The purity of the moonlight,
Falling out of the immense sky,
Is so great that it freezes
The water touched by its rays.
- Anonymous

"My first vision of earth was water veiled. I am of the race of men and women who see all things through this curtain of the sea, and my eyes are the color of water."
-Anais Nin

Orcinus Shinjukou was born to an aging mother who already had a son in his mid-twenties. Their line of the family had not yet come to power; the Dorian line still held the Decemvir throne in Orcinus. But the brand of ambition was stamped upon all who shared the blood of Orcinus Yarikono, mother to Kuronbo and now Shinjukou. Both children would leave the mark of that ambition on their people, and on the minds of those they came into contact with, though years would pass before either entered the arena of politics. When Orcinus Yarikono finally came to power, following the disappearance of Orcinus Dorian, she was an old and sickened woman, but a woman who would rule for nearly twenty-eight years without interruption.

In her early years, Shinjukou was overshadowed by her brother, who was seen by her mother, and by many of the other Orcinus, as an omen of their family's rise to greatness. As such, Kuronbo was trained in all of the elements it was felt a possible Heir may need. Shinjukou's birth had greatly weakened her already sickly mother, and the child from an early age felt some responsibility for that. This, combined with the majority of familial attention being focused on Kuronbo, led to Shinjukou experiencing a great deal of solitude. Rather than revolt against such lack of attention, she took to the quiet of loneliness with surprising favor. By all accounts she was an old child who, when old enough to do so, would often leave the black coral palace for days on end. The absences were rarely commented upon, considered by some perhaps as a mark of Pasiphae's favor. Why else would the girl seem to be drawn so much to the darkest portions of the ocean, to live alone? What else would there be to do out there but commune with the Goddess? But even this percieved mark kept most from noticing her, beyond the typical gossip of those who devote their lives to watching the families of power. Kuronbo's spectacular achievements on the land as a diplomat and scholar called far more attention that one mother-of-pearl youngling who seemed to prefer the cold of the depths to the treacherous arena of Orcinus politics.

As she grew older, Shinjukou's excursions into the deepest parts of Orcinus became longer, her appearances at the palace more brief. Completely self-reliant, she easily kept people at a distance by developing a cold demeanor that seemed based on the chill waters of the sea itself. Indeed, the growing girl seemed almost to model herself on the ocean, even going so far as to base her moods on the 'mood' of weather, and water conditions. Such not-quite-human behaviour finally drew its measure of attention. Pasiphae's creature, the people whispered. That is what comes of being born into such an ambitious, but strange line, others said. With so much ambition gestating in the heart of Kuronbo, it is only right that his sister should draw the majority of preternatural strangeness that stained that bloodline. And while the speculation may have drawn scorn from Orcinus Kuronbo, and distracted concern from Yarikono, it did nothing to change Shinjukou's behaviour. She was quite content with her hermit's existance, shunning the larger world save for the briefest encounters.

Those few children bold enough to follow her to her haunts, instigate games, soon learned the shimmering girl was not exactly as remote as she seemed. While still young, she played willingly enough when those few hardy souls could keep up with her. But that distant air always remained, as if she could not quite bring herself to believe that she was made of the same stuff as they. The time alone had placed its mark on her, and the stories carried back by those children who survived the harsh games of deeper Orcinus waters only added to the gossip that Shinjukou had been chosen by the Goddess. A few were able to break through the wall of solitude Shinjukou had built. A young musician grew quite close to her, in her fifteenth year, enough so that people speculated on a possible match between them. The girl was actually seen laughing in his presence, something no one had imagined as possible, before. But his death, in a game of Bait the Shark, ended such musing and Shinjukou returned to her distanced life with little to no outward reaction to the loss of one she seemed to care for so much. This, of course, led to whispers on whether the poor young man's death had been accident after all. The gossipmill of the palace began to focus more attention on her apparent lack of devotion to the family, and to the Decemvirate.

When Shinjukou reached the age of seventeen, Kuronbo returned from extended travel on the land. He appeared to see something in the young recluse, enough so that he took her -- forcefully at first -- from her ocean hiding places and onto the land. Starting from the beginning, of teaching her to walk, to speak aloud, to use the gestures and expressions the drylanders used, he spent a year instructing her in the finer points of social etiquette. Following that came lessons on diplomacy, culture, art, music, politics, and above all else loyalty to the ideal of Atlantean unity -- with Orcinus leadership, of course. All of these Shinjukou absorbed with studious attention, though why she seemed so fascinated, when only a short while before a life of serene solitude in the seamother's breast was preferred, was beyond many. It was enough that the girl took to the lessons with the same intensity she had given her solitude. And enough to those she encountered that the instruction had changed at least her outward personality. While the shield remained around her innermost thoughts, outwardly she adopted a more pleasant though still reserved personality with those around her. Though few knew what to make of her, it was indeed a relief to know that the Orcinus would not be badly represented when Shinjukou accompanied her brother to Haven, to serve as aide to his post of Varati Ambassador.