The Sea Serpent or Great Serpent was a curse brought to our clan for failing to respect the sea. We learn that it was formed from the blood of a magnificent scaly fish that pleaded for its life from one of our foremothers, but was not spared. It is our duty to keep it from rising up and destroying the ships that come to our land and the land itself. The Great Serpent is blood-mad, and the only thing that can seal it is blood. We learned this the first time it attacked. Then Elain stepped forward. Elain was a great warrior, but what she proposed was not war. "Set down your weapons," she said.