Catherine left home sometime after the midday sun had begun to warm the streets. By then, both her parents had already departed for their respective work. Carlisle remained in his room, absorbed in his studies, unaware of her preparations.

  She scribbled a brief note and left it on the counter. Nothing elaborate, just that she was going out for a walk to get some fresh air. If her parents returned early and found her gone, she wanted no questions. Barrel padded at her heels as she reached for the door.

  Before she could finish tying her boots, a knock stopped her. Catherine froze for a heartbeat before opening it. Ivarr stood outside, hands loosely at his sides.

  “What are you doing here?” Catherine asked.

  He shrugged, casual as ever. “Just making sure you’re okay.”

  Catherine glanced past him, then back toward the street, scanning quickly. Satisfied her parents were nowhere in sight, she grabbed Ivarr by the arm and pulled him along, nearly breaking into a run as they moved away from the house.

  “Where are we going?” Ivarr asked, stumbling slightly to keep up. “This isn’t the way to the dockyard.”

  She didn’t slow down, her eyes fixed on the path ahead. “I have something to show you.”

  To Ivarr’s surprise, she led him to the one place he never expected her to willingly return to. The scent of salt reached him first. He looked toward the bay as it came into view, then back at Catherine as she finally stopped. They stood at the edge of the beach, waves rolling in quietly before them.

  “Why are we here?” he asked.

  Catherine didn’t answer right away. Instead, she guided him behind a large boulder set back from the shoreline. “Because no one else is here.”

  She raised her arm and extended it toward him, palm outward, the bracelet at her wrist catching the light. “No one but us.”

  “Okay… and?” Ivarr said, brow furrowing.

  Before Catherine could reply, another voice did it for her. The primary stone set into her bracelet flickered, its glow shifting to a deep, bright purple. Then a muffled woman’s voice spoke.

  “She wanted to introduce me to you in private, I guess.”

  Ivarr stiffened. His eyes went wide as his head snapped left, then right. “Who said that?”

  A tired sigh followed, heavy and irritated, before the voice returned. Her tone was sharper now. Seething, in fact. “Why do you think she’s holding her bracelet out in front of you, fish brain?! Down here!”

  Ivarr glanced down at the jewel, his eyes locking onto the stone. “Was that… your bracelet?”

  Another weary exhale followed before Thalia answered, her voice thick with irritation. “This is the point where you cover his mouth. Go ahead, Catherine. We both know where this is going.”

  Catherine did exactly that, just as Ivarr let out a muffled scream. “Don’t,” she whispered firmly, “or we might draw attention.”

  She kept her hands over his mouth until he nodded frantically, signaling that he’d calmed down. Only then did Catherine slowly release him.

  Ivarr dragged in a deep breath, steadying himself, before his gaze returned to the bracelet. “How,” he asked quietly, “is it talking?”

  The stone flickered once more. “Mother, help me,” Thalia muttered. “You people believe in gods, occasionally fight monsters, and yet a single talking bracelet startles you?”

  “Kind of,” Ivarr said slowly. “Because maybe… it sounds wrong?” He glanced back at Catherine. “Why is she so angry, by the way?”

  “No idea,” Catherine replied. “Thalia’s been like that since this morning.”

  “Thalia?” Ivarr echoed.

  “That’s what she wants to be called.”

  The rest of the morning passed with Catherine and Ivarr explaining everything to Thalia. Where they were, what Felgar was like, what Ivarr was, and why he was here at all. When they finally finished, Thalia was quiet for a moment.

  “Interesting,” she said at last. “So you’re from a faraway land, seeking ancient artefacts to become a powerful sorcerer, until Catherine snatched your compass—amulet, whatever—from you?”

  “Snatching is quite the label, Thalia,” Catherine scoffed.

  “Oh, please,” Thalia responded. “It sounds accurate enough.”

  “We agreed she’ll give it back,” Ivarr cut in, “right after we retrieve Elyndra’s conch shell so I can continue my journey.”

  Thalia hummed thoughtfully. “And you’re saying I’ll be forced to tag along with you while you hunt down the other five artefacts?”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Pretty much,” Ivarr said. “Unless Catherine finds a way to separate my compass from her bracelet. Or should I say… separate it from you?”

  “And when do you plan on resuming this raid for Elyndra’s shell?” Thalia asked.

  “Once our combat rings are ready,” Catherine answered, “and after I fully recover from my injuries.”

  They spent quite some time discussing their plans and agreeing—firmly—not to mention Thalia to anyone else. Catherine then grabbed Ivarr his lunch before walking him back to the warehouse. Once that was done, she decided her talkative bracelet deserved a proper tour of town.

  Their first stop was the church.

  “This is the Church of Gullveig-Hnoss,” Catherine said as they approached. “People also call it the Twins’ Church.”

  Inside, she showed Thalia the balanced scale—the symbol of the faith—then a mural depicting the Twin Goddesses, followed by several old relics carefully preserved within the building.

  “And if you’re diligent and charitable,” Catherine continued, glancing up at the Twins’ statue, “they say the goddesses will reward you with bounty.”

  “Doesn’t look like Gullveig and Hnoss have rewarded this town with much,” Thalia retorted dryly.

  Catherine let out a sheepish laugh as they stepped back outside. “Well, maybe someday.”

  Catherine went on to show her the rest of town. The square, the market, the gardens, and the many small shops lining the streets. Eventually, they made their way to the far side of town, to the stretch of dockyard where Catherine’s father worked. She explained that the harbor used to be bustling, with large trading ships ceaselessly docking to barter and unload.

