The ocean’s embrace loosened as Naelia ascended toward the surface, her tail shimmering beneath the fading light. The weight of the day’s counsel, the endless demands of her throne, and the silent pressure of the ancient magic within her pressed heavily on her mind. She sought a rare reprieve, a brief escape from the ceaseless currents of responsibility that bound her beneath the waves.

The world above was foreign, yet intoxicating—a quiet refuge carved from waves and sky. Tonight, the horizon burned with the soft fire of a setting sun, casting long shadows over a deserted stretch of sand that had become something far more precious: a point of return, a secret space where her world touched another. Naelia stepped onto the sand with practiced grace, each movement infused with anticipation. She had come not merely for silence, but for the mortal girl whose presence had begun to reshape the Queen's understanding of desire and connection.

Naelia’s heart fluttered like the restless tides as dusk settled over the horizon. The ocean stretched endlessly before her, its surface shimmering with the last rays of a dying sun. Tonight, like many before, she had chosen this secluded stretch of beach as their secret meeting place — a fragile world where the sea’s queen could shed her crown, if only for a moment. She stood at the water’s edge, the soft sand cool beneath her bare feet, eyes fixed on the path where she would appear. Each second stretched taut with anticipation, every whisper of the breeze a promise that soon she would be near. The mortal had become more than just a fleeting distraction; she was a spark in Naelia’s eternal existence, a rare warmth that thawed centuries of solitude.