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 when Kaelen had tried to follow her and was turned away by the guards. 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."
Elara's chest tightened. "I saw my parents. They were calling to me."
"And the mark pulsed?" Mareth leaned forward.
"Yes."
A silence.
Then one Elder whispered, almost to himself, "Nirith Fire…"
The name struck her like a current. She didn't know what it meant, but her mark flared faintly under her robes, and her skin turned cold.
Elara looked up sharply. "What did you say?"
He didn't repeat it.
Instead, Mareth raised a hand, and a soft chime echoed through the water — ancient magic resonating in coral strands.
"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."
At that, several Elders shifted. One stood.
"With respect, I request we seek another solution," the elder snapped. "We do not gamble the fate of three realms on a girl who fell from above!"
Another nodded. "We have warriors. Seers. Summoners—"
"She faced the memory tide and did not break," Mareth interrupted. "That earns her judgment, not exile."
A low murmur ran through the chamber now. Faint tension rippled the water.
Dravion remained near the entrance, arms folded. His eyes never left her.
She looked at him once, hoping for a word of support. But his jaw was set, and his silence cut deeper than the Elders' doubt.
"Elara," Mareth said, "you will undergo a Trial. Not one of strength, but of truth. You will pass through the Vision Gate. If you emerge intact, then the sea will speak for you."
Elara swallowed. "And if I don't?"
"You will not need to worry about the mark again."
A chill passed over her skin.
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧
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.
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 lifted her gaze. "What is Nirith Fire?"
Dravion's expression didn't change, but his voice was barely a whisper now.
"A name… lost in the drowning of heaven. Don't speak it loudly."
She didn't.
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.
✧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 Vaelros 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 mark 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, who had been pressing close to her seconds ago, pulled back as if released from a trance.
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 remembered it.
✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧✧𓂃⋆༶⋆𓂃✧