S. Welles - To Ocean's End

“Can I help you?” he said, his poker face doing a poor job of hiding a frown.

“I just wanted to talk a minute before we head out.” She inched closer to the door, hoping to encourage him to open up.

“About?”

She lowered her gaze to their boots. No wonder Mido knew so little. It felt like she was breaking a rule trying to ask him questions about himself. He looked ready to let his temper flare at the slightest provocation. However, she’d come this far, so there was no point in backing out now. “You and your curse.”

The door parted a few more inches. “You’re not having second thoughts at the last minute, are you?” Fear crept into his voice.

She looked up. “No! Quite the opposite. I was just—” she didn’t want to bring Mido into it, so she revised the truth a bit “—thinking things out. Did you tell me everything?”

“About my curse? Yes.”

“But the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime.”

Dyne gave her a flat, distant glare and began closing the door. “In her eyes it does.”

Jessie stuck a boot in the doorway and braced a hand on the door. “There has to be more to this. I can’t help you if I don’t know.”

He glanced at her boot. “There is more but it’s not exactly curse-related. Now go finish your lunch.” He kicked the steel toe of her boot out of the way and closed and locked the door.

She stared in open-mouthed disbelief as Dyne plopped back into his chair and resumed staring at the rock. His blatant refusal of her help got under her skin. She tried the door, even though she’d heard the lock click in place. The door only rattled. She knocked on it, insistently this time. “Come on. Just tell me.” He didn’t so much as flinch. “I’m here to help you, Dyne!” He thrust up a hand like he’d meant to flip her off but all five fingers pointed upwards. She paused, confused, then thought of the moment when she’d rapped her knuckles on his lockdown container. Wondering if her hunch was correct, she turned around just in time to get a faceful of sea water. She flinched, then held still to contain her anger as water dripped off her chin and down her front. She wiped her face then glared at Dyne’s profile. “Come on!” She slapped the door, making it rattle. “Amphitrite herself sent me to help you and you’re just gonna ignore me? She explicitly told you through me to tell me everything I need to know! Why are you coming down with a case of stupid at such a horrible time?” Hopefully using his own words would work in her favor.

Dyne surged out of his chair, stormed over, and slapped the door as he wrenched the window open. His glare made Jessie back away and her anger evaporate. He leaned forward and spoke in a flat voice full of fury. “I slept with her daughter! That’s the rest of it! You happy?”

Jessie’s head spun as her brain tried to process the information. A bitterness that wasn’t her own rose in her chest. No wonder Amphitrite was so mad. But… when did all that happen, and how? Dyne looked ready to burst into his demon form and start tearing up his own ship. His skin wasn’t turning any colors, but she swore she could sense his demon form was close to breaking out of its shell. It was like getting a gut feeling about someone that made her uncomfortable. Even with all her fear and uneasiness, she returned his glare with a gaze she hoped broadcasted the questions she feared would further piss him off.

The threat of his demon form receded from her awareness and Dyne threw his hands up in surrender. He returned to his chair and scowled at her with his arms folded in front of him.

Jessie cautiously approached the open window. “How did you manage that?” She cringed in anticipation of another angry outburst.

He heaved a sigh through his nose. “I have a lockdown container for reasons other than avoiding all light sources for five days and nights. There’s a reason I didn’t want Rammus opening the door, even after I transformed.” He shook his head and sighed again. “If I transform by my own choice, I’m fine. But if it’s not by my own choice, even if I purposely expose myself to light, the primal side of human nature takes over all rational thought, but only if I see the ocean.” He began anxiously bouncing a leg. “The very first month of my curse, I transformed and had this overwhelming need to go to where the water gods live. Don’t ask where. I found it only on instinct and I can find and reach it only in demon form.

“Anyway, when I got there, Amphitrite’s daughter, Rhode, intercepted me before I could find her mother. She redirected my primal urges to her, and then I did nothing but eat, sleep, and fuck a goddess for the next three months.

“The first month I was at the mercy of my curse, but the next two felt like revenge. Rhode regarded me as a fascinating and pleasurable creature, but she enjoyed keeping me around and did nothing to dissuade me from using her as a form of revenge. Her mother got real pissed when she found out, and even tried to kill me, but Rhode helped me escape the underwater palace.” Dyne got up and calmly approached the window, arms still folded. His voice came out softer, full of longing. “Rhode’s the one who taught me how to keep my curse under control. She also showed me mercy and compassion by redirecting the ketos’s uncontrollable instincts onto her. Letting me reach her mother in that state would’ve been one of the most humiliating things to ever happen to me.”

“Then maybe we need to see her instead for help.”

“She’s not the one who cursed me,” Dyne said unhappily. “She already tried to lift it. Besides, her mother has kept us apart ever since.”

Jessie couldn’t help but furrow her brows.

He narrowed his eyes. “What?”

“She sounds… jealous. Can gods get jealous?”

“They have every human emotion, flaw, and virtue. They’re not like us; we’re like them.”

“Think about everything you told me. She obviously wanted to keep the curse between you and her, but then her daughter got involved and Amphitrite lost it. Her behavior screams of jealousy.”

“That’s amusing and all but what am I supposed to do about a jealous goddess?”

“I have no idea. What I do know is that we need to go see her. That’s all there is left for now. I finally know everything she wants me to know.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she said with a nod. “I feel her moods when I’m interacting with you. I didn’t quite get what I was feeling until some point after the lockdown I interrupted. Right now she’s eagerly anticipating our visit.”

“I’m bursting with joy,” he said sarcastically. “Is there anything else, or can I go back to thinking?”

“You can go back to thinking. Just don’t forget I’m here to help you.” She took a step back from the window.

“I know. I’m just tired of people dying while they try to help me.”

“I accepted the consequences long ago.”

“Well then, if that’s how you feel, then go finish your lunch and bring me up another raspberry square.”

Jessie brightened at the request. “Oh, you liked those, huh?”

“You made them?” He frowned, as if he’d been caught indirectly complimenting the wrong person’s cooking. “You weren’t supposed to turn into my secondary cook, you know.”

“Just making myself useful between bodyguard duties, Captain.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now shoo.” He waved her off.

Jessie’s light mood from the indirect pastry compliment spread throughout the galley. The rest of the crew started conversing, smiling, and even joking a bit while she and Mido washed dishes and cleaned up the place. Sadly, all that came to an abrupt end when Dyne called all participating crew members to the kernels.