The ruins of Marinel slept in silence.
A soft current glided through shattered walkways where bright coral clung to steel bones. Once, ships had docked here—now, only skeletal frames leaned against the dome's collapsed shell, creaking whenever a tremor rolled across the ocean floor. In that silence, a lone diver swam through a broken archway, light trailing from the lamp band around his wrist.
Kai Varrin kept his breathing steady. Even through his filtration mask, he could taste the salt and rust mixed in the water. This place was older than memory—its corridors dense with stories he could almost feel pressing against him.
His wristband beeped softly: movement ahead.
He descended through a hall of flickering signs written in a language the ocean had long since devoured. Every step stirred clouds of white dust that rose like ghosts around him. For a moment, he thought he heard voices—faint and layered, like a choir somewhere deep in the city. Then came a screech.
A Deepspawn erupted from the shadows—a serpentlike shape, glimmering with toxin light. Its mouth opened sideways, revealing concentric rows of glass teeth.
Kai grinned behind his mask. "Been waiting for one of you."
He raised his arm and clenched his fist. The water trembled—then erupted outward in a pulse of blue energy. The current slammed into the creature, cracking its outer shell. It writhed, healing instantly, and charged again.
He braced himself, but before he could strike, the serpent's body shuddered and went still. A dark tendril pierced it through the gills, retracting just as quickly. A figure drifted into view, surrounded by faint rings of sound—the water itself humming.
She was Tentari, her hair flowing in soft violet strands that shimmered like jellyfish.
"Reckless," she said through her voice-transmitter. "You stirred up three more with that stunt."
Kai blinked. "I'd say thanks, but I'm guessing you've got a name?"
"Lira Fen," she replied, scanning the area with a spherical sonar device. "Scholar. Currently regretting rescuing you."
"Rescuing?" Kai tilted his head. "Looked like a team effort to me."
She ignored him, tapping her sonar again. The ground pulsed faintly beneath them, producing a low hum that made the bones in Kai's arms vibrate.
"You heard it, didn't you?" she said quietly. "The echo… the city's memory. Marinel's reactor is still alive."
Kai's eyes widened. "If that's true, then the Tide Compass might still be—"
A thunderous groan cut him off. From a nearby tunnel, several more Deepspawn slithered out, eyes glowing red.
Lira raised her wrist, summoning a soft pulse that distorted the sound around them and confused the monsters' sonar. "Follow me," she ordered.
He hesitated just long enough to glance at the mural half-buried behind them—an image of old-world humans standing under a blazing sun. He clenched his teeth, tightened the strap on his gear, and swam after her.
As they darted through a fallen corridor, Kai asked between breaths, "Why risk coming here?"
Lira didn't look back. "Because the world forgets faster than it learns. And I'm tired of swimming through ignorance."
The ceiling above them gave way—rocks tumbling, currents swirling—and Kai threw up his arm instinctively. Water exploded outward in a massive surge, diverting the debris and clearing a path.
Lira turned, surprised. "That's not normal Surge control."
Kai flashed a grin. "Guess the ocean likes me."
They reached an opening leading to an immense chamber—the city's old central plaza. In its center stood a cracked orb, hundreds of meters wide, emitting a faint blue glow.
Lira whispered, "That… that's part of the reactor core."
Kai's gaze fixed on it, his pulse quickening. Something called to him from inside that light—a heartbeat deep and steady, pulsing with impossible warmth.
"The ocean's still breathing," he murmured. "And it remembers."
Far above, in the dark expanse beyond the dome, a distant silhouette watched them through mirrored glass—Juno Kael, a mercenary diver adjusting the scope of his harpoon cannon. His comms crackled with a cold voice:
"Target located. Retrieve the Diver and the Tentari alive. The Compass must not fall into their hands."
The diver's figure drifted back into the murk. Below, in the glow of dying cities, two wanderers reached out toward a future neither could yet imagine.
The tide was stirring again.