They reached their destination a day later. The voice from the ocean had since returned, once again calling for their deaths, but it began to dim as they approached land. Instead, new voices took its place, familiar in attitude if not in sound.

  I see her, one said! She's here!

  Be quiet, another said. Are you trying to sabotage her?

  Hush, went another.

  And they continued in that vein, impotently shushing each other and prattling on about her beauty and their excitement.

  As usual, Eluvie pretended not to hear them. The voices at home were used to her presence. Here, however, she hoped that they would be stunned enough to leak important information.

  Mirab joined her at the railing, and the pair watched in silence for a while. Eluvie hated the silence almost as much as she hated Mirab's presence, but she fought to keep from showing that discomfort and let it continue undisturbed.

  Finally, Mirab spoke.

  "We never discussed the storm," she said.

  Eluvie remained silent.

  "What did Amu say when he brought you above deck?"

  The long deception was already wearing on Eluvie. It was growing difficult to recall what lies she had told and which secrets were still secret. She worried that cracks would appear in her facade and eventually doom her.

  So, she chose to tell the truth. That would reduce the strain on her memory.

  "He told me that you were evacuating the ship. But you had told the guards to keep me in. I surmise you wished to leave without me."

  Mirab sighed. "We've sailed this route many times. The ocean can be temperamental, but it rarely attacks us so blatantly. And even when it does, the attack is short-lived. We have so many protective enchantments, it should be impossible for us to be in as much danger as we were yesterday. I guessed that you were the cause of the danger. It happens sometimes with ships carrying Illrum. I hoped that I could save the others. And though we would lose you, we thankfully have one more of your seeds." She sighed again. "I'm sure you don't appreciate being treated as disposable -"

  "I understand," Eluvie said. "I can't expect you to sacrifice every person on board for only me."

  "You are worth far more than they are," Mirab said. "But I have duties -"

  "Acknowledged," Eluvie said. "Truly." She turned to Mirab and gave the ruler a sincere smile. "You made the correct choice. I would have done the same in your place."

  Mirab looked skeptical, so Eluvie decided to tease her. "Was I not so logical in the past?"

  Mention of the supposedly forgotten past jerked Mirab back to life. "You were," she said. "It's just difficult to tell how much of your personality will survive rebirths."

  Eluvie gave no response. That teasing statement had cost all the remaining energy she could spare for civility.

  "You have not asked why we are on this journey," Mirab said.

  Eluvie suppressed a sigh. Rather than risk speaking, she kept her eyes focused on the approaching shore.

  Mirab waited a while for a response but eventually gave up.

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  "You don't recall much," the ruler said, "but that storm was the least of what we face. The ocean is attacking more than just ships. Do you recall when we left Imut? Do you recall how crowded it was?"

  Eluvie gave a small grunt.

  "Rade, where we are going is even worse," Mirab said. "Look at the shore. It's faint, but you should be able to see what I mean."

  Eluvie humored her. The land was not close enough to make out individual features, but squinting brought it into better focus. And as the ship drew closer to it, she saw even more. At first, it seemed that the individual buildings on the shore were only blurred together. But, the more she looked, the more she suspected that there were no individual buildings. The entire city seemed to be one structure. Houses were built right beside, or above, or even inside each other. She could tell that they were individual houses because their colors, roofs, and sizes were wildly discordant.

  She continued watching as the shore drew closer, and the scene only grew more fantastic. If there were any roads, she could not find them. She saw a manor house with a hovel built on top of it, two more hovels built around the first hovel, and thin houses occupying the minuscule gaps between the hovels. Another manor house stood directly behind and flush against the first, with another manor on top of it, and two more manors atop that. Then, the entire precarious stack was topped with a row of hovels.

  "I hope they don't have any earthquakes," Eluvie said.

  Mirab chuckled, just as Eluvie realized that shock had loosened her tongue.

  "They do," Mirab said, "but not frequently. Do you know why they've built it this way?"

  Eluvie shrugged.

  "This ocean that we've sailed," Mirab said, "from Imut, all the way here, did not exist forty years ago. As a child, I traveled this distance in a carriage. It took a week."

  She paused for so long that it was clear she wanted Eluvie's reaction.

  "Then, where did the water come from?" Eluvie asked.

  "The ocean rose," Mirab said. "One day, it simply began harassing people, overturning ships, drowning anyone who stood too close to the water. And then, it began rising. Fishing towns were swallowed up in days. People fled for higher ground, but eventually, those cities fell as well. Imut and Rade used to be sparsely-populated mountain peaks. Now, they are some of the last habitable places. And we don't know how long they will remain. The rise has slowed but it has not stopped. In another decade, perhaps, there will be no more land."

  "What caused this?" Eluvie asked. She had since shifted her gaze from the shore to Mirab.

  Mirab shrugged. "We don't know. Some blame the Illrum, but nobody truly knows."

  When Mirab did not speak for a while, Eluvie decided to voice her curiosity. "So, how does bringing me here solve the problem?"

  Mirab gave a slightly hysterical laugh. "You won't believe me now," she said. "But don't worry. You'll be seeing it within the hour. I wanted to speak with you now, to explain. The Illrum and humans are enemies. Perhaps, when you see what we did to your people, you won't care if we drown. But I wanted to tell you now, so that you have time to think before you make your choice."

  She gave one of her deep, long sighs. "I am sorry for all that has happened," she said. "I truly am. And I hope that you have the strength to move past it."

  She gave Eluvie a tight-lipped smile, then patted her shoulder.

  "I have to speak with the others before we disembark," she said. "I'll be back."