  The Silent Decades ended that age, and now only this small portion of the harbor was still in use. Catherine didn’t go looking for her father, though. He’d always been clear about that. He didn’t want her anywhere near the busy docks.

  “I wouldn’t have thought you were a noble, seeing how you live,” Thalia remarked. “Shouldn’t you be swimming in gold and jewels?”

  “My family stopped collecting taxes from the townspeople after the Silent Decades,” Catherine replied, explaining to Thalia what that time was like. “The church said it’s wrong, and my great-great-grandparents also thought it wouldn’t be fair.”

  Catherine raised her pointer finger and spoke theatrically. “If our people are to starve, then so should we, they said.”

  “Don’t you have wealthy relatives? Aren’t noble families usually large?”

  Catherine didn’t answer right away. Her gaze drifted toward the sea, stretching endlessly beyond the docks. “We have a few here, but we’re all in the same situation. The wealthy ones, though, they’re in a different kingdom, far away. And we’re not on good terms. At least, that’s what my father told me.”

  They finished their tour by mid-afternoon and headed home. Barrel went straight for his food bowl the moment they stepped inside. Catherine found Carlisle in the sitting room, playing with another boy.

  “I didn’t know you were visiting,” she said.

  Raphael, one of her cousins, looked up from the game. “My parents are going out of town, so they left me here for a while.”

  “Have fun, you two,” Catherine replied simply, already turning toward the stairs. It was common for them to leave children in their relatives’ care whenever they had to leave town.

  In her room, she slipped the bracelet off and set it carefully on the table. “I’m just going to take a nap.”

  “Rest well, Catherine,” Thalia answered softly.

  Still exhausted, with her limbs slightly sore from the incident, Catherine lay down and fell asleep almost immediately.

  She opened her eyes again not long after, but she wasn’t in her bedroom. She stood on the beach, near the same cove where she’d been attacked. Thick clouds blanketed the sky, though the sea itself was eerily calm. Unease prickled at her skin.

  She turned away from the shore and made her way toward town, only to find it empty. There were no distant footsteps, no wheels rolling on the streets, not even the creak of the ships by the docks.

  Her steps carried her to the church, and to her surprise, she found a lone figure standing near the tower. With nowhere else to go, Catherine entered the building and climbed the narrow stairway to the top.

  There, she found a middle-aged man wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt and brown trousers, and he had ash-blonde hair. He stood with his back to her, gazing out toward the distant sea.

  Catherine hesitated, then approached. “Um… hello, sir. Do you know where everyone is?”

  He didn’t answer her question. Instead, he asked one of his own. “Is this Felgar?”

  “Yes,” she replied cautiously. “Are you… lost?”

  “I’ve never been here before,” the man murmured. “It’s quite a nice place.”

  Catherine followed his gaze toward the horizon. “It really is.”

  He clasped his hands behind his back, a faint, wistful smile forming on his lips. “I wish I could have seen it before I died.”

  Catherine’s breath caught. “Be—before you—”

  A deafening roar tore through the air. The sound shook the town, the sea, even the clouds above. Catherine dropped to a crouch, hands clamped over her ears as the world trembled around her. When the roar finally faded, she stood again, heart pounding.

  “What—what is that?!” she asked, her voice trembling.

  The man turned to her at last. Their eyes met, his pupils the same amber hue as her own.

  “What lies ahead,” he asked calmly.

  “What… lies ahead?” she echoed.

  A new sound reached her ears, one that was quieter, like waves on a clear day. She turned toward the shore, only to find the water was receding. “What’s happening?” she whispered.

  The sky darkened further as the clouds thickened. Lightning flared, striking the ocean below. The wind howled, growing stronger with every heartbeat, and far in the distance, she saw it.

  Gargantuan tentacles rose from the sea, followed by long, jagged appendages. An immense head breached the surface from time to time, revealing a pair of glowing, deep violet eyes. It was moving toward town.

  Before it, the ocean swelled, forming a towering wall of water. A tidal wave.

  “We have to get out of here!” Catherine shouted, grabbing at the man’s sleeve. “We have to go!”

  He gently shook his head, his gaze never leaving the approaching calamity. “There is nowhere to go, Catherine,” he said quietly. “We cannot escape what has already been determined.”

  Just as the waves crashed into town, the creature fully rose.

  A barely humanoid shape, vast as a mountain. A monster of the deep, its lower body wrapped in massive tentacles, jagged limbs jutting from its back, its form riddled with features too alien to truly grasp. It roared once more.

  The water surged upward, and as it struck the tower, Catherine jolted awake. She gasped, her breath coming fast and shallow as she looked around her bedroom. Her hands clenched the blanket tightly, knuckles white.

  “Having a bad dream?” Thalia asked.

  Catherine nodded. “Yeah… I did. What time is it?”

  “Late afternoon,” Thalia replied. “The sun’s just about to set. You haven’t slept that long.”

  Catherine sat up and slipped the bracelet back onto her wrist, fastening it snugly. “Let's head downstairs.”

  “Going outside?” Thalia asked.

  “Just getting some warm milk. I might stay up a bit longer too, before going back to bed.”

  Catherine paused at the door, the fading light casting long shadows across the room. Her bracelet flickered one more time as she headed out.

  “Good choice,” Thalia said approvingly. “You should definitely take your time and relax some more.”

  There was a brief pause, almost imperceptible, before her voice returned, softer. Too soft.

  “The night is yet to fall.”