Korrin didn't speak to me on the way out of the archive.
Not that I expected him to. I'd seen the look on his face when the voice told us to ask his father who had given the order. It wasn't the expression of someone who had discovered a shocking secret about a stranger.
It was the expression of someone who had just realised that his entire family might be built on a lie.
I knew the feeling.
The difference was that I had never met my father properly. Korrin had grown up with his.
I wondered which was worse: missing someone you barely remembered or discovering that the person you'd trusted all your life might not have been who you thought.
Neither possibility seemed particularly appealing.
We were halfway down the corridor when Korrin finally stopped.
"Go back to your quarters," he said.
I turned around. "Excuse me?"
"I need to speak with my mother."
"Wonderful. I'll come with you."
"Selene, this isn't your concern."
I stared at him.
He seemed to realise his mistake a second too late.
"My concern?" I repeated. "Your father's name was just dragged into the disappearance of my parents, and somehow this isn't my concern?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Then perhaps you should try saying what you mean for once."
He rubbed a hand over his face.
For a brief moment, he looked less like a prince and more like a tired young man who had been handed a problem far bigger than himself.
"I don't know what to believe," he admitted.
The honesty caught me off guard.
I had prepared myself for another argument, another royal explanation about how certain truths needed to remain buried for the good of everyone. I hadn't expected him to admit that he was frightened.
Neither had he, apparently. He looked away almost immediately.
"Then don't believe anything yet," I said. "Find out what happened."
He studied me.
"And if the truth changes everything?"
"Then at least we'll know what we're dealing with."
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then he nodded.
"Wait in the eastern chamber. I'll come for you when I'm finished."
"Is that an order?"
"No."
"Good. Because I was going to ignore it."
A faint, reluctant smile crossed his face.
It disappeared quickly, but I saw it.
"You're impossible," he muttered.
"I've been told."
He left before I could add anything else.
I watched him go, wondering whether he would actually return.
For some reason, I thought he would.
That thought bothered me more than it should have.
---
The eastern chamber had a beautiful view of the city, which was unfortunate because I had absolutely no interest in admiring it.
I paced between the windows and the doorway, occasionally stopping to check the protective case. The three familiar shards remained quiet. The fourth fragment—the one that had shown me my father—was still there, but its surface had turned completely black.
I couldn't stop thinking about the vision.
My father had looked older, exhausted, and terrified. He hadn't looked like a memory. He hadn't looked like the silver-robed figure I'd encountered before, either.
What if that figure had been an echo created by the Heart?
What if the man in the vision was the real one?
And what did he mean by they've already found you?
I sat down and opened my notebook.
Writing things down usually helped me think. Unfortunately, my notes were beginning to resemble the work of someone who had accidentally mixed three research projects together and then spilled coffee on all of them.
I wrote:
BLACKWATER
- Father possibly alive.
- Mother disappeared there.
- Isaac's father involved.
- Korrin's father ordered something.
- The Heart remembers.
- Someone is keeping something inside.
I stared at the last line.
Then I added:
- Find out what something is before it destroys everyone.
That seemed reasonable enough.
The door opened.
I immediately closed the notebook, expecting Korrin.
Instead, Elder Nymora entered.
"You're making a list," she observed.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Only because you have the expression of someone preparing to interrogate an entire kingdom."
"That's the plan, actually."
She settled into the chair opposite me.
For a while, she simply watched the drifting lights beyond the window.
"Do you know what the Bridgeborn were originally meant to be?" she asked.
I sighed.
"Please tell me this isn't another story that ends with everyone keeping secrets."
"It may disappoint you, then."
"At least you're honest."
She smiled faintly.
"The oldest records describe the Bridgeborn as people who could move between the human world and the merfolk world without weakening the boundaries that protected either."
I leaned forward.
"So I'm some sort of living passage?"
"Not exactly. You are a person, Selene. Never allow anyone to reduce you to a purpose simply because they cannot understand you."
That was unexpectedly comforting.
She continued.
