Thalric Deepcurrent's Arc

Chapter 6 of 11

Thalric moved past the altar, following the trench deeper. His glow caught something embedded in the bone floor — a seal made from stone, fitted into the surface like a lock. He swept away the silt with his lower arms and found edges worn smooth by time. The seal wasn't blocking a passage. It was covering something. He worked all four hands around the perimeter, feeling for leverage. The stone shifted. He pulled harder, and the seal broke free with a scrape that sent tremors through the water. Beneath it lay another hollow — smaller than the crown chamber, but deliberate. Something rested inside, wrapped in preserved kelp. Thalric unwrapped it carefully. A map. Old parchment, still intact despite the years underwater. But the surface was covered in dark red stains — blood, dried into the fibers. He unrolled it and his breath caught. The map showed the trenches in detail, with markings he recognized from the documents the woman had given him. But someone had drawn new lines across it in blood, crossing out locations and adding others. At the bottom, written in the same red ink, were words that made his hands shake: "They moved it twice. Follow the blood or die looking." This wasn't just a map. It was a warning left by someone who'd tried to find the Tidecrown before him. Someone who'd failed. Thalric rolled the map tight and secured it against his chest. The council hadn't just stolen the crown. They'd been hiding it, moving it, making sure no one from his bloodline could ever reach it. But whoever left this map had gotten close enough to learn their pattern. Close enough to bleed for it. He turned toward the passage ahead, the blood-stained parchment pressing cold against his skin. The altar had given him his family's true purpose. This map gave him their enemy's fear.