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The ocean waves gently rocked Her Majesty Queen Historia's ship on a clear day, a much welcome change from last night's treacherous storm which sickened half the inexperienced crew for hours. A few sailors on deck thanked whatever god there was it was over with, and the first mate went to check on Queen Historia herself, who was peering over the railing into the depths of the sea. She nodded and sent him away after thanking him for his concern.
She could not blame them for their concern. They were sailing in open water that nobody inside the Walls had seen for over one-hundred years. And the tales of the survivors of the first ship to leave their port guided by Commander Erwin Smith did not ease any anxieties. A mighty storm had swept them up, and even Smith, as brave and brilliant as he was, despaired and went overboard having seen many lives lost. Some reported an eerie calm after he went to his demise, but some others thought that it was mere coincidence.
Historia much preferred the excitement of swaying on open waters to the calmness after calamity. In fact, she hoped it would happen again before the ship docked at Marley's port. Perhaps too many would fall so seasick that they had to delay once more, or maybe their food supply would run short, causing them to turn around. Anything to prevent her tragic destiny she always brought upon herself.
Her island, so long bombarded with Titans from outside the Walls, was now eyed by people and something geographical called "countries" they never knew existed for its resources, mining wise and Titan powers, particularly that of the Founder, which was in the current possession of an Eldian rebel from Marley, Grisha Jaeger, who had murdered the rest of her family in cold blood for their Titan. In turn, he was ousted for his rebellion, which was a major achievement for the Marleyan military upon his return for his own restorationist faction.
However, the dominoes began to fall, and everything started to fall out of control. One other country with a lot of power was Hizuru, which had originally made a treaty to have her breed and pass down Titan Shifters for the next half century in exchange for protection from other countries’ militaries. Why, she loved her kingdom and would do anything for it. She immediately agreed to sacrifice herself.
But knowing her family history, she'd become a monster, unable to live for herself and only others who never once gave a damn about her.
Yet by fate, Marley, also a trade partner of Hizuru which happened to control a large population of Eldians, discovered by happenstance that there was a child in their land named Zeke Jaeger, the son of Grisha Jaeger and Dina Fritz, a woman of royal blood, who would be used to sire royal children with other Eldian women. More negotiations happened, and Historia, instead of being made a Titan Shifter, would still have to breed, but she would do it provided Marley got to keep all of her children for their own military power and dominance in exchange for the island's safety once Grisha’s term as a Shifter was over.
She never wanted to be a Titan truly in her heart, no. Who in their right mind would want a shortened life span? As for having many children who would be turned into living weapons, she sighed. She tried to push aside her feelings. She loved the little children whom she rescued under her command in the poorest slums of the kingdom. But the truth was, she’d just be creating more people to be used as tools, taking after their mother for their special blood, a convenience and a curse. How many lives she would create out of passionless breeding she didn’t want to think about, but if it was a few lives to be sacrificed versus the whole island….
Historia’s eyes watered over. No. She couldn’t do this. She grasped the railing tightly. She made a promise long ago to Ymir. They weren’t going to be defined by their blood, alive or dead. She wanted to live for herself.
Something moved quickly below the surface, a shimmer in the dark depths circling the ship. It was probably a large fish or a creature called a dolphin she learned about in a book exported from Hizuru. Dolphins were beautiful creatures, swimming so gracefully and freely. If only she could join them down below away from the burdens placed upon her.
Historia felt herself being mentally pulled to observe the ocean. Its power was awesome and holy, so quick to swallow up the most unfortunate but also to cleanse away impurities. It grew clearer and clearer. Was anybody else watching this? Before she could turn and ask a crew member, what she thought was a dolphin leapt into the air.
Except this dolphin had a human head, arms, and torso and a tail to complete it. What kind of ocean creature was this? Suddenly, Historia could only focus on this… thing? Person? It didn’t look like any person from her books about the other countries of the world either. None of them could live underwater as far as she knew.
“Your Majesty, are you watching the dolphin pods?” A young sailor named Jean asked. He looked at the water. “They’re quite lovely. I can’t believe that they can jump that high. I could have touched it!”
Historia blinked, snapping out of her trance. How long had he been there? “Uh… yes. I think I have been watching them too long.” She walked away quickly, not wanting to ramble on about man-dolphin creatures.
…
That night, the tranquility of the waters did nothing to help soothe Historia to sleep. She left her quarters for a stroll on the deck, sneaking past a sleeping guard. The starry skies reflected on the blackened surface. Did dolphins sleep at night? The lights would help her look.
She leaned over, almost hoping that man-dolphin would return as she observed the gently rolling waves. Or was it her imagination? This ocean gave some of the seasick crewmates some strange thoughts and visions. One thought he saw an island ahead while another thought she saw a whole mass of food floating. But she had no signs of seasickness.
