Weighted by her gear, Marin Hale, a seasoned adventurer with eyes sharp as obsidian, moves with practiced ease across the deck of the small research vessel. The sea around her is glassy and impossibly blue, only broken by the soft lapping of waves against the hull. With a final check of her oxygen tank, she plunges into the cool embrace of the ocean, bubbles spiraling toward the light above as the world narrows to a realm of shifting blue shadows.
As Marin descends, her torch beam sweeps across the seafloor, revealing toppled pillars and intricate mosaics. Fish dart between arches, their scales flashing gold and emerald in the light. The silence is profound, broken only by the hiss of her regulator as she drifts closer to what appears to be a sealed doorway, encrusted with barnacles and strange, untranslatable glyphs.
Curiosity outweighs caution as Marin squeezes through the opening, brushing past waving fronds of sea grass. Inside, the architecture grows more elaborate; domes and columns curve in impossible ways, their surfaces alive with living light. The temperature shifts, and she senses a faint current pulling her deeper, as if the ruins themselves are guiding her journey.
Ilyra, a tall, silver-skinned inhabitant of the deep, glides forward. Her eyes are luminous, her voice melodious even through the water, and she bears a pendant shaped like a spiral shell.
"You have come far, surface-dweller. What is it you seek in our forgotten home?"
"I... I wanted to understand what lies beneath the waves. I never imagined anyone still lived here," Marin replies, awe and uncertainty mingling in her tone.
Ilyra gestures for Marin to follow, leading her past generations-old relics and living quarters illuminated by drifting lantern-jellies. The murals, etched in glowing minerals, depict a once-great civilization forced below by calamity, adapting and flourishing in the darkness.
"We have watched your world change above, waiting for the day someone would find us not as myth, but as kin," Ilyra says quietly.
Marin stands at the threshold between two worlds, heart pounding with the enormity of her discovery. The city’s inhabitants gather, their eyes reflecting hope and curiosity as they share stories, songs, and ancient wisdom. When at last she ascends toward the shimmering surface, a token of the deep clutched in her hand, the ruins no longer seem silent—they pulse with the promise of connection, bridging the divide between above and below.
