Three days. That was the amount of time they had left to complete their quest, return Neptune's Trident to its rightful resting place in the Silent Sea, and ensure that the ancient Kaijus remained asleep. Yet Desmond and the Trident were now drifting who-knows-where across the Seven Seas, and Arrluk and the rest of the crew aboard the Neptune's Treasure had still not yet arrived at Myopia to reach Amphitrite's Star, which would pass by the end of this day.

They were still wading across the extremely dangerous Boiling Sea, an immense mass of scalding water, magically enhanced to reach heat levels beyond those of even underwater volcanoes. They had had to pool their powers together once more to reinforce the barrier around the ship, making it powerful enough to withstand the heat as they sailed across, though the temperature inside the ship rose by an uncomfortable amount all the same, forcing them to also summon a massive glob of Hyrule to siphon the excess torridity, but the water was more unpredictable than they had expected; every now and then a geyser of superheated steam would explode from the gigantic craters dotting the shallow seafloor below. It was clear that, ordinarily, these vents would have incinerated whatever they touched, but in their case, with the barrier around them, they were merely propelled backwards or upwards by the force of the eruption, with the barrier steadily weakening all the while.

It had taken them nearly a day to reach the Sea, and another to finally escape it, in which nobody on board managed to get any rest. Arrluk, Jino, and Duat had had to remain on deck, keeping the magic protecting them active, while Kayla and Ethan, though they tried, had not managed to secure any sleep because of the sweltering heat and occasional explosions of steam vents.

The deck rang with cries and groans of relief as they managed, at last, to slip out of the steam-obscured Boiling Sea and into the smooth, azure-coloured waters leading to Amphitrite's Star. Though they were all tired, and though the ship could certainly pilot on its own, it would not do for everyone on board to be lost in dreams while the ship trundled blindly through untraversed waters. Arrluk decided that, at that moment, Jino and Duat needed their strength more than anyone else. Though they protested (rather halfheartedly), they eventually agreed to retire to their rooms.

"I'm fine, I can't sleep anyway," Ethan said, when Arrluk turned towards him. "Might as well stay out here."

"Yeah, same," Kayla sighed. They plopped themselves down on the deck beside him. Ethan and he, of course, had cleared the air of the tensions that had risen between them, but he and Kayla had not yet shared any such development, which would explain Kayla's look of slight discomfort and the few extra inches' distance she had placed between herself and Arrluk. But, as always, the Prince ignored this, being simultaneously too tired and quietly exasperated to pursue the subject.

They sat in silence as the Neptune's Treasure hurtled through the water, keeping a wary eye out for any unwelcome hurdles that could suddenly loom out of the water, which was rather difficult since weariness was slowly trying to overpower those eyes.

It was getting more and more difficult to remain awake, even with the subtle change of scenery around them to interest him. The flowers and rocks around them had all taken on a sort of glassy quality here, glistening in the misty blue light. The flowers were much larger and much stranger-looking, with oddly coloured leaves and intricate patterns etched onto their leaves. And the water . . . the water was. . . .

Arrluk couldn't resist any more. His eyelids slid shut and he slumped back on the deck, lost in the blissful, most welcome detachment of sleep. His brain seemed too tired even to produce any dreams tonight, but it did not detract from the effect in the slightest. He slept and slept, only vaguely aware of time passing him by.

Abruptly, and rather bitterly, however, he was jerked out of the pleasant darkness by a loud grinding noise and his eyes filled with the scenes of underwater brilliance looming ahead of him. A stab of irritation reached him. He felt better now, but he would have much preferred a few more hours . . . Maybe a day . . . Or a week. . . .

He tore his eyes from the water and glanced around on deck. Kayla had given in to the temptation of sleep as well; she was leaning against Ethan, her eyes closed, her head on his shoulder. He, on the other hand, was wide awake. His eyes, uncovered by the greyish sheet produced by the cuttlefish's magic, were bloodshot and weary-looking. Arrluk surveyed him intently for a moment, then looked back at the water. They were about a few hours off from Myopia.

