Chapter 66

Victoria nodded. "Of course. Take all the time you need." She paused at the door. "But not too long. The military discovered your energy signature. They'll be here within hours."

Once alone, Tharros paced the cabin like a caged animal. "We cannot trust her," he hissed. "No human should possess the Heartstone."

"But she does," Sophia pointed out. "And we need it."

Chen examined the crystal from a distance. "Their technology is far beyond what we had at the Institute. With this, we might actually succeed."

"It feels like a trap," Tharros growled. "There's something she's not telling us."

Sophia placed her hand on the sphere device, then looked at the Heartstone. The two seemed to pulse in perfect harmony. "We're running out of options, Tharros. Kael and Arin are fighting for their lives in Aquaria. The corruption is spreading to the surface. We need this."

"At what cost?" Tharros demanded. "Once humans have a path to Aquaria, they will never leave us in peace."

Sophia took his hands in hers, feeling the heat of his skin. "Some humans destroyed. Some humans saved. Just like some Aquarians are good and some aren't." She squeezed his fingers. "We have to try."

After a long moment, Tharros nodded reluctantly. "But I will be watching her. If she betrays us-"

"You can eat her," Sophia finished with a grim smile. "I won't stop you."

When Victoria returned, Sophia stepped forward. "We accept your help. But this isn't an agreement for future access. That will be decided by all four rulers of Aquaria, not just us."

Victoria's smile tightened, but she nodded. "Fair enough. Shall we begin the modifications?"

As Victoria's team brought equipment aboard, Tharros moved close to Sophia. "There's something familiar about her," he whispered. "Something in her blood that calls to old magic."

"What does that mean?" Sophia asked.

Before Tharros could answer, a technician activated the Heartstone. It blazed with sudden light, and Sophia gasped as the markings on her palms responded, glowing brilliantly.

Victoria watched with fascination. "The stone recognizes you," she said softly. Then she rolled up her sleeve, revealing a birthmark on her forearm - in the exact shape of Aquaria's royal crest.

"Just as it recognizes me," Victoria added, her eyes meeting Tharros's widened gaze. "We have more in common than you think, Dragon King. Much more."

Divided Forces

Kael's hands trembled as he unrolled the ancient scroll. The palace library had flooded three hours ago, forcing him and a small team of scholars to salvage what they could from the deepest archives.

"Commander, you should see this," called one of the younger mer-scholars, her blue tail flicking nervously as she pointed to symbols etched into a stone tablet.

Kael swam closer, eyes widening as he recognized the markings. They matched the birthmark Victoria Shaw had revealed on the surface.

"The Boundary Pact," he whispered, running his webbed fingers over the stone. "It's not a myth."

The tablet showed seven human figures and seven mer-people, hands joined around a central crystal-the Heartstone. At the bottom, carved in the oldest language of the sea, were words that chilled Kael's blood: Seven bloodlines shall remember. Seven bloodlines shall protect. When darkness rises, the divided shall reunite.

"Some humans have always known about us," Kael said, feeling the weight of centuries press down on him. "They've been waiting."

A violent tremor shook the palace, sending shimmering bubbles cascading from the ceiling.

"The eastern sector just collapsed," reported a guard, rushing into the chamber. "The corruption is spreading faster."

Kael gathered the tablet and scrolls, securing them in a waterproof satchel. "Get these to the central chamber. I need to find Arin."

He found the sea witch in her workshop, surrounded by swirling magical currents. Her normally pale skin glowed with an eerie blue light as she channeled her power into a large sphere of water floating before her.

"I can see them," she said without turning. "The breaches. There are seven-no, eight now. The barriers are failing everywhere."

Kael approached carefully, feeling the crackle of magic against his scales. "Show me."

The sphere rippled, revealing a map of Aquaria. Red spots pulsed at eight different locations around the kingdom, each surrounded by spreading darkness.

"We can't defend them all," Kael said, his warrior's mind calculating their limited resources.

Arin's eyes snapped open, glowing with power. "We must. Each breach lets more corruption through." She waved her hand, and the sphere zoomed in on the northern border. "This one is the worst. I have to go there myself."

"Split up? That's too dangerous."

"We have no choice," Arin snapped. "I've found something else." She swam to a small chest