The Sea Never Forgets

ChapterII -Kaerys

Sleep had abandoned me again. Not violently. Not painfully. Quietly. The way it always did after the dreams.

I had stopped waking in a panic centuries ago.

At some point, the fear had worn itself out. Now all that was left was exhaustion. The kind that settled somewhere behind my ribs and never really left, no matter how much I slept, trained, or tried to ignore it.

The voice lingered anyway. Soft. Distant. A woman singing somewhere beneath the waves.

Sometimes she only hummed, and somehow I always recognized the melody, even though I knew I'd never heard it before. Every time, I'd wake up reaching into the dark like I could still catch hold of her.

I never did.

By the time I reached the training arena, frustration was already sitting heavy in my chest.

The combat halls were buried beneath the palace, carved into the oldest foundations of Atlantis. There was nothing decorative about them. No polished marble, no gardens, no glowing fountains for diplomats to admire.

Just stone.

Black pillars climbed toward the ceiling, carved with protection runes that glowed faintly beneath the blue lights. The air smelled like saltwater, sweat, and steel.

Alecton was already waiting near the center platform, lazily spinning a spear through one hand. He looked up the second he saw me.

“You’re late.”

“I know.”

“You look awful.”

“I know.”

He frowned. “That wasn’t nearly as fun as I expected.” He tossed me a training spear. I caught it without thinking. "Try not to embarrass yourself today, Prince."

“I’ll do my best.”

“You’ve literally never done your best.”

“That’s because then you’d stop believing you had a chance.”

Alecton laughed. A real laugh. It echoed around the arena.

That was the thing about him. He made everything feel lighter without even trying. We'd both lived through more centuries than most people could imagine. We'd watched cities disappear, buried friends, survived wars that history had already forgotten.

Somehow, none of it had stolen his ability to laugh. I envied that.

"Alright," he said, lowering his spear. "Enough talking." He pointed it at me. "Make me regret volunteering for this."

He fought fast—faster than almost anyone in Atlantis. Everything Alecton did looked effortless. Every strike flowed into the next before I had time to think about it.

I'd never fought like that.

My style had always been heavier. Cleaner. Hit hard enough that I didn't need a second chance.

He came at me again.

I blocked the strike, twisted, and drove the butt of my spear toward his ribs. He slipped away before it connected, grinning like he'd expected it.

Of course he had.

The impact still rattled up my arms.

Sweat slid down the side of my neck as we circled each other across the stone platform. The runes carved into the floor glowed faintly beneath our feet, their light shifting with every step.

Somewhere above us, the city was settling into the evening.

The markets would still be crowded. Merchants making their last sales before heading home. Children squeezing every second they could out of the day before someone called them inside.

Atlantis carried on the way it always had. I just couldn't seem to do the same.

Alecton caught my shoulder with the shaft of his spear and shoved me back hard enough that my boots scraped across the stone.

“You’re distracted again.”

“I’m tired.”

“You’re always tired lately.”

I rolled one shoulder, trying to work out the ache he'd just added to it.

"That tends to happen when you stop sleeping."

Alecton’s expression shifted slightly. “The dream again?”

I hated that he knew immediately. I let my spear drop until the tip rested against the floor. “It’s getting worse.”

“How?”

I looked up. The glass ceiling arched high above us, ocean light rippling across it in slow waves.

"It feels..." I frowned, trying to explain something I barely understood myself. "Closer."

Alecton frowned. “For gods’ sake, Kaerys, you’ve been hearing this woman in your dreams for ages.”

“Exactly.”

“That doesn’t bother you?” He stared at me for a second before shaking his head. "Because it bothers me. You look like you're slowly losing your mind."

I let out a quiet laugh.“Maybe I already have.”

He walked over, resting his spear across one shoulder. “You need some sleep.”

“I need silence.”

“You need a life outside of training and royal duties.”

I looked at him. “I have a life.”

He snorted. “No, you have a schedule. You barely leave the palace.”

“I’m literally standing outside right now.”

He looked around the arena. “This doesn’t count.”

I sighed. “It counts enough for me.”

Unfortunately, he wasn't entirely wrong.

Most days blurred together now. Training. Council meetings. Patrols. Diplomatic arguments that somehow never solved anything. Then the dreams. A drink before bed. Another restless night.

I must've drifted off into my own head for a second because Alecton was suddenly watching me with a crooked smile.

"There it is."

"What?"

"You disappeared again."

I frowned. "I was standing right here."

"Physically." He pointed at my forehead with the end of his spear. "Mentally? No idea."

Unfortunately, he was right about that too.

Alecton tossed his spear onto the rack and stretched until something in his back cracked.

"Come on," I said. "If we're late, my mother's going to start interrogating the guards."

Alecton snorted. "She's probably already doing it."

"...Fair."

"Besides," he added, pushing open the training hall doors, "you know she always knows where you are."

"That's the unsettling part."

We climbed through the palace corridors while servants and guards stepped aside to let us pass.

Most days, I barely noticed it anymore. The palace was harder to ignore. Even after all these years, Atlantis could still catch me off guard.

