The City in a Veil pocket
The flying Skiff had entered the Thalorin Depths.
For the questors, the name had originally meant only one thing:
The Endless Ocean.
An ancient region hidden somewhere beyond the known routes of Orinthal.
A place where the Tears of the Siren were said to flow.
A place they had expected to find nothing but ruins.
They had been wrong.
The ocean beneath them was not hiding a sunken civilization.
It was hiding a civilization that had always belonged beneath the water.
And they were about to discover that the difference mattered.
THE VEIL GATE BELOW
The Skiff hovered above the ancient underwater structure.
The enormous circular formation beneath them was partially covered by layers of coral, mineral deposits, and strange aquatic growth.
At first, it appeared to be another ruined structure.
But Sorion felt something else.
He stood at the front of the Skiff, staring into the darkness below.
A faint silver-violet pulse passed through his body.
He closed his eyes.
There.
A memory.
Not his own.
It was distant.
Fragmented.
But unmistakable.
A circular gate.
People walking through it.
A city filled with light.
A vast dome beneath the sea.
Then the memory vanished.
Sorion opened his eyes.
Sorion: "The gate is still alive."
Lirion looked up from the Skiff's instruments.
Lirion: "The structure below?"
Sorion nodded.
Sorion: "It's a Veil Gate."
Lirion immediately scanned it.
His blue-black data streams expanded across the console.
The result surprised him.
Lirion: "You're right."
Dorion stepped closer.
Dorion: "But the gate isn't active."
Lirion: "Not yet."
Sorion placed his hand against the side of the Skiff.
The Veil beneath the water responded.
A faint resonance traveled upward.
Then something unexpected happened.
The same resonance reached Bardin.
Bardin suddenly stopped.
His expression changed.
Bardin: "I heard something."
Sorion looked toward him.
Sorion: "What?"
Bardin touched his chest.
Bardin: "A song."
Sorion: "What kind?"
Bardin shook his head.
Bardin: "I don't know."
He looked toward the water.
Bardin: "But it sounded like someone remembering."
The two of them looked at each other.
The resonance was connecting them to the Veil Gate.
Not through technology.
Through memory.
THE FROG EXO-SUIT
Lirion immediately opened one of the Skiff's equipment compartments.
Bardin saw what was inside.
He immediately stepped backward.
Bardin: "No."
Lirion pulled out a compact mechanical suit.
It had reinforced joints, rounded pressure chambers, webbed propulsion fins, and a sealed helmet.
Bardin recognized it immediately.
Bardin: "Absolutely not."
Dorion laughed.
Dorion: "The Frog Exo-Suit."
Bardin pointed at Lirion.
Bardin: "I miss wearing this."
Lirion: "And it worked."
Bardin: "It made me look like an armored frog."
Lirion: "That is because you were underwater."
Bardin: "That does not improve the situation."
Sorion smiled faintly.
Sorion: "We're going together."
Bardin looked at him.
Bardin: "You're wearing one too?"
Sorion shook his head.
Sorion: "I can breathe."
Bardin stared at him.
Bardin: "Of course you can."
Lirion handed Bardin the suit.
Lirion: "You're the one who sensed the memory resonance."
Bardin sighed.
Bardin: "Fine."
He put the Frog Exo-Suit on again.
The armor sealed around him.
Its aquatic propulsion system activated.
Bardin looked down at himself.
Bardin: "I love this suit."
Dorion smiled.
Dorion: "It seems to like you."
Bardin: "That's great."
THE STRANGE WATER
The Skiff descended.
The water closed over the vessel.
They expected darkness.
Instead, something strange happened.
The water stopped.
Not physically.
The Skiff continued moving downward, but the surrounding water seemed to bend away from the vessel.
A circular distortion appeared around the ancient structure.
Lirion stared at the instruments.
Lirion: "That's impossible."
Dorion: "You say that often."
Lirion: "Because ancient technology keeps doing impossible things."
The Skiff continued forward.
Then it passed through the water.
There was no splash.
No pressure.
No resistance.
The ocean simply separated around them.
A transparent boundary surrounded the vessel.
Inside it was dry.
Completely dry.
Bardin stared through the canopy.
Outside the boundary, fish swam through the ocean.
But none entered.
Bardin: "We're inside a bubble."
Lirion nodded.
Lirion: "A Veil pocket."
Sorion looked ahead.
