The desert was gone.
In its place stretched an endless expanse of shimmering water that defied all logic. Waves rolled soundlessly across dunes that glimmered like glass, their crests foaming not with salt, but with light. The sea beneath the sands had awakened, and Liora could feel its pulse echoing beneath her feet.
Corren stood beside her, breath catching as he stared into the horizon where the waters met the sky. "It's real," he whispered. "An ocean, buried under the desert. How—"
"The Breath Circle woke it," Liora said. Her voice was low, almost reverent. "It was always here. Sleeping, waiting for the wind to remember how to move."
The surface rippled as if answering her words. Liora knelt and dipped her fingers into the glowing water. It was warm and heavy—not quite liquid, not quite light. Energy coiled beneath the surface like a heartbeat.
"This is the Circle of Depths," she murmured. "The Sea That Remembers."
Corren squinted. "Remembers what?"
"Everything we tried to forget."
They walked along the shifting shoreline. The ground shimmered beneath them, solid one moment and fluid the next. Strange shapes flickered beneath the translucent waves—ruins, towers, bones. Entire cities half-drowned, their spires reaching toward the surface like grasping fingers.
At last, they came to the edge of a cliff. Below them yawned a vast crater filled with luminous water. At its center rose a single black stone obelisk, half-submerged, its surface etched with runes that pulsed like veins. Around it, the water spiraled inward in a slow vortex.
"That's it," Liora said. "The next Circle."
Corren frowned. "And how do we get there? Swim?"
Liora took a step forward. "No. We let it take us."
The sea stirred. The glowing current coiled around her ankles like curious tendrils, drawing her in. She closed her eyes and let herself sink.
Corren cursed and followed.
The world blurred into light.
They sank through layers of shimmering color, deeper and deeper, until sound itself faded. Shapes moved in the dark—massive, indistinct, ancient. Liora caught glimpses: a leviathan with eyes like dying stars; a serpent of coral and bone; a hand of light reaching upward before dissolving into foam.
The deeper they went, the more Liora felt her own body dissolving—her edges blurring, her breath forgotten.
A voice echoed through the water, low and resonant.
"Welcome, Child of Breath. You descend where memory does not forgive."
The water parted.
They stood suddenly upon a vast seabed illuminated by slow-moving lanterns of light. The black obelisk loomed before them, taller now, its runes shifting like living things. Around it drifted figures—humanoid, translucent, bound by chains of light that anchored them to the ground.
"The Drowned," Liora whispered.
Corren tensed. "Souls?"
"Fragments," she said. "What remains of those who drowned in their own pasts."
One of the spirits turned toward them. Its face was indistinct, but its voice was clear. "Do you remember us, Shaper?"
Liora stiffened. "I—what?"
The spirit reached for her, and she flinched as its touch sent a shock through her chest. Images flashed—waves, fire, hands reaching for hers. A ship of silver sails torn apart by storms she had summoned. A promise broken beneath the sea.
The memory vanished as quickly as it came, leaving her gasping.
Corren caught her as she staggered. "Liora! What happened?"
"I… I saw them. People. My people."
The spirits began to circle them, whispering.
"You shaped the seas."
"You sealed us here."
"You called the storm that swallowed our names."
Liora shook her head violently. "No. That wasn't me. I wasn't—"
The ground trembled. The obelisk pulsed brighter, and the water itself seemed to draw breath.
"To bind the Circle of Depths," the deep voice intoned, "you must confront what you buried. Memory is the current that binds all life. Forgetting is the storm that breaks it."
The sea rose.
Waves crashed upward, forming walls around them. Within each wall flickered scenes—memories not her own, yet intimately familiar. A girl standing on a ship deck beneath twin moons. A people of light sailing across the skies. A storm tearing everything apart.
She saw herself, or a version of herself, at the storm's center—hair of white flame, eyes of molten silver—shouting words that broke the sky open.
"I command you—be still!"
And the world obeyed.
The storm froze, and with it, the sea itself. The people turned to crystal, the ships to glass. Silence fell across eternity.
Then, darkness.
The vision shattered. Liora screamed, falling to her knees as the weight of it crushed her chest.
Corren knelt beside her, gripping her shoulders. "Hey. Look at me. Whatever that was, it's not who you are now."
She looked up at him, tears streaming. "But it was. I froze the world, Corren. I killed them all to stop a storm I made."
He shook his head. "Then make it right now."
She swallowed hard and stood, facing the obelisk. "The Sea remembers. So I'll remember too."
Silver threads spilled from her hands, glowing brighter than before, weaving through the water toward the obelisk. The spirits recoiled, their chains humming.
The voice spoke again. "To remember is to drown."
"Then drown me," she said.
The water surged. The sea itself crashed down upon her. She felt herself falling into darkness, into memory. She was on the ship again, lightning splitting the sky, waves devouring the horizon. The storm's voice roared her name—LIORA.
She turned toward it and saw herself standing on the opposite deck, radiant and terrible. The other Liora raised a hand, summoning the storm.
"Why did you do it?" she shouted. "Why destroy them?"
The reflection smiled faintly. "Because they asked me to. Because they were dying, and I could not save them without ending what they were."
Liora shook her head. "That's not salvation."
"It was mercy."
The storm swallowed them both.
When she opened her eyes again, she was floating before the obelisk, her body glowing like moonlight through water. The runes upon the stone now mirrored the patterns etched into her skin.
The sea had gone still.
The spirits knelt in silence.
The voice of the depths spoke once more, softer now, almost gentle. "You have remembered. You have returned what was taken. The Circle binds itself anew."
The obelisk sank into the seabed, leaving behind a single drop of light that drifted into her palm. It pulsed once, then sank into her chest, merging with the others.
Corren was waiting beside her, soaked but alive. "You did it," he said. "The sea's calm again."
Liora looked around. The drowned spirits were gone, their chains dissolved. The water shimmered softly, clear and peaceful.
"For now," she said. "But each Circle I bind… something stirs. Something older than me."
Corren gave her a grim smile. "Then we'll face it together."
The water around them began to glow brighter, folding upward like curtains of light. When it fell away, they stood once more on solid sand beneath a violet sky. The ocean had vanished, leaving behind only wet dunes that sparkled like glass.
Far to the west, storm clouds gathered again—this time not of destruction, but of renewal.
Liora turned toward them, feeling the pulse of the next Circle deep within her bones.
"The Circle of Echoes," she whispered. "Where sound becomes truth."
Corren raised an eyebrow. "That sounds worse than drowning."
She managed a faint smile. "It will be."
Together, they began walking toward the horizon, where the wind hummed and the dunes whispered secrets beneath their feet.
Behind them, the last traces of the hidden sea sank quietly into the earth, leaving only a faint shimmer—a heartbeat waiting beneath the sand.
And deep below, in the place where the drowned once dreamed, something vast and ancient opened an eye.
Its gaze followed her rising steps.
"Awaken, Shaper. The tide has turned."