White towers disappeared into the mountain above us, connected by crystal bridges that looked too delicate to exist. Water ran through narrow channels carved into the walls, catching the light from the blue stones beneath it and scattering it across the marble floors.

I'd spent my entire life here. It still didn't feel real sometimes.

Above us, the dome stretched across the kingdom like another sky, silver veins of magic weaving through the glass.

Schools of glowing fish drifted overhead. A whale passed somewhere in the distance, its song carrying through the water until I felt it beneath my feet.

I slowed without thinking. "I'll never get tired of that."

Alecton looked up. "I know."

Sometimes I wondered what the surface saw when they looked out across the ocean. Nothing, probably. Just water. Maybe that was the cruelest part. An entire kingdom existed beneath their feet, and they'd never know it.

By the time we reached the dining hall, the smell of fresh bread and roasted fish had already escaped into the corridor. Warm light spilled through the open doors.

Unlike the combat halls, this wing of the palace always felt alive.

Warm light reflected across polished marble floors while the gardens beyond the windows swayed gently with the current. Long strands of glowing sea flowers danced through the water, and gardeners were already tending the coral beds outside.

Long strands of glowing sea flowers drifted slowly in the currents beyond the glass.

The table was already covered with food.

Roasted sea pheasant. Fresh bread, still warm enough that steam escaped when Alecton reached for it. Bowls of bright citrus grown in the southern gardens. Platters of shellfruit and sea herbs harvested that morning.

“There you are.”

Mom's voice pulled my attention to the center of the table. She didn't have to raise it. She never did.

Her silver hair fell over one shoulder, the deep sapphire silk of her gown catching the light from the chandeliers above. The jewels around her wrists sparkled every time she reached for her glass.

People noticed those first. I never understood why. They were the least intimidating thing about her.

“Hello, Mother.”

“Kaerys.”

“My queen,” Alecton said with an exaggerated bow as he helped himself to a piece of fruit.

Mom looked at him. “You know those aren’t for you.”

He popped it into his mouth anyway. “Too late.”

A tiny smile threatened the corner of her mouth before she looked back at me.

"You're both late."

"We were training."

"You were overdoing it again," she corrected.

Before I could defend myself, Alecton did what he did best. He betrayed me.

"Kaerys barely slept. He was late for training, so we ended up late for dinner."

I looked at him. "You really couldn't wait five minutes?"

He shrugged. "I value honesty."

"You value chaos."

"Also true."

Mom sighed, the sound somewhere between patient and amused, before her eyes settled on me again.

"You look exhausted."

"Thank you, Mother."

"You're welcome."

Alecton nodded. "I said the same thing."

"Nobody asked either of you."

I reached for the wine. It felt like the only one at the table that wasn't judging me.

Mom kept watching me while servants moved around the table, refilling glasses and setting down the last of the dishes.

She'd always looked at me like she could tell exactly what I wasn't saying. It was one of her more irritating talents.

For a while, dinner stayed comfortably ordinary. Trade routes. Border patrols. A disagreement between two noble families that would probably outlive everyone involved.

Then Mom set down her glass. “I saw Lina earlier.”

Across the table, Alecton took a very interested sip of his wine. I ignored him

“Did you?”

"She asked if you'd be at the plaza tonight."

I looked down at my plate for a second. "I hadn't decided."

"She was hoping you'd come."

Of course she was.

Mom studied me for another moment. "She worries about you."

"She worries about everyone."

A small smile tugged at Mom's lips. "No." She shook her head once. "Just you."

Silence settled over the table. I reached for my wine mostly to avoid looking at either of them.

Lina hadn't appeared in my life all at once.

It had happened so slowly I couldn't even remember when she'd stopped being another familiar face around the palace.

One day she was attending council dinners with her family. Then she was walking beside me through the gardens after meetings. Waiting outside the training halls. Arguing with me about politics because she knew I secretly enjoyed losing those debates.

Somewhere along the way…

She'd become part of my life. And maybe that was the problem. Not because I didn't care about her. Because I did. I just wasn't sure it was enough.

Alecton leaned back in his chair...

“She’s good for you.”

“I didn’t ask for relationship advice.”

“You never do.”

“I wonder why.” Alecton ignored that.

"You disappear for days, then come back looking like you've been wrestling sea monsters."

"I train."

"You overthink."

"They're basically the same thing."

"They're really not."

I looked at my mother. "Are you going to help me here?"

She took another sip of her wine. "No."

"Unbelievable."

Alecton grinned. "We're only trying to help."

"That's the part I'm afraid of."

Mom laughed quietly. Just enough to let me know she was enjoying this far more than she should have.

The annoying part was that they weren't entirely wrong.

Lina did make things easier. There wasn't any pressure when I was with her. She never expected me to be the prince first. She argued with me when she thought I was wrong, laughed at me when I deserved it, and somehow managed to make an ordinary afternoon feel... ordinary.

I liked that. I liked her. I just wasn't sure it was the same thing. The dreams made that impossible to ignore.