The arena dimmed slowly, the jade glow of the glyph wards spreading out like veins across the trench walls. Their light shimmered against the wet coral spires, reflecting in countless shells and eyes watching from above. The crowd's hum grew low and steady, its vibration carrying through the water until I could feel it in my ribs. My pearl pulsed in answer, faint but determined. The reef was holding its breath. So was I.
Serith floated at my left, posture calm, eyes closed as if this were meditation rather than trial. Yellow veins traced a quiet pattern under his skin, brightening faintly with each breath he drew. Venn stretched his arms and cracked his knuckles against his shield harness, the grin on his face as wide as the tension in the current around him."Ready to drown?" he asked, half-joking but with enough edge to show he meant it as a challenge."Only if you go first," I said, my voice steadier than the tight coil in my chest.Serith opened one eye and said softly, "Endurance favors rhythm, not bravado." His words slid into me like the guardian's own, grounding me just enough to stop my fins from twitching.
The signal pulse rippled outward, vibrating through every muscle. My fingers tightened, and water swirled close around me, shaping itself into a tight shield bubble. It wasn't thick, just enough to form a glimmering shell that responded to my flow. Blue light ran along its surface, alive and breathing. Around me, the other candidates formed their own spheres, glowing faintly in the dim trench like drifting stars waiting to burn or break.
The first wave struck. It rolled in with deceptive calm, testing every seam and weak point. Serith's bubble glided through the surge, bending gracefully to its push. Venn's flared bright with sheer force, cracking faintly where the pressure bit too hard. I let the water slide over mine, guiding instead of bracing. The surge hissed along the surface, then slid past, leaving the bubble intact. My pearl's glow steadied.
The wards pulsed brighter, releasing the second stage. Sharp currents sliced in from the sides, carrying coral shards spinning like knives. The crowd murmured louder, watching with sharp eyes. Serith's hands moved in precise arcs, spinning threadlike currents that caught every shard and rolled them aside without touching his shield. Venn slammed his streams outward, scattering shards violently. His bubble flickered under the stress, but it held.
I shaped streams that curved like hooks, catching the shards at the last moment, letting them drift harmlessly away. Each thread pulled at my focus, and sweat, no, seawater, burned along my gills from the effort. Two candidates ahead couldn't keep up. One bubble shattered completely, their body tumbling as glyph runners swept them from the field. Another's cracked open, light spilling like blood until they withdrew. The reef fell silent as they swam away.
The third pulse hit without warning, a spiral projectile streaking fast enough to blur. It struck my side like a spear, throwing me back into the trench wall. My shield cracked loud in my ears, spiderweb fractures spreading across its surface. Pain burned through my pearl, and my arms shook. Instinct told me to lock it down, to force it solid, but the guardian's voice came clear as if he were there: Balance lies in letting the current shape itself. I loosened my grip, let the shield breathe with the water, and watched the fractures seal into a pattern as smooth as the currents themselves. The crack vanished. My bubble held.
The final flare erupted. The wards exploded with green light so bright it cut shadows through the mist. The trench erupted into chaos. Eddies twisted in every direction, shards howled through the water like screaming fins, and the pressure surged like a storm trying to tear us apart. The roar of water drowned even the crowd.
Serith's pattern stuttered, his hands moving faster than sight to keep the weave from unraveling. His bubble trembled like stretched glass, but he held it together. Venn roared into the water, pushing raw power through his shield, his veins blazing, cracks racing across the bubble like lightning. Somehow, he kept standing against it.
My bubble warped until it looked ready to tear apart. Every impact stabbed pain through my veins, my chest screaming with the strain. The pearl inside me dimmed and flickered like a dying ember, my muscles burning with every breath. I almost let it break. I almost gave up.
Then I closed my eyes. Beneath the chaos, I felt the water's pulse, not mine. I let it guide me. Three tiny streams formed beneath my fingers, weaving into the outer layer of my bubble. They wrapped around it like threads, bending each shard aside, easing each surge's bite. The shield rippled, flexed, and steadied, thin as glass but unbroken.
The last flare died. The wards dimmed. Silence fell, thick and heavy, as if the reef itself exhaled.
The shields dissolved one by one. Serith drew in a long breath, arms trembling though his face stayed calm. Venn let out a ragged laugh, his cracks fading even as exhaustion lined his features. My own body trembled, my gills burned raw, but I was still there. My bubble had held.
The crowd's murmur rose like a tide, low and steady. It wasn't the roar of a festival. It was something deeper, respect carried in the current itself.
Captain Raalessar descended from his perch, green veins casting faint halos through the water. He looked over us slowly, his gaze sharp and heavy. When his eyes met mine, they lingered a heartbeat longer before he gave a single nod. He didn't speak, but the meaning rippled through the water. No praise. No comfort. Only acknowledgment, and that was enough.
Later, when the arena had emptied and only abandoned lanterns floated like fireflies in the water, I swam to the lagoon. Mist curled across the surface, glowing faint silver under distant stars. I felt the guardian there, not in sight, but in the deep vibration humming through the pearl, like a hand pressed to my heart.
"I held," I whispered, unsure if he would hear.
The water pulsed once, slow and deep. Not warm, not cold. Simply present.
I turned back toward the reef. The lanterns burned faint in the distance, their light threading across the dark water. The tide of tomorrow pulled at my fins, stronger than ever, and I let it take me. The trials were not finished. Neither was I.