The sunstone trim of the outer trench dock shimmered silver–pink under the weak dawn glow, but nothing about the scene felt like morning. Shields above the waterline guttered, runic script blinking warnings that never stopped. Steam vented from the ridge in slow bursts, each plume curling into the water and turning it murky with heat. The mineral reek clung to my gills, leaving a metallic taste. The liaison band on my wrist pulsed a faint low-green, almost yellow, tapping in rhythm with the heart's distant tremor.
We assembled on a platform that had once been coral seamlessly grown with steel. Now the surface vibrated under every pulse of the ridge below. Our mixed team carried flares, mirror-baffled anchor cannons, chill coils, and Exile glyph cloth. What we didn't carry was any certainty.
Ashekan moved among us, checking bindings and adjusting Lis's patched visor. Her fins twitched in a nervous rhythm despite her steady voice. Saar hovered close, cloak fins spread like wings, his presence as unyielding as the heat. Echo-Hand stood at the edge, hands open, silent in greeting to the water.
Veshra swam up to me, protecting her slate from the rising bubbles. The vial strapped to her chest glowed dull violet inside its foam. She pressed a small metal disc into my palm.
"This is the pulse key," she said softly. "It's tuned to the first heart's rhythm. If the second chamber beats out of range, you need to stabilise it with this before we use any coolant."
The disc vibrated gently like a heartbeat. I slid it into a slot on my bracer. The liaison band dimmed and my pearl veins shimmered faintly in cautious agreement.
Lis leaned close to me. "If it starts counting differently, just shout, alright? I'll anchor and pull you back if I have to."
"I'd rather not need rescuing," I said with a small smile, "but keep that line ready."
Steam drifted in thick curtains when the lift whistle blew. Echo-Hand led. Saar and Ilin followed quietly, alert. Behind them came Ashekan, Lis, and two shellguards with chill coils. I stayed near the back to sense the group's rhythm. The tremor in the rails matched the beat in my chest.
Heat pressed against us as we entered the steam corridor. The chasm was carved by centuries of boiling current. Its walls wept silt, and fresh vents spewed clouds that shimmered like liquid fire. Each plume burned my gills until I spread a thin coolant skin to shield them. The pearl flickered green, strained but holding.
Saar darted around a vent, cloak fins splitting the plume. "Stone curves here," he called back. "There's a marker arrow ahead."
Lis made a sound like a laugh. "Appreciate the map, cloak-lord."
"I prefer Saar," he replied, not looking back.
The bit of banter helped. Steam blurred my vision. Through the hiss, I heard deep thuds, the second heart's pulse. The rhythm pulled at me, faster than the first heart, more erratic.
We broke free of the steam into sudden cool. It felt like swimming out of boiling tide into shadow. The ravine opened around us, vast and filled with fractured glass-bloom spires that glowed faint turquoise. Light scattered through them in soft rays. The water here smelled of crystal and stone dust.
At the centre, lodged in the cliffside, pulsed a smaller sphere. Two lung rings funneled amber fluid into its core. Motes spiraled around it like slow storm clouds. My pearl throbbed faster, veins tingling. The disc on my bracer hummed.
Echo-Hand's voice was low. "Second Breath." A glyph pulsed on a cracked pillar, glowing faintly like a bruise.
Lis whispered, "It's… beautiful, isn't it?"
Ashekan lowered his spear. "Beauty doesn't keep us safe. We take readings and leave before it wakes."
Veshra's slate chimed. "Slurry density is half yesterday's, but triple the volume." My throat tightened. "If it feeds faster, the motes could flood this ravine soon."
We circled the chamber. Heat radiated from the conduits. Echo-Hand's glyph cloth stirred, catching patterns invisible to me.
Ashekan said, "We plant the coolant, seal the conduits, and pull out. No link."
"No," Echo-Hand said calmly. "Seal without harmony and the steam backs into lower vents. The reef suffocates."
Lis frowned. "Harmony? What do you mean?"
"The pulse key," Echo-Hand gestured to my bracer. "You match the beats. Then the coolant listens."
Ashekan shook his head. "We don't gamble on Exile theories."
Lis looked right at me. "We gamble on worse every day. Try it, Kaelen."
The demi-god's words came to me: guide currents, do not force. "We synchronise the beats, then seal."
The half-heart's rhythm doubled, then skipped. Steam burst from a lung ring, carrying shards of crystal that clouded the water with glittering dust. Motes swarmed the shards, fusing into wolf-shaped forms built of glass and shadow. Their howls rippled the current, sharp vibrations cutting through my chest.
Lis shot an anchor into a spire and climbed for a better angle, cannon ready. Saar spread mirrored cloth, deflecting the wolves' sonar pulses. Ashekan planted a coolant charge, then turned to fight.
The first wolf lunged. I raised a water lens; the howl shattered it. Shards sliced my cheek. The disc on my bracer pulsed; I pressed it and spun water into a spiral tuned to the first heart. The spiral spread, calming the current. The wolves slowed, bodies flickering.
Lis's cannon tore through one's leg, crystal dust clouding the water. Ilin's mist balm dulled shards mid-attack. Ashekan's spear cut a conduit; amber fluid burst, but Saar's mirrored cloth drew motes away.
Another wolf lunged at Veshra. I surged forward, pearl veins burning, spiral wrapping its body. Ashekan struck its core. It dissolved into clouded sand. Two remained, circling. Lis shouted, "Keep the beat steady, Kaelen!" My arms shook, the spiral burning through me. My veins glowed bright green. One wolf collapsed. The last shuddered, crumbled, and scattered.
The final pulse trembled through the ravine. Wolves were gone. The half-heart's beat fluttered. "Seal the coolant," Ashekan ordered.
Echo-Hand grabbed my arm. "Disc first. Link the beats."
Lis called down, "Do it! We can't hold if it wakes again."
I pressed the disc into the core seam. Cold current rushed through me, then blazing heat. Pain split my wrist, but the disc locked. The heart's beat steadied, vents cooled. Ashekan triggered coolant; frost raced along conduits, sealing them. The chamber dimmed to a calm amber.
Clouds of crystal dust settled. Echo-Hand hummed softly, a tone the water carried far. Lis descended from her perch, cannon across her back. Ashekan closed the coolant case, face unreadable. Saar swam closer, his presence calm.
"You guided currents," he said quietly. "You didn't force them."
"Or gambled," I muttered, feeling the pearl dim from strain.
The liaison band glowed steady, but faint vibrations echoed in it—the first heart's beat, now counting faster. Echo-Hand looked upward. "The first chamber feels the link."
Two hearts now breathed together, and the reef had one rhythm less to lose.