Evening pulled itself tight across the hull of the Tarnoclast-mounted warship, blue runelight flickering across the bowsprit and the outer rims of the hull. The deck crew moved under low words, tension riding the silence between boots and sea. Somewhere below, the leviathan's slow exhale could be felt through the planks, dull, rhythmic, like a heart refusing sleep.
A low murmur broke the rhythm.
"Something under us." A signal officer said, narrowing his eyes. "Port side. Light. Moving slow."
Others turned. In the distance beneath the water's skin, a pale glow drifted upward. Too focused for plankton. Too slow for a wreck flare.
One mage blinked. "Is that a lantern?"
"No." Came the answer, too quietly.
The light didn't stop. It rose. Solid. Rising faster now. The outline began to form, not a shape, but a presence, and those close enough to feel the mana pull took a step back without realizing it.
By the time the Sea Protector broke the surface, the deck had gone still.
