Maren's POV - Present Day
"We need to run. NOW."
Vaelen grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the Heart of the Oath. The doorway slammed shut behind us as the palace shook again, harder this time.
"Run where?" I stumbled after him through the crumbling corridors. "We're underwater! Trapped!"
"Not trapped. Hidden." He yanked me into a side passage I'd never noticed before. "This palace has secrets even the Guild doesn't know about."
Behind us, the roar of seven corrupted guardians echoed through the water. I risked a glance back and immediately wished I hadn't. They were tearing through the palace like it was paper, their dead eyes glowing with Morgassa's dark magic.
"Vaelen!" I pointed at Lira's sphere, still hanging in the main chamber. "We can't leave her!"
"We'll come back!" He pulled harder. "If we die, she dies anyway!"
He was right, but it felt like betrayal. Again. Always leaving Lira behind.
The passage narrowed until we had to swim single-file. Ancient carvings covered the walls—symbols I couldn't read but somehow understood. Warnings. Keep out. Danger. Sacred ground.
"Where does this lead?" I asked.
"The Old Temple. Where gods came before humans learned to trap them." Vaelen's voice echoed strangely in the tight space. "If Morgassa truly is alive, this is the only place that might hide us from her magic."
The passage opened into a massive chamber that took my breath away.
It was beautiful. Wrong word—it was beyond beautiful. Crystal formations grew from floor to ceiling, each one singing with its own pure note. The water here wasn't black but clear as glass, lit by some internal light source I couldn't identify. And in the center stood an altar carved from a single piece of pearl.
"This is where Thessaly brought me," Vaelen said softly, staring at the altar. "Before the Guild corrupted her. Before everything went wrong. She'd found this place in her research. Wanted to show me that not all human magic was destructive."
I could see it in my mind—young Vaelen and Thessaly, swimming through this sacred space, planning a future they'd never get to have.
"I'm sorry," I said.
"Don't be. She made her choice." But his voice cracked. "She chose to save others over us. I can't hate her for that."
The palace shook violently. Chunks of crystal fell from the ceiling, shattering on the altar.
"They're getting closer," Vaelen said. "Morgassa's magic is overwhelming my defenses."
"Then we fight."
"With what?" He gestured at the empty temple. "We barely survived one corrupted guardian. She brought seven. Plus her own power, which is—" He stopped, his face going pale. "Oh no."
"What?"
"I just remembered something." Vaelen moved to the altar, running his hands over the carvings. "Thessaly told me Morgassa was the one who discovered how to corrupt sea guardians in the first place. She experimented on them, trying to find the perfect way to bind divine beings."
"So?"
"So each corrupted guardian is connected to her through blood magic. She can see through their eyes. Control their movements." He looked at me, and I saw real fear. "Which means she's been watching us this entire time. She heard everything we said in the Heart of the Oath. She knows—"
The water around us froze solid.
I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Ice locked my arms, my legs, my chest. Beside me, Vaelen struggled against the same invisible prison.
"She knows about the sacrifice," he finished weakly.
Morgassa materialized in front of the altar like she'd been there all along. Up close, she was even more terrifying. Her face was beautiful but wrong—too perfect, like a doll's face. Her eyes were completely black, no whites at all. And her crown of bones pulsed with dark magic.
"Hello, serpent," she said, her voice like poisoned honey. "It's been a while."
"You're supposed to be dead," Vaelen growled. "We killed you."
"You killed a body." Morgassa smiled. "I simply made a new one. And another. And another. Do you know how many times I've died and returned over the past thousand years? Seventeen. Turns out, when you build your magic on stealing divine essence, you gain certain advantages."
She walked closer, studying me like I was an interesting bug. "And who's this? The brave little captain who crashed into my carefully maintained system? You've caused quite a mess, child."
"Good," I spat. "I hope I ruined everything."
"Oh, you nearly did." Morgassa reached out and touched my face. Her fingers burned like ice. "You activated the Heart of the Oath. Strengthened the bond between human and god. Created a connection strong enough to potentially break the chains." She leaned in close. "That's why I need to kill you immediately."
"Wait!" Vaelen thrashed against the ice. "Leave her alone! If you want revenge, take it on me!"
"Revenge?" Morgassa laughed. "I don't want revenge, dear serpent. I want sustainability. The Guild has been feeding on your essence for two thousand years. If you break free, their entire power structure collapses. Millions of people depend on Guild magic for survival—ship navigation, storm protection, water purification. Without you chained, all that disappears."
"So enslave me forever?" Vaelen's voice shook with rage. "Torture me for eternity so humans can have comfortable lives?"
