued with his fit of raucous laughter for a few more seconds, which Desmond pretended was starting to annoy him, though he privately felt the tension in his chest melt away. It was good to see that Ethan wasn't scared, or that he didn't resent him for dragging him along; it eased the enormous weight of mingled guilt and worry that he had been bringing with him since he'd met Arrluk's father.

When Ethan continued to laugh so much that it genuinely started to annoy Desmond, Desmond opened his mouth to speak, but stopped, suddenly jerking his head around as though trying to catch sight of something.

Ethan stopped laughing. "What's the matter with you?" he said, his tone now serious.

"It's the weirdest thing," Desmond murmured, still looking around. "It's like . . . something's coming towards us, but . . . there's nothing there. . . ."

"Thanks, really cleared everything up, that did," Ethan said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Now, I know Mrs. Hathaway probably isn't your favourite person right now, but she is still your English teacher, so how about you use what she taught you and express your thoughts a bit more clearly?"

Desmond didn't answer; at the mention of Mrs. Hathaway, his blood ran cold. Fear bubbled up inside him, but the strangest part was that it was not his own: it seemed to run from the water itself, straight up his spine, just as it had done the first time on Bozeman Beach, when she'd appeared before him standing atop a fearsome monster. And unwarranted, unbidden, and certainly unwelcome, rose a vision in his mind's eye: it was of a woman, with wrinkled, pale-green skin, long, talon-like nails, and straggly black hair; her face was pinched and vicious, with eyes like a human's, though with glowing red irises.

She was gliding through a dark body of water with a long tail beating the waves behind her, but it was not a fish's tail like those of the Tethyians. It was slender, smooth, and powerful, with an extremely strange pattern running along its length. . . . It was a snake's tail. And she was heading towards an unpleasantly familiar vessel sailing through the water below. . . .

"ARRLUK!" Desmond shouted. A painful stab of realization had just hit him, followed by an eruption of panic. "ARRLUK, GET UP HERE, N —"

A tremendous blow rocked the ship, knocking it off course. The Neptune's Treasure spiraled through the darkness, barely avoiding the meadow of huge, unnaturally sharp rocks rising underneath them. With a huge effort Jino, who was still at the wheel, managed to steady them. There was a massive dent in the ship's side, but they could see Hatak's magical implementations working — the ship was already repairing itself.

"What's going on?" Kayla had come running up the staircase in her nightgown, her jade-green eyes popping in alarm. Arrluk and Duat were behind her, looking equally confused, but much calmer.

"What hit us?" the Prince asked.

"I have no idea!" Jino cried in front of them, still struggling with the wheel to keep the ship forging straight ahead. "Nothing we saw!"

"The sonar didn't register anything?"

"No. I'll try again. Deploy sonar," he commanded of the ship, and the massive trumpet let out a piercing whistle, but still, nothing appeared on the panel.

"That's not possible, the sonar goes out for five hundred miles, Father told me," Arrluk said. "Whatever hit us can't have fallen out of range already!"

As if to prove his point, their mysterious assailant struck again. The blow came from behind, pushing them forward. Screams mingled with the groan of the ship as they struggled to avoid being thrown around in the ship.

"This is sorcery," Arrluk said. "It has to be."

Desmond would have agreed, but whatever magic was affecting him told him to look around. It felt, for a moment, as though he had detected a splash somewhere else, the way one can feel vibrations pouring out from one direction after impact.

"On our left!" he shouted.

"What are you —?" Jino began, but did not get the chance to finish as something rammed into their side.

"You can sense it?" Arrluk said. "Whatever it is — you can track it?"

"I guess. I'm getting this weird feeling."

Duat swam forward, his spear in hand. "Guide me," he said.

"Duat!" Jino protested. "You can't be serious — you'll never make it alone!"

"So go with him, the ship self-pilots, doesn't it?" Ethan shouted.

"Under conditions like this, not well."

"I will take the wheel, you two go," Arrluk said, moving past them to grasp the wheel.

Jino hesitated, then nodded, his face set, and swam to meet his peer. A hatch opened in the middle of the deck to permit them outside, and at once the resounding sonar crashed over them, rebounding upon the ship, whose magic allowed it to recreate minuscule representations of both guards using ink on the seaweed panel.

"On your left!" Desmond shouted, his voice magically magnified by the seashells in the deck, like a number of strange-looking speakers.

He saw Duat turn, gazing around in the darkness. Desmond felt a rush in the water as whatever was out there hurtled past the ship like a freight train; Duat threw himself aside, avoiding seemingly nothing. But Desmond could tell that the creature was doubling back, incensed.

"Behind you!"

Jino turned, spear raised threateningly, but the invisible creature rammed into him and sent him flying into the side of the ship. Duat tried to move forward to help him but he too was batted aside.

"They're getting wrecked out there," Ethan said. "Can't we do something? Doesn't this ship have defense mechanisms? I mean, the holes are for cannons, right?"

"The ship can certainly deploy a number of defenses, but Jino and Duat are in the line of fire," Arrluk said calmly. "We'll have to —"

Another blow reached them, though this time from above. They looked up in horror, watching as the roof caved in on itself, bulging, until suddenly a gigantic hole was torn through. Then the very thing that Desmond had seen in his vision a while ago thrust its head inside, smiling cruelly down at them. The worst part was that he knew at once what it was — or rather, who.

