On the first day of Festive I slept in late and woke up groggy with a dry throat. The room was empty and the space beside me was cold. I wondered how long ago Neoma had left.

I poured myself a glass of water from the bedside table and drained it. After having a second glass I left the bed and drew back the curtains. The sky outside was clear and the sea calm. I rested my elbows on the sill and gazed at the rolling waves.

My stomach growled and I sighed. Reluctantly I pulled myself away from the window and dressed myself in a simply gray dress and tied a sash around my waist. I combed out my long hair and then plaited it into a single braid. I took a quick look at myself in the mirror before opening the door. A male guard stood to the left of me and he bowed as I left my room.

“Good morning Lady Sol. I am to accompany you today. Neoma is on her break.”

“I understand,” I said. “I’m headed to the kitchens.”

He bowed again. “After you, Lady Sol.”

“Do I know you? You look familiar,” I said as we began to walk.

“Yes, we studied the spear together before your mother died.”

“Did we? What’s your name?”

“Alvern.”

“Weedy Alvern? Sorry, that was a bad nickname for you,” I said quickly. When we were still children in training Alvern had been the smallest boy in the class and the thinnest. The bigger boys were not averse to picking on him from time to time.

“Well, I’m no longer weedy,” Alvern said flexing his now bulky bicep.

“Yes, I can see that now.”

“Do you still practice with the spear?”

“Not since I dropped out of training.”

“Pity because I think I could take you on now.”

“I won’t disagree with you, but should you be challenging your future lady to a duel?”

Alvern hunched his shoulders and his brow glistened with sweat. “No, sorry, Lady Sol.” I giggled and he relaxed a little bit.

Palesa was slicing tomatoes and olives when we arrived in the kitchen. Every now and then she would bark orders at the other cooks. The staff had more than doubled since first arrived. A mixture of palace staff and visiting cooks filled the main kitchen and the secondary one had been opened up as well.

The heat of the room caused me to sweat as I entered. The windows had been thrown wide open to let in the sea breeze as two fire pits and four ovens blazed in the back of the kitchens.

I approached the prep table while cautiously avoiding kitchen aids with pots, pans, and trays. Palesa smiled at me and continued to slice the red fruit in front of her. “Good morning, Lady Sol. I didn’t expect to see you this early in the kitchen. Is there anything that you need?”

I felt the heat rise in my cheeks. I considered not telling her that I had slept in when my stomach growled. The cook’s eyebrows raised a fraction. “Have you eaten my dear?”

“No, Ma’am,” I said.

“Here, eat this,” Palesa said handing me a ceramic bowl filled with goat cheese, tomatoes and dark olives. I saw flecks of basil, salt, and pepper and could smell the tangy scent of vinegar.

“Thank you.”

“Anything for you dear, you can go eat in the corner by the window; it’s cooler there.”

I followed Palesa’s pointing finger and sat down in a wicker chair with my food. Alvern took up station beside me while I quietly ate my food.

“Do you come here often?” Alvern asked.

I shrugged. “I do come to help in the evenings with the excess food. They donate it to the orphanage.”

“I didn’t take you to be sympathetic to charity for your own kind.”

I looked up at Alvern and bared my teeth and he shrank back while raising his hands as a shield. “What do you mean by that?”

“I-I just mean that you were very protective of that Landwalker.”

My heart skipped a beat as I thought of Ryaa. Vael had his body interred in the Sanctuary cemetery, something that had never been done in the last 400 years. I wondered what Claire must be thinking after all of these months. Surely by now she knew that he would never return.

I sighed and rubbed my temples. “Alvern, is there any honor in killing a man you’ve saved?”

He seemed to ponder my question for a few moments before answering. “I don’t think so. When we save someone we take their life as our own.”

“And do you think that Landwalkers are truly evil?”

Fear creeped into his eyes. “They are the enemy!”

“Are our enemies evil or are they just people at odds with us?”

“Of course they’re evil! Who else but an evil person would attack our villages?” Alvern shouted. The kitchens quieted around us as everyone turned to stare at the two of us. “The Landwalkers attacked us first!”

I stood up and faced him.

“They may have attacked first, but that doesn’t make them evil. They are people!”

I crossed the room and put my half eaten bowl by the dishwashing basins. “We were all Landwalkers once,” I said to the room. “Somewhere along the way we have all forgotten this.”