"Yes." Morgassa said it simply, like it was obvious. "One god's suffering versus millions of humans thriving? The math is simple."
"You're a monster," I said.
"No, child. I'm practical." She pulled a dagger from her robes. "Now, this will hurt, but it's necessary. I need to sever the bond between you and the serpent. The easiest way is to cut out your heart while you're still alive. Don't worry—I've done this hundreds of times."
She raised the dagger—
The ice shattered.
Not from Vaelen's power. From mine.
The mark on my chest blazed so bright it lit up the entire temple. Heat exploded through my veins, melting the ice, pushing Morgassa backward.
"Impossible," she breathed. "You're human. You shouldn't be able to—"
"I'm not just human anymore!" I didn't know where the words came from, but they felt true. "The bond changed me! Made me something new!"
Power flowed through me—not borrowed from Vaelen, but my own. The temple responded, crystals singing louder, the water itself wrapping around me like armor.
Morgassa's face twisted with fury. "You stupid girl. You're going to destroy everything!"
She lunged with the dagger. I threw up my hands—
The altar exploded between us.
Light burst from the shattered pearl, ancient magic that had been sleeping for millennia. It hit Morgassa like a tidal wave, throwing her across the temple.
"The altar!" Vaelen shouted. "Maren, what did you do?"
"I don't know!" The light kept pouring from the broken pearl, filling the water with pure energy. I could feel it calling to something inside me, pulling at the mark on my chest.
Morgassa staggered to her feet, her perfect face cracked and bleeding. "You broke the Old Temple's seal. Do you have any idea what you've released?"
"Something that scares you," I said. "So probably something good."
"You FOOL!" Morgassa screamed. "That seal was holding back the Drowned Gods—the ones we killed to create the binding system! Their vengeance has been trapped in that pearl for two thousand years!"
The light took shape. Forms emerged from the brightness—massive, ancient, furious.
Dead gods, rising for revenge.
"Oh," I said weakly. "That's bad."
"That's an understatement!" Vaelen grabbed my hand as the temple started collapsing around us. "We need to leave NOW!"
But Morgassa blocked the passage, seven corrupted guardians materializing behind her. "No one leaves. If the Drowned Gods wake fully, they'll destroy the entire ocean. Every living thing will die."
"Then we're all trapped," Vaelen said grimly.
"Not all of us." Morgassa smiled, her cracked face healing before our eyes. "I can survive anything. The question is—can you?"
The Drowned Gods roared, a sound that shook reality itself. They surged toward us, toward Morgassa, toward everything, seeking revenge for their stolen lives.
"Vaelen," I said, my voice surprisingly calm. "Remember what the Heart of the Oath said? About sacrifice?"
"Don't." He knew where I was going. "Don't you dare—"
"Someone has to stop this." I looked at the chaos around us—the angry gods, Morgassa's dark magic, the corrupted guardians, the crumbling temple. "Someone has to make a choice."
"Not you." Vaelen pulled me close. "I've lost everyone I ever cared about. I won't lose you too."
"You won't lose me." I pressed my hand over his heart, feeling his chains burn beneath. "You'll carry me with you. Forever. Through the bond."
"Maren, no—"
I kissed him. Quick and fierce and desperate. Then I pulled away and pushed him toward the passage.
"Go save my sister," I said. "That's an order from your captain."
"MAREN!"
But I'd already turned toward the Drowned Gods, arms spread wide, offering myself as the willing sacrifice the magic demanded.
The light consumed me completely.
The last thing I heard was Vaelen screaming my name.
Then—nothing.
I woke up somewhere impossible.
Not underwater. Not in the temple. Not anywhere I recognized.
I stood on a beach of black sand under a sky with no sun. The ocean spread before me, but the water was silver instead of blue. And walking toward me across that silver sea was a woman I'd only seen in memories.
Thessaly.
"Hello, Captain," she said with a sad smile. "Welcome to the place between life and death. We need to talk about what you just did."
Behind her, six more figures emerged from the silver water. The Drowned Gods, but calm now. Waiting.
"Am I dead?" I asked.
"Not yet." Thessaly stopped in front of me. "But you will be if you don't listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you."
She took my hand. Her touch felt like ice and fire at once.
"There's a way to save everyone—your sister, Vaelen, even the gods you accidentally released. But it requires something the magic has never seen before." Her eyes met mine. "It requires two willing sacrifices working together."
"Two?" My heart raced. "You mean—"
"I mean you need to go back and convince Vaelen to die with you." Thessaly's smile turned bitter. "Because the only way to break chains forged in hatred is with love strong enough to burn the world down."