"You're not going to be much help if you won't be able to stay awake when you're needed," Arrluk said bluntly, his eyes on the water.

"Not much help either way," Ethan said indifferently. "What've I done so far? Nothing."

"If it's any consolation, neither of you have done anything useful so far," Arrluk said.

"Gee, thanks."

"And neither have I."

Ethan snorted. "Please. You've been doing all this crazy magic since you've been here."

"Haven't you been paying attention, Ethan?" Arrluk said calmly. "I haven't. I'm terrible at magic. Jino and Duat have been doing everything. My contributions have been almost negligible. I was never a master at my craft. Magic is just one of the many areas in which I failed as the heir."

"I wouldn't say failed," Kayla said unexpectedly. Apparently she had not been sleeping, and Ethan did not seem at all surprised by this sudden revelation. "You managed to fight off the Rasulka back in Baikuana," she continued. "That was pretty impressive."

"Beginner's-level sorcery is not impressive."

"Can you shut up and take the compliment, I'm trying to be nice to you."

There was a brief pause.

"Thank you," Arrluk said quietly.

"Look," Kayla continued, her head still on Ethan's shoulder, her eyes still closed, still speaking in that same quiet, calm voice, "none of us wanted to be here. But we are, and it's time to accept that reality. Once we do, we can work on getting Desmond, and the Ophiotaurus, and then getting out of this place."

"Very well," Arrluk said, "we might as well just —"

But the rest of his sentence was lost in the water. So accustomed they had been to huge bangs in the past few days that the sound of another was not cause for shock, but more a source of exasperation.

"Oh, what now?" Ethan groaned.

"We haven't met a giant squid yet," Kayla said in a bored voice, finally disentangling herself from her brown-haired friend. "I've been expecting one since day one, a Kraken or something, you know, maybe —"

But what it was, none of them could possibly have expected. A hole opened in the hull of the ship, as naturally as if it had been commanded to do so, and in swooped a large, glowing seashell, which was smoking slightly. It stopped right in front of the stunned Arrluk, then the intense blue light enveloping it faded away and it fell slowly towards the deck. Arrluk snatched it out of the water and Kayla and Ethan moved in closer, looking down at it in awe.

"Isn't that one of the shells that you gave Dez to help him explain to his folks why he disappeared?" Ethan asked keenly.

"Yes, but —" Arrluk began. His mind was racing. Who could have sent it? His father? Had something gone wrong at home? Instead of pressing it to his ear to hear the message, he shook it vigorously and held it up, so that the prerecorded message would sound out for them all:

Arrluk! The voice was immediately recognizable, and they let out cries of mingled relief and surprise. I'm not sure how I'm going to get this to you just yet, but I guess I'm gonna have to wing it. Currently being chased by a whole horde of monsters, so — you know — At these words, Arrluk could picture him running, his sheepish grin plastered across his face. Listen, I don't have much time. I'm not sure where I am but the water here . . . it's strange. I don't know how to describe it, but — oh, hold on, there's some kind of tower here, surrounded by a kind of sapphire fog. . . . It looks weird, like it's made of some glowing sponge, and it's . . . rotting. I can see it in the distance. Anyway, not sure how that's going to help, but I'm working on a plan to escape.

You'll never believe it, but the Trident just returned to me! I'd lost it when she pulled me out of the ship, but then it just appeared, out of nowhere! So, I'm not totally helpless. They want something from me, for me to track something other than the Ophiotaurus. I'm gonna have to stick around here for a little while longer, but don't worry about me, I'll be fine regardless. You just keep working on getting to Amphitrite's Star.

Oh, and if Ethan and Kayla are listening in, don't worry, I'm gonna get us all out of this, one way or another. Definitely. And — no, I'm not gonna cry, you idiot, shut up, he added, with a nervous chuckle, because his voice sounded a little choked, and Ethan laughed. Stupid underwater ninjas cutting onions, is all. I'll be back soon.

