Chapter Summaries

## Chapter One: Dawn

The introduction of the story begins with Anicka walking around in an alleyway by herself, musing about the nature of rats. She is shown wearing a sea blue pendant. After encountering a homeless and orphaned girl, Kazumi, who is seen trying to escape from a group of traffickers, Anicka decides to step in and protect her, and the two of them run through the city in an attempt fo flee. After they manage to elude the pursuers, Anicka notices that Kazumi held a pile of books in her hand, musing that she must of cared a lot about them if she kept them on her person during the entire chase. After Kazumi reveals that she doesn't know how to read but is trying to learn, Anicka decides to take Kazumi into her home and raise her under her care, promising her that she will teach her how to read and to take her to school. Anicka is hopeful about the future, alluding to her isolation.

## Chapter Two: Soliloquy

Anicka relives a reoccuring and dramatic dream of hers, of which consists of her standing in front of a shipwreck on a stormy beach. She wakes up, clutching a sea blue pendant in her hands. in class, where she struggles to communicate with others and is generally regarded as an outcast. She then proceeds to work for a short time at the school cafeteria, while attempting to do homework at the same time. After meeting up with Kazumi at the library after work, they proceed to engage in a daily sequence of their lives, which includes going to the town market, collecting flowers on the plain, trapping fireflies for lanterns, and going home to cook. Kazumi frequently recited tidbits of information from her books, mentioning many of the technological advances of the era before them, including the fact that the previous humans used to have giant birds that could travel for thousands of miles in the air, carrying hundreds of people at a time. Despite the generally rosy appearance of their lives, Anicka during this time relives a number of cryptic flashbacks, all relating to her dream of the shipwreck on the beach.

## Chapter Three: The Sea People

After returning home, Anicka then reveals two tickets to the Literary Winter Festival in the Treasure Port of Havana, which was something that Kazumi had wanted to attend for years, and something Anicka had worked for half a year to obtain. However, suddenly, the two of them hear a strange sound outside of the door, and a man breaks into their home with a massive broadsword. who notably seemed to have "cracked sea green skin, wore rusted and decrepit armor, and whose hair seemed almost more like seaweed. Interpreting this as an attack by the sea people, Anicka goes to pick up a nearby hatchet, but is suddenly frozen with fear as she goes to attack the strange man. Flashbacks of the stormy beach play, and it is revealed that Anicka's flashbacks are related to her father's death. which she interprets as her fault, since she was the one who insisted on seeing the Western Seas, which resulted in the two of them encountering a storm which caused her father's death. Not only that, but when given the opportunity to potentially save her father so as long as she "took action" by breaking a pile of wood with an axe that had trapped her father's leg, she found herself too stricken with fear to do anything. After a long moment of emotional anguish, Anicka manages to overcome her fear and swing her hatchet, mirroring her past with her father. However despite her best attempt the axe broke on the skin of the man, and the man was able to abduct Kazumi and take her west. Emotionally distraught, Anicka collapses and sobs for some time, thinking of her traumatic past consisting of her father's death, mother's abandonment, and general isolation leading up to this point. It is also revealed at this time that her sea blue pendant belonged to her father. Slowly, after thinking about the happy memories she had with Kazumi, who she had come to regard as her little sister, she makes the solemn determination to bring her home "no matter what."

## Chapter Four: The Golden Coast

A few months later, Anicka is shown motionless in front of her father's graves, and a smaller memorial dedicated to her sister consisting of her possessions. After setting a beautiful blue flower on these memorials, Anicka stands up, seeming determined, carrying a large number of travel supplies on her. Anicka is then shown to embark on a long journey to "The Golden Coast," which is what used to be known as California, passing through the harsh deserts of Southern Amurcia, and then through the rugged hills and overgrown forests of the western coast. After reaching the coast, Anicka encounters a ruined city, and finds a sign post indicating that she was in what was once "Santa Barbara." Shortly afterward she sets up camp and begins to build a boat, remembering what her father taught her. Eventually with her boat finished, Anicka reminiscences for some time, clutching her sea blue pendant. At this point she pushes her boat into the Pacific, and embarks on her journey.

## Chapter Five: Panacea

A brief montage is shown of Anicka's journeys in the sea, of which was uneventful but consisted of her replaying many fond memories of her and her family when she was young, with both her mother and father, and of more recent memories with Kazumi. Under a starry canopy, she rested on her boat for many days until she finally reached what was once believed to be the Galapagos Islands, called Galapagania by Caribbea scholars but Panacea by the Sea Peoples. As she drew near the Islands, she was startled to already see many boats in her vicinity, and was initially fearful given her impressions that Sea People were violent and alike to barbarians. However after a friendly encounter where a local fisherman offered her a fish, she cautiously made her way to the port of Panacea, where hundreds of ships and people can already be seen. She was amazed by the sheer size of the city, also believing that the Sea People only lived in small settlements that were alike to villages, but when she docked she was soon approached by a dockmaster demanding payment. Anicka sheepishly held out local currency from Caribbea, which was rejected, and just as she felt like she had to make a mad dash into the city, a woman in her early twenties shows up and offers to pay the fee for her. The woman introduces herself as Maria Song.