#zuzana light

[chuckg2]

Zuzana Light

[fyeahfitwomen]

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[arc-hus]

House & Studio in Redhill, Australia - Zuzana&Nicholas

[goculi]

[illgiveyouahint]

2025 in Review: Books Edition

I wanted to somehow summarize my year with books and I didn't wanted to do it through asks so i chose to write it down like this. Feel free to reply to this if you want to have a conversation about books :)

Best Book: Válka s mloky/War with the Newts by Karel Čapek

So Karel Čapek is considered one of the best Czech authors and this book truly made me understand why. It blew me away. The way he satirically captured Czech human nature and humanity as a whole in all its shortcomings. How he managed to perfectly capture colonialism & exploitation, cultural appropriation, racism and religious fundamentalism. He saw the capitalists and communist for what they are. He captured it and perfectly described it all. In 1937. And in the almost 90 years since we've done exactly what he said he would again and again. Amazing book. Truly.

Most touching book: Zuzana Čaputová: Neztratit se sama sobě by Erik Tabery/Zuzana Čaputová

Okay this is again gonna be very regional I guess but if you are Czech or Slovak you know who Zuzana Čaputová is. She was a beacon of hope in the last 5 years. She was the Slovak president and she, in my opinion, was everything you'd want in a president. She has such kindness, such empathy and understanding. This conversational book I think shows you who she is and why she was probably the best thing that ever happened to Slovakia. I cried so many times at various moments in the book. Just because you saw how much she loved her country and the people and how much she respected the position. If you could read just one passage then read the passage after the tragic shooting at the LGBTQ+ bar in Teplareň.

Book that made me go crazy: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

Yeah yeah yeah. But listen the tragedy of it all just makes me bit insane okay? It's not even just about LWJ and WWX though of course it's about WWX and LWJ. But the relationship between WWX and JC? They are brothers and yet the twisted fate forced JC to hate WWX. Just every character has a tragic story of its own. It gets to me, okay? It just gets to me. Even if I personally could do without the last 50 pages of porn.

Most pointless book I've read: Not Working by Lisa Owens

I've had a stack of books I've acquired over the years from various people and that I planned to get around to some day. Well I decided this year to read through that stack which i did. This book was the worst among them. It was just...about nothing. A girl left her job because she thought she should have some big purpose job but didn't know what. Spent her time looking for what she could do while her partner was looking after her. She was also drinking a lot (which wasn't at any point really talked about). In the end she still didn't know what she wanted to do but became more okay with not knowing. Seriously what kind of a plot is that. So yeah that one was really disappointing.

Other books worth mentioning:

I have loved the Iron Widow.

I've been reading through Jane Austen novel so I've read both Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey and I love Austen's writing. She has such a lightness with which she writes and such wit.

I've reread all the Moomin books and seriously I would die for each and every one of them.

Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is certainly worth it. Especially if you know only the basics of the Apartheid state.

For the czech speaking among you I recommend Rozložíš Paměť by Marek Torčík. Especially if you get the audiobook. We still have so very few queer literature so we should celebrate and support it.

Also Howl's Moving Castle? Very different vibes from the movie but such fun!

And well I also read the She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat comic books which if you loved the show or if you just love lesbians cooking with a sprinkle of feminism then I highly recommend giving it a try.

I started my year with a goal of 10 000 pages and 30 books since that was about what I've read last year. I've managed to reach my book goal but not my pages goal (I'm about 1000 pages short) because I was reading quite a few shorter books/comics. But more importantly I set a goal of reading through the stack of books that I've acquired through various means but never really read which I actually managed to do so now next year I have a complete clean slate as to what I want to read.

