Andrew ties off the last of the rope and stands back to admire his new contraption.

It is perfect. Running around the entire raft is a system of ropes and shells. Andrew has hollowed out four coconuts, filled them with pebbles, and hung them on all four sides of the raft.

Getting into the water, he tests his homemade alarm system. Reaching over the raft like he’s getting onto it, Andrew presses down on one section of rope, and the whole thing unravels itself. Shells fling into the approaching waves, disappearing out of reach before Andrew can get to them. The rest of the rope slides off the raft, and Andrew just barely manages to catch onto a section before it floats off.

Not a good first take.

Sighing, Andrew gathers most of everything and tries again.

“Is that all for me?”

Andrew lets out a yell and springs to his feet. He moves too suddenly and the raft pitches sideways, slipping from beneath him. He falls into the water, the cold punching the air out of him.

Memories of the shark attack replay in Andrew’s mind. But this time is different. He isn’t afraid of the sea anymore.

And he is in the shallows, which helps.

Standing up, Andrew wipes seafoam from his eyes. He turns this way and that, looking for the source of the voice. For her.

“Over here.”

He pivots towards the sound. It’s painfully familiar, and even before seeing Victoria lounging lazily on his raft, Andrew’s eyes mist up with emotion.

Victoria waves. “It has been a while, hasn’t it? Sorry about last night. I was just as spooked by you as you were by me.”

Andrew swallows a smile. “Y-yea.” He wades over to the raft. It floats just above his waist, so he has to look up to see Victoria’s eyes.

They are the same jade green as he’s always known. He lowers his gaze, tracing the contours of her face, down her chest, and past her bare stomach.

Then, he looks away.

Victoria laughs. She lifts up her mermaid tail and slaps it against the water, spraying foam into Andrew’s face.

“What is that expression for? You're not scared of your own creation, are you?”

Andrew blinks, sunlight and salt stinging his eyelids. He can’t help it then, and laughs as well. “No. I’m mostly scared of you.”

Reaching out, he heaves himself onto the raft. Sitting next to Victoria, he smiles uncertainly. “It’s… good to see you again, Victoria.”

Victoria’s smile is no easier than Andrew’s. “I thought it might be difficult for me to say the same thing, but surprisingly, it’s not.” She looks out at the vast open waters, her shoulders rising in a shrug. “I supposed I should thank you for bringing me back from the other side.”

“You thanked me well enough already,” Andrew answers. “I couldn’t have made it this far without your help.”

“True,” agrees Victoria. “But you also wouldn’t have been in so much danger if not for my homunculus.”

Andrew’s words die in his throat. He feels the water turn cold, the salt sticking to his skin like tiny needles. “You made… a homunculus?”

Victoria nods. “Well, something like it.” She lifts a strand of red hair and tucks it behind her ear. “I just made it talk, but I think I did a pretty good job at that.”

“What about the subjects?” Andrew asks. “What about stable transmutation platforms, and… and…” He lifts his gaze from the water. “You went back to the castle.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Victoria is silent, but her eyes flicker over to Andrew and she smiles from the corner of her lips. Then, she lifts herself off the raft and slides into the water.

Andrew leans over the side, watching the bubbles disappear. A heartbeat later, Victoria returns holding two wriggling fish in her hands.

“Let’s have some breakfast.”

They eat on the raft so Victoria can keep her tail in the water. Andrew makes a small fire with her help, and as they eat, he tries to make peace with the fact that the Victoria sitting with him is not, and will never be, the same one he had taken off the docks all that time ago.

That Victoria, the one with dreams and a sister, is dead. She died on the beach, her neck gouged out by a savage wolf.

The one with Andrew right now, eating her fish, is a homunculus.

The flesh inside Andrew’s mouth turns sour. He swallows down the rest of it and tosses the bones over the side.

Victoria does the same.

Andrew chuckles dryly. “Does it not bother you that we ate creatures that inhabit the same space as you?”

“No,” said Victoria, stretching her arms over her head. “I prefer to think of myself as a human who just so happens to breathe water and swim like a champ.”

“But… your tail.”

