The descent was long, and Cora slept while the seashell drifted along the ocean tides. She didn’t wake until they settled at last to rest on the ocean floor. It was too dark to see anything but a stretch of sand outside the windows now. The only light came from the shell itself. It was dark inside too, but Cora could still see Oreads change her shape before her eyes. The tree branches and leaves of the nymph were presently coral reefs. Vibrant waving purple sea anemones extended from her head to wave softly in place of hair.

  “So that’s it then. I’m going to be a fish.” Cora sighed. “I don’t think I can do it, Oreads. If I see Poseidon, how can I resist slapping him across his face? How can I serve the one who killed my love?”

  Oreads sighed too. It sounded like the waves pulling back to sea.

  “If he was a man, then you might be right to hold your grudge. But we are not equal to the Gods. You will only harm yourself by thinking so.”

  Oreads poked her fingers through her new hair to pull out an orange starfish. Its legs curled in luxorious slow arcs as she passed it to Cora.

  “You will need to put this over your face to breathe underwater. Go on, like a mask.”

  Cora sullenly snatched it, putting it up to her face without a second thought. She only realized after how ridiculous that was. The tender caress of the starfish snagged hold of her skin in stinging discomfort. The starfish mouth was right over her own nose and mouth! How was that supposed to help her breathe?

  Oreads only laughed as Cora flung the starfish away from her. “Only kidding, dear. The palace has an enchantment that allows visitors to breathe quite easily. But if you have not learned this lesson yet, then it is good to remember also: You aren’t the center of the world. Everyone who seems to be doing something for you has their own end in mind. Do not trust sweet words from man or God. But instead be patient, and be watchful, and learn the true heart of what each desires most. It is not enough to say ‘love me, for I deserve to be loved’. You must instead understand what each heart desires. Then you may choose whether to satisfy it or not, and that becomes your power.”

  “What is it that you desire most, Oreads?”

  The nymph smiled sadly. “The wise never say, because that is giving another power over you. But I am silly, and not wise, and my fickle mood changes with the season. So I will trust you as you have trusted me. I desire to be the Goddess of the moon, and watch over the sleeping world.”

  Cora giggled. “That is silly. Isn’t there a Goddess already? Selene, I think.”

  Nymph scowled fiercely. Her skin seemed to ripple with a current below. “No more silly than asking the sun to love you. Go on then, get out. Into the water. If you don’t trust me, then I’ll even go first.”

  “I do trust you though.” Cora intercepted Oreads on her way to the little door in the shell. She held onto the forearms of Oreads and looked her sincerely in the eye. She was right, she had only been thinking of herself. She thought the nymphs were as divine as far removed from herself as the Gods, but it wasn’t so. They really were much more like her, stranded and helpless in someone else’s world.

  Oreads pressed a tight smile and pulled away. She opened the door and flung her arms wide at the dramatic release. The dark water poured in a crashing wall. To her ankles, to her waist, to her neck, in less than a second. Then submerged completely, but not as an assault like the night before. The water was warm, and insubstantial like heavy air. Underneath, Cora could see easily even without even the sting of salt in her eyes. It even seemed brighter now that she was underwater.

  Cora followed Oreads outside the seashell.

  “That wasn’t so bad! Maybe I should trust your advice after all. It all sounds reasonable, and if reason was enough to convince me, then I probably would have been home by now.”

  There wasn’t much to be seen outside the light of the little shell house. The seashell was larger than the flower, but she was still not her proper size ever since hiding like ladybug inside the flower at Olympus. It was a conch shell of ivory white with swirling pinkish hues. A little cottage in a strange new world. How happy she could be living a simple life there. Why did she think she needed the Gods at all? Yet how could she really let go of Apollo and pass the years wondering what could have been?

  Oreads stopped short outside the shell. She froze, her hands straying behind her to feel for Cora who grasped them.

  “If Apollo is really dead or gone, then why do I still feel him near me?” Cora asked distractedly.

  Oreads didn’t respond. She looked up, and Cora followed her gaze. A massive dark shape passed over their heads. It must be twenty feet from side to side. The majestic manta ray felt like an spaceship flying low: so alien, yet so familiar. It would have been large if she were normal size, but as small as she was, the manta ray seemed like the entire sky was rolling overhead. It curved gracefully to arc back toward them. It danced through the water so beautifully Cora didn’t even consider being afraid. She reached her hand above her to reach for it as it passed lower over their heads. Her finger ran down its cool rubbery skin that went on forever. The ends of its wings curled, gliding past in slow motion.

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  “Apollo said ‘I will always protect you’. Isn’t now a part of always too?” Cora asked in wonder. “I feel him still watching me.”

  “Your hopes will come to drown you if you do not let them go,” Oreads replied sternly. She fished within her purple hair once more to pull out small cloth pouch which glowed from inside. She opened it to pull out a handful of golden shining maggots. They squirmed and wriggled between her fingers.

  “I would not put that in my hair!” Cora said in shock.