[susanetalks]

HEY THERE It’s been a while since I've said hello and I'm aware there are lots of lovely new businesses and new faces popping up. Thanks so much for that, it means a lot. I'm Zuzana. Probably the silliest, hippiest, tree hugging, animal loving photographer you will ever find. Here are a few things about me: ✨I’m Czech living in Manchester with my husband & daughter. ✨I’m a total goofball. I'II always be the one that falls over or says something embarrassing. ✨Natural living is super important to me. I practice yoga and love supporting my body with natural alternatives. ✨I am happiest with food & lovely people around. ✨ Meeting people is a huge part of my job and I love it. I meet the most interesting people. So, if I know you, or don't, if you have photography needs, or not, just drop me and message come and say hello You will most definitely put a smile on my face☺️ ✨ I'm totally fascinated by every element of nature, I adore flowers, plants, beautiful light, all shades of green & fresh air. ✨ I still can’t decide if I love tea or coffee more ✨love to work with likeminded people who love nature, relaxed photography and crave energy and connection within their images Come and say Hey. I'd love to connect with you🙋🏼‍♀️🧡 . . . #manchesterphotographer #zuzcincibusphotography #zuzcincibus #hi #hello #thisisme #manchesterbusiness #manchesterfamilyphotographer #peakdistrictphotographer #prestwichvillage #prestwichpeople #prestwichphotographer (at Manchester, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cl6ukb9rpF_/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[upthespiralstaircase]

collecting light by Zuzana Hábeková Via Flickr: habologique.blogspot.sk/2015/01/collecting-light.html

[kybervystava]

MALUM (2024) performance

Performují: Viktória Citráková, Jan Rajmont, Zuzana Kantorová Koncertní pásmo: USNU? Filmové pásmo: Lukáš Prokop Kostýmová spolupráce: Jan Bražina Výtvarné zpracování: Mikuláš Zimula Light design: Marek Bozděch Plakát: Markéta Skalková Fotografie na plakátu: Lena Luga

Koncept performativní události, který v sobě mísí aspekty výtvarného umění a divadla. Vybraní*é umělci a umělkyně jsou přizváni*é aby reagovali na téma osobního zla.

Supported by International Visegrad Fund & Venuše ve Švehlovce.

[read me]

[chuckg2]

Zuzana Light

[karolsai]

Agnes Obel - Riverside

Lost Frequencies - Are You With Me

Route 94 - My Love ft. Jess Glynne

Sun.Set.Ships - Sinking Islands

Sivuca - Ain't No Sunshine

Chicane - Offshore

2CELLOS - Street Spirit (Radiohead)

PJ Harvey - The River

Bonobo - Kong

Leszek Możdżer - Africa

Carlos Santana - Samba Pa Ti

Lotte Kestner - Halo

Devlin - Watchtower (Instrumental)

RockSexton - I'll Be With You Again

The Verve - Sonnet

Serge Gainsbourg - Initials BB

ElevenHill - Room Of Ghosts

Richard Müller - Nespoznaný

Puddle Of Mudd - Blurry

Plan B - Love Goes Down

Duke Dumont - Ocean Drive

The Weeknd - Starboy ft. Daft Punk

Shura - White Light

Biffy Clyro - Re-arrange

R. City - Locked Away ft. Adam Levine

Richard Müller - Julia Roberts

Faithless - Drifting Away

Chicane - Saltwater

Eric Clapton - Change The World

Morgan James - Human

Mukatado & Janka Kozáková - Husičky

Keosz - Low Down

Whithe - Wolves Are Gone

Casi Cada Minuto - Lies & Goodbyes

Toni Braxton - Long As I Live

Seal - Crazy

Beck - Colors

Lisa Stansfield - Billionaire

Robin Schulz - Sun Goes Down ft. Jasmine Thompson

Camila Cabello - Havana

Tom Walker - Leave a Light On

Travis - 3 Miles High

Mark Ronson - Nothing Breaks Like a Heart

Worakls - Coeur de la Nuit

Dinelo - This Could Be True ft. PRYVT RYN

Dennis Lloyd - Nevermind

Calvin Harris - I'm Not Alone (CamelPhat Remix)

Matt Simons - Catch & Release (Deepend Remix)

Mike Perry ft. SHY Martin - The Ocean

Kygo ft. Kodaline - Raging

call me Steve - HANDS UP

Coldplay - Talk

The Chainsmokers - Hope ft. Winona Oak

Billie Eilish - everything i wanted

Elbow - One Day Like This

Imagine Dragons - Nothing Left To Say

Arsy-Versy - PRESTAVUJEM SI KRAJINU

AJR - BANG!