"The old agreement between our peoples depended on cooperation. Humans possessed knowledge we did not, particularly in certain forms of science. We understood the ocean in ways humans could scarcely imagine. Together, we were able to study the Heart without disturbing its balance."
"Until Blackwater."
"Until Blackwater."
I glanced at the case.
"Did my mother know what was going to happen?"
"I believe she suspected something was wrong. Lyra was perceptive, and she had little patience for people who confused authority with wisdom."
I couldn't help smiling.
That sounded like someone I might have liked.
"What about my father?"
Nymora's expression became more thoughtful.
"Your father believed that knowledge should be shared, even when sharing it was dangerous. He and Lyra disagreed about that sometimes."
"That sounds like a normal argument."
"It was. They argued about research, about trust, about the future of the two worlds. They were not always wise, and they were certainly not always right."
I appreciated that answer more than I expected. Everyone else seemed determined to turn my parents into tragic heroes who had known everything in advance.
I'd rather they had been ordinary people who made mistakes.
"Do you think they're alive?" I asked.
Nymora took her time answering.
"I think there is enough evidence to justify searching for them."
It wasn't a promise.
But it was the first answer I'd received that didn't ask me to surrender hope.
Before I could respond, a deep sound rolled through the palace.
It resembled a bell, except that the vibration seemed to come from the water itself.
Nymora stood immediately.
A second sound followed.
Then a third.
Her expression changed.
"What is that?" I asked.
"The royal summons."
"To whom?"
She looked at the door.
"The king's chamber has been opened."
I rose.
"But the king is dead, isn't he?"
Nymora didn't answer.
And suddenly, I had a very bad feeling about where Korrin had gone.
---
Korrin found his mother in the private council room.
Queen Nerathe stood before a large window, her hands clasped behind her back. Toren was already there, arguing with one of the royal advisers.
When Korrin entered, both men fell silent.
"Where is Father?" he asked.
The queen turned.
"Why do you ask?"
"Because the Heart told us to ask him who gave the order at Blackwater."
Toren's expression tightened.
"You cannot seriously believe a voice from an unstable artefact."
"I believe it knew something none of us knew."
"And what if it was manipulating us?"
"Then we find out."
Korrin looked at his mother.
"Tell me what happened."
Nerathe walked to the table and placed both hands on its surface.
"Your father did not order the research at Blackwater to continue after Lyra objected."
Korrin frowned.
"Then who did?"
"The order came from the royal council."
"Who authorised it?"
"The council acted under the authority of the crown."
"That isn't an answer."
"No," she said quietly. "It isn't."
Toren stepped closer.
"Mother, what are you saying?"
She looked at both her sons.
"Your father discovered that the Heart was reacting to something beneath Blackwater. Something that had been sealed there long before our kingdom was built. He believed the fragment could help us understand it."
"And Lyra wanted to stop him," Korrin said.
"She wanted the chamber sealed permanently. Your father believed that doing so without understanding what lay inside would only delay the danger."
"Then why did he hide everything?"
"Because the research went wrong."
Nerathe's voice faltered.
"For one brief moment, the Heart stopped responding. Every protective current around Arealis failed. The city began to lose power, and the creatures that lived near the chamber became violent. Your father ordered the research team to evacuate."
"What happened to Lyra?"
"We don't know."
"And Selene's father?"
"We don't know that either."
Korrin stared at her.
"You're telling me that two people disappeared, an ancient power nearly destroyed the city, and the royal family simply decided to erase the records?"
"The records were sealed because we feared another attempt to reach the chamber."
"By whom?"
His mother looked at him.
"By anyone who believed they could control what was inside."
For a long moment, Korrin said nothing.
Then he asked the question he had been avoiding since they entered the archive.
"Did Father know Selene existed?"
Nerathe closed her eyes.
"Yes."
The answer struck him harder than he expected.
"How long?"
"Before she was born."
"And he never told me?"
"You were young, and he believed the less you knew, the safer you would be."
Korrin let out a bitter laugh.
"Apparently, keeping secrets is the only thing this family knows how to do."
Toren looked away.
The queen didn't defend herself.