  Oreads ignored her and released the glowing things into the water. They began to slowly sink toward the sand. The water churned before they landed though. Dark fish as large as Cora swarmed in from every side. Oreads yanked on Cora’s hand and pulled her back a few paces to the safety of the seashell house. The fish gobbled up the swimming maggots, prompting a stunning transformation. As soon as the golden worms were inside them, the fish themselves shimmered and turned to gold. Their scales were like polished mirrors, and soon the entire undersea world was lit with their swimming frenzy.

  “Wonderful!” Cora marveled.

  Something screeched at the sudden light.

  “Danger!” Oreads pointed urgently above them.

  Now that the water was lit, they could see the surrounding rocks which loomed above the seashell house. A monstrous vulture with the head of a woman perched above them. But she was so much larger she seemed a mountain to herself. Her head was thrown back, and the terrible sound was coming from her. Then snapping her neck down, the harpy launched herself through the water. The sleek black leathery wings without feathers propelled it toward them with powerful strokes.

  “Back inside the shell!” Oreads shouted. There was no other escape. They dove back inside and slammed the door shut. An instant later and the entire house was snatched and launched away. The floor swung wildly below them, worse than her ship in the storm. If Apollo was really there, he would reveal himself. He wouldn’t let her be taken.

  “It’s one of Hera’s harpies! How could she?!” Oreads wailed. “Zeus always forbid her to use those vile servants. Is he gone already?”

  Oreads seemed to root herself to the wall as coral might cling to the rocks. Cora had to hold onto the nymph for dear life as the seashell swung wildy the other way. Then back again — the Harpy must be zigzagging in its escape.

  Cora pulled herself hand over hand along the grooves in the shell wall. She made her way to the window, bracing herself each time the seashell swung back the other way. Outside the glowing fish lit up the giant manta ray which soared towards them. But the Harpy was quick to turn, and the manta ray was so slow. At each turn it was falling farther behind.

  “You have to do something! Use your magic to help the manta ray!”

  “I will not cross the harpy!” Oreads insisted. “They are evil creatures who could only be free with Hera’s blessing. The harpies would delight in any excuse to crush the seashell in their talons with us inside.”

  “Silence prisoners!” the harpy shrieked with a voice like the harsh warning of a bird.

  On cue the pressure tightened around the shell. The walls began to crack in places. Cora pressed her face to the film covering the window. She couldn’t even see the manta ray anymore. But it could be anywhere in the water. It could even be above them, waiting to ambush the harpy before it escaped. It would save her, because Apollo was protecting her still, and nothing could ever be wrong.

  They burst through surface of the water and soared into the air. And with that explosion vanished Cora’s hope. The manta ray was left far behind, and no one would save them now. Oreads was right. Holding hope too long was a painful thing.

  Exhausted and defeated, Cora collapsed into the bedding at the corner of the shell. She rocked back and forth and closed her eyes, imaging herself back on her father’s ship. Always a prisoner of circumstance beyond her control. Wasn’t it better to live an ordinary life where she was at least in charge?

  “Where do you think it’s taking us?” Cora asked at last.

  Oreads only shrugged and sighed. Her undersea appearance was fading already. Her purple hair relaxed back into twigs and leaves, her skin returning to its barky texture.

  The harpy was much swifter than her previous forms of transportation. It wasn’t long at all before they came to a rough halt. The shell rocked back and forth where it had been dropped, then settled.

  Cora flung the door open at once. She was ready for a fight. She didn’t care what was on the other side. She was going to get past it, and get away. Cora ducked and dodged out the door, ready for those talons to come raking down at her. But she was even more surprised to see an ordinary backyard with a crab apple tree out front. And a very ordinary looking suburban house, quite the right size again. But how could that be when she was so small… Cora turned back to see the seashell house was still only a sea shell, about five inches across. She picked it up and looked through the door. She couldn’t see very far inside, and didn’t see Oreads at all.

  “Cora?” a tense, anxious voice. A woman’s voice. The harpy couldn’t be making that sound, could she?

  There was no monster so foul as her mood. But Cora wasn’t prepared for this.

  “Aunt Zoe?”

  A woman in her early sixties with streaked black hair. She looked like she just woke up, even though it was now afternoon. Her hair was much like a bird nest after a hurricane, her face tired and sour. She stood in the front door of her house, fiddling with the tie of her bathrobe, staring in disbelief.

  “I didn’t expect you for a few more days.”

  “Yeah. Me neither.” Cora coughed. She became suddenly self conscious of her ripped dress, still stained with Apollo’s blood. “There was a storm,” she began, but stopped. How could she even begin to explain what had happened to her? How could she understand herself?

  “It must have been quite a storm to save you a few days. What a mess you are, are you alright?”

  Cora looked around her on the quiet residential street. There was no harpy in the sky. The sun was just the sun, and not a God. The wind was just the wind, and not the sighing of the nymphs. A car was honking in the distance. Cora looked at the seashell still in her hands. At the little windows and door in the side. It was all she had left of her magical journey.

  Aunt Zoe didn’t wait for Cora to reply. “Couldn’t you have called to let me know you were coming early? Does your father know about this? That’s very rude of you, you know. I am already doing so much looking after you. This isn’t going to be a vacation, you know. You’re really going to get a job. You’re going to work hard around the house. You’re going to turn your life around here.”

  Cora smiled. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I think I will.”