Onyx surges forward, breaking from Bay’s grip, and grabs my arm.
"Please. Save him!" she begs.
And then her soul hits me again. Black. Screaming.
Wait.
It feels… familiar.
It feels like the same—
"King Volar approved Onyx’s entrance, on condition that she stays by The Great Depthborne’s side as his responsibility," the guard returns, voice cutting into my thoughts.
I shake my head sharply. "Let’s understand what happened first."
Onyx nods frantically, still clinging to my arm as I push forward.
"You can keep close," I say, glancing back at her, "but let go of my arm." I can't deal with her loud soul right now.
She releases me so quickly it’s like she didn’t even realize she was holding on.
She feels somehow like…her.
Malec
It’s almost refreshing how the bigger cities, the ones led by ancient bloodlines and strong rulers, can maintain perfect harmony in their magic systems—yet look so radically different in culture and energy.
It’s not just their merchers and guards, who look like ancient human gladiators reimagined with tails. The Kolox crest—here, it’s more than a mark. Like in Sur-El, it’s a living symbol, etched everywhere: on the black, shimmering stones that make up their fortress-like homes, on silver direction signs shaped like arrows with black tips that gleam as if dipped in venom.
Kolox is almost as large as Mal-El, but it’s nothing like it. No loud laughter. No wild chaos. The merfolk here swim in neat lines, one after the other, quiet and focused—but not sad, not oppressed. Some whisper gossip, some flick their tails impatiently, clearly late for something.
They look like a perfectly choreographed school of fish, flowing above and beneath us as we swim—each one heading for some precise, unseen destination.
I keep glancing around, memorizing the layout as the entrance guards swim ahead. One thing I learned from my uncle Pedro: in foreign territory, knowledge is always stronger than brute force.
It’s not fear that makes me cautious. It’s a strategy. Any damage here reflects on my family, on my city. Ancient law reigns above all here.
Onyx’s tail brushes mine for a moment as she struggles to keep up, dragging my mind back to the guards who veered off to the right, vanishing behind a massive curved stone house.
Bay darts forward, passing both of us without a word. Alessio, surprisingly silent, slips after her.
“Quick,” I urge Onyx, and she nods, pushing harder.
We catch up just in time to see the three guards stop in front of… nothing.
The city's silver sand floor stretches out into a dark, vast emptiness. No houses. No merfolk. Just a vast expanse that looks like the city’s edge has been swallowed by the deep ocean, lit only by a faint silver glow like moonlight through water from the ground.
“What’s that?” I ask, turning to Onyx—too close. Her nose bumps my shoulder, making her yelp and jerk back.
“Ouch!” she cries, rubbing her nose with her hand. Her black gem-like eyes flash, darkening almost to pitch black with no glimmer as she bites her lip. A bloody-red glow sparks for just a second before vanishing when she meets my gaze.
It’s the same way Bay’s eyes glow when she communicates with Myko…
Could it be—
“You know, saying sorry isn’t a curse,” she snaps, but then points upward behind me.
I follow her line of sight and see a black metal loop—no, a target—floating high above us.
