The sea was silent.
Not calm. Silent.
Dominic stood alone in the inner sanctum of the Temple of the Tide, surrounded by ancient columns etched with runes too old for memory. The water here was still—unnaturally so—and the air held the weight of something ancient watching.
Talyon stood at the entrance, arms crossed, face unreadable.
"This is the Trial of the Deep," he said. "Every ruler of the sea must pass it. No god, no mortal can fake their way through it."
Dominic stepped forward, trident in hand, heartbeat steady despite the chill rising through the stone.
"What do I have to do?" he asked.
Talyon didn't answer.
Because suddenly, the sea answered for him.
The floor beneath Dominic gave way, and he plunged downward—through shadow and silence—into the abyss.
---
There was no light in this place. No direction. No gravity.
Just Dominic, floating, suspended in water that didn't feel wet. The silence pressed in, loud and suffocating. Then came the voice.
"Dominic…"
His eyes widened. That voice—it was his mother's.
He turned sharply, and there she was, standing on dry land beneath the sea, wearing her hospital clothes, pale and fading.
"You left me," she whispered.
"No—no, I didn't. I died," Dominic said, stepping forward. "I didn't have a choice!"
Her eyes filled with tears. "Then why didn't you fight harder?"
The shadows around her twisted into images from his past—his hospital bed, the machines beeping, friends walking out of his life one by one. The football team photo without him. His school locker, untouched. The lonely tray of untouched food.
The guilt roared in his chest like a tidal wave.
"You abandoned your life," a second voice said. This one was darker, deeper… his own voice, but twisted. "You died with regret in your bones, and now you want to wear a crown you didn't earn."
Dominic trembled. "I didn't ask to be reborn."
"But you were."
Suddenly, the water lit up, revealing a hundred versions of himself—sick, broken, crying, screaming. All the moments he'd hidden. All the shame he'd buried.
"You cannot rule the sea if you haven't conquered the storm within."
And then it happened.
The water crashed in on him from all sides. He sank deeper, deeper, lungs burning, vision blurring.
But just when it felt like he'd drown—
He remembered.
His mother's final smile. Her strength even in the face of death. Her whispered words: You will be okay, my boy.
Dominic's eyes snapped open. The fear broke like glass. He roared, and the shadows shattered. The twisted versions of himself dissolved. The sea responded—not as a prison, but as a part of him.
Lightning coursed down his arms. His trident blazed with energy. The abyss trembled at his command.
The Trial of the Deep… was over.
---
He emerged back into the temple, gasping for breath, but standing tall.
Talyon smiled faintly. "You faced yourself. And you didn't run."
Dominic wiped saltwater from his eyes. "I'm done running."
"Good," Talyon said. "Because Athens won't survive what's coming without its king."
Far in the distance, across the sea, the rift cracked wider—and something began to rise from its core.
Something ancient.
Something hungry.