Hooverphonic - Romantic

Ladytron - Destroy Everything You Touch

Bleeker - Give a Little Bit More (Disaster)

Refew - ZPRÁVY

Lamb - Gabriel

The XX - Intro (long version)

Martin Matys - David (Prod. Kenny Rough)

Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello - Señorita

Madcon - Glow

Melanie Fiona - Monday Morning

Coldplay - Orphans

Naughty Boy ft. Beyoncé, Arrow Benjamin - Runnin' (Lose It All)

TERI ČIKOŠ - DIEVČA

Jon Secada - Just Another Day

Tichá dohoda - Kde spí andělé

Passenger - Caravan (Kygo Remix)

Papyllon - WHAT ABOUT TONIGHT

Sophie B. Hawkins - Damn! I Wish I Was Your Lover

Komajota - Iba

Aura - I Will Love You Monday

alt-J - Left Hand Free

CHVRCHES - Forever

Pet Shop Boys - Paninaro 95

The Lumineers - The Ballad Of Cleopatra

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - I Need Never Get Old

Weezer - Africa (starring Weird Al Yankovic)

MS MR - Painted

Porter Robinson - Look at the Sky

Atlas Genius - Molecules

Suede - Stay Together

The Head and the Heart - All We Ever Knew

Dayglow - Can I Call You Tonight?

MUSE - Something Human

Adam Lambert - ROSES ft. Nile Rodgers

Arcade Fire - Everything Now

Seekers - I'll Never Find Another You

lovelytheband - broken

Daft Punk - Instant Crush ft. Julian Casablancas

DEAN LEWIS - Be Alright

Kristína Tran - Čo to dá

LINA MAYER - Stratená

LENNY - Hell.o (Fancy Cars Remix)

Anna K. - Co mi za to dáš

Anna K. - Volá tě noc (Live)

Aneta Langerová - Bílý Den

Smith & Myers - REBEL YELL

Malik Harris - Rockstars

Sia - Unstoppable

Sanchez Amsterdam - Motýle

Kristína - Navždy

Katie Melua - If You Were A Sailboat

Sam Ryder - Space Man

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness - Cecilia And The Satellite

HAEVN - We Are (Symphonic Tales)

Komajota - 7 noci

Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill (Western Film Score Version)

Röyksopp - Oh, Lover ft. Susanne Sundfør

Zuzana Mikulcová - Blind Tomorrow

Klaxons - Echoes

Bloc Party - This Modern Love

Interpol - Stella Was A Diver

it was the eLs - Hollow Coves Playlist

Depeche Mode - Ghosts Again

LUKA SULIC - LIVE at No Borders Music Festival

Duncan Laurence - Arcade

Doja Cat - Paint The Town Red

Requin Chagrin - Sémaphore

Marika Gombitová - Čo s láskou

Christine and the Queens - Full of Life

Sia - Elastic Heart ft. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler

Martin Matys x Kenny Rough - Home Alone

REYKO - Spinning Over You

Interpol - Say Hello to the Angels

The Killers - All These Things That I've Done

[desn512-2023ch]

Typeface research

What am I looking for? I am looking for a typeface to display in a 16 - 24 page typeface booklet. I will be showing the typeface off using typographic designs and showing where and why to use this typeface in different scenarios.

