We arrive back at camp as the red sun rises.

All is quiet.

“Gar’dumor…”

“Yes.”

“There were no levitating flowers, were there?”

“…No.”

She bites her lip.

“Then what was all of that for?”

Every excuse turns to seafoam in my mouth. I glance at her hands, laced at her waist.

She notices, and I blush.

Her expression is unreadable; I brace for the worst.

Then…

She hugs me. Strong and tight, like she’ll never let go.

“You are far too dense sometimes.” She laughs, finds my eyes. “But, Gar’dumor.”

“Yes?”

“Don’t ever lie to me again.”

“Never. I promise.”

The last door opens — a particularly obtuse emerald — and we slip back into the sea. Blue algae spills out around us, glowing purple in Lais’ pink moonlight.

Demitra’s gaze lingers as the emerald-door crackles closed of its own accord, vanishes into stone. I shudder — they aren’t supposed to do that.

“No one can know,” her tone bites, “about any of it.”

Will she ever look at me again?

“I should pack everyone up, take us as far from here as possible.”

“Demitra.”

She’s shaking.

“We’re going to be alright.”

“What was that?!”

I glimpse Lais’ rippling reflection.

…Is she smiling?

Ever since my alighting, I have heard the gems. They whisper their secrets and their wishes, and I oblige them as I can, crafting them—shaping them—to a form we agree mutually beneficial. Most crave beauty and sparkle—to be made into jewels befitting the gods.

These gems, wild and capricious, wish only to be rid of us as quickly as they can, and so become doors, narrow tunnels, their sounds ever chiding.

We swim in silence.

“Wh–what happened?” Fear rattles Demitra’s words. “When you touched the diamond?”

I tell her everything. She shivers when I mention the voice.

“You attacked me.” The words fall from her lips like hot ash upon the sea. “I had to shield myself from the gems. Y–you shot them everywhere, Gar’dumor. Everywhere. Like you were trying to break the island apart. I–”

I move to comfort her, but she kicks away, lingers just beyond my reach.

“No.”

I don’t know what to say.

“Can you get us out of here?”

I notice, then—no screams. Just their familiar sweet sounds.

The gems provide the way.

Can I trust them?

She eyes me, like I’m a coiled serpent, fanged and about to snap.

“I can.”

Demitra.

She grabs hold of my hands—the right popping, shrieking in pain—and she yanks me out from under the sinking boulder, three times my size.

We float together as the rain of earth quiets and the water settles calm.

She won’t look at me. She won’t let me go either.

When at last her frantic green eyes do meet mine, they’re stricken red.

“Are you, you?” Rushed. Panicked.

The question startles me, too.

What had she been through?

“Demitra… I—”

“Answer me!” Her grip tightens, rage brims her eyes. “Are you, you?”

Aren’t I?

“What did I do to you?”

Chills, and panic swells; my mind splits in two.

The wrong faces fly. Screaming.

You are so—

“Don’t you—”

Can’t think…

—heavy with—

“—what you’re—”

Can’t breathe…

—worry—

“—doing!”

Cracking. Crumbling. I am… breaking.

Bits of earth pellet me. Thrashes of water pull me.

The diamond will not let go.

“Please,” I beg, gasping, “let us leave.”

You must let go… A laugh like rustling leaves. I had thought your kind ready—

Something crashes into my chest, my hand peels from the diamond, and I’m…

Free.

And sinking under a crushing, crushing weight.

Movement beside me. I already know who…

My fingers brush against the diamond. And I am the island.

Soil for flesh, rivers for veins. Me.

Every flutter of wings, every step of paws. Mine.

Tingles of pleasure. Pricks of pain. I feel it all—the most salacious overwhelm. So, I don’t let go.

Twisted, wrong faces burst from the gems with gnarled, grasping claws like ruby-roots—emeralds, sapphires, amethysts too. I have no fear for them.

But…amidst my everything, where is she?

“Demitra!”

I grunt, try to pull away. Can’t.

Hello. A warm voice like sun-washed petals. How nice—

“Stop!” Demitra’s voice…

—To meet you—

“Gar’—”

—dumor…

Gems glitter all around us—a constellation cavern of deafening screams.

My innards churn. This is not how they’re supposed to sound…

“Gar’dumor,” Demitra’s voice is a whisper against the wailing. “What is that?”

How blessed she is not to hear as I do.

I force myself to follow her gaze, and when I see it…gone is my pain.

A diamond. Dazzling white, floating just above the water. From its edges drip droplets like those if stars could tear—the sweetest sound. Pure and faint. A humming.

Its pull grips me, and I swim to it.

Away from Demitra.

There’s something strange here.

The trickster-current slaps us deeper into the island, but no welts appear. I tuck my legs in for balance, and the broken two feel stronger. Mended already?

“Could this be Cal’s mischief?” I grope at the algae tumbling with me, blue as the god’s moon. “Some kind of jest or…test?”

“If it is, we’re giving him a great show.” Demitra grins, tightening her grip on my right pincer.

I mean to say more, but the current yanks us around a corner, then spits us into a fall.

It’s the screams, though, that truly silence me.

It slithers like a mindless swarm of tangled jellyfish, pulling all it can into itself.

Evasion proves surprisingly unchallenging.

“It…shouldn’t be here.”

“And yet it is.” She’s calmer now we’re together. “Fascinating…”

I glance surfaceward. “We can’t climb out.”

“No… But I also can’t link with Adonia to come rescue us. Leaders ‘facilitate the glory of others.’ …And I left with you for myself. I won’t suffer her disappointment again.”

She turns to me, idea-eyed.

“Where there are trickster-currents, there are gems, right?”

I sigh, catching her meaning.

“Are you strong enough?” she asks.

I’d never tell her no.