There was a slight pause in which they beamed down at the shell. Then the silence was broken by the faint, slightly eerie rushing sound that emanated from most shells when they had finished relaying their messages. Ethan chuckled. "Idiot. Of course he's all right, he's too dumb for anything serious to happen to him."

"Well, you heard him," Kayla said, wiping tears from her eyes, "let's get this done and go meet him. If he has his Trident he'll be able to get away somehow, then he'll be needing a ride."

Ethan nodded, but Arrluk was now frowning at the shell. Something from Desmond's message had just occurred to him.

"What's wrong?" Kayla asked.

"A tower," Arrluk murmured. "And a blue fog . . ." He gasped. "By the gods! I think I know where they're taking him. The City of the Lost God!"

"The what of the come again now?" Ethan said.

"It's an ancient city," Arrluk said grimly. "But . . . no . . . they wouldn't. . . . They couldn't. . . ."

"Unless it's a heap of rubble or as polluted as Baikuana, I don't see what the big deal is, it's just a city, isn't it?" Ethan said.

"Wrong."

They all turned. Jino and Duat were floating above the staircase, looking unusually somber as well. Arrluk did not need to ask how long they had been standing there — "long enough" was a sufficient answer.

"What do you mean?" Ethan asked Jino, frowning.

"Do you remember what we told you in the Silent Sea, about the ancient Taboos of the Seven Seas, places one must never visit under any condition whatsoever?"

Ethan looked incredulous. "Are you kidding me? A prohibited city?"

"You don't understand," Duat said, with a shake of his head. "The City of the Lost God is not just 'a city.' The gods of the sea are powerful, but not immortal. They can be killed like everyone else, though such a feat requires more exceptional circumstances. Eons ago, one of the oldest sea gods, Nereus, the Shapeshifter . . . he died. Thousands of years have passed since then, and still no one across the entirety of Thalassian history can identify what brought about his demise."

"Okay, so a god died under mysterious circumstances. So what? Did he die in the city? Does his ghost haunt the land?"

"His body is the city," Arrluk said. "When he was felled, he — literally fell. Sprawled across the seafloor. Except, his body stayed there. It was never washed away, nor was it ever attempted to be moved in any other way. It remains there, even to this day, decomposing slowly. An ancient people known as the Kurags decided to ignore all warnings from their brethren, who tried to dissuade them heavily from moving, and they made a settlement there, using his flesh as the material for their new homes. That clan is now extinct."

Kayla gasped.

"All of them, dead, without a trace. Approaching the city is one thing, depending on your purpose, whether to provide reverence or to simply observe. To enter the city is sacrilege of the highest order. They are literally defacing a god, that it why it is a Taboo.

"Nereus's body is still infused with powerful magic. To go there is to invite death upon oneself."

"You . . . you don't think they actually would, do you?" Kayla whispered, aghast. "That they'd actually go?"

"They followed us directly into Charybdis's domain to claim Desmond. I do not think safety is a primary concern for these adversaries."

A stunned silence swelled within the ship, billowing on and on. After a while, Ethan said, "But what if they actually do go there? Do — do we follow?"

"Are you mad?" Jino gasped, looking at him as though he really were worrying for Ethan's sanity. "We barely made it out of one Taboo, and that was because we conveniently managed to stumble across Neptune's Trident. There is no guarantee of any such escape route where you wish to go, and in terms of treacherousness, the Silent Sea is nothing compared to Nereus's rotting form. How could we possibly —?"

"If they do venture there," Arrluk interjected, keeping his voice as calm as possible, "we will have no choice but to follow. Desmond will be there, and he alone can wield the Trident. If we don't find him, the Kaijus will wake, and those atrocities being let loose on the world will be far worse than any punishment Nereus's body may bring. And if the legends are true, and Kyaega can actually survive above the surface —"

"He what?" Ethan yelped.

