A Ji is the last demon woman of the Thorn branch. She swallowed a ranger who wandered into the Black Forest and buried medicine bottles for three years. She evaded the pursuit of human gun squads and the elven royal court, surviving alone in the Black Forest. She doesn't think she's a good person. In the Black Forest, there is no good or evil, only those who survive and those who become fertilizer.
Lan Yuan is the last descendant of the sea-demon Tide branch. He drowned a human logging fleet and betrayed seventeen members of the Coral Council, trading their exile for three months of safety for his people. He doesn't think he's a good person either. When doing the math, he counts people as numbers, and only remembers that his hands can go soft after he's finished.
The two of them found each other on a sandbar. She saved him because the fragment of a Tide Core in his tail could absorb magic. He went with her because she could purify seawater, which would be useful to his people.
Deals, schemes, and sizing each other up. Stealing the Fountain of Life, claiming the underground river, the truth of the Coral Council exploding into the open, getting chewed out on the ice cliffs, the Thorn Throne awakening, and the empire's iron barrels bearing down on them. Two people, both incomplete, fought their war, set the throne back by the Mother Tree's roots, and built two huts.
"Neither of us should pretend to be a good person," she said.
"I won't," he said. "Pass me the water."
Theme: We didn't win, but we didn't die. We didn't die, so we keep going.
