The S.S. Twinkie (aka The Horizon) bobbed in the wake of the massive Leviathan like a rubber ducky following a nuclear submarine.
The rider, whose name Elara had learned was Triton (mostly because he refused to say his real name and she decided "Fish-Guy" was too rude), looked back at them with a mixture of pity and annoyance.
"Prepare yourselves," Triton shouted over the roar of the ocean. "We descend to the Coral Dominion."
"Descend?" Kaelen's voice went up an octave. "As in... go down? Into the liquid death?"
"It's not liquid death, Kaelen, it's an ecosystem," Elara said, though she was frantically looking through her backpack. She pulled out a small, metallic canister—another relic from the Vance Spire. "Good thing I grabbed the Portable Oxygen Encapsulators."
"The what?" Roric asked, poking a wet piece of seaweed.
"Bubble helmets," Elara translated. "They use an ion-exchange membrane to pull oxygen directly from the water. We can breathe underwater for three hours. Assuming the batteries haven't corroded since the year 2040."
"I am not putting a glass bowl on my head," Kaelen stated firmly. "I am a King. Kings do not look like goldfish."
"Kaelen," Elara said, stepping close and putting her hand on his massive, damp arm. "If you don't put the bowl on, you're going to have to stay on the boat alone. In the middle of the ocean. With the Megalodons."
Kaelen looked at the dark, swirling water. He looked at the life-sized shark fins circling the boat. He reached for the helmet. "Give me the bowl."
The Descent
The transition was terrifying.
Triton raised his trident, and a localized current grabbed The Horizon, pulling it toward a massive whirlpool.
"Everyone, helmets on! Seal the neck gaskets!" Elara yelled.
CLICK. HISS.
The Alphas looked ridiculous. Kaelen's mane was squished against the glass. Roric looked like a very serious, very grumpy astronaut. Zev's feathers were ruffled in a way that made him look like a decorative duster inside a jar.
The boat was pulled under.
For a second, there was panic. Kaelen clawed at the air. Zev tried to fly and ended up doing a clumsy underwater backflip. But then, the bubbles cleared.
"Look," Elara's voice crackled over the short-range radio she'd installed in the helmets.
They were sinking into a canyon of light. The "Drowning Tower" wasn't just a building; it was an ancient skyscraper that had tilted on its side and become the spine of a massive coral reef. Thousands of bioluminescent jellyfish acted as streetlamps, floating in the currents.
Houses were built from giant conch shells. Fish-people—the Mariners—swam past them on the backs of giant seahorses.
"It's beautiful," Roric whispered, his tail waving slowly in the water like a rudder. "It is a forest of stone and light."
"It's wet," Kaelen grumbled. "My fur is doing something called 'frizz.' I can feel it."
The Arrival at the Spire
They were led to a docking bay—an air-locked chamber at the base of the sunken tower. As the water drained out, the Alphas collapsed onto the floor, gasping and shaking themselves dry.
FLAP-FLAP-FLAP-FLAP.
"Zev, stop!" Elara shouted as the Griffin shook himself like a wet dog, spraying saltwater over everyone.
"I am a sodden mess!" Zev wailed. "My aerodynamics are ruined! I am just a flightless chicken now!"
The inner doors opened, revealing a tall, elegant woman with scales that shimmered like pearls. She wore a crown made of black sea-glass.
"I am Queen Marina," she said, her voice echoing in the metallic chamber. She looked at Elara, then at the three Alphas dripping on her floor. "The Signal brought you. The Weaver has returned."
"Returned?" Elara asked, stepping forward. "You've seen someone like me before?"
"Three generations ago," Marina said, her eyes turning sad. "A man in a white coat. He sought to 'stabilize the tectonic plates.' He failed. The ocean rose. Our city sank. He left us a gift—the Signal—and told us to wait for the one who could speak to the machines."
The Signal's Truth
Marina led them into the heart of the tower. It was a server room, half-flooded but miraculously still powered by geothermal vents.
A screen flickered. It wasn't the AI red eye this time. It was a map of the planet.