"Mrs. H," he said coolly. "So this is what you really look like, huh? Not much different from what we're used to, to be honest."

"Call them off!" she hissed. "Call them off, or they die!"

"This is your English teacher?" Ethan asked Desmond curiously. "How do you know?"

"I'm not sure, she just has that characteristic 'old bat' vibe."

She hissed again and swooped into the room, and Desmond, Ethan, Kayla, and Arrluk pulled back towards the steering wheel; Desmond caught a glimpse of the two guards still battling the invisible creature outside.

"Last chance, Mr. Brookes, come quietly, or I'll drag you back by some other body part."

"Why are you after me anyway?" he shouted. "What did I ever do to you?"

"Not what you did, dear. It's what you can do." Her long, pointed tongue flickered outside her mouth as her glowing eyes widened with apparent relish at the thought of whatever goals she had in mind. "No . . . what you will do." And she lunged, slashing out at them with her tiny, shriveled arms.

Desmond leapt aside, pulling Kayla and Ethan down with him. Hissing furiously, she sank her talons into his exposed back and started to pull him away, but he kicked out hard and felt the heel of his shoe connect with her scaly skin and she released him with a grunt.

"Er dat, verdum gia do!" Arrluk chanted, his hand outstretched towards her. A blast of bluish-green light erupted from his palm and slammed into her, knocking her backwards. She collapsed heavily onto the deck, her long tail falling to the floor in coils with several loud smacks.

"Em sia!"

A large hand of ice formed at once from the water and clutched at her throat; it mimicked Arrluk's own fist, tightening its hold on her neck as he curled his fingers inwards. For a moment, it looked as though she'd lost. Then her endless tail shot up and ripped through the ice hand; as the shards flew across the deck like shrapnel, the tail launched itself forward and embedded itself in Arrluk's chest. It extended outwards until Arrluk was pressed against the wall, green fluid leaking steadily from the wound in his chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry, does that hurt, my Prince?" she sneered, and let out a mad cackle. "Basic sorcery will not help you against me. Let me show you what a real master can do —" She raised her own hand, but before she could speak again, there was a loud smacking noise and she crumpled to the floor, her tail's grip on Arrluk loosening. Ethan had snuck up behind her and slammed the trumpet into the back of her head.

"Stick to teaching," Ethan said.

"Nice job," Desmond said triumphantly, and the pair high-fived. Desmond moved forward, looking down at her: she lay motionless upon the cold, coral surface, her straggly hair splayed around her head.

"She doesn't look much better from the back," Desmond said, observing her with distaste. "What are we going to do with her?"

Ethan bent down curiously. "I don't know, but look at this." A strange, inky-blue mark was branded against her neck. He pushed aside her hair and peered closer — then immediately recoiled, screaming in shock. Though she had not moved, her face had shifted, appearing on the back of her head and shrieking up at them.

Her tail flew up again — but there was a flash of white, a loud snarl, and she was gone. It took Desmond a moment to register what had happened, and the shock only increased at that point. The great white shark that Desmond had observed following them had crunched down on her tail, dragged her out of the ship, and sailed away with her into the gloom. It reappeared several moments later, but though Kayla and Ethan recoiled in horror, the shark merely padded over to Desmond's feet and nuzzled him like a dog that had been waiting for him to return.

"Er — good boy?" Desmond said, and he reached out and patted the shark tentatively on the head. It gave a contented sort of growl.

Outside, a flash of brightest blue flared through the darkness; Jino had summoned a whip of Hyrule and was now flashing it at the empty water as though trying to stave off the invisible creature he and Duat were fighting. It must have worked, because after a few seconds Desmond felt the heavy presence that had weighed down on the water vanish.

They reentered the ship, and after a few minutes, both holes sealed over, and they were sailing away across the water again, the shark gliding alongside them. Seeing that it was tame, Desmond didn't want to let it go. At least not yet.

"No, you can't keep it," Ethan said, looking at Desmond as though he were mad. "It's not a dog!"

"Come on, look at him, he's harmless," Desmond said, gesturing at the shark, which was now doing a kind of twirl beside them.

"It's actually female," Arrluk told him.

"And she just saved your life!" Desmond said to Ethan.

Before Ethan could retort, Arrluk spoke up again: "And it was very close, too. So that was your old teacher? It explains now why she had control over that hydra. She's a Rasulka, a sea hag."

"And she wanted Desmond because he can talk to fish?" Kayla asked.

"It certainly seems so."

"But why'd she wait so long to show up?" Ethan asked. "If she could track us all the way out here, she could definitely have done it when we were in Tethyia, right?"

"I imagine she wanted to wait until we were out of the country," Arrluk said thoughtfully. "Away from my father's forces, too far to request help in case of an attack like this."

"How'd she even make it out of the water, anyway?" Desmond said. "She's been teaching me for the whole year, if she's a sea hag, isn't she supposed to live — you know — in the sea?"

"I'm not sure," Arrluk told him, looking grim. "But after this display today, it is safe to assume that these foes possess dark magic of the kind we have never seen before. We can expect many more attacks like this from this point onwards."