The doors of the Court closed behind us with a final, echoing thud. No escort. No guidance. Not even a parting glance. Just two silent guards and a hall emptied faster than a sinking ship. Kaelen swam ahead stiffly, muttering something under his breath about elders and their dramatic exits. I followed, still trying to steady my breathing after what had just happened inside—after they saw the marks on my shoulder that I barely understood myself.
We took the long route back toward the inn, and the further we went, the quieter the realm became. Not peaceful quiet. Wrong quiet. The kind the ocean only made when something powerful had disrupted it. Kaelen slowed, then stopped completely. His fin twitched once. "Something's wrong," he whispered. "It's never this silent around the inner reef."
Before I could respond, a cloud of red drifted past us. Thin, long streaks of blood, curling through the water like smoke. My stomach clenched. A severed arm floated by, armor cracked open like it had been bitten through. A second body followed—half of one, torn clean across the torso.
Kaelen grabbed my wrist. "Don't move." His voice was low, nearly shaking.
Shapes approached through the murk—massive, deformed silhouettes lumbering instead of swimming. They looked stitched together from pieces that didn't belong to any creature born naturally. Skin cracked like burnt leather, veins glowing a violent red. One dragged a chunk of armor between its jagged teeth. Another's mouth opened sideways, revealing rows of mismatched teeth and something writhing inside like tendrils.
"Hadalborn," Kaelen breathed. "Monsters from the deep trenches. The kind that shouldn't be anywhere near the capital."
We ducked behind a shattered pillar just as a scream ripped through the current. It wasn't far. Someone was still alive—or had been a moment ago. Blood spread in thick ribbons as another Hadalborn dragged what used to be a guard, its jaws shuddering with every crunch. The creature made a horrible sound, half-gurgle, half-laugh, like it found amusement in the carnage.
I was shaking so badly that my fingers slipped off the pillar once. Kaelen steadied me quickly. "If they see us…" He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to.
A sudden burst of orange light slashed through the sea like molten fire wrapped in water. A sharpened spear—pure condensed current—shot down from above and pinned a Hadalborn into the ridge wall with a sickening crack. A second blast followed, blue and blinding, striking another creature in the chest and sending it convulsing before it collapsed.
Someone dropped from the higher current. A man—fast, lean, and terrifyingly controlled. His black hair flowed like ink behind him, and his scaled armor carried faint glowing runes. His tail shimmered with deep blue and bright ember-orange veins, moving with precision that looked effortless. Another soldier descended beside him, casting a net of crackling blue energy over a third Hadalborn, dragging it down until the creature imploded under the pressure.
But the man—him—he didn't need nets or spears. He moved like water obeyed him. Like he'd fought monsters long before he ever fought merfolk battles. His strikes were clean, efficient, practiced enough to speak of years of war. He fought like someone who had withstood giants without flinching, someone whose strength didn't roar—it resonated.
He wasn't fighting for glory.
He was fighting because he'd fought horrors worse than this.
One last Hadalborn lunged from the shadows, massive and snarling. The man turned sharply, raised his arm, and summoned a great wall of water that crashed into the creature with the force of a collapsing wave. When it reeled back, stunned, he spun forward, driving his spear through its jaw and dragging the blade sideways in a sweeping arc that split the monster open.
Black blood clouded the sea. The fight ended.
Breathing hard, he finally turned toward us.
"You two alright?" His voice was calm—even gentle—despite the carnage.
I tried to answer but my voice wouldn't work. Something about him tugged at something inside me—a faint echo of familiarity where none should have existed. His eyes lingered on me a second too long, like he felt it too, like something ancient within him recognized something ancient within me.
"Escort them to the inner safe quarter," he ordered sharply. "The outer rings aren't safe anymore."
"Yes, Commander," the guards answered.
Commander. That explained his authority. But not the quiet weight he carried. Not the sense that he had survived battles that would have killed most.
Kaelen stepped forward. "Why were Hadalborn this close to the capital?"
The Commander's expression shifted, the faintest crack of worry beneath the hardened calm. "They're not drifting in anymore," he said quietly. "They're hunting."
Then without another word—or another look back—he vanished into the dark currents as if the sea swallowed him whole.
The guards escorted us away, keeping close watch on every shadow. But as we swam, I couldn't shake the image of him. The way he moved. The way he had looked at me. The way the water itself had reacted around him.
For the first time since waking in Uverra, monsters weren't what scared me most.
It was the truth waiting in the dark.
And the man who seemed somehow tied to it.
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