They continued to pursue the sting ray, still thinking Roxy was attached to it.
None of them paused to think of how Roxy would be able to breathe if she were attached to the animal.
The ocean had changed here, and they could feel it in their bones.
It was no longer an endless, freezing black void. Ahead of them, the abyss began to glow with a red light.
They had chased the sting ray deep into a jagged canyon of stone where the very floor of the world had cracked open. Towering chimneys of rock spewed thick, black smoke and streams of boiling water directly into the freezing deep.
"The warmth here is deadly," Syris said, his voice tight. He wiped sweat from his eyes, staring through the thick crystal porthole. "The currents here are too violent. Nothing had told us about a fire under the sea."