Typeface option 1: Karmina Sans

Karmina Sans is a typeface created and designed by Veronika Burian and José Scaglione, who together established the Typetogether typography foundry in 2006. This friendly Sans Serif typeface featured 12 weights, ranging from light all the way down to heavy italic. Because of the friendly nature of the typeface you can expect to see it appear in magazines, websites, newspapers and much more. Something I found interesting right away was the difference between the regular and italic fonts. The italic fonts feel very swift with pleasant curves and good looking strokes.. (typeface example below)

Typeface option 2: Puffin Display

Puffin Display is a Sans Serif typeface designed by Pieter van Rosmalen with his foundry Blue Monday. The typeface features 14 weights including italics, a second series called Puffin Arcade and has an extended family consisting of Puffin, Puffin Display and Puffin Display soft. Puffin Display runs with specifically curved letterforms and boasts a taller X height with slightly slimmer spacing between letters. Puffin Display is the sort of typeface that puts the cherry on top of posters, video games and user interface designs. I quite like the look of the regular fonts because they aren't boring, they're rather unique with how they show their apertures in the "g" and the strokes of the "V" (typeface example below)

Typeface option 3: Gimlet Display

Gimlet Display is a Serif typeface created by David Jonathan Ross with inspiration from the typeface "Schadow" which was designed by Georg Trump back in 1938. Gimlet Display plays with the funk of the hairline serif and holds its head high with a whopping 40 weights to choose from. You'll find type like Gimlet Display on the front cover of cooking books, guides and dinner invitations. I like the way Gimlet Display shows its distinction from other Serif fonts while maintaining full functionality of use. (typeface example below)

Typeface option 4: Matrix II

Matrix II is a step up from its former self. The complete rework of Matrix II was designed again by the original designer Zuzana Licko in 2007. The nice new Matrix II features wedge serifs on its regular weights and razer sharp wedges on its Italics. Coming in with 23 weights to choose from, Matrix II has a tool for every job. I was immediately interested with the way the italic weights sit. Lots of the consonant letters on the italic weights are bejeweled with interesting terminals that add a slick look to the italic weights. Matrix II is easy on the eyes so it can be seen in books as bulk text, Titles for books and also magazines. (typeface example below)

[laestoica]

Ph: Zuzana Hábeková

[eyes-of-sunflower-soul]

Sometimes I wonder when you sleep Are you ever dreaming of me? Sometimes when I look into your eyes I pretend you're mine, all the damn time 'Cause I like you. • • • • #lainitaylor #nightofcakeandpuppets #zuzana #karou #lights #cabeswater #theravenboys #bluesargent #candles

[goculi]

[books-of-the-great-leviathan]

Chapter 2- Zuzana

***

"Answer me this, Dima," Zuzana said, snapping shut her spyglass. "How do you make a ship disappear?"

She looked over her shoulder at Dima, her first mate- a fresh-faced young man, brown hair salt-rumpled and eyes yet unpossessed of the squint lines hers had, the ones he'd inevitably bear after serving some three decades at sea.

The bitter wind had chapped his cheekbones red. He grinned. "Sounds like a good riddle, Captain. How do you make a ship disappear? Well, madam, first you find yourself the world's biggest corkscrew-"

"Someday someone'll get sick of you turning everything you hear into a joke and parroting it out like some courtly lady's trained bird."

"-And then if you know where to stick it-"

"You heard that one in a brothel, didn't you? I'll have you know my ship's no place for such iniquity."

Dima feigned a hurt expression. "Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood, keep your mind off doom and gloom and foul portents. Give me a little credit."

"I give you a little credit, next thing I know my ship's taking on water and I'm drowning in fish guts." Zuzana began along the gunwale, staring out to sea, her eyes set narrow. The wind off the waves stirred her gray-streaked dark hair and ruffled the thick bear fur mantle arrayed around her neck, dusting it, like everything else, in a fine, glimmering layer of ice crystals.

The whole of her ship, the Vansi, looked like a ghost vessel from some cradle song her mother might have sung to her as a child, its rigging and gunwales remade in glittering ice, the long teeth of icicles hanging from the high crow's nest. The blue and white Vodyani flag hung sluggish from its moorings, weighted down by frost. Even the sky seemed frozen, summer stars turned hard and cold in their settings. Up this far north, east of Vodyenai and deep in the treacherous dark waters of the Ork Roads, summer only meant less cold, not freedom from it.

