From a distance, Tidehaven looked serene, almost reverent. Towers of sandstone rose from the sea like pale ribs. They were reinforced with steel and threaded together by translucent walkways that bent the sunlight into shifting blues and greens. Water flowed everywhere, not just beneath the city but through it. Channels ran alongside the streets. Glass tunnels cut directly through the ocean so that fish drifted past at eye level like living murals.
Felicity stood at the edge of the upper causeway, fingers tightening around the railing. Her ears tipped forward, tail swaying rhythmically as she surveyed her surroundings, gaze lingering on every detail.
"It's beautiful," she murmured.
Victor moved in close behind her. He slid his arm around her lower back in a deliberately protective gesture—a calculated statement for all who recognised Snow Team's dynamics. To those who understood predator behaviour, it spoke clearly: Territory. Protection. Warning.
Voss placed himself on her other side, posture deceptively relaxed. Eyes scanning the city, he calculated distances, pinpointed choke points, assessed elevated positions, monitored crowd density, and counted armed personnel. Tidehaven impressed him, but he tracked every potential threat.
Too many people. Too many men.
They felt Felicity before most of them consciously noticed her.
Tidehaven had a pulse to it, the steady rhythm of a functioning stronghold, but that rhythm shifted subtly the moment she stepped fully into the flow of the streets. Heads turned. Conversations slowed. The air itself seemed to thicken as the unfamiliar scent of a fox beastwoman threaded through the salt and steel of the harbour city.
Felicity didn't notice the change at first. She was too absorbed in the architecture. Water ran through channels cut into the stone, and sunlight refracted through the glass tunnels above them.
Victor's gaze sharpened as he tracked the atmosphere shift around them, attention instantly snapping to subtle changes in the crowd's energy.
Victor pressed his hand more firmly to her back, steering her with directed pressure as he guided her deeper into Tidehaven.
"Stay between us," he said quietly.
She nodded without hesitation and kept walking.
The attention escalated quickly once they entered the main thoroughfare. Mercenaries leaning against railings stopped mid-conversation. Dockworkers paused while hauling cargo. Even the Tidehaven soldiers marked with Pia's crest followed Felicity with their eyes longer than politeness allowed.
One of them stepped closer than the rest.
He was tall and broad-shouldered. He moved with the relaxed confidence of someone who had never been meaningfully corrected in his life. His gaze slid over Felicity in open assessment as he approached.
Victor corrected him before he could speak.
Victor's aura snapped outward. The pressure came with surgical precision—heat and cold folding together into something sharp. It was sharp enough to sting the lungs. The soldier staggered back instinctively. Boots scraped across the stone as his body reacted to the predator before him.
Victor's voice remained calm.
"Not yours."
The message travelled farther than the words themselves.
A second man attempted to approach anyway, his hand lifting with a smile that suggested he thought himself charming.
Voss intervened without even looking at him.
Voss redirected the would-be interloper with a silent, forceful glance. The man recoiled, shuddering, as if compelled by an overpowering, unspoken warning. He retreated, steps quickening, intent replaced by nervous urgency.
He left at a near jog.
Felicity glanced up at them both, confused by the tension she could only partly sense.
"You don't have to do that," she said.
"We do," Voss replied gently.
Victor's grip at her waist tightened briefly before relaxing again.
"You don't see it yet," he said. "That's a good thing."
They guided her farther into the city. They moved past open markets suspended over seawater and residential structures carved directly into reefstone. Training yards appeared intermittently between buildings. Tidehaven's elite soldiers drilled in disciplined formations. Above them, glass tunnels carried entire rivers of fish through the sky. Their silver bodies shifted in synchronised waves, making Felicity smile in quiet delight.
Above the streets, the perspective shifted to Pia, who watched from the upper terraces, unseen by those below.
Her trident rested casually against her shoulder. Several of her officers observed the newcomers with open interest.
"She's softer than I expected," one of the men muttered.
Another officer shook his head slightly. "Look at how Snow Team moves around her. That's not softness. That's leverage."
Pia's expression hardened.
"They won't be able to keep her forever," she said coldly. "No one ever does."
Below, Felicity had reached the residence assigned to them, unaware of the watchful eyes above.
The structure stood in a quieter quadrant of Tidehaven, away from the docks and the main barracks. The entrance formed a wide arch of reinforced glass and cor-steel. Water flowed through carved channels along either side. Inside, the space opened into a broad central living area that made Felicity stop in surprise.
The room felt warm, despite the ocean surrounding it. Polished stone floors, softened by woven rugs. Crystal panels glowed in the walls, mimicking sunlight filtering through water. Curved seating wrapped a low table. Shelves were already stocked with basic supplies. A compact kitchen sat in one corner while several private rooms branched deeper into the structure.
A bathing chamber occupied the far end of the residence, where filtered seawater filled a recessed pool that released gentle curls of steam.
Felicity turned slowly in place.
"This is ours?"
"For now," Victor answered. "Two exits. One vertical shaft. Pressure-rated walls."
Voss ran his fingers slowly along the window frame, tapping sharply, then pivoted to scan the sea, eyes narrowing as he studied the waters beyond for threats.
There's shielding in the structure. Not enough to hold off a full assault. But enough to buy time.
Felicity wandered slowly through the space, touching everything with quiet curiosity. She paused at the wide window where the ocean pressed against the glass. A silver fish drifted past, hovering at eye level as if studying her in return.
She laughed softly.
