Puniton had never been so happy.
The alcohol had yet to wear off completely, and the smile from the banquet still lingered on his lips. Those smile lines were etched deep into his broad cheeks, like trenches on the seabed, now filled with joy.
He lay on his coral bed, breathing slowly and evenly, his dreams filled with the figure of that silver-haired man.
Aaron Ball pushed Fish-Man Island's double-layered bubble outward to twice its size, three times, four times. Newborn Land grew from the bottom of the bubble, like tender spring shoots breaking through the soil.
He dreamed of standing beside Otohime on the viewing platform of Ryugu Palace. Her hand rested in his palm, as warm and soft as it had been all those years ago.
In Dragon Palace Square, Fish-Man children rode seahorses through the coral, while commoners and guards held hands in a vast circle, dancing the Fish-Men's oldest steps. Their tails slapped the ground in a steady, cheerful rhythm as they hummed the folk song that had been sung for eight hundred years.
Sunlight, real sunlight, poured down from the surface, passed through the bubble membrane and the seawater, and fell on everyone, as warm as Otohime's smile.
Then flames burned everything.
Flames surged in from outside the bubble, filling his vision like a beast with its jaws spread wide. The bubble membrane twisted and warped in the heat, like a dying whale wailing.
The sunlight turned blood-red. Otohime's smile blurred and shattered in the flames. Her hand slipped from his palm like sand flowing between his fingers.
"Father! Wake up!"
Fukaboshi's shaking and urgent voice brought it all crashing down.
Neptune's eyes flew open. The chill of the coral bed seeped up his spine. Otohime's warmth still lingered in his fingertips, but it was