Tonight, though, something was different.

Something was wrong.

Zuzana was Captain Zuzana Dobrevna of the Vodyani naval ship Vansi. They were a week out from Vodyenai's frozen shores and smoky harbors, the air ever black with the fumes of ore smoke. Vodyenai was one of Buyan's colony islands, prized for its deep mines and forests of petrified wood, trees standing like pale soldiers through the twilit gloom.

It was also the last significant landmass before the Inner Sea became the Outer, and thus a valuable port city for Buyan's naval exploits. The Vansi's mission was simple: a herring trawler hadn't come back to port with its payload, and it was her job to find it, and if the crew was still alive and squandering their haul on wine, women, and merriment, enact justice for the good of the Buyani crown.

It was filthy work most days, hunting desperate men made cowards by poverty, feeble revolutionaries thinking they could stick it in the collective Buyani eye, all of them captured or put down by Zuzana and her crew, and the many other ships like her. Still, she always told herself, on her second or fifth cup of korok, it was a better living than most.

The swells beyond the reach of the running lights were huge as hills, touched with deep, frigid green where the lanternlight struck them. Otherwise the water was dark as pig iron. The Vansi pitched from side to side on the swells, but Zuzana's stride was steady as she walked her ship's length, scanning the waves.

This was the last known location of the herring trawlers they'd been tracking the past few days; Zuzana had sighted them on the horizon, their smoke, the ork-oil streaks they left behind on the waves, and tasted the bitter tang of surety on her tongue. They should be here. They should be right here.

But they weren't.

"Maybe they saw us, too," Dima supplied behind her. "Scuttled their ship and made off with all the fish they could carry."

"A couple lifeboats' worth of herring isn't worth the trouble of scuttling a trawler," Zuzana muttered. She took up her spyglass again and snapped it open, then shook her head. "I don't like it, Dima."

"What?"

"The wind. When you've tasted as much of it as I have, you get to know it. Its moods. Its intricacies. This is a strange one, and no mistake."

"Maybe Sagarozk took the ship," Dima said, an uncharacteristic note of unease in his voice. He reached under his mantle and shirt collar to unhook a long, knotted strand of red twine from round his neck. On its end hung a charm carved from orktooth, clustered amidst chunks of raw pyrite and the needle fangs of some deep-sea fish. It was in the form of a curled beast, teeth bared, flanks crudely striped. "Maybe he opened his mouth and gulped it straight down."

"Your tiger god didn't eat the trawler," Zuzana said flatly.

He shrugged. "You don't know that."

Zuzana didn't hold much stock with gods- she'd heard enough men pray to them without response to form her own opinions on the matter. Dima had a point, though. If a god was about, it wouldn't be the sort to pass out mercy like party favors. It would be a thing like the waves, like the snow, like the stars overhead, cold and hungry and no friend to humanity.

"Captain Dobrevna!"

The call came from on high, up in the crow's nest. Zuzana looked up to where a red storm lantern swung from the upper rigging, the night watchman's shape cut out against the stars. "Past the swell! It's coming!"

"The trawler?" Zuzana called back, turning her attention back to the waves with an unsettling sting of relief. It came too soon. It wasn't the trawler.

The night was a dark one, moons hidden behind the low-hanging clouds, but the starlight provided plenty illumination now. The waves fell, and across the swells, across the whole of the dark sea, spread a river of glistening shapes. Small ones, mostly, bobbing on the water, but larger ones, too, platefish and sailfish, ooshka and rays and the tentacles of squid and cuttlefish tangled like seaweed, the silver streaks of entire herring runs floating belly-up to the stars. It spread endless, countless, on and on and on, a pathway to the horizon. An entire ocean of dead fish.

The smell hit her on the next slap of ice wind. Her eyes watered, throat pulling tight. She pressed her sleeve to her numb face, squinting against the carnal reek.

"What in all Hells is this?" she muttered.