“What about it?”

“Nothing.” Andrew has a hundred different questions he wants to ask, but he doesn’t want to ruin this moment with Victoria by demanding explanations he probably doesn’t even deserve.

He turns his attention to the horizon, where the sunlight slices across the open water like a pathway straight into the heavens. Warmth spreads through his body as the day properly breaks. It’s never a bad feeling to see the sun come up. No matter how tired, hungry, or thirsty he is, Andrew can’t help but marvel at what may just be the most magnificent powers of the universe at work.

Victoria is also looking. When Andrew turns to her, she smiles at him.

“Remember our first sunrise?” she asks. “You kept me locked to the wall of that cave so long I almost died.”

Andrew’s smile wavers. He gets down, and despite his better judgement, leans over and pulls Victoria into him. Wrapping his arms around her shoulders, Andrew’s chest tightens until he can’t breathe.

“What’s going on?” Victoria asks, perplexed. “This isn’t like you at all.”

Andrew opens his mouth, only to let out a sob. He clutches onto Victoria with all his strength, wanting desperately to turn back time. He wants to go back to the day he met her, when she was stumbling out of the tavern with her sister, yelping as rain powdered over their heads.

“I wish I never met you,” Andrew whispers. “I wish… you never met me.”

He felt Victoria’s arms slide around his waist. They were wet and slippery, but warm.

“Me, too,” she said, squeezing hard. “Gods above, me too.” She let go of him, and gently pushed him away so that they were staring into each other’s eyes. “But we are neither gods nor clocks. We can only go forward. And I am determined to keep on living with this life you have given me, no matter what.”

Andrew nods and tries his best to smile. “That is very much you,” he said, rubbing the tears from his eyes. “Can’t say I don’t love that about you.”

Victoria was quiet. When Andrew looks back up at her, he sees that she’s looking out at the sea, a wistful expression in her green eyes.

Andrew opens his mouth, then closes it again. He follows her gaze, seeing the vast openness of blue from her eyes.

So much space, so many miles of water, too much for a single person to inhabit.

Andrew stands up, startling Victoria from her daze.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, repeating herself when Andrew jumps into the water. “What are you doing?”

“I’m going back,” says Andrew, pushing against the side of the raft, towards the sea. “I’m returning to the island, to the castle.”

“Why? You tried so hard to leave it.”

“I never should have left,” Andrew answers. He shoves at the raft some more, nudging it ever deeper. The sand beneath his feet drops away and he has to swim. Using his feet to paddle, he continues pushing.

Victoria cocks her head to one side, a frown between her brows. “There’s nothing back there. The townsfolk burned the whole forest and much of the castle.”

“But they can’t harm the Table,” Andrew says, his words half lost as water laps over his mouth. “It’s indestructible to the elements. Only an alchemist can break it, or use it.” He looks up at Victoria. “I’m going to give you back your legs.”

Victoria’s eyes grow round. She glances at her tail, submerged in the water, then without saying anything more she slips off the raft, emerging next to Andrew. Then, with water clinging to her hair and a bright smile on her face, she places both hands on the raft and helps Andrew push.

As the raft clears the bay and is picked up by the currents, Andrew and Victoria get back onto the raft.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” Andrew says. “I didn’t really think this through. I didn't bring anything. I might die before getting anywhere near the Doctor's island.”

Victoria patted him on the shoulder with a wet hand. “Have I ever let you starve while you were drifting?”

"No," admits Andrew. "But I also had..." He stops as realization slowly dawns. He turns to see Victoria beaming. “My fishhooks… you mean to say you put those fish onto it?”

Victoria laughs. “You didn’t really think fish are that stupid, did you?”

The wind picks up, waves growing choppy as the raft is carried further out to sea. Andrew and Victoria watch as the tiny island shrinks in the distance.

The thought of jumping and swimming back crosses Andrew's mind. He can still make it if he leaps off now. The waves aren’t broken enough and he has the strength.

He steps over to his makeshift sail, and lets it down.

“Well then,” he says, aiming his coat so that the wind catches it. “Let’s go get you some legs.”