Nerida Quickwave's Arc

Chapter 7 of 12

Nerida stayed low behind the broken statue and counted the beast's slow arm drifts. Open water meant death. She needed walls. East of the shelf, a narrow split in the seabed glowed with mineral seams. A ravine. She slipped into it on her belly, dragging the shard. The ravine cut close to the rise where the pair had settled. A rusted platform stood there now, wrapped in vines and pale fungi blooms. The beast's arms lay across its beams. The metal thing's panels pulsed in time. From the ravine's lip, she could see them, but they could not see her. She needed more than line of sight. She needed to watch without breathing into open water. She pulled a small sealed dome from her pack, a curved glass shell with vent seals at its base. Her mentor had built it for long observation. She fixed it against the ravine wall, climbed under its rim, and locked the vents. Quiet. Dry. Hidden. Through the glass she watched the carved octopus on the metal chest. Each time the beast flexed, the carving brightened, then a panel answered. She traced the pattern on her slate. A nearby lamp post, knocked sideways in some old fight, flickered blue against the rusted platform and lit the bond clearly for her. She had what she came for. A safe seat. A clear view. Hours of study ahead, and no second strike to fear. The hunt was no longer chasing. It was watching. And the bond, she now believed, could be read.