"You need to tell me what that was," Isaac demanded as soon as we surfaced, ripping off his helmet. His face was pale, eyes wide—not with fear, but obsession. "That chant—those creatures—they listened to you. Why?"
I unbuckled my harness slowly, fingers trembling. The shell in my pocket had gone cold, lifeless, as if its energy had been drained. "I don't know," I whispered, but even I didn't believe myself.
Korrin was waiting on the platform, his expression unreadable as I climbed out. The others followed, but I barely registered them. My pulse still echoed like the ocean's heartbeat.
Korrin stepped closer. "You opened the gate."
"I didn't mean to," I said, my voice cracking. "It just… happened."
Isaac turned to him sharply. "You knew she was different. You didn't tell us. What is she?"
Korrin bared his teeth. "More than you deserve to understand, surface dweller."
Isaac's jaw clenched. "Watch your tone. You think I don't know what's buried down there? I've studied the Ocean's Heart my whole life. It belonged to my father."
"Your father stole it," Korrin growled. "Tore it from its resting place and triggered centuries of chaos. Your bloodline is cursed with greed."
Silence fell over the group.
Isaac's eyes darkened. "He was protecting it. From people like you."
Korrin stepped between us. "Selene has awakened something none of you can control. She bears the mark—look."
He pulled my hand forward, palm up. A faint shimmer ran across my skin, forming an intricate symbol like the ones on the stone gate. A spiral of light.
Isaac reeled. "That... that mark... My father had that carved into his notes. He called it the Voice of the Tides."
"I didn't ask for this," I said. "But it's in me now. Maybe it always was."
Korrin nodded. "Your mother was one of us. Not fully mermaid. Not fully human. A bridge. That's why the ocean chose you."
My heart sank. I remembered my mother's lullabies—soft, sad songs that made no sense at the time. Songs in a language that sounded like water.
All along, she had been singing to the sea.
---
That night, I couldn't sleep.
I wandered out onto the deck of the ship. The moonlight danced across the surface of the water like silver thread. Korrin surfaced beside me silently.
"You need to come with me," he said. "There's something the sea wants to show you."
Without hesitation, I dove in after him.
We swam for what felt like hours. Past coral forests and glowing kelp, into the abyss where light did not reach. And then...
A city.
Arealis.
The merfolk city was unlike anything I had ever seen—spires of pearl and crystal, glowing veins of bioluminescence pulsing through the walls. Mermaids swam past with curious eyes. Children darted like schools of fish. The beauty of it took my breath away.
Korrin led me to a great hall carved into a cliff face. Inside stood a giant orb of liquid light, suspended in a whirlpool of energy. It pulsed like a star.
"The Ocean's Heart," he whispered. "But this is just a fragment. The true core lies beyond the Veil. The chant you spoke opened the first seal."
"And what happens when the last seal breaks?" I asked.
Korrin's eyes met mine.
"The sea remembers. It will rise. Not in wrath... but in judgment."
---
Back on the surface, Isaac was making his own plans.
He'd copied the symbol from my palm, scanned the sonar data, and begun assembling a crew. He wasn't trying to understand the Heart anymore.
He wanted to control it.
As I floated between worlds—human and mermaid—I realized this wasn't just my story anymore. It was a battle.
For truth.
For peace.
For the ocean itself.
---
End of Chapter 18