That silence told Korrin more than any explanation could have.
---
By the time Korrin returned to the eastern chamber, I had learned two things.
First, the royal summons was not simply a bell. It was an ancient signal used only when something important happened within the palace.
Second, nobody in Arealis seemed capable of explaining anything without making it sound worse.
Korrin entered and closed the door behind him.
I stood immediately.
"Well?"
He looked exhausted.
"You're going to Blackwater."
I blinked.
"That's it? No argument? No speech about how dangerous it is?"
"It's dangerous."
"Obviously."
"And I still think you should stay here."
"Korrin."
"But I know you won't."
I considered that.
"You're learning."
He ignored me and placed a small object on the table. It was a dark metal disc, no larger than my palm, with the same three curved lines engraved on its surface.
"What is that?"
"A Blackwater access key. My father kept it in his private collection."
I picked it up carefully.
"Does the queen know you have this?"
"She gave it to me."
That surprised me.
"She actually agreed to let us go?"
"She agreed that the truth can no longer remain buried. That's not the same as approving our decision."
"Fair enough."
Korrin sat down opposite me.
"My father knew you existed before you were born. He knew your mother was involved with the Heart, and he knew what happened at Blackwater. He also ordered the records sealed."
"Do you think he was trying to protect my parents?"
"I don't know."
He looked down at the key.
"But I'm beginning to think that protecting people and protecting the truth became the same thing to him. He forgot that they aren't."
I sat beside him.
For once, I didn't have a sarcastic answer ready.
"I know what it's like to have people decide what you should be allowed to know," I said. "I spent years thinking my mother had left me with nothing but a few photographs and memories. Now I'm finding out that the ocean knows more about my family than I do."
Korrin looked at me.
"You're angry."
"Very."
"Good."
I frowned. "Good?"
"Anger can make you careless, but it can also remind you that something matters. Just don't let it make every decision for you."
I studied him.
"Was that advice or a royal command?"
"Advice."
"You're getting better at this."
He gave me a small smile.
It faded when he looked at the key again.
"We leave at first light."
I nodded.
Neither of us mentioned the possibility that we might not come back.
We didn't need to.
---
That night, I couldn't sleep.
The palace was quieter than usual, and the faint sounds of the city drifted through my window. I sat on the edge of my bed with the case open beside me.
The three shards were still.
The fourth fragment remained dark.
I touched the silver pendant hanging around my neck. It had belonged to my mother, one of the few things she'd left behind.
I had worn it for years without knowing what it meant.
Now I wondered whether it had been a key, a warning, or simply something she'd wanted me to keep.
I closed my eyes.
A melody came to me.
It was faint at first, almost lost beneath the sound of the water. Then the notes grew clearer, and I realised I recognised them.
My mother used to hum that tune when I was little.
I had forgotten most of it.
The words returned slowly.
"Nerai vael, thira en sol,
Let the deep remember all.
Where the lost and living meet,
Guard the door beneath the deep."
I whispered the final line.
The pendant grew warm against my skin.
Inside the case, the fourth fragment lit up.
A thin blue line appeared across its surface, forming a symbol I had never seen before.
Then a message emerged from the darkness.
Not a voice this time.
Words.
BLACKWATER — LOWER CHAMBER ACCESS GRANTED.
Beneath them, another line appeared.
WARNING: SEAL INTEGRITY AT 12%.
I stared at the message.
Twelve percent.
Whatever lay beneath Blackwater was not safely locked away.
It was breaking free.
And if my father had been trapped behind that seal, we might already be running out of time.
I closed the case and reached for my notebook.
Tomorrow, we would leave for Blackwater.
Tomorrow, I might finally learn what had happened to my parents.
But as I looked at the message one last time, another question settled into my mind.
If the seal was failing, who—or what—had been keeping it intact all these years?
And why had the Ocean's Heart chosen now to wake me up?
I didn't have an answer.
For the first time, I wasn't sure I wanted one.
Because somewhere far below Arealis, something had begun to knock.
And the sound was coming from the other side of the door.