I left the kitchens hurriedly with burning eyes. I could hear Alvern behind me as he followed me through the palace. I felt a tugging sensation in my mind and followed it down the stairs leading to the submergence pool to the city. “Sol, wait!” he said loudly as he realized what I was doing. I was quicker than him and leaped down the steps and landed heavily on my feet. I then sprinted across the room and dived into the crescent pool.

I exited the underwater stairwell and scanned the waterway entrance for any obstacles. The large gate had been closed, but the smaller visitor gate was still open. Only two guards were posted at the entrance.

“Hold her!” Alvern sang from behind me as I swam swiftly for the entrance. The guards lowered their spears blocking my path. I grunted in frustration and turned to face my guard. “Why are you being so childish?” he sang angrily. “You are to be my lady, but you still act like a spoiled child that doesn’t have her way.”

I looked away feeling guilty. I was being childish. I was running away from my feelings instead of facing them. How could I be a champion of the Gentle God if I couldn’t even face myself?

I was frustrated with the anger and bitterness of Waterfolk and Landwalkers. I was tired of each side accusing the other of being demons. Why were we continuing these hostilities? What was driving us to fight? What would it take to end our war?

I looked at my hands and balled them into fists. This was going to be the last time I ran away because someone did not understand me. I needed to put more faith in my people. If I wanted the hate to end then I needed to be the first one to show love.

I shivered and a sense of urgency overcame me.

“Alvern, come with me,” I sang. He looked hesitant until my hair began to glow.

“Yes my lady,” he sang and bowed. I turned to the guards at the entrance and looked at them coolly. They lowered their spears. I passed through the gate with Alvern beside me. I felt the tug in my mind that seemed to pull me to the outer edges of the city. The people we passed would pause to gape at me as I moved over the roofs of the submerged city.

I felt uneasy under their stares, but I continued forward. At the edge of the city I felt the urge to rise to the surface and did so cautiously. The breeze felt cool against my wet cheeks. I sucked in a deep breath of air and exhaled softly. Alvern breached the surface beside and took a deep breath as well.

“Why are we up here,” he said sounding panicked. I wondered how many surface patrols that he had been on to act this way. I pointed behind him and he turned to look. Two large ships sat on the border of the Waterfolk territory. Smoke billowed from their hulls and darkened the sky around them. Faintly a sound like thunder could be heard.

The striped blue and black sails of one ship fluttered in tatters in the wind while the opposing ship’s sails of crimson looked largely untouched. “We are going there,” I said hollowly as if my voice was no longer my own.

“Are you crazy? Those Landwalkers are fighting each other! Let them kill themselves off.”

“No,” I said. I felt my body rise out of the water as the wind picked me up. My tail split in two and my legs formed as the air dried them.

“Lady Sol!” Alvern shouted and swam after me as I was carried to the ships.

I came to sometime later feeling disoriented. I was standing on the broken deck of the blue sailed ship. My hair had stopped glowing and I was holding a worn and tattered piece of black cloth. I held it up and saw a white skull sewn into the fabric with two bony arms crossed below it. I noticed that my hands were blackened by ash and covered in splinters.

The air smelled of rotten eggs and fire as I took in my surroundings. The deck was covered in ash, broken boards and bodies, some of them moving. “My lady!” a scratchy voice said from behind me. I turned and found a Landwalker kneeling behind me. His hair had been shaved close to his scalp exposing pale scar lines. Brown covered his upper lip in a thick bush that was unheard of for Waterfolk, but seemed common for Landwalkers.

The man looked to be nearly as old as my father with wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes that were nearly as blue as the sky.

The man set down his sword at my feet and bowed his head. “My lady, we are in your debt. Thank you.”

What had I done? The last thing I remembered was seeing the ships battling in the distance. I looked left then right and saw the remains of the second ship barely floating in the water. The majority of the deck was torn away exposing the cannon deck below. All of the cannons were now twisted masses of metal as if they had been melted by intense heat.

Smoke rose from other parts of the ship including the spot where its mast once stood. No sound or movement came the ship and I felt a chill go down my spine. What happened? Where was the other crew?

I heard the rattle of metal hitting wood and turned around to find the rest of the blue sail crew kneeling around me with their swords in front of them. “Thank you,” they said to me. They began to openly weep and I sank to my knees.

I turned back to the first man who had kneeled. “Who are you?”

He looked up at me and I could see the redness in his eyes from unshed tears. “I am Captain Fidel Lucius. This is my ship the Merry Dog. We’re a merchant ship. We were sailing to port in Prudence.”

