Footage from his underwater camera surfaced days later. Blurred, trembling images revealed whale mouths parting, his silhouette preserved inside. No crushing jaws, no swallowed diver—just restraint, as if the giant had chosen to hold him. The evidence didn’t silence critics, but it cracked open space for wonder.
Nathaniel returned quietly to his research. Coral remained his anchor, but whales now claimed his devotion. He wrote papers on their intelligence, theorized about protective behavior, and argued they understood vulnerability more deeply than humans admitted. His colleagues listened politely, some skeptically, but his certainty never wavered.