The corridor was drowning, and I was the one drowning it.
Water roared through the coral halls of the Drowning Court in a way that should have terrified me. It tore tapestries from walls, shattered glass fixtures, sent guards scrambling for purchase on slick stone. But it parted around me like a living cloak, cool and obedient, carrying me forward without ever touching my face.
I did not understand what I was doing. Not really. The seal was broken, and in its place was something vast and quiet, a map of everything I had ever been and everything I could become. I could feel the threads of the palace's wards snapping one by one as I passed, feel Thalassa's grip on her domain loosening like fingers slipping off a ledge.
Somewhere behind me, she was screaming. I did not look back.
The corridor opened into a vast, flooded amphitheater, and there they were.