“And them,” I said pointing to the ruined ship.

Captain Lucius scowled. “The Wailing Banshee, they have been hounding our ships for months. We had done a good job avoiding them until today.”

“Wailing banshee?”

“Pirates, my lady; they would have surely destroyed us if you hadn’t intervened.”

I felt light-headed and took a deep breath. I looked at the broken ship again and wondered how I could have done all of that damage. Had the Gentle God possessed me? I looked down the holes in my dress where fire and wood had pierced it. Was this what it meant to be a champion of the Gentle God?

I held out the torn cloth to the captain but he shook his. “No, it is your trophy.”

“Do you need more assistance?” I asked. But what could I offer to this crew? I had no power or riches to my name. I was still a farmer’s daughter.

“I don’t know if you could assist us even more unless you have a spare rudder lying around? That was the first thing those bastards destroyed when they attacked us.”

“What is a rudder?”

The captain laughed and the lines around his eyes deepened. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll send a bird to our sister ship. She’ll be able to tow us to an island for repairs.”

“My lady!” a voice shouted hoarsely from off the ship. I rose to my feet quickly and looked over the side and saw Alvern treading water below. His face looked gray and his eyes were wide as he stared at me. “Are you alright?” he squeaked.

“I am,” I shouted down as the Merry Dog crew joined me at the rail.

“Is that a merman?”

“Look at that hair!”

“I’ve never seen one up close before.”

I turned to the captain and smiled at him. “I have to go. Take care.” I climbed up the rail drawing murmurs of unease from the crew.

“Wait, before you go, what is your name?” the captain asked.

“Sol,” I said then leaped away and held my arms straight as I dived into the water below. My tail formed immediately and I rose up and waved at the ship with my free hand.

“She’s one of them! A guardian water spirit!” a man shouted at his captain. I missed the rest of what he said as Alvern and I dived down. The whole way back to the city Alvern kept stealing glances at me, but remained silent until we arrived in the crescent pool of the palace.

When reached the main part of the palace we were met with sprinting guards and couriers. I grabbed the sleeve of a courtier as he was passing me. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Two Landwalker ships were battling on our border when a large woman appeared and tore one of them apart. The Illustrious has ordered the city to lockdown and…” The courtier trailed off as he looked at my ruined dress and saw the torn black cloth in my hand.

“You’re Lady Sol,” he whispered. “I should have recognized you with that hair… You must see the Illustrious immediately!”

“Why?” I asked dumbly

“Because it was you wasn’t it? You were the one who tore apart the ship!” He pushed me towards the stairs leading up to the next level. “Go, go, you must see him now.” When I didn’t budge he took me by the hand and led us through the palace the Illustrious’ war room. The door was closed when we arrived and the courtier knocked on the door as the palace guards eyed us suspiciously.

The personal attendant of the Illustrious opened the door partially. He whispered with the courtier, looked at me then shut the door. A minute later he opened it again and invited all three of us into the room. I saw movement from the corner of my eye and turned my head to see Vael standing to the side of the room with several of the other visiting nobles.

He took in my appearance and frowned heavily. I resisted the urge to run into his arms and instead turned my attention to the Illustrious who was seated at the head of the war table. “Lady Sol, I’m told you know what’s happened at my border,” he said. I bowed low.

“My lord, I’m sorry, but I do not have any memory of what happened. I apologize.”

“No memory? How can that be?”

“My lord, I was possessed.”

“Illustrious if I may speak on her behalf,” Alvern cut in. He bowed.

“Proceed,” the Illustrious said waving his hand.

“Lady Sol was agitated today and fled the palace. She asked me to come with her. We swam to the surface and saw the ships battling in the distance, that’s when Lady Sol was lifted out of the water by the wind. It carried her toward the ships and that when she grew to awesome size and destroyed one of the ships and turned the men to dust,” Alvern said.

I swayed on my feet and felt my stomach curdle. “Sol,” Vael said sharply. I took deep breaths to calm my nerves. I closed my eyes to concentrate and then opened them.

“My Illustrious, the crew of the Merry Dog, the one attacked by the pirate ship, is in need of repairs,” I said.

“That is unheard of! We don’t hand out charity to the Landwalkers in our waters,” a noble said grumpily.

“Why should we do a thing for those hounds?” another said.

