Chapter 654: The City That Still Received Ships

Mara needed no further explanation.

As soon as Kael returned to the small coastal outpost, she was already ordering two of the guards to prepare the patrol vessel while the third activated the communication crystal linked to the towers farther north.

It was not a ship made for long voyages.

It had a narrow hull, two short sails, and enough reinforcement to cross storms without capsizing, but its greatest advantage was a mana-powered propulsion system independent of the wind.

At that moment, with the ocean itself beginning to bend its currents toward Selvanor, relying only on sails seemed like an excellent way to personally discover the fate of the seventy-four vessels recorded as having arrived at a submerged port.

"How long until we reach that ship?" Kael asked while Mara untied the moorings.

"If it keeps moving at that speed, forty minutes."

"Too long."

"If I increase propulsion, twenty-five."

"Better."

Mara glanced at him.

"If the sea starts pulling us toward Selvanor, maybe fifteen."

Kael stopped before climbing aboard.

"That part was less reassuring."

"I wasn’t trying to reassure you."

Umbra appeared in the mast’s shadow.

"I like her."

"This is starting to become an unpleasant pattern."

Sylphie boarded last, examining the water around the hull.

She did not seem worried about the waves, but about whatever existed beneath them.

Since the second beacon had been activated, something in the region had changed.

Not just the current.

There was a regularity in the maritime mana, a kind of pulse traveling across the ocean floor at nearly equal intervals and then returning with slight variations, as though three distant points were trying to synchronize.

"The beacons are talking," she said.

Mara turned while guiding the vessel away from the dock.

"Like lighthouses?"

"More like references trying to agree on where something is."

Kael took out the Shoreless Tide page.

ACTIVE BEACONS: 2.

AWAKENING: PENDING.

No change.

"If two are already active, why can’t the project determine the harbor?"

Sylphie thought for a few seconds.

"Two points give a direction. Three give a position."

Kael looked toward the sea.

"So the third one doesn’t just wake the project."

"It tells it where Selvanor is."

Mara made an expression Kael did not like.

"The city has been in the same place for twenty-seven years."

Irelia answered through the crystal Kael was still holding.

"Physically, yes."

Kael looked at her small image.

"You found something."

"Maybe."

She opened three maps on the table on her side.

The first showed Selvanor before the sinking.

The second contained surveys conducted two years later.

The third was much more recent, produced by researchers who had measured the bay’s depth without entering the restricted zone.

"The coordinates of the old city center do not change," Irelia explained. "But the reports from the missing vessels do not converge on those coordinates."

Kael frowned.

"Where do they converge?"

"Different positions."

Mara looked over her shoulder.

"That doesn’t make sense."

"It does if the harbor isn’t being defined geographically," Sylphie said.

Kael understood.

"The ships aren’t being guided to where Selvanor is."

Irelia nodded.

"They’re being guided to where Shoreless Tide says the harbor is."

That changed the nature of the problem.

An ordinary maritime reference pointed to a place.

Shoreless Tide seemed to do the opposite.

It defined the place from the reference.

Kael looked at the waves again.

"Amelia."

Her image appeared beside Irelia.

"I’m listening."

"Revision Two. Harbor reference independent of geographical alteration. I want to know when it was made."

"Already looking."

"Before or after the sinking."

Amelia became serious.

"Understood."

The vessel gained speed.

The farther south they traveled, the more obvious the unnatural force in the water became.

Mara had to reduce the propulsion twice because the sea itself began carrying the hull faster than was safe.

It was not a violent current.

That was precisely the problem.

There were no enormous waves, whirlpools, or any manifestation that looked hostile.

The ocean simply knew where they were supposed to go.

Kael did not like certainties that did not belong to him.

After fifteen minutes, the black ship became clearly visible.

It was smaller than it had appeared from a distance, but much stranger.

The hull was covered in old salt marks, some thick enough to suggest years without proper cleaning, while the furled sails were made of a black waterproof fabric Kael did not recognize.

There was no flag, crest, or name painted on the side.

There were, however, people.

Eleven.

Umbra confirmed it when they came close enough for her shadow to briefly touch the other hull.

"Eleven alive. Two below deck. Nine above."

"Armed?"

"Yes."

"Hostile?"

"I don’t know. Three are looking at us. The others are looking at the sea."

Kael moved toward the bow.

A man on the unknown ship raised a hand.

"Do not come closer."

Mara continued.

Kael looked at her.

"He just asked."

"We’re in restricted waters. Technically, I can ignore him."

"One more reason to like her," Umbra commented.

The man shouted again:

"If you cross the entry current, you won’t be able to leave!"

Kael became serious.

"Now that sounds like useful information."

Mara reduced propulsion, but did not stop completely.

The two vessels approached until about twenty meters remained between them.

Kael evaluated the man.

He looked perhaps forty, with sun-marked skin and clothing suited to a sailor.

No Order symbol.

No military uniform.

No attempt to hide his face.

Around his neck hung a small metal plate bearing a nautical star.

Kael recognized the design.

One of Selvanor’s nine seals.

"Navigation Council?" he asked.

The man went pale.

"Who are you?"

"Kael."

His expression worsened in an almost comical way.

"Scarlet?"

Kael sighed.

"Unfortunately, it seems so."

The man looked at his companions.

A woman beside him murmured something.

Then he turned back.

"My name is Daren Sol. Pilot of the Selvanor Council."

Mara went rigid.

"That council died twenty-seven years ago."

Daren did not answer immediately.

"No."

Silence.

Kael felt something click into place.

"The five seals were never recovered." ℴ

Daren touched the plate around his neck.

"Because they were never lost."

Amelia heard through the crystal.

"Kael."

"I know."

