The sea greeted them not with warmth, but with warning.
Waves churned as if stirred by ancient breath. Clouds rolled like bruises across the sky. Below them, beneath leagues of salt and silence, lay the Tide-vault — a forgotten ruin carved into the ocean floor.
"No one who's entered it has ever come back sane," Thalia said.
"That's comforting," Lyss muttered, clutching the mast as their ship, The Gasping Widow, groaned beneath the storm. "Can't wait to test my mental stability."
---
The Descent Begins
They reached a narrow channel where the waves parted around jagged rocks. A beacon stone flared on the deck — pulsing in Kael's satchel.
"The Memory Feather responds to something here," he said. "This is the place."
With borrowed diving runes and a spell-shell from Velka, they sank into the depths — bubbles dancing around them as the world grew darker, colder, quieter.
Soon, a structure emerged from the gloom: spiraling stone arches, covered in glowing barnacles and ember glyphs. Doors sealed tight by ancient magic.
"The Tide-vault," Thalia whispered. "Built to guard a truth the Ember King couldn't destroy."
---
The Vault of Whispers
Inside, water gave way to air — the inner chambers dry, protected by some arcane force.
Walls pulsed with memory echoes. Inscriptions writhed in old Emberian. Statues lined the halls — but these weren't of heroes. They were of betrayers. Each held a mask of stone.
Kael paused at one labeled: "Mira, Flame's First Lie."
"She was his advisor," Thalia murmured. "Some say she tried to crown herself queen."
Suddenly, the vault trembled. A groan echoed through the walls.
"We're not alone," Lyss warned, drawing her dagger. "And whatever's guarding this place… it's awake."
---
Guardian of the Vault
A low, melodic hum began — almost like singing.
From the depths of the vault swam a massive, eel-like creature made of coral, bone, and fire glass — the Vault Sentinel, a construct bound by the Ember King himself.
"You must prove your purpose," it spoke in an inhuman voice. "Or be sealed among the drowned."
Kael stepped forward, holding the Memory Feather.
"I seek truth. The third Ember Mark."
"Then relive the truth," it hissed. "And bear its weight."
---
Truth Revealed
Light flared — and Kael fell into memory:
The Ember King, younger, desperate, sealing a dying woman into the Tide-vault.
Her last words: "Don't let the shadow wear my face."
A child crying — Kael's voice.
"That woman…" Kael gasped as he returned. "That was my mother."
"And she didn't die in Emberreach," Thalia said. "She was sacrificed… to keep something sealed."
The creature growled.
"The third mark lies not in what you seek… but in what you are."
And with that, it gave Kael a shard of emberstone — glowing with his blood's resonance.
---
Escape and Resolve
As the vault began collapsing, the trio fled through rising water, battling the current and memory ghosts — fragments of the king's past. Kael carried the shard in one hand, the truth heavy in his chest.
They burst to the surface just as lightning split the sky.
"We have it," Kael coughed. "But everything's changed."
"Now we know what the Ash Blades truly want," Thalia said. "They're not after the marks… they're after your blood."
---