Splash. Thwack. Thud. Thud.
Historia’s heart fluttered. Did they hit some rocks? She looked overboard as far as she could see. No, they didn’t, but she would have preferred to after what she saw.
The man-dolphin was scaling the side of the ship, his strong arms pulling himself upwards despite having nothing on the ship to clasp to. His gray slender eyes pierced her ocean blue eyes. She wanted to scream for help, but that same feeling of being pulled toward the ocean appeared again. And the man-dolphin. In fact, she extended her hands to it- him. He was beautiful .
He climbed the final stretch and flopped onto the deck, panting. Historia hoped somebody else would see this, or she would have no way to explain herself. Then, to her shock, he spoke.
“Human creature, your heart desires not as others lead you to a gruesome fate.” His voice was low and rich, melodious to her ears.
“Y-yes,” Historia squeaked out. How did he know this?
“I am Levi, the god of the oceans you sail and exploit. I am the one from whom the waters flow in the deep. I am the one from whom life and death come and go. I purify the unholy filth from this world. I join the land and the waters together, and I marry the heavens and the earth.
A god? Speaking to her, the descendent of a devil girl?
“I imagine you do not understand what flows from my mouth,” he responded as if he expected this. His eyes blinked rapidly.
“I… why are you… what have I done that you seek me out? Is it because I am of royal blood, a subject of Ymir? Am I filth you wish to cleanse?”
Very few countries outside of the island liked that Eldians existed and would have preferred if they were completely wiped out, especially those on the island. Yet they were useful if under the control of another power. Regardless, schemes to drive them to extinction were commonly proposed, even under Marley’s empire, to prevent any further weapons of mass destruction from being bred.
Levi stretched his wet hand and laid it upon Historia’s pale clammy one. His hand was sticky to the touch, slimy like a fish’s, but she dared not comment. Not that she felt afraid anymore. That pull, that longing for the ocean tugged at her. It wasn’t the black tainted one around the ship. It was the one that flowed inside Levi.
“No, child of Ymir. Fear not. Under these skies my father rules, not one person is filth in the flesh. For the filth only gathers inside of one.”
Historia shook her head. He still made little sense.
“What do you wish of me then? Have I committed some great wrongdoing that I am full of filth?”
“No, child of Ymir. But you must make a choice. You are not doomed to populate this world with children who shall be used to destroy this creation. But you must abandon this ship and follow me.”
Historia stood agape. “What? Do you plan to make use of me? How would I fare better than I would in Marley as a sow? And how shall I swim after you?”
How shall I swim after you? Historia blushed. What foolishness, falling for a man-dolphin ocean god with all kinds of trickery and power in him! What if he was using it on her now?
Levi snorted, some steam coming from his nostrils. “Oh, child of Ymir. Question after question, and the answers are in front of you. You are capable of saving your people from suffering and generations to come. But I shall not force my hand on you. I only stand by to aid humanity in whatever form it shall take on.”
His hand slipped from Historia’s embrace as he slithered across the deck, climbed over the railing, and slid back into the recesses of the deep. Historia gasped, searching the waters for Levi, but he was nowhere to be seen amidst the night-painted surface.
How much could she really trust him? She gazed at the horizon illuminated with a yellow moon. She couldn’t rely on a storm to stop the ship, nor did she have the heart to toss the food supply overboard to starve the crewmates; they were her subjects after all.
Yet what was more alluring about Levi than his form was his words about not having to populate the world with children to be used as weapons. No confinement to a little cell with some food and water and maybe a stroll in the daylight when she was not forced to have relations with men deemed the strongest and best stock. She could be free as a dolphin if she followed Levi.
She looked around the deck. Her crew were sound asleep below, unaware that a god swam about. Though considering Historia was a descendent of a girl who ascended to become a goddess to the Eldians, maybe it wouldn’t be a total fright.
The longing pulled at her heart to dive, to be brave, to save herself from a sanctuary from hell.
Without looking back, Historia threw herself overboard, her white nightgown flapping as though she were a majestic bird soaring the heavens, and she hit the ocean surface with a cold shock.
…
The starlight steadily vanished as Historia sank deeper down. She wanted to breathe the air, yet something told her to let herself go. She wanted to scream, but her lungs would fill with water the more she panicked.
He tricked her. He tricked her. He wanted her dead. The god of the ocean wanted all Eldians to die, and she was easy to start with for her royal blood. Quite a facile sacrifice to make.
If only you had never been born!
Those horrendous words from her mother resounded in this watery realm. Not just for her birth from an affair. Her bloodline too. Her race. Her kingdom. To be born to only be undone.
What a tragic destiny she faced. Her tears washed as soon as they formed. Her eyes stung from the salt.