Dima's face was pale. "I...I don't know, Captain..."

"Well? Get me some light."

He turned to shout the order. The running lights brightened, beaming out across the mass, even as the Vansi's bow struck its edge. Shapes thudded and split against the hull as the ship cleaved into the mass. Soon the spray churned oily and red, thick with gore, like the aftermath of an ork-butchery.

"Stop the ship," Zuzana called. "Heave to!"

Her crew obeyed. The sails groaned, filling with wind, and the Vansi swung round, carnage knocking at its hull as it slowed to a standstill on the waves.

Shouts rippled across the deck, but Zuzana was silent. She paced to the bow and looked again through her spyglass, all the way to the horizon, from where the current would have swept this river of dead things. The clouds seemed thicker there, denser and darker.

Pale radiance illuminated them from the inside: a single spear of lightning.

"Captain," Dima said.

Zuzana looked round again in time to see two of her crew hauling a net over the gunwale. Wet shapes slithered across the deck: dead fish. Zuzana crossed to them and knelt over the glistening heap. She drew her knife from her boot and stabbed one of the fish through the gills, then lifted it into the lamplight.

Veins glittered across its scales, prismatic as oil on water, one dead eye turned into a sphere of crystal big as her thumbnail. It was swollen, tumorous, splitting into the surrounding flesh.

A chill coursed through Zuzana's nerves.

The rest were the same, infected with crystal. "Looks like whaleglass," whispered another crewman, an old Buyani with miner's tattoos and fading red hair. He took off his fur cap and twisted it between his hands. "The crystallized blood of the Great Leviathan itself-"

"It's not whaleglass." Zuzana flicked the fish off her knife. "I don't know what this is. Some sickness in the water. We're well close enough to the Great Blue for all manner of horrors to creep in on the currents."

"We shouldn't be here," Dima said. He turned his tiger charm in his fingers, over and over, worrying at it like prayer beads. "Whatever happened to the trawler-"

"Are you suggesting we go back empty-handed? Scared off by a run of diseased fish?" Zuzana straightened, staring him down. "I'd rather have my feet up by a fire with a jar of sugared cherries, too, but that's no bloody excuse."

She knew what her first mate meant, though, and couldn't help but agree with him. First the trawler's disappearance, traceless, sudden, and now this: this desert of carnage, this dying on such a scale, like the sea had poisoned itself. A chill traced her spine as wind swept the deck, tugging the frozen flag high overhead.

Far out, where she'd seen the lightning before:

Clouds, massing. Black and churning.

Lightning came again, and struck the sea, splintering shards of silver across the river of dead fish. Zuzana strode to the bow, her crew at her back, and stared out toward the storm. Her heart pounded in her throat.

"You think it's coming our way, Captain?" Dima asked.

As if in answer, wind came: a blast of it, and with it, scents. Lightning sear, the heat of the vaporized ocean, salt and metal and the raw, hot tang of blood. A high, shrieking, winnowing wind, slicing past Zuzana's face like blades.

"That's no storm," said the old Buyani. "That's old magic. That's whale-stuff, that is. That's the Great Leviathan itself, the bringer of life and death, the destroyer, come to end us all!"

He lapsed into his mother tongue, a babbling stream of prayers. Zuzana rounded on him. Her heart pulsed behind her breastbone, but she fought to keep her face a hard mask.

"What are you?" she demanded. "A child? Stop your mewling before I send you to wait out the storm in the bilge."

He didn't obey, his prayers uninterrupted. Zuzana grit her teeth and gave the old man a hard crack across the jaw; he dropped with a yelp, but mercifully shut up.

Zuzana strode forward, fist stinging, facing down her crew. "This is no time for panic," she called. She looked from face to face. "For any of you, hear me? Get to your posts. Ready the sails for haste. We can outrun a paltry storm-"

The sea groaned, heaving upward toward stars burning like fires in the black. Zuzana grabbed onto the railing as the Vansi was lifted, tilting, bow flung upward on a single, massive swell. The water glassed. Waves dashed bloody froth across the deck; a curtain of sleet struck, a drenching torrent that soaked Zuzana to the bone in an instant. Shouts rang across the ship: crewmen rushing to lines, orders flying like gulls.

