Chapter 99: Date With Watery Destiny, Part Two

The Tide’s domain was exactly as Grace remembered, but somehow more… something. More beautiful. More terrifying.

It was a bit different though, somehow.

She stood on what felt like the ocean floor, except there was no crushing pressure, no drowning. Just water all around them, suspended like glass walls. Fish swam by, giving her side-eye before darting away.

[Back to this wet hellhole again. At least I know what to expect this time.]

Last time she’d been here hadn’t gone… too well. Not Grace’s finest hour.

But this time, she had Venus’s lessons in her pocket.

“So eager to return,” The Tide said looking back, parts of her watery form flowing around Grace like a living current. “Did you miss me?”

[Okay, okay… Be like Eternia. What would she say?]

“Maybe I did,” Grace said, trying not to focus on the fact that she was halfway underwater and would soon definitely drown if the Tide decided to stop whatever magic was keeping her alive.

The Tide’s form solidified further, becoming more humanoid with each passing moment. Now she looked almost exactly like Eternia, if Eternia were made of blue-tinted water with eyes that contained actual stars.

“Last time you were quite… combative,” The Tide said, circling Grace like a shark. “Have you changed your approach, little goddess?”

[Oh, that’s the understatement of the century.]

“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” Grace replied carefully.

“You have?” The Tide stopped in front of her, reaching out to touch Grace’s face with cool fingers.

Grace swallowed hard, feeling the medallion grow warmer against her chest. She needed to move this along before The Tide realized she wasn’t talking to Eternia at all.

“I brought something,” Grace said, reaching into her soaked robe.

The Tide’s eyes widened—actual ripples spreading across her watery irises.

Grace pulled out the blue pearl she’d found in the tide pools days earlier. It pulsed with soft light, matching the rhythm of the water goddess’s movements.

To be honest, she wasn’t sure if holding it up would have any actual effect. This was basically an exercise in wishful thinking.

“You found my tear,” The Tide whispered, her voice suddenly small. “After all this time.” The Tide reached for the pearl but didn’t take it from Grace’s palm. “The first tear I shed when you left me. It crystallized, as all my emotions do.”

[Holy crap. This thing is an actual tear? Great, now I feel bad.]

“I kept it,” Grace improvised. “To, uh, remember.”

The Tide’s form rippled with what might have been emotion.

“You remember nothing! You abandoned me here, alone, waiting, while you built your precious Dominion and created your perfect angels.”

Her voice rose, water currents beginning to swirl around them. Dangerous territory given that she was supposed to be seducing this lady, not agitating her.

“I’m here now,” Grace said, stepping closer. She slipped the pearl back into her robe and reached for The Tide instead. “To make things right.”

“Words,” The Tide hissed. “Always beautiful words from you. But where were your words when I called out? Where were you when I begged for your return?”

Grace felt the currents intensify, pushing at her, trying to sweep her away. She stood her ground, remembering what Venus had said just before she left:

The Tide didn’t want destruction. She wanted connection.

“Show me,” Grace said, letting her robe fall open slightly. “Show me how you felt.”

The Tide paused, surprise rippling across her features.

“You want me to—”

“Show me everything,” Grace said, channeling Venus’s confident seduction. “I’m here to listen. To feel.”

[Please don’t drown me, please don’t drown me.]

The water around them calmed slightly. The Tide watched her with suspicious eyes.

“Very well.”

The Tide surged forward suddenly, her watery mouth capturing Grace’s in a kiss that tasted like salt. Her hands—stronger than they looked—pushed Grace backward until she hit what felt like a wall made of water that somehow held solid.

[Okay, we’re doing this. Cool. Cool cool cool.]

The Tide’s body pressed against hers, cool and slick and impossibly strong. Grace felt herself being lifted, pinned, water tendrils wrapping around her wrists like restraints.

“You will feel my loneliness,” The Tide whispered against her ear. “Every. Single. Century. Of it.”

Grace gasped as icy water slipped inside her robe, trailing across her skin in patterns that felt deliberate, calculated to make her shiver.

“I’m not fighting you,” Grace said, making herself relax into the hold. “I’m here.”

That seemed to surprise The Tide. She pulled back slightly, studying Grace’s face.

“You’re surrendering?”

“… Not surrendering,” Grace replied, thinking fast. “Receiving. There’s a difference.”

