When the ship left the harbor, it wasn't very noticeable at first—just the waves hitting differently and the engines running quieter to avoid being detected.
Raven lay on his bed with his eyes closed, using his blood powers to feel everyone on the ship. Twenty-three crew members with heartbeats making a pattern in his mind.
Captain Kells at the wheel with her slightly faster heartbeat. Adrian walking back and forth in their small cabin, his footsteps matching his jumpy heartbeat.
"You should get some rest," Raven said without opening his eyes. "It's a long way to where they last saw the Tempest Veil."
Adrian stopped pacing. "You've never been on a ship during a dark run. Nobody can sleep."
"Dark run?"
"No lights, engines barely running, magic hidden. That's how you avoid patrols." Adrian sat heavily on his bed. "The Calonian navy uses water magic to find ships. They can spot anything within five miles of shore. Once we're past that, we can go back to normal."
Raven opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. The protection symbols seemed to glow faintly in the dim light. "You've done this before. In Calonia."
Adrian was quiet for a moment. "Yes."
"Were you working for them or running from them?"
Adrian laughed. "Both. The Third Guard doesn't tell imperial friends about its missions. Calonia may be part of the empire, but they have their own security people with their own plans."
The ship suddenly jerked, hitting a bigger wave. Raven felt his blood surge in response, losing control for a moment as a drop of blood floated from his palm before he could pull it back in.
"Still having trouble?" Adrian asked, watching the blood go back into Raven's skin.
"It's like my blood wants to join the ocean," Raven admitted. "Like it knows something out there."
Adrian frowned. "That confirms what the Third Guard thought about 'Whispers of Shadow.' Blood artifacts often connect with Blood Seekers, especially old ones."
"How old are we talking?"
"Before the Empire. From the Age of Sacrifice, when people openly used blood magic." Adrian lowered his voice. "The blood used to make these artifacts came from unwilling victims. Hundreds of them."
Raven sat up, suddenly uncomfortable. "And the Third Guard collects these things?"
"To keep them away from people who would use them." Adrian looked away. "At least, that's what they say officially."
Before Raven could ask more, someone knocked on their door. Nelle came in, her cat eyes glowing in the dark.
"Captain wants you on deck," she said. "We're past where Calonian sensors can reach, but there's something you should see."
The night air felt cool on Raven's face as they walked onto the deck. Stars shined brighter than he'd ever seen in cities, reflecting on the dark water that stretched forever in all directions.
The Obsidian Tide cut through the waves almost silently, with its black sails now fully open to catch the night wind.
Captain Kells stood at the back of the ship, her milky eye glowing weirdly in the starlight. She pointed silently behind them.
At first, Raven saw nothing but darkness. Then, just barely visible, he spotted it—a shadow moving on the horizon, a ship keeping perfect distance.
"They've been following since we left Port Furge," Kells said quietly. "Matching our speed exactly."
Adrian frowned. "Imperial?"
"No. They move wrong, and they're too careful about not being seen." She turned her strange eyes to Raven. "Your blood sense—how far can it reach now that we're surrounded by water?"
Raven closed his eyes, stretching his awareness outward. The ship's crew showed up bright and clear around him. Beyond that, he sensed the faint life energy of fish and bigger creatures moving under the waves. And even further...
"Five people," he said, opening his eyes. "Their signatures are strange—muted, like they're hiding on purpose. But there's something else..." He frowned, struggling to describe the feeling. "A presence beneath them, or inside their ship. Ancient. Powerful."
"Can they sense you?" Adrian asked sharply.
"I don't think so," Raven began, then gasped as something changed. One of the distant signatures suddenly flared up, reaching back toward him like a finger of awareness. "Wait—yes. Someone just responded to my blood sense."
Kells swore quietly. "They're tracking him specifically?"
Adrian nodded grimly. "Looks like someone else is very interested in the only Blood Seeker around."
"We can outrun them," Kells said, though she didn't sound convinced. "The waves is faster than she looks."
As if answering her words, the distant ship suddenly changed course, heading straight for them. At the same moment, Raven felt a strange pressure building around them—in the air, in the water, in his blood.
"That's not normal," Kells muttered, her good eye narrowing as she looked at the previously calm seas. "Weather's changing too fast."
The first raindrops hit the deck, heavy and somehow wrong—each one sending tiny shockwaves through Raven's blood sense. Within moments, the stars disappeared behind quickly forming clouds, and the gentle waves turned into churning swells.
"Hydor art," Adrian said grimly. "Powerful stuff. They're making a storm to slow us down."
Raven held the railing as the ship began to rock more violently. His blood was singing now, responding to both the water around them and something else—a call from the distance, a pull he couldn't ignore.
"They're not trying to catch us," he suddenly realized. "They're herding us."
"What?" Kells asked.
"Look at how the waves are moving," Raven pointed to where the water formed unnatural currents. "They're not random. They're pushing us eastward."
Adrian's eyes widened. "Toward where Calonia can detect us. They want the Calonian navy to find us."
Captain Kells shouted orders to her crew, who rushed to adjust sails and start the backup engines. "We'll have to outrun both them and the storm. Go below and hold on. This will get rough."
As they turned to leave, Raven froze. A massive wave was rising off the left side—not a natural wave but one made by water magic. As it towered over the ship, he saw that its top was shaped like a hand reaching for him.
Without thinking, Raven pull bloods from his mana pool. Blood burst from his palm, way more than should have been possible, streaming out in a crimson whip that slashed through the water formation. The blood didn't mix with the water as it should have—instead, it cut through the magic-infused water like a knife through cloth.
The water hand shattered, raining down on the deck and soaking everyone. But in that moment of contact, Raven heard something—a whisper at the edge of his awareness, words in a language he'd never heard yet somehow understood.
"Blood calls to blood. The Shadow seeks its Tears."
He stumbled backward, overwhelmed by the sudden voice in his mind. Adrian caught him before he could fall.
"What did you just do?" he demanded.
"I don't know," Raven admitted, looking at his hand. "But whatever's following us—it's not just after me. It's after the artifact."
The storm grew stronger around them, but now Raven could see the pattern in it—a massive working of water magic designed to guide them into a trap. And beneath it all, that ancient presence called to him, its whispers growing louder with each passing moment.