[Freezair]

There were a lot of colors associated with the ocean. "The wine-dark sea." "The sea of green." "The briny blue." Marina was fond of all of these colors: The brilliant purple of tropical fish, the wavering green-gold of kelp forests, and the endless blue waves you could see from the top of the ocean.

And then they had all vanished.

The Merhams of Es-wish Es-wish were a carefree, fun-loving sort, and the loss of colors had hit them pretty hard. Without beautiful coral and seashell jewelry, what was even the point of living? They were moping around their houses now, moaning about how terrible their lives were without color.

As their princess, Marina felt she had a duty to go seeking color for her people... even if her bodyguard disapproved.

[Freezair]

She'd filled a pack with sea grapes, given old Oscar the slip last night, and made her way from the coral-secluded city of the Merhams out into the open ocean.

She'd heard rumors from fishermen and divers from the surface that not all colors had gone away. In certain places in the world, the last remnants of color lurked. A splash of red here. A bit of green there. One in each place in Evelon, they said. Marina had poked around after that, and found a few bits of jewelry that still had a pink sheen to them. But her people couldn't live on pink alone--and so she traveled, seeking more.

[Freezair]

Marina swam along near the stones and spires that rose up out of the sea floor, reading to dart for cover if something came along looking for a tasty, Merham-flavored snack. She didn't see any sharks or other large predators, but she did notice something interesting.

The water was becoming... blue.

Her heart rose almost immediately. Proper blue, all around her! This was not just a splash of color--this was all around her! Had she discovered a place the color hadn't left at all? Was the contested space between continents a haven for the spectrum?

[Freezair]

She dashed around excitedly, looking for evidence of other colors. These waters had fewer tropical fish, but surely there'd be something interesting to see!

But she quickly noticed that not all was as she'd hoped. The rocks always looked gray, but the algae growing on them was clearly gray as well. So were the sea plants and few scattered corals lurking around.

This place was no different than the rest of Evelon. It only had one color. But the color it did have seemed to be... blue.

[Freezair]

And it wasn't the usual blue of the sea, either. The longer Marina gazed at it, the more "off" the blue looked. It was too bright. Too false.

It was even a little bit uncanny. Everything under the sea looked slightly blue, but with it being the only color around, the rest of the world looked washed out. It didn't feel all that different from the world being black and white, when you got right down to it.

Marina gave an involuntary shudder.

[Freezair]

But still, color was color. Wouldn't it make everyone in her kingdom smile if she could bring some of this home with her!

There was just one problem. Most of the color she saw around here was in the water. But she also lived in the water! How on earth was she supposed to carry water with her?

With a sigh, she supposed she would have to resign herself to looking for seashells, or corals, or maybe a pretty little fish with a bit of blue in its scales.

[Freezair]

As she made her way to the ocean floor to hunt for shells or stones, she spotted something that gave her an idea:

A shipwreck!

An old galleon lay on its side in the sand at the bottom of the channel she swam above. Maybe there were containers of some sort inside! If she could find an old bottle or something similar, she could fill that up with the blue water here, stuff some seaweed into the top if its cork was missing, and carry that home!

[Freezair]

She swam down as fast as her fins could carry her, darting inside a crack in the hull.

The inside of the ship was dark, but Merhams were good at seeing in the murk of deep water. She could make out the forms of the things that remained inside: an old desk covered in barnacles, broken, rusty hulks of old barrels, an algae-eaten globe. She spotted a storm lantern that looked promising at first, but the metal holding it together dissolved in a cloud of rust as soon as she touched it. No, she needed a proper bottle to carry water in.

[Freezair]

Marina decided to rummage more beneath the wreckage. She was adept at gently moving stones and other solid objects without damaging the wildlife growing on top--sunken ships often became havens for other animals, after all. Gently, she relocated a clump of algae to see what was beneath--

--and saw something glinting.

She worked as quickly as she dared. Only a little light came in through the cracks, but she could see that whatever was here was glittery.

Could it be--pirate treasure?

[Freezair]

Merhams were simple creatures. Anything sparkly delighted them. And here there was a pile of sparklies! True, they were duller without color, but the light still glinted beautifully off them.

Except... what was that?

One piece of jewelry in the pile caught her eye. She reached in and pulled it out: It was a bracelet, deeply tarnished by time, but containing many beautiful, round stones arranged in a rosette. Dark lines cut through their... color?

She darted outside with her prize, straight up to the surface to hold it in the light.

It was true! She'd found a gorgeous piece of turquoise jewelry in the shipwreck. Its beautiful cyan colors were right and proper and not at all eerie. This was better than just bringing home water any day!

And there were a lot of faces back home it would bring a smile to.

[Color Harvested]