"The Signal isn't just a 'help' call," Elara realized, staring at the data. "It's a countdown."
"A countdown to what?" Roric asked, his ears twitching.
"The Great Reset," a voice boomed from the shadows.
A second person stepped into the light. He looked human—mostly. He was wearing a tattered lab coat over leather beast-hides. He had a prosthetic arm made of brass and wood.
"Dr. Aris Thorne," the man said, offering a crooked smile. "I've been waiting for you, Elara Vance. Or should I say... cousin?"
Elara's jaw dropped. "Cousin? You're a Vance?"
"The black sheep," Aris laughed. "I was in the secondary lab when the Rift opened. I didn't end up in the Dead Lands like Arthur. I ended up in the drink. I've spent forty years trying to stop the planet from folding in on itself."
The Hilarious Diplomacy
While Elara and Aris talked "Science," the Alphas were left to their own devices in the Mariner's dining hall.
"What is this?" Kaelen asked, poking a bowl of blue, translucent jelly.
"It is fermented plankton," a Mariner waiter said. "A delicacy."
Kaelen took a huge bite. His face went pale. His ears flattened. "It tastes like... a foot. A wet, salty foot."
"I like it," Zev said, scooping up the jelly with a piece of dried kelp. "It's slimy. It reminds me of the worms back home."
Roric, meanwhile, was engaged in a staring contest with a giant crab that was serving as a guard. The crab raised a claw. Roric raised a dagger.
"It is a warrior," Roric said solemnly. "I respect its armor. But if it clicks at me one more time, I will make it into a soup."
"CLICK-CLICK-SNIP," the crab replied.
"He says your mother was a mangy scavenger," Triton translated, leaning against a pillar.
Roric lunged. Kaelen grabbed him by the scruff of the neck. "No! We are guests! Do not fight the giant dinner!"
The Revelation
Back in the server room, Aris pointed to a flickering red dot on the map.
"The Rift didn't just bring us here, Elara. It's still open. Just a crack. But it's leaking 'Null-Energy.' In three months, the crack will widen. Aetheria won't just be destroyed; it will be erased. Everything—the Lions, the Wolves, the Twinkies—gone."
Elara felt a chill that had nothing to do with the water. "How do we close it?"
"We need the Three Keys of the Ancients," Aris said. "One is here, in the Drowning Tower. One is in the Jungle Hive of the Insects. And the third..."
Aris looked at her grimly.
"...the third is on the Space Station. The 'Star-Nest' in the sky."
Elara looked up at the ceiling, thinking of the white dot she saw every night among the stars.
"We need a rocket," Elara whispered.
"No," Aris grinned. "We have something better. We have a Griffin."
Zev, who had just walked in with blue jelly all over his face, froze. "I am not a rocket! I am a Storm-Lord! I do not go to the Star-Nest! There is no air up there! My feathers will freeze!"
"We'll build you a suit, Zev," Elara said, her mind already racing with blueprints. "A space suit with tassels."
Zev paused. "Tassels? Shiny ones?"
"The shiniest."
Zev sighed. "Fine. I will be the first Bird in Space."
The New Quest
As the suns set above the waves, Elara stood on the balcony of the Drowning Tower, looking out at the horizon.
They had the first Key—a glowing crystal cylinder. But the world was ending, her cousin was a hermit, and she had to convince a Lion and a Wolf to go into orbit.
Kaelen walked up behind her, smelling faintly of fermented plankton.
"Weaver," he said softly. "The Fish-Queen says the next Key is in the green-hell. The Jungle."
"I know, Kaelen. It's going to be dangerous. Bugs. Big ones."
Kaelen put his arm around her. "I do not like bugs. They crunch when you step on them. But if the Star-Nest is where we must go to save the world, then the Lion shall learn to walk on the moon."
Roric stepped out from the shadows. "And the Wolf shall howl at the stars from the stars themselves."
Elara smiled, leaning into them. The Union was moving from the land, to the sea, and soon, to the sky.
"Chapter 22," Elara whispered to herself. "Only 78 to go."