In the founding Sea God past life, MC is a human girl chosen as a sacrifice and thrown overboard in a storm. She finds Rafayel — next in line for the Sea God title — lounging on debris above the waves, where he is not supposed to be but has snuck up out of curiosity. He laughs off her pleas for help. Remembering the rumour that kissing a Lemurian grants temporary underwater breathing, she kisses him. Startled into seriousness, he saves her — but only after she swears to be his follower. She agrees because she is drowning. That oath becomes the Lemurian covenant, which marks both their souls and carries forward into every subsequent incarnation.