The ancient gate was directly in front of them.
Sorion: "Not a bubble."
He watched the surrounding water.
Sorion: "A memory space."
Lirion looked at the readings.
The Skiff was not merely passing through water.
It was passing through a localized Veil distortion.
The ancient Thalorians had created a dry passage beneath the ocean.
A hidden corridor.
A place where the sea could not enter.
The gate itself was not submerged in the conventional sense.
It existed inside a protected Veil space.
THE LIGHTHOUSE ABOVE
The Skiff moved deeper into the structure.
Lirion suddenly looked upward.
Lirion: "Look."
Above them, barely visible through the water, was an enormous structure.
A tower.
It rose from the ocean toward the surface.
At its highest point was a gigantic circular light.
The lighthouse was enormous.
Much larger than any ordinary navigation tower.
Its base was connected directly to the Veil Gate.
Bardin stared upward.
Bardin: "That's where the gate gets its power?"
Lirion shook his head.
Lirion: "No."
He studied the architecture.
Lirion: "It's an entrance."
Sorion understood.
Sorion: "The lighthouse connected the surface to the city."
Lirion nodded.
Lirion: "The ancient Thalorians used it to enter their underwater cities."
The lighthouse was not simply a beacon.
It was a gateway tower.
Ships approaching the region could enter its enormous light chamber.
The Veil Gate beneath the lighthouse would then create the dry passage.
Travelers would descend safely through the ocean.
No diving equipment.
No pressure.
No underwater breathing.
The ocean itself became irrelevant.
Bardin stared upward.
Bardin: "So the lighthouse was basically an underwater elevator."
Lirion considered the description.
Lirion: "Technically..."
Dorion interrupted.
Dorion: "Yes."
Bardin nodded.
Bardin: "Good. I understand it."
THE MEMORY
The Skiff entered the Veil passage.
The moment it crossed the threshold, Sorion's vision returned.
Everything around him disappeared.
He was no longer inside the Skiff.
He was standing in the same passage.
But it was alive.
People walked around him.
Thalorians.
They were not ghosts.
They were memories.
They wore elaborate aquatic garments reinforced with Technomagik devices.
Some carried equipment.
Others guided children.
Merchants moved through the passage.
Engineers inspected the gate.
Families returned home.
And beyond them—
the city.
Sorion saw an enormous Technomagik Dome.
It was not a building beneath a drowned ocean.
It was a living city beneath its natural environment.
The dome covered an enormous settlement.
Inside were gardens.
Homes.
Markets.
Research centers.
Transport platforms.
Water channels.
Schools.
And thousands of people.
The entire city glowed with warm Technomagik light.
At its center stood a colossal machine.
A Gravitic Engine.
It was larger than anything Sorion had seen before.
Its circular rings rotated around a central core.
Energy flowed upward.
The machine maintained the dome.
It controlled pressure.
It stabilized the Veil.
It protected the city.
And beside it stood another structure.
The Veil Gate.
Sorion saw Thalorian engineers maintaining it.
They were not simply using the gate.
They understood it.
They knew how to maintain it.
How to repair it.
How to preserve the memories stored within its resonance.
Then the vision changed.
The city became darker.
People stopped.
Confusion spread.
The gravitic engine began losing power.
Technomagik systems shut down.
The dome flickered.
Sorion heard voices.
Thalorian: "The maintenance sequence is gone."
Another voice:
Thalorian: "I remember the city."
Another: "I remember the gate."
Another: "But I don't remember how to use it."
The vision fractured.
Sorion saw the same people becoming confused.
They knew what they had built.
But they could no longer remember how to maintain it.
Then a single word appeared in the memory.
OMNISSION.
Sorion's eyes opened.
THE LIVING CITY
The vision disappeared.
Sorion found himself back inside the Skiff.
Bardin was staring at him.
Bardin: "You saw it too."
Sorion nodded.
Sorion: "The city was alive."
Lirion looked at him.
Lirion: "What did you see?"
Sorion described the dome.
The gravitic engine.
The people.
The maintenance systems.
And finally—
the memory loss.
Lirion became silent.
Lirion: "Omnission."
Sorion nodded.
The same phenomenon that had erased knowledge elsewhere had reached Thalorin.
But here, the consequences had been catastrophic.
The Thalorians had not forgotten their civilization.
They had forgotten how to keep it alive.
