The coastline is an ugly thing, jagged enough to repel the sea but low enough so waves only ever wrought from large storms can crawl out of the sea and claw at the Rock. There is no way to tell when one might hit, so the peasants come up with superstitions and stories to comfort their children with, blowing out their candles and hushing their little ones to sweeter dreams at night.

Take a shell to your ear, only from the sea, my dearest child, They'll say. Listen to the sounds of waves. Only when the waves are close will you hear them roar and crack. And they won't tell their children this, but only when the waves have taken you will the shell remain silent.

That was the shameful thing about the ocean: you couldn't hear the mourning, nor the cries of the sinking or the screams of the terrified. There was only you and the sea, silent enough to deafen, deep enough to swallow alive, cruel enough to pull and tug at you before killing.

Her own shells were blue. Most assumed he liked red and gold because he wore it all the time, but he truthfully liked neither. Red was bloody, and gold: bloodier, depending on the situation, and he'd no love for sharp colors. Blue was soft, and though the shells rattled as Lucion and Maryen drew on, it was a comfort, a sibilance of mumbles and whispers, their own little prayer - however nonreligious he was.

The closer he pulled her, the louder they grew, shells rattling like bones, as if ready to pull him under the waves - a watery grave far better than the sloppily dug mockery of a burial he'd get at Queen's Landing.

Then she felt her breath on his ear, hitting him just right so all went silent. "Yes." she hissed, and he knew he'd tumbled into the sea, lost forever, far away from land, unable to hold his breath long enough. The ship from before was shattered to too many pieces to be fixed, and there was nothing to steer, only her, and even that he didn't have full control of. He much preferred it that way.

"Maryen," he whispered, then pulled her onto his lap, letting the sea consume him, the waves crash against him, the salt choke him.