The Tide’s eyes narrowed, but her grip loosened slightly. The water tendrils around Grace’s wrists remained, but they no longer felt like shackles.

“Then receive.”

—

{Diana}

On the shore, Diana paced back and forth like a caged tiger, periodically glaring at the ocean where Grace had disappeared nearly an hour ago.

“She should have signaled by now,” she muttered.

Petriel sat on a rock nearby, hands folded in her lap.

“She knows what she’s doing.”

“Does she?” Diana spun toward her. “Because last I checked, none of us have experience seducing ancient water spirits.”

“Venus seemed confident—”

“Venus thinks everything can be solved with a good fuck!” Diana ran a hand through her short black hair. “Which, okay, fair point most of the time, but—”

She stopped mid-sentence, her attention caught by movement in the village behind them. A man was walking stiffly toward the water, his skin taking on a blue tint visible even in the moonlight.

“Shit.”

Three more villagers emerged from different houses, all moving with the same awkward gait, all heading for the water.

“I thought the Tide was occupied with Grace,” Petriel said, standing quickly.

“Apparently she can multitask.” Diana drew her golden sword, its light cutting through the darkness. “Get the Choir members. Hopefully they at least know how to swing a sword. I’ll handle these ones.”

Petriel nodded and ran toward the village center where the Ascended Choir had set up their ritual space.

Diana moved to intercept the first villager, a middle-aged man whose eyes had gone completely blue.

“Sorry, buddy. Beach is closed.” She blocked his path, but he simply tried to walk around her, not even acknowledging her presence.

Diana grabbed his arm, only to feel his skin slick and cold under her fingers. Water was literally seeping from his pores.

“Gross.”

The man suddenly lurched forward, mouth opening unnaturally wide as a jet of salt water shot out toward Diana’s face. She ducked, slashing with her sword.

More villagers emerged from their homes, all heading for the water with single-minded determination. Their skin had begun to take on that blue tint, and some had already developed webbed fingers.

[Grace, whatever you’re doing in there, do it faster.]

—

{Grace}

The Tide was actually a pretty good kisser for someone made of water.

Grace found herself pressed against the weird water-wall, The Tide’s body flowing against hers in ways that were definitely not anatomically possible for a regular person. Cool tendrils slipped beneath her robe, sliding across her skin like curious fingers, exploring every inch.

“You’re choice in body is… interesting,” The Tide murmured against her neck. “Smaller. Softer. Why?”

“Well, uh,” Grace gasped as a particularly bold tendril found its way between her legs, “for… visiting.”

The tendril between Grace’s legs became more insistent, and she couldn’t help the moan that escaped her lips. Venus had described water sex in theory, but holy crap.

“Do you like this form?” The Tide asked, sliding another tendril up Grace’s thigh.

“Yes,” Grace admitted truthfully. The sensation was unlike anything she’d experienced with Diana or Venus—cool but somehow warming her from the inside, pressure that changed and shifted with her reactions.

“Good. Because I intend to use it thoroughly.”

The Tide’s kiss deepened, and Grace felt herself surrendering to the experience.

Slowly, but surely, this was becoming less and less about the mission.

“Show me,” Grace whispered between kisses. “Show me what you’ve learned in our time apart.”

That sparked something in The Tide. Her touch became more purposeful, her kisses more demanding. The tendrils exploring Grace’s body thickened, pressing deeper, finding spots that made her gasp and arch.

“I’ve had centuries to imagine this,” The Tide whispered. “To perfect what I would do when you returned. I will take full advantage.”

—

{Diana}

Diana cursed as another water-person tackled her to the ground. They were getting stronger, more coordinated as their transformation progressed. And there were more of them—at least twenty villagers now shambled toward the ocean, their humanity washing away with each step.

“Petriel!” she shouted, kicking the water-person off her. “Any word from the Choir nerds?”

Petriel rushed over, her green hair flying wildly around her face.

“They’re setting up a barrier around the village center! Anyone who hasn’t transformed yet is being moved there!”

“Great.” Diana slashed at another approaching figure, her blade passing through its watery arm with no effect. “And us?”

“We… hold the line?” Petriel suggested weakly with a shrug.

“… I guess so.”

A water-person lunged at Petriel, but Diana intercepted it, tackling the creature to the ground. Up close, its features were barely human anymore—gills forming at the neck, fingers webbed and elongating.

“Grace better make that bitch cum soon,” Diana growled, “or we’re going to have a village full of fish people.”

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