Princess Araxa's Arc

Chapter 9 of 14

The water feels different here, darker and colder than the bright zone where the sphere floated. Araxa lets the current carry her sideways while Tide pulses faint silver beside her shoulder. She doesn't know what she's looking for anymore. Then something flashes red in the distance. The same deep crimson she saw before. The creature she freed from the kelp forest hangs motionless against the dark, its body pulsing light in sharp bursts. Tide flickers urgent warning, but Araxa pushes forward. The predator doesn't flee. Instead it flares brighter, throwing scarlet light across the rocks in a pattern that repeats three times before fading. Then it turns and swims away fast, leaving only darkness behind. Araxa freezes. She understands. Someone is coming. She presses herself against the nearest outcrop and sees them emerge through a wide stone arch below — three guards with long pale hair and eyes too large for their faces. Each one wears a medallion on his chest, crystal tridents that catch what little light exists here. Her father's mark. They move in formation, sweeping the water with slow precise turns, and one of them carries a spear with a barbed tip she recognizes from the palace armory. Her first thought is to call out, to let them find her and take her home. But then she sees the way they search — methodical, hunting, the way guards track something that ran. She left the boundary markers behind. She chose unmarked waters. If they find her now, they won't ask what she wants. They'll bring her back to Kael and the marriage she fled. Araxa grips the bone blade at her side and pulls herself deeper into the shadow of the rocks. The guards pass beneath her hiding spot, close enough that she can see the grim set of their mouths. They don't look up. After a long moment, they swim beyond the arch and disappear into the kelp beds beyond. Araxa stays pressed against the stone until Tide's light shifts from red back to silver. She's made her choice real now. She can't be found.