Elara had never heard silence quite like this.
Not the silence of water, which hummed soft and constant in her ears ever since she'd arrived beneath the sea. Not even the silence of being alone, drifting. This was different. Heavy. Pressed down like the weight of the ocean itself.
She stood at the edge of the Pearl Passage, a tunnel of living coral that glowed faintly in rhythmic pulses. Ahead, the great chamber of the Sea Elders waited—one of the oldest places in the realm. Only those summoned by divine mandate ever entered.
She had not asked to be summoned.
Dravion floated beside her, expression unreadable. He hadn't said a word since they'd left the reef village. Not even when her hand trembled slightly, brushing the edge of her robe.
Not my protector today, she realized.
Today, she was alone.
Two guards with scale-etched armor gestured for her to move forward. She did, forcing herself through the silent passage, every heartbeat echoing louder than the sea.
The chamber opened like a mouth. Great columns of shell and crystal spiraled toward a vaulted ceiling where jellyfish lanterns drifted, casting pale blue light in slow-moving waves. At the far end, seated on raised platforms carved from black pearl, were the Elders.
Seven in total. None smiling.
Elder Mareth sat at the center, robes shimmering with woven tide-thread, his face marked by age and authority. The others flanked him — some stoic, some curious, one outright scowling.
A hush settled as she approached. No whispers. No murmurs. Just… watching.
Then, Mareth spoke.
"Elara of the above world. Marked by light beneath your shoulder. You have seen the Pools. You carry a pet that glows in sacred presence. You are not one of us… yet the sea has not rejected you."
His voice rang with something ancient, almost incantation-like.
Elara lowered her eyes. "I don't know why I'm here. I didn't ask for the mark. I didn't ask for visions."
One of the Elders, a woman with scales at her throat, narrowed her eyes. "Yet the sea answers you. The Pools whispered. The creature follows."
"She is only a girl," another muttered.
"A girl," Mareth echoed slowly, "who triggered the memory pool… and emerged still breathing. That alone defies what we know."
"That sigil," one elder whispered, voice tight with disbelief. "It carries resonance from all four roots — sea, flame, forest, sky. But that convergence is extinct."
"Not since the Purge," Vira murmured. "No known line survived... except in forbidden scrolls."
Another leaned forward, gaze locked on her shoulder. "And yet she bears it openly."
Kaelen stirred beside her, gaze locked on the mark. Elara reached up, brushing the skin beneath her robe — the warmth still lingered.
"No creature, no oracle, no relic has ever awakened all four tides — sea, flame, forest, sky. Not even the old gods dared it."
"It cannot be natural," Theros snapped...
"Then she's not natural," muttered the youngest.
"Or she's a mistake," another said.
"Or she's a message," Vira whispered. "Left behind. Hidden until now."
Mareth's voice cut through the rising murmurs.
"Call it what you like. Sigil, curse, relic-bound fate — the mark has returned. And with it, the tide stirs."
He turned back to Elara.
"You will undergo the Trial of Truth. If your soul echoes with what you claim, the sea will answer. If not…"
He did not finish.
"The Court of Salt Judgment recognizes that her presence is unprecedented. The sea stirs. But we do not yet know… if it stirs for salvation, or for ruin."
A chill passed over her skin.
When she was finally dismissed, Dravion moved toward her wordlessly. He didn't speak until they were beyond the coral archways, Kaelen swimming quickly to her and curling around her wrist, glowing faintly.
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧
Kaelen had swum in restless loops outside the court, his fins flickering brighter with each raised voice, as if sensing something Elara couldn't name.
"You did well," Dravion said softly, eyes still distant.
"I didn't say anything useful," she whispered.
"You didn't need to. You were seen." He paused, as if uncertain, then added, "Not many would have stood like that before the Seven."
She looked down at Kaelen. "They think I'm dangerous."
"They think you're… something not seen for a very long time."
Elara didn't speak on the way home.
But as they returned to her coral dwelling, and the sea resumed its quiet lull, one thing clung to her like seaweed:
The Trial would be more than a test.
It would be a doorway.
And she had no idea what waited on the other side.
Far above the sealed chamber, the sea drifted on — unaware of the storm building beneath its calm.
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧
The chamber did not speak until she was gone.
The echoes of Elara's departure faded like ripples from a broken tide. The soft pulse of the coral walls dimmed. Only then did Mareth raise one hand — fingers glowing with ancient ink — and draw a shimmering sigil across the air.
A veil of silence fell.
Magic sealed the court from spies, whispers, and watching ears.
"Speak," he said. "The sea listens."
"Not just any mark," Theros muttered. "It was Niraya-born. I've only ever seen sketches in banned scrolls. That bloodline was erased by The Leviathan King himself."
"She shouldn't exist," Vira said. "The Niraya were wiped out to the last drop."
"And yet she stands," Mareth replied softly.
"What of the creature?" another elder asked. "The Selkyn. It follows her. Watches her like a guardian beast."
"They were once bonded to the Niraya," Vira murmured. "But only in myth."