"I've never lived anywhere like this."
Victor watched her like the entire room had rearranged itself around her presence. "You deserve a castle, not this," he said simply. His eyes were fixed on the horizon as if he could see golden spires there.
Elsewhere, above the district, the perspective remained with Pia and her officers as they observed with intent.
"She settles quickly," one of them noted.
"If we wait too long, it'll be harder."
Pia tightened her grip on the trident.
"Then we don't wait."
Snow Team barely had time to acclimate before orders arrived.
An escort mission had been assigned. A trade caravan would move between Tidehaven and a smaller inland base. It required protection. The cargo: weapons, supplies, and information. All are valuable enough to attract every hostile group in the region.
Victor accepted the mission immediately.
The shift in the room was subtle but unmistakable. His posture straightened, and the warmth he carried around Felicity slid behind command. Voss began outlining potential routes in his head before the briefing had even finished.
"You're staying here," Victor told Felicity.
Her smile wavered slightly, but she nodded.
"I know."
Victor pressed his forehead to hers, lingering for an extra moment. Voss rested his hand on her head with measured steadiness. Both turned away abruptly, shifting swiftly toward the door, their actions decisive.
"We'll be back."
Victor insisted that Luna and Frost accompany them.
"They need exposure," he said calmly. "Real terrain. Real threats."
Felicity knelt and methodically tightened the buckles on Luna's travel straps, checking their fit before running her hand down Luna's arm with a reassuring squeeze.
"You'll do great," she told them both.
Frost attempted to look brave, though his tail betrayed his nerves.
Luna wrapped her arms around Felicity's legs in a tight hug.
"I'll bring you shinies."
Victor smiled faintly at that before leading the team out.
The door sealed behind them.
Water resumed its slow drifting movement outside the glass.
Only Felicity and Rose remained inside, unaccompanied by the rest of the team.
Rose stalked the perimeter, her footsteps measured and the vines beneath her skin rippling with each pass.
"I don't like this," she muttered.
"Too quiet."
Felicity laughed lightly.
"You hate quiet."
Rose shook her head slowly.
"Not this kind."
Meanwhile, high above the district, the story returned to Pia's men as they waited patiently, keeping watch over the emptying residence.
They watched until Snow Team's signal faded into the distance.
Then they moved.
The residence defences disengaged with ease. The right pattern pressed against the coralsteel seam opened them without trouble. The house recognised the authority in the code and yielded without resistance.
Rose had barely turned toward the sound when the first man entered.
Shadows flooded the room.
Steel flashed.
"Don't scream," one of them said calmly. "We don't want to hurt you."
Another stepped closer, his gaze sliding over Felicity with unsettling interest.
"But we will."
Rose's vines surged instantly. The strike came from behind, too quick for her to fully react. The blow was precise and brutally efficient. She collapsed. Her magic sputtered across the stone like broken roots.
Felicity tensed. She twisted against the grip that locked around her arms. A rough hand slammed a cloth over her mouth, pressing hard despite her instinctive struggle.
Her magic reacted instinctively as the world tilted. The room blurred while darkness crept inward from the edges of her vision. Power slipped loose in a thin, uncontrolled ripple that spread briefly across the coralsteel floor before fading into the structure.
No one noticed.
"Careful," one of the men murmured. "She's valuable."
Another voice laughed quietly.
"We could take turns before..."
"No."
A Tidehaven officer stepped forward, his crest visible on his armour.
"She belongs to Pia," he said coldly. "Touch her, and you answer to her mates"
Reluctant hands withdrew.
Felicity's consciousness slipped away.
Moments later, Rose's eyes opened.
The room swam as she forced herself upright. Her head throbbed, and the floor beneath her palms was cracked where her vines had lashed out during the attack. The scent of strangers filled the air.
But the absence struck harder.
Felicity was gone.
Rose pushed herself against the wall, breathing slowly through the pain as her vines slid across the stone floor, tasting the lingering traces of the men who had taken her.
Victor was going to burn this entire city down.
Miles away, Snow Team fought through the escort route as it collapsed into chaos.
Zombies surged from ruined buildings, their bodies hardened with fused bone and metal. The caravan nearly broke apart when one trader was dragged screaming into a collapsed storefront.
Victor tore space open in violent bursts, swallowing wreckage and undead bodies alike.
"Close ranks," Voss ordered sharply.
The formation snapped back together under pressure.
Luna unleashed a wave of telekinetic force that crushed three undead at once while Frost held the shield line beside her with stubborn determination.
Between engagements, Victor gathered anything useful he could find. Food. Weapons. Fabric.
Voss noticed the blankets.
"She'd like those," Victor said quietly as he stored them.
Luna nodded seriously.
"For mummy."
They had no idea.
When Snow Team returned to Tidehaven days later, Victor reached the residence first. The door opened easily when he pressed his palm against the coralsteel seam.
At first, nothing appeared wrong.
The lights glowed softly, and the ocean drifted beyond the glass windows in quiet blue currents.
Then Victor smelled it.
Too many strangers had been inside.
He stopped moving.
Behind him, Luna stepped into the room, already talking about the shells she had gathered along the shore. She stopped mid-sentence when she realised Felicity wasn't there.
Victor's gaze had dropped to the floor.
Rose sat against the far wall with bruises darkening her skin and fury burning in her eyes.
Victor spoke quietly.
"Where is she?"
Rose met his gaze.
"They took her."
The room fell completely silent.