The Wind Ember's whisper still clung to Raine's skin like sea spray as they stood at the edge of the Abyssal Mawa gaping wound in the oceans surface where the water fell endlessly into the dark. The air here was thick with the scent of salt and something older, something that tasted of forgotten depths. Kaios's silver hair, now streaked with white at the tips from Elysa's temporal blade, flickered like a dying star as he stared into the abyss.
*"The Water Ember isnt guarded,"* he murmured. *"It's drowning."*
Raine tightened her grip on the Wind Ember, its cerulean light pulsing in time with the crystals in her arms. The corruption had spread past her elbows now, the shards glinting like frost under her skin.
"Then we dive."
Kaios's mismatched eyesgold and violet, like a fractured dawnflicked to her.
*'The Maze doesnt just drown bodies. It drowns* memories. *
One misstep, and youll forget why you ever surfaced."*
A wave crashed against the cliffs, and for a moment, the foam formed shapesfaces, screaming.
Raine stepped forward. "Ive already lost enough." --
The descent was silence itself.
The water accepted them without sound, without bubbles, as if they'd always belonged to the dark. Kaios's form blurred at the edges, his temporal curse warping the currents around him. Raine's crystallized arms glowed faintly, casting jagged shadows through the gloom.
Then the Maze *shifted*.
Walls of living coral rose around them, their surfaces etched with scenes of sinking cities and whispered pleas. The coral wasnt just growingit was*remembering*.
*"Dont touch it,"* Kaios's voice echoed in her mind, a thread of sound in the crushing quiet. *"The Maze feeds on stories."*
But the Maze had other plans.
A tendril of coral lashed out, brushing Raine's wrist-
---
*She was seven years old, standing on the shores of Aeris with her mother. The sky was violet with storm, the air humming with the Conclaves energy. Her mother's hands were warm as she braided Raine's hair, her voice soft:*
*"The crystals in our blood arent a curse, little spark. They're a choice. One day, youll have to make yours."*
*Then the tide came in black, and her mother's skin turned to obsidian-
...
Raine wrenched back, gasping. The vision clung like saltwater in her lungs. The coral had *shown* her that. Had *taken* it from her.
Kaios seized her shoulder. *"Focus. The Maze will use your past to drown you."*
Ahead, the coral parted, revealing a cavern lined with statuesfigures frozen in mid-scream, their mouths open, their eyes hollow. Not stone.
*People*.
And at the caverns heart, suspended in a sphere of liquid shadow, was the Water Ember.
It was *bleeding*.
Thin rivulets of blue energy seeped from the Ember into the surrounding coral, feeding the Maze. And wrapped around the shard, like a lover, was a creature of ink and teetha-guardian, or a parasite.
*"The Tidelurker,"* Kaios breathed. *"The Conclave's watchdog."*
The creature's head snapped up. It had no eyes, only pits that reflected the Embers dying light.
Raine's gloves crackled. "Were taking it."
The Tidelurker *moved*.
It uncoiled in a single, liquid motion, its form dissolving into the water,
becoming the current itself. The cavern trembled as the coral came alive, the statues'screams finally given voice-
A chorus of *'DONT TOUCH IT DONT TAKE IT YOULL DROWN YOULL DROWN YOULL"*
Kaios's hands flared with temporal energy. *"Raine, now!"* She lunged.
The Tidelurker struck first.
Its form solidified around her, tendrils of pure pressure crushing her ribs, forcing the air from her lungs. The crystals in her arms *screamed*, their light flaring as the creature's darkness seeped into them.
She was dissolving. Becoming part of the Maze.
Then-
A whisper. Not the corals. Not the Tidelurker's.
Her *mothers*.
*'The choice, Raine. Always the choice."*
The Fire Ember in her glove *ignited*.
Flames shouldnt burn underwater. But this wasnt fire. It was *memory*.
The blaze tore through the Tidelurker, not as heat, but as *will*the memory of her mother's hands, her city's spires, her own unbroken rage.
The creature shrieked, its form unraveling.
Raines fingers closed around the Water Ember.
The moment she touched it, the Maze *screamed*.
The coral shattered. The statues crumbled. And the water-
The water *remembered*.
*She stood in the Conclave's deepest vault, where elders in bloodstained
robes chanted over a pool of liquid void. A child floated in its centera-girl with Raine's face, her veins glowing blue as the Water Ember was forced into her chest.
The elders' voices were giddy:*
*"The perfect vessel. The perfect key."*
*Then the girl's eyes opened.
---
Raine recoiled, thevision snapping like a taut wire. The Water Ember throbbed in her grip, its light now a steady pulse. The Maze was collapsing around them, its stolen memories rushing back to the surface in a whirlpool of light and sound.
Kaios grabbed her. *"We have to go!"*
They shot upward, the water howling in their wake. As they breached the surface, the ocean behind them *boiled*, the Abyssal Maw collapsing in on itself.
On the cliffs, Raine collapsed, coughing saltwater and blood. The Water Ember lay in her palm, whole again.
Kaios stared at the churning sea. *"That wasnt just a memory. That was'*
*"Me,"* Raine finished, her voice raw. *"Or someone who was supposed to be."*
The truth was a knife in her ribs. The Conclave hadnt just experimented on her family.
They'd *made* her.
And the Rift wasnt an accident.
It was a *door*.
Kaioss hand found hers, his fingers trembling. *"We need the last Ember."*
Raine clenched the Water Ember, its light mixing with the Fire and Wind in her veins. *"Then we end this."*
Above them, the sky darkenednot with storm, but with something vast, something *hungry*.
The Rift was watching.
And it was *hungry*.