"Nothing about her is ordinary."
"And have you not noticed the prince? He watches her too closely."
"She has his attention," one elder muttered. "The crown's heir shadowing a girl who fell from the sky. That is not a coincidence.That's entanglement."
"Dravion has always followed his instincts," Mareth said. "But loyalty pointed toward the wrong tide... becomes a blade."
Mareth exhaled, slow and deep. "Vaelros is stirring. We've lost two reefs already. Creatures gone. Shells shattered. The old patterns are repeating."
"Then we end it early," said the youngest among them. "Remove her. Seal the mark before it seals us."
Mareth closed his eyes. "You think we still control the tide?"
His voice was grave now. "If the Sigil of Niraya has returned… and he moves once more… then our age of hiding is over."
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧
Elara didn't speak on the way home.
Kaelen floated beside her, silent but warm, his little fins pulsing soft light with every beat of her heart. He nudged her hand when they reached her coral dwelling — a quiet cave etched with soft light and old stone. She drifted inside without answering.
Once the door was sealed, the silence came down like a curtain.
She curled into the corner of the coral-silk bed and let her body fold in on itself. Her chest ached. Not from the court. Not even from fear.
But from loneliness.
Her fingers clenched the fabric as her eyes burned. A name echoed in her head — a name she hadn't spoken in this realm.
Grandma.
A flash of memory — warm hands brushing her hair, soft humming under the kitchen lights. A lullaby, off-key and full of love.
"Even the lost ones find their way back, my little light. You just wait and see."
Elara wiped her cheek. The tears floated upward like stars.
"You'd know what to do, wouldn't you?" she whispered.
Her voice cracked in the quiet.
"I wish you were here. Or… or he was."
A longer pause.
"I miss my best friend." She gave a hollow laugh. "The one who never left my side. He'd walk me home. Sit outside my school. Bring me hot chocolate when I couldn't sleep after exams due to stress and he was always there wiping my tears when my classmates bullied me."
She turned toward Kaelen, voice dropping.
"Dravion's here… but not with me. He doesn't visit. Barely speaks. He's kind, but it's like… I'm made of glass — visible, but untouchable."
Kaelen nuzzled against her cheek.
"You're the only one who stays," she murmured. "Even when I don't deserve it."
And then… the tide of sleep pulled her under.
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧
She stood inside a ruin, half-swallowed by the sea. Coral columns tilted like ancient gravestones. Moonlight streamed in through a broken shell dome.
At the center, something pulsed — smooth, spiraled, golden-blue.
"It was never lost," said a voice that didn't belong to her.
"Only sealed."
Then — the shadow.
Hair like duskfire. Eyes like sorrow.
Watching her from a distance.
She reached for the relic.
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧
Elara awoke gasping, the image still pulsing behind her eyes.
Kaelen glowed faintly near the door, fins twitching. He turned toward her and swam slowly, deliberately, out into the current.
"Kaelen?"
He didn't answer. But his movement said everything.
She followed.
There she found ruins — a crumbled reef far beyond the sleeping edges of the coral city. Pale light filtered through jagged stone, dancing across the wreckage of an ancient temple.
It was exactly as she'd seen in her dream.
Elara approached the collapsed archway, heart thudding. The pulse… it was real.
Then a soft giggle.
She turned.
A small mermaid girl floated on the other side of the altar — glowing slightly, eyes unfocused, smile too wide.
"Hello, Elara," the girl said.
"What…?"
"How do you like the sea?"
Elara's blood ran cold.
"How do you know me?"
The girl tilted her head.
"The sea told me. Or maybe the song. It's hard to tell which is older."
Her voice was strange — too slow. Too clear. As if it wasn't truly hers.
"You need the piece," the girl said. "You'll forget again if you don't take it."
She pointed at the coral wall — where a spiraled relic rested, half-glowing.
"Just like the dream, right?"
Kaelen nuzzled the girl gently, glowing with soft warmth — a tenderness Elara had never seen from him.
"Kaelen—?"
He didn't even look back.
Why is he acting like that? He's never left me before.
The girl smiled faintly.
"Speak to it. When your mark hums, it'll answer. It always does."
Then her body jerked suddenly — her eyes flickering clear.
"Where am I…?"
She looked at Elara, panicked, and fled into the shadows of the reef.
Kaelen, once curled against the girl like a shadow, pulled back with a sudden flick of his fins — as if a thread had snapped.
He returned to her side, calm once more. He didn't mention the girl and neither did she ask.
Elara stepped forward.
The coral shifted around the relic — the same one from her dream. Shell-shaped. Silver veins. Warm.
She raised her hand.
Her mark pulsed, soft and glowing.
The relic answered.
A current circled her wrist like a ribbon. The water shimmered with light, curling into symbols too ancient to name.
A whisper touched her bones.
"Sealed… but not lost."
It hadn't been a dream. Or maybe it had — but someone wanted her to remember.
She didn't know what she'd found.
Only that someone — or something — had called her here.
And the sea had whispered her name before even she even remembered it.
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