The water suddenly went from chilled to a golden warmth. Historia’s small body relaxed. She felt so young and protected yet fragile at the same time. Then, something grabbed her and held her close. Someone strong. Someone who could control the rough currents swirling.
Historia opened her eyes, unbothered now by the sting of the salt. Her lungs felt strong, and she lost all fear of drowning. The god of the ocean stared back at her, his gray eyes reflecting like mirrors so Historia could see herself.
“So you have chosen to follow me to save yourself,” he spoke warmly. But his lips didn’t move. Rather, the sound “shimmered” off of schools of tiny fish swimming around them. Oh, such marvels around her, yet Historia dare not take her eyes off of him.
“I have,” her voice bounced off of the fish. “I began to believe I was to sink to the bottom to never see the sky again.”
“Would I let that happen to one who wishes to live?” Levi mused. His face twitched as if he were in pain.
“Now what must I do so I do not have to let my children destroy the world?” Levi gently grabbed her hand and began to swim deeper, guiding her along. Some magnificent fish which emanated a low light lit the way. Historia pushed her flowing hair out of her eyes to keep watching.
They reached a cavern filled with some freely swimming fish and some rocks, but there were also odd trinkets and some metal cylinders which Historia recognized as cans used for food. And then she saw bones. Human bones. And rotten seafaring clothes.
Historia squirmed.
“Child of Ymir, have you not understood my words? I do not let those who do not wish to perish in these waters to perish. No harm shall come your way.” Historia’s heart steadied. “Now, as you have inquired, you are able to defy your fate if you follow me.” He let her sit on the hard floor of the cavern as he dug in the pile of clothes and pulled out something in the shape of wings.
No. It couldn’t be.
“Are those… the wings of freedom?”
“They are. These wings were corrupted with filth to never fly once more, for these were the wings made by man and not by my father in the skies. For the great Commander Smith sought too much for his own dream of seeing the world. Many of his crew had died of sickness and calamity above, and he desired to move on no further after his own tainted ambition flowed through them. He would have sent even more to die such horrible deaths had he made his way to the distant shores.” Levi lovingly caressed the emblem. “All in the name of defending humanity.”
Historia nodded. “And for my desire to not bring forth more is what will keep me alive?”
“To cleanse the world, one may die, or one may live, yet there needs to be a balance, for water may kill or make alive. The one great hope of the children of Ymir in your land has since been churned in the great cleansing of death by his own hand. And now you must stay alive for the great cleansing of life.”
Levi picked up the skull of the Commander and placed his mouth on the skeletal mouth. He gazed longingly into the empty eye sockets as if he expected the bones to take flesh and return his melancholy kiss. Historia would have been horrified not a day before. But deep inside, she understood more and more what she was to do. She looked out of the cavern toward the distant sky.
“Let us return to the surface. We must make this right.” She stretched out her hand, and Levi embraced it. Historia took the lead. She swam with all her might. She wasn’t sure if this sudden strength came from her or from the god who so humbly accepted her choice, but she embraced it.
The strong currents pushed them along faster and faster. Some dolphins joined them, a mother dolphin with her calf in tow. They lived so freely here. And Historia was no longer afraid.
She turned upwards toward the surface, and she pulled Levi to face her. She wanted his powerful waters to flow through her, and she wanted to give hers in exchange. He agreed without words. They kissed as the currents propelled them and the waters beneath.
Above the surface, some crewmates who had noticed Historia’s disappearance at dawn scrambled in a panic as they wondered if she had fallen off and drowned as the tranquil waves turned choppy and grew monstrous. On both sides of the ocean on Marley and the kingdom, onlookers noticed the same thing. They cried about in terror and despair, concerned for their fragile lives.
The waves the god and the goddess created enveloped whole buildings leaving no crack or crevice dry. No human was safe from the powerful waters, some being swept under in the current. Yet this ocean water would not enter their lungs or pollute them, for it flowed from the union of the two who needed to kill humanity for what it was yet desired to make them alive once more. Before they could comprehend what started, it ended.
The Eldians in Marley and on the island marveled as the waters receded. Something about them felt different that they could not perceive with their eyes. Their blood had been neutralized from the gross parasite that attacked a little girl named Ymir who fell underwater over 2,000 years prior. Inside, they perceived how they used one of their own unfortunate people for so long to live out their own little lives without considering other people.
The Marleyans and every other person soaked from the waters trembled in fear and the realization that there was always a fish, or rather a man-dolphin if they had known the truth, bigger than them. Inside, their perception of the people they had long oppressed was cleared from being a muddy puddle to a tide pool.
From the great cleansing, humanity had a lot of progress to make, but that would be for the next person to contribute to, either by life or death. And the god and the goddess swam freely together to rule the ocean, just like the graceful dolphins.