Their assumption had been wrong.

Maybe no one had dived into the ruins to steal the credentials of dead councilors.

Maybe the original owners had simply never left.

"How many survivors are down there?" Kael asked.

Daren looked at him as though deciding how much he could say.

The Shoreless Tide page vibrated.

Kael did not even need to open it.

Daren noticed.

"You have the record."

"Yes."

"Then you already know about the project."

"I know someone requested that it wake."

"We did."

"Why?"

The man looked at the sea.

"Because Selvanor is dying."

Mara tightened her grip on the edge of the helm.

"The city died twenty-seven years ago."

Daren looked at her.

"Two thousand one hundred and six inhabitants would disagree."

No one spoke.

Even Umbra remained silent.

Kael took several seconds to process the number.

"There are more than two thousand people living beneath the ocean."

"Yes."

"For twenty-seven years."

"Some were born there."

Sylphie became serious.

"How?"

Daren pointed downward.

"When Selvanor sank, the Navigation Core activated the reference network. Not only the beacons. The entire harbor. The central districts were surrounded by a pressure field before the water could completely enter. It didn’t save everyone. The outer neighborhoods flooded first. But the core, part of the commercial district, and three levels of the docks remained dry."

Kael looked at Mara.

She appeared as surprised as he was.

"Why did no one tell the continent?"

Daren gave a humorless laugh.

"We tried."

"Then explain the missing ships."

The man fell quiet.

The question had found a painful place.

"In the first weeks, the network still recognized all registered routes as valid. Ships arriving at Selvanor continued receiving approach references."

"Even with the harbor underwater."

"Yes."

"And seventy-four arrived."

Daren closed his eyes.

"Yes."

Kael’s expression cooled.

"How many survived?"

"Forty-nine vessels."

Mara cursed.

Daren continued before Kael could ask.

"The reference did not simply drag them to the bottom. When they reached the correct zone, the field tried to incorporate them into the protected harbor. Some hulls survived the transition. Others did not."

Now Kael understood why the records classified them as arrivals.

To Shoreless Tide, the ships truly had arrived.

The fact that some of them broke apart during the process did not change the category.

"Why did the project enter dormancy?"

"Because we managed to shut it down."

"Who?"

"The council."

"The five."

Daren nodded.

Kael looked at the seal.

"Did the original councilors survive?"

"Four of them. The fifth died eleven days later. But the council continued."

"With successors."

"With elections."

That made Irelia react through the crystal.

"Then the institution is legitimate."

Daren looked at the small image.

"It is."

Kael closed his eyes for a moment.

The page had been right.

Valid credentials.

He hated when that happened.

"Why awaken it now?"

Daren looked toward his ship.

"Because the pressure field keeping Selvanor dry is failing. In the last six months, we lost three sectors. Yesterday, one of the inner barriers ruptured. If the Navigation Core is not restarted during the alignment tide, the remaining districts will flood."

Sylphie understood the problem.

"And Shoreless Tide powers the core."

"Yes."

"But it also restores the routes."

Daren did not answer.

That was answer enough.

Kael ran a hand over his face.

Two thousand people beneath the sea.

A system that could save them.

The same system that, once awake, would begin guiding vessels toward a submerged harbor again.

"Why not evacuate the people?"

Daren laughed, this time with genuine exhaustion.

"We started twenty years ago."

Kael went still.

"Started?"

"Selvanor isn’t simply underwater. The field altered the spatial relationship between the harbor and the surface. We can only open exit routes during certain tides, and moving a few dozen people at a time requires months of preparation. Besides..."

He stopped.

Kael noticed.

"Besides?"

"Not everyone wants to leave."

Mara looked at him as though he had gone insane.

Daren answered before she could ask.

"It’s our city."

Kael knew that kind of sentence.

Not because he automatically agreed.

But because he understood the weight behind it.

For someone born beneath the ocean, Selvanor was not a ruin waiting to be rescued.

It was home.

The crystal glowed.

Amelia spoke.

"Kael, I found the date."

He looked at her.

"Revision Two?"

"Yes."

Her expression was bad.

"The change to harbor reference independent of geographical alteration was authorized three months before the sinking."

Kael fell silent.

So did Daren.

"By whom?" Sylphie asked.

Amelia answered.

"Selvanor Navigation Council."

Daren went pale.

"No."

"I have the record."

"That doesn’t exist in our archives."

Kael turned toward him.

"Then someone altered Shoreless Tide before the city sank."

The sea pulsed again.

Everyone looked south.

A third light appeared.

Not far away.

Beneath them.

Blue light pierced the water under both ships, transforming the entire ocean into a surface of illuminated glass.

The page appeared on its own in front of Kael.

ACTIVE BEACONS: 3.

HARBOR POSITION: ESTABLISHED.

AWAKENING PROCESSING.

Daren lost color.

"It shouldn’t have activated yet."

Kael looked at him.

"You didn’t do this?"

"No."

The water around the vessels became perfectly still.

Then it began to descend.

Not the waves.

The entire sea level around them.

As though the ocean were opening a road toward somewhere that did not exist on the surface.

Far below, through dozens of meters of water made transparent by the blue light, Kael saw towers.

Streets.

Domes.

Lighthouses.

And thousands of small lights glowing at the bottom of the sea.

Selvanor.

Still alive.

Then the page wrote:

PRIMARY REFERENCE RESTORED.

HARBOR RECOGNIZED.

And below it:

VESSELS APPROACHING: 2.

Kael looked at his own ship.

Then at Daren’s.

"Ah."

Sylphie closed her eyes.

Mara tightened her grip on the helm.

Umbra started laughing.

Kael pointed at her.

"Not a word."

The entire ocean began pulling them downward.