“Because it’s the right thing to do! Maybe if we offered out our hands in kindness they would do so as well,” I sad heatedly.

“They’d sooner cut off our hands than show us any kindness,” a noble sniffed. I glared at him and he began to cower under my gaze.

“We have been at war with them for too long,” I said.

“That may be so, but these are my waters, Lady Sol, and it is my duty to rule over them as its Illustrious. The Prince and our people are counting on me. I can’t just help any Landwalker ship that enters these waters. What if I helped the wrong one?”

I lowered myself to my knees and placed my forehead on the floor in a deep bow. “Illustrious, please trust me. I know that these men can be trusted.”

“Based on what evidence?” the Illustrious asked? I looked up at him as my hair began to glow once more. “I see,” he murmured and put a finger to his lips. “Then I’ll do it. Ready a group to act as emissaries to the Landwalker ship. Find out what supplies they may need.”

“But Illustrious!” One noble began, but a withering look from the Illustrious sent him cowering in his seat.

“Lady Sol, you are dismissed. Please clean yourself up,” the Illustrious said.

“Yes, my lord,” I said. I rose to my feet and turned to leave.

“Wait, what is in your hands?”

I looked at the black cloth and then held it up for the room to see. There was a collective gasp from the room.

“That’s the flag from that hounds damned ship that’s plagued our waters,” a noble said.

“The captain called them the Wailing Banshee,” I said. I stepped toward the table and laid down the flag. “A gift, Illustrious.” He nodded at me and I left the room with Alvern and the courtier.

As soon as the door closed behind us it opened again. Vael stepped out of the room and shut the door gently, but his hug was not gentle. My arms ached slightly as he embraced me tightly. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No!” I said quickly.

“What were you thinking heading outside the city with only Alvern?” Vael whispered.

“I couldn’t deny what I was feeling. The god wanted me to go. I had no control.”

“Do you think this is going to happen again?”

I shook my head. “Honestly I don’t know.” Vael squeezed a little tighter then drew back to look me in the eyes.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too.”

“I want to protect you, but it seems that the Gentle God will keep leading you away to danger.” He sighed. I squeezed his hands smiled. I wished I could do something to ease his fears, but I knew that short of me locking myself away in my room, nothing would work. Instead I needed to build his confidence in me.

“Vael, you’ve done more than enough to protect me.”

“I don’t want to lose you too,” he said hoarsely. I saw the tears glistening in his eyes and felt my heart ache. I reached up and drew his face down to mine and kissed him.

“I pray that you never will,” I said softly. He turned his head wiping his tears in my hair.

“I need to get back to the meeting. I’ll meet with you after fourth bell in your room. Until then stay with Alvern and your father. I’ll find another guard to stay with you as well.”

“Vael I don’t need any more guards!”

“Humor me… please?”

“You are being paranoid. Who would attack me in the Illustrious’ palace?”

“Anyone afraid of what you can do. You have the potential to unseat any noble from their position by simply being the Gentle God’s champion.” Vael pointed in the direction of the sea. “You have proven beyond a doubt that you have the favor of the gods. If I do not give you more guards the Illustrious may do it himself or assign another noble. I cannot guarantee that they would not harm you.”

I rested my head against his shoulder and fought back the urge to scream. When would I have my body to myself? When would I be able to walk or swim without someone looking over my shoulder or trying to hurt me? Was I really a champion or were the gods merely toying with me?

I took two deep breaths and lifted my head. “Okay, go ahead and assign another guard. Do what you need too.”

“Truly?” Vael searched my face and I forced a smile onto my lips.

“Truly,” I replied. He kissed me again.

“Thank you. I will see you again soon.”

Vael went back into the war room leaving me to stand with Alvern and the courtier. Something must have shown on my face because the courtier touched my hand. I started and shrank away.

“Lady Sol,” he said softly. “In all my years I have never heard of Lord Cadfael being so openly affectionate with his wives. Has he always been this way with you or did it happen because you are the gods’ champion?”

“You are being rude,” I snapped. I still felt irritated that I was to get another guard. Was it really necessary?

“I am merely curious, no need to bite.” He moved closer to me. I saw Alvern’s grip shift on his spear.

“Well your curiosity will have to go unfulfilled.”

“For now,” he said in a low voice. Alvern circled him and dropped his spear between us. The courtier smiled and backed away. “Good day, Lady Sol. I hope to see you at Festive.” He bowed then left us. I watched every step he took before he disappeared down the hall.