"Oh, did I not mention?" Arrluk asked, with genuine sincerity. "Dear me, I forgot. Yes, Kyaega, the crab, was said in some legends to be able to survive on the surface-world. I'm not entirely sure if it's true, or if any of the other Kaijus possess that ability, but I'd say it would be better not to have to find out, don't you think?" he said cheerfully.

"Of — freaking — course — not!" Ethan yelled. "How far are we from this dead guy's body, do you know?"

"I'm not sure," Arrluk said, looking around for their newly procured map. "Perhaps a few da —"

"Prince Arrluk!" Duat exclaimed, pointing suddenly ahead of them. Arrluk whirled about, and his eyes widened.

"At last," he breathed. "We're here."

The city of Myopia was breathtakingly beautiful. It was, as the translated name suggested, composed entirely of beautiful, multicoloured crystals. The shards leading towards the open city gates were a pale blue, the colour of Ethan's eyes. The gates themselves were twelve-foot-high slabs of ruby, which extended around the perimeter in a great wall of the same colour. Beyond the wall, they glimpsed the palace. It was a magnificent crystalline structure, so large that it dwarfed the palace of Tethyia. Innumerable openings were carved into the suface, and endless streams of crystal animals were pouring through them and making their way into another section of the castle.

"It's beautiful," Kayla said.

"There," said Jino. He was pointing past the palace, where a brilliant white light glowed in the distance. "Amphitrite's Star — the fairest of nature's lights."

"Take us there, now," Arrluk commanded. They had finally reached it, after everything they had been through so far, they were here. . . .

The Neptune's Treasure rose above the great gates and soared over the vast, majestic city that ran below. It far outweighed Tethyia, not only in size, but in grace. They soared over the elegant crystal works of the city, and towards the slowly enlarging light. . . . Then they were hovering in front of it.

It was an enormous, shimmering ball of white light, flickering like a regular slab of Hyrule.

"Cool," Ethan breathed. "But . . . like, what are we supposed to do now? We reached it, so . . . shouldn't something be happening?"

"Amphitrite's Star is a mystical construct," Duat said. "They say that those who visit it will be granted something, either the chance to have their greatest wish fulfilled, or experience visions of the future, or . . . anything. The Star reads your heart, reads your past, present, and future, and whatever it bestows upon you is done so with the intent of helping you in some way."

"What are the odds that if we go down there we'll find Desmond?" Ethan said, grinning.

"Zero," said Arrluk. "That would be too easy. I expect we'll receive something a little more . . . inorganic. Jino, take us down, please."

Jino veered the ship downwards, soaring towards the Star. At once, several crystalline manta rays rose from the ground, hovering around the sphere of light.

"It's all right," Arrluk said, for Ethan and Kayla had recoiled in alarm. "They won't attack us, as long as we have no ill intentions towards the Star."

And he was quite right. The Mantas simply glided around and around the sphere, serenely ignoring them, as they moved towards it. Jino slowed down, and continued towards the sphere at a moderate pace until the Neptune's Treasure emerged into the light altogether. The glow of the Star became blinding, persisting for several long minutes. Then it faded, and they had passed smoothly through to the other side.

"Did you see anything?" Jino asked avidly, from his position at the steering wheel. Evidently he had not been retrieved anything from the Star; nor had Duat. Ethan, however, was examining a long, ornate silver blade, whose hilt was inlaid with a number of small slabs that were marked with intricate symbols.

"Wicked," he breathed, running his finger along the edge.

Arrluk turned to look at Kayla. She was now tentatively probing a necklace of differently coloured pearls, each about as large as a squid's egg, but round, that was now laced around her neck, as if placed there by an invisible hand. Both humans turned in unison to look at Arrluk, and he, in turn, looked down.

A large, worn, grey book was now clutched in his hands, larger than any he had ever seen before, but certainly a spellbook. The text inscribed on the cover read: The Book of Enoch.