Zuzana was frozen. Every nerve screamed at her to run, but she didn't move. All she could do was stare.

The storm was coming toward them. Not slowly, blown on its course, but fast, too fast, and before its swirling, lightning-cracked winds, the sea rose, too. Swells. Waves. Whitecaps, spume, the entire ocean cleaved apart by-

By-

"Is that an island?" Dima cried through the sleet. It looked like one, like the crest of a mountain range arching from the deep, as if pulled from the seabed by some god in one of Dima's cradle songs. Zuzana stared, and the realization snapped in, and the panic roared over her, sudden as a breaking wave.

It was no island. It was a back: the long, curving ridge of a spine arrayed with spikes, huge as a ship, huge as a landmass, parting the waves, coming for them.

The lightning crackled from spike to spike, vast juts of dark bone. Beneath the water, illuminated from within by an unearthly blue radiance, was a form. A creature. It swam, pushing itself along with great, clawed forelimbs, its body long and serpentine. Its head lifted through the storm. Zuzana couldn't focus on its shape. It seemed to shift moment by moment, as if it was constantly in some weird state of warp. All she could see was darkness and lightning, flashes of talons and jagged bone and glistening, scarred black hide.

Muscles rippled beneath vast, gaping blowholes, and jaws parted, opening, impossible, impossible, it could swallow them whole, it could pluck the moons from the sky and crush them in those rows upon rows of teeth.

It roared. The howl of the storm, the shriek of the ocean turned to steam, the boom of thunder, huge as the world. White fractured Zuzana's vision. She felt blood burst from her nose, raw and rich on her tongue.

"Go!" she cried, rushing for the ship's wheel and seizing it in both hands. The currents were strong, but she set all her strength to it and felt it move. "Get us the hell away from that thing!"

The Vansi lunged, sails straining, great arcs of white against the sky. The stars were too bright, too close; they seemed to fall and touch the stormy ocean, filling it with blue light. Sleet pounded the deck, warm as summer rain. The displaced sea swelled again, waves rising taller than the Vansi, so it seemed to crest and swoop along valleys of phosphorescent blue glass.

Lightning split the sky, and Zuzana again glimpsed the monster, filling the sea, filling the sky, coils and claws and ancient wounds.

Surrounding them.

"No," she breathed, terror and wonder, her vision splintering with tears.

This couldn't be the Great Leviathan.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

Nothing was supposed to be this way.

The monster unfurled, heaving its body from the ocean. Seawater sluiced from it in sheets, raining across the deck. Almost lazily, it batted out with one foreclaw, a solid wall of flesh and starlit water. Impact jarred the entire ship, like a bolt cannon had gone off belowdecks. Zuzana heard sail tear, heard wood split; waves hammered them, glimmering blue, turning the tarred wood and sailcloth to starlight. The rigging began to sway and collapse, bearing down on the deck. Sodden ropes thudded heavy as weights, barely missing her. She looked to Dima, and he stared back, clutching a line, blood streaming from the cut on his forehead.

"Captain!" he cried. "Out of the way!"

Too late.

Something struck her, hard: part of the Vansi's mast, snapped like a twig. She slammed sideways against the gunwale. Ribs crunched. She cried out, but her voice was lost in the scream of the winds, the howl and bellow of the monster as it tore them apart.

Through the pain, through the sound of her ship breaking and her crew dying around her, Zuzana lifted her head.

She saw it, blurred by the churning winds, a vast, roiling shape, its eyes blazing blue and gold through the storm.

She knew, now. Knew there were no charms, no prayers, no holy words to hold in the night. There was only one truth, bright as staring into the sun.

She was wrong. This was a god.

At least we know what happened to the trawler, Zuzana thought as the monster's jaws descended to shear the ship in half.