The Western Kelp Forest was a labyrinth of swaying green shadows. Massive stalks of kelp, thick as tree trunks, rose hundreds of feet from the ocean floor, creating a dense, shifting canopy that blocked out the ambient light of the city. The water here was murky, filled with silt and the drifting spores of underwater plants.
It was the perfect hunting ground for an ambush predator.
Alvian, Valeria, and Seraphina hovered near the edge of the forest, observing the area where the most recent disappearance had occurred. A fishing boat drifted aimlessly, its nets torn, its crew gone. There was no blood. No signs of a struggle. Just an empty vessel rocking in the current.
"It's clean," Seraphina whispered, her mechanical eye whirring as she scanned the boat for mana signatures. "Too clean. No residual magic. No physical tracks. Whatever took them didn't fight. It snatched them."
Alvian floated closer to the boat. He touched the torn netting.
[System Analysis: Tear Pattern.]
