Xandrinia let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as she saw that her village had been destroyed by the mer-kingdom. The houses where she used to play were flooded. The alabaster walls of the governor's mansion where she'd grown up had been destroyed by the mer-king's magic waves. "Father!" Xandrinia called out helplessly as she ran toward the gleaming white ruins. Despite being only seventeen and one hundred and twelve pounds soaking wet, Xandrinia easily lifted the rubble to reveal her father's battered body. It wasn't clear if he had drowned or been bludgeoned to death by the falling stone. "Damn you to the deepest depths, Nykos," Xandrinia cursed the sea king's name as she fell to her knees and wept.

"Never! I won't do it!" Xandrinia said as the ambassador from the sea kingdom presented her with the elixir that could turn her into a mermaid for one night. "We can't accept you as the new ambassador from the land realm unless you attend the Tide Ball," the smug merman replied. "Of course, I could tell King Nykos we have to accept someone else." He flashed a wolfish grin. Xandrinia looked at the pearlescent liquid as it swirled around in the vial. She had never worn so much as a dress, much less a tail, but she couldn't let this opportunity slip away. It was her one chance to get close enough to King Nykos to kill him, and finally enact her revenge. "All right, I'll do it." She drank the liquid down.

Xandrinia stared at the golden conch necklace King Nykos had brought her. She held her hand to her breast in stunned silence. She couldn't believe it. The king was trusting her with the power of the tides. "Why would you give me this?" Xandrinia's lips parted as she spoke. "Because... I love you." The sea king's sapphire eyes averted Xandrinia's gaze. "I think I've always loved you." Xandrinia remembered that night as a child when she had almost drowned. The face of the boy who had saved her. She realized she knew those sapphire eyes. She had known them all her life. "It was you... all along." Xandrinia quivered as Nykos pulled her to him, his lips devouring hers.