Dorian began having nightmares. He dreamed that a fish tail coiled viciously around him, constricting his neck and spine, wrapping his entire body until he suffocated, unable to breathe.
He jolted awake from the nightmare, trembling uncontrollably and drenched in sweat. His underclothes were already soaked through.
Dorian climbed barefoot out of bed and pulled open the palace's brocade curtains. The sight before him struck terror into his heart.
He hurriedly checked his chest. The golden contract mark had vanished!
The god of marriage had annulled his marriage to Qili!
He and she no longer had any connection!
It was over. Everything was over!
The mermaid commanded an enormous wave, a full thirty meters high. All of Kalte was surrounded by the sea, and the tide was enough to destroy the entire dynasty. One corner of the wave supported a long-haired witch in black robes.
The enormous wave threw the entire imperial capital into panic. Dorian donned his armor and stood atop the wall, roaring orders for the archers to shoot the mermaid dead.
Qili's singing raised towering waves, reducing the arrows to dust. She no longer sang a mournful song of the dead, but one filled with the power of freedom, the song she often sang for her sister.
Elia moved the wand in her hand, displaying the prince's lies one by one over the sea on a gigantic screen: how he had deceived and exploited Qili to inherit the throne, and how he had taken the mermaid's sacrifices for granted.
The mermaid was the guardian of the Kalte Imperial Capital. The people's anger spread like wildfire. They had never imagined that the prince would take away the singing voice the mermaid held as dear as her life.
The capital filled with the people's rebukes, curses, and complaints. They blamed the Kalte imperial family for everything.
If Dorian had not deceived Qili the mermaid, how could he have brought about a tsunami? Why would the merfolk have brought punishment upon Kalte?
Qili looked toward Elia. The witch's long, beige-gray hair streamed in the wind, and a fierce light burned in her eyes.
Her sister was washing away her humiliation and the lies.
At that moment, Qili understood that she no longer needed to be consumed by regret over the past. She had a new journey ahead.
Qili's singing resonated with Elia's incantations, and the scales on her tail shone with brilliant colors in the sunlight.
"So what if I deceived you! It was only because you were stupid! So what if you destroy Kalte? Once the sun sets, you'll turn to foam!"
Veins bulged in Dorian's neck, and broken roars tore from his throat.
"Hahahaha! I haven't lost! I haven't lost! I'm Kalte's only king! In life, I'm the king of Kalte! In death, I'm still the king of Kalte!"
Dorian's shrill laughter sounded like an owl's cry at night. He ran madly along the wall, knocking over the soldiers on guard, oblivious as spear shafts and blades stabbed into his palms.
Qili said coldly, "What belongs to me should return to its rightful owner."
A woman's scream came from the bedchamber in Kalte. A flawless white orb of light flew out of the castle and settled securely back into Qili's palm.
All that remained was a woman lying on the bed with a hollow in her throat. Blood soon spread across the entire bed.
"Those who break their vows deserve to die, but your death would be no loss. The people of Kalte shouldn't have to be buried alongside an animal like you."
"So go to hell."
Qili sang the song from their first meeting. Unlike the adoration of that time, the melody now held more peace and acceptance.
"I forgot to tell you. Without true love's kiss, Qili will turn to foam. The same goes for you."
Elia spoke coldly, delivering her final ultimatum.
Dorian's face twisted hideously. He actually roared at his own shadow, "You're the one who deserves to die! Not me! Not me! No!"
His body gradually turned transparent, dissolving into countless bubbles that scattered in the sea breeze.
And Elia kissed Qili amid the waves, turning Qili's foam into a solid body so she could remain in the ocean forever.
Beneath the setting sun, Qili swam toward Elia. The witch opened her arms, and the two embraced to the sound of the waves.
Qili touched Elia's cheek with her fingertips and smiled. "When you gave me the pills, did you already foresee today?"
"Yes."
Elia hid nothing.
She had protected Qili too well. For Qili to be so devoted to Dorian, she must have felt happiness at some point, in some fleeting instant. Giving her heart was an obscure kind of pain, and she could only let Qili experience and feel it for herself.
Even if she ended up covered in wounds, only pain would make the lesson stick.
There was no need to persuade her. All Elia needed to do was catch her securely when she fell, so she would not feel lost or afraid.
That was why, when she made the pills, she had prepared two doses. If he held her in his heart, neither of them would have to die.
If he did not, this would be his punishment for deceiving Qili.
As for the antidote.
No one in the entire world would love Qili more than she did.
True love's kiss had never been the exclusive privilege of opposite sexes. It transcended the constraints of gender and tradition.
The essence of love was the resonance of souls.
She was her older sister.
No one would love Qili more than she did.
Elia had been born into a family of witches and learned witchcraft, but she had never awakened her witch's power, because she did not want to. She did not want to become a witch in the true sense.
In this era, witches stood for evil, misunderstanding, and stigmatization.
Religious courts even tried women on charges of "witchcraft," accusing them of colluding with the devil and sentencing them to be burned at the stake. This was the suppression of women who challenged traditional authority.
Becoming a witch meant bearing an infamous name, while male witches did not.
At first, Elia had only wanted to be an ordinary girl, then slowly grow into an ordinary woman.
Qili's disappearance had caused her immense suffering. She suddenly understood what made her suffer so much: she was too weak. She had nothing, so she could not find her younger sister.
Elia had sought instructions on awakening from the witches of the previous generation, dived into the Deep-Sea Wave Capital, and explained why she had come to Qili's people. All the merfolk knew that Qili had an older sister who could do anything.
The clan chief had then bestowed a new vocal cord upon Qili, and it was then that Elia first felt the might of witchcraft.
So this was the pleasure of standing above others. So this was the taste of power. Avoidance could not solve any problem.
Then why could she not wield power? Why could she not turn the tables and rewrite the rumors about witches and their fate?
"Sister, you saved me, and I want to save you from your loneliness. Whatever happens from now on, I'll stand by your side."
When someone was so familiar, a single look or gesture was enough to know all her thoughts.
Ever since Qili could remember, Elia had told her that she did not want to awaken her witchcraft. She did not want to become an outcast in the eyes of the world.
Yet now she had no choice but to become an outcast in the eyes of the world.
Then all she could do was give everything she had to become her shield and her spear, using the tides to smooth everything away.
"All right."
"You can only stand by my side."
Their figures gradually blended into the dusk, like the eternal meeting of sea and land.