Their cities remained.
Their machines remained.
Their knowledge remained in fragments.
But the people who knew how everything worked had slowly lost the memories necessary to maintain it.
The result was not a single catastrophic collapse.
It was something slower.
More tragic.
A civilization watching its own systems fail while knowing that the solution had once existed inside their memories.
THE GRAVITIC ENGINE
The Skiff finally emerged from the Veil passage.
Ahead stood the ancient city.
But something was wrong.
The dome was dark.
Only a few sections still glowed.
The enormous gravitic engine stood beside the central gate.
Its rings were motionless.
Yet the engine still contained a small amount of energy.
Lirion stared at it.
Lirion: "That's the heart of the city."
Sorion looked around.
There were no ordinary fish inside the dome.
The city was dry.
Buildings stood beneath the protective structure.
Ancient streets remained intact.
But the city was silent.
Then something moved.
A guardian appeared.
Its body was covered in aquatic armor.
Its silhouette resembled a monstrous sea creature.
Another emerged.
Then another.
They surrounded the Skiff.
Bardin raised his weapon.
Bardin: "Those don't look friendly."
Lirion scanned them.
Lirion: "They're guardians."
Dorion: "We already knew that."
Lirion: "No."
He stared at the data.
Lirion: "They're not machines."
Sorion looked at them.
The creatures were breathing.
They were alive.
But their memories were corrupted.
THE GUARDIANS ATTACK
One guardian charged.
The Skiff's shields activated.
BOOM!
The creature struck the protective field.
Another followed.
Then another.
The guardians were fast.
Powerful.
Their bodies had adapted to the underwater environment.
They moved like predators.
Bardin activated the Frog Exo-Suit.
Its propulsion system pushed him through the dry chamber.
Bardin: "I'll distract them!"
He moved between the guardians.
One lunged.
Bardin dodged.
Another attacked from behind.
Sorion intercepted it.
He didn't strike with lethal force.
Instead, he released a pulse of Veil resonance.
Silver-violet energy spread through the chamber.
The guardian stopped.
For a moment, its body shook.
Then its monstrous form began changing.
The armor-like aquatic structure dissolved.
Scales faded.
The creature's body contracted.
The guardian fell to its knees.
And suddenly—
it was human.
A Thalorian.
A citizen of the deep.
The man looked around in confusion.
Thalorian: "Where..."
He touched his own face.
Thalorian: "Where am I?"
Sorion stared.
The man looked toward the gravitic engine.
Something flickered behind his eyes.
A memory.
Thalorian: "The city..."
His voice trembled.
Thalorian: "I remember."
Another guardian charged.
Lirion shouted.
Lirion: "Sorion!"
Sorion released another resonance pulse.
The energy traveled through the gravitic engine.
The engine responded.
Its central core briefly illuminated.
A wave spread through the entire city.
Every guardian stopped.
One after another, their monstrous forms began disappearing.
They became Thalorian citizens.
Men.
Women.
Engineers.
Soldiers.
Workers.
Children who had been transformed into something they no longer remembered being.
The citizens stared at each other.
Confused.
Then memories began returning.
Thalorian Citizen: "I know this place."
Another: "The gate..."
Another: "The dome..."
Another: "The engine..."
The city was remembering.
THE CITY'S TRUE NAME
One of the oldest Thalorians approached Sorion.
He looked exhausted.
But his eyes were clear.
Thalorian Elder: "You restored our memories."
Sorion shook his head.
Sorion: "The engine did."
The elder looked toward the gravitic machine.
Thalorian Elder: "It was waiting for someone who could awaken the memory resonance."
He looked toward the ancient city.
Thalorian Elder: "We had forgotten even our own name."
Lirion stepped closer.
Lirion: "What is this city called?"
The elder looked toward the great dome.
His eyes filled with emotion.
Then he spoke.
Thalorian Elder: "The Lost Reaches of Thalorin Depth."
Bardin repeated the name quietly.
Bardin: "Lost Reaches."
The elder nodded.
Thalorian Elder: "There are many cities here."
Lirion looked surprised.
Lirion: "Many?"
The elder pointed beyond the dome.
Far away, faint lights could be seen through the dark ocean.
One.
Then another.
Then another.
Entire settlements existed across the underwater region.
Thalorian Elder: "We were never a single city."
Thalorian Elder: "The Lost Reaches contained many."
