Thalric Deepcurrent's Arc

Chapter 2 of 11

Thalric broke the wax seal as soon as he left the cove. The documents inside proved everything — vote records, council orders, maps showing where the Tidecrown had been moved. His eyes flared brighter as he read, his four hands spreading the pages between them. But halfway through the third sheet, the glow began to fade. Not from emotion. From his blood itself. He shoved the documents into his chest pouch and pushed hard through the current, racing toward the deep trenches where the pressure might slow the thinning. An angler fish drifted past, its lure pulsing with the same eerie light his eyes used to hold. Three generations of exile had diluted what his bloodline once was, and now he could feel it draining faster. He had the proof. He knew where the Tidecrown was hidden. But if his blood ran out before he reached it, the documents would sink to the ocean floor with him, and no one else would know the truth. He pressed two hands against his chest, feeling his heartbeat slow. The choice was simple now — rush for the Tidecrown while he still had strength, or find others from his bloodline first and risk dying before he could pass the proof on. Either way, holding the truth had started a clock he couldn't stop.