He looked toward the distant darkness.
Thalorian Elder: "But most of their Technomagik Domes remain inactive."
Sorion understood.
Sorion: "Because of Omnission."
The elder nodded.
Thalorian Elder: "We forgot."
THE RESERVE VEIL BATTERY CRYSTALS
Lirion immediately asked about the Veil Gate.
The elder led them toward a sealed chamber beneath the gravitic engine.
Inside were dozens of crystalline containers.
Each contained a faintly glowing blue energy.
Lirion's eyes widened.
Lirion: "Veil Battery Crystals."
The elder nodded.
Thalorian Elder: "Reserve crystals."
Lirion examined one.
The crystal contained more than energy.
It contained resonance.
Memory.
Technomagik signatures from the Thalorian region.
Lirion: "These aren't ordinary batteries."
The elder smiled.
Thalorian Elder: "They were created to preserve the memory of our Technomagik systems."
Lirion understood immediately.
They could be used to restore other Veil Gates.
Not simply by powering them.
By restoring their regional memory resonance.
A Veil Gate did not merely require energy.
It required knowledge of how its systems were supposed to function.
These crystals preserved that information.
They were both power reserves and technological memory archives.
Lirion carefully examined the storage chamber.
Lirion: "These could repair damaged Veil Gates."
Sorion looked at him.
Sorion: "Including gates affected by Omnission?"
Lirion nodded slowly.
Lirion: "If the resonance is compatible."
The discovery could change their entire understanding of the Veil network.
The Thalorians had unknowingly preserved something that could help restore forgotten regions across Orinthal.
But there was still one important problem.
The Tears of the Siren.
The questors had not yet found them.
THE CITY REMEMBERS
As the gravitic engine continued pulsing, lights began appearing across the dome.
One district.
Then another.
Then another.
The Lost Reaches of Thalorin slowly began to awaken.
The city had not been destroyed.
It had been forgotten.
Its people had not disappeared.
They had lost themselves.
Its machines had not failed completely.
They had been waiting for someone to remember how to use them.
And beyond this city were more.
More domes.
More settlements.
More Thalorian citizens.
More forgotten memories.
The elder looked toward the distant darkness.
Thalorian Elder: "If the other cities can be awakened..."
He paused.
Thalorian Elder: "Then Thalorin may live again."
Sorion looked toward the ancient gravitic engine.
The machine continued turning.
Slowly.
But steadily.
The city had taken its first breath in centuries.
Then the elder looked at Sorion.
Thalorian Elder: "But you came for something."
Sorion nodded.
Sorion: "The Tears of the Siren."
The elder's expression became serious.
Thalorian Elder: "Then you must go deeper."
He pointed toward the central structure.
Beneath the city.
Below the gravitic engine.
Beyond the oldest chambers.
There was another passage.
One that had not yet opened.
Thalorian Elder: "The Tears are below."
Sorion looked toward the passage.
The memory resonance surrounding it was ancient.
Powerful.
And alive.
Lirion looked at the reserve crystals.
Bardin adjusted his Frog Exo-Suit.
Dorion tightened his gauntlet.
Valek prepared his weapon.
The questors had arrived expecting a dead city.
Instead, they had found a civilization waiting to remember itself.
And they had discovered something even more important.
Thalorin had never been a sunken civilization.
It had always been a civilization of the deep.
The ocean was not its grave.
It was its home.
The domes were not tombs.
They were homes.
The gravitic engines were not ruins.
They were sleeping hearts.
And the Veil Gates were not simply portals.
They were the pathways that connected the cities of the deep.
The questors had found the first awakened city of the Lost Reaches.
But beyond its dome, countless other cities remained dark.
And beneath them all—
somewhere in the deepest part of Thalorin—
the Tears of the Siren continued to flow.
Sorion looked toward the unopened passage.
A faint silver-violet resonance moved across its surface.
He could feel a memory waiting inside.
Not a memory of destruction.
A memory of life.
He stepped forward.
Sorion: "Let's see what they forgot."
The ancient gate opened.
A path descended into the darkness.
And far below the Lost Reaches of Thalorin Depth...
something began to sing.
The Lost Reaches had awakened.
But this was only one city.
Beyond its dome, countless others remained dark.
And somewhere beneath the ancient heart of Thalorin...
the Tears of the Siren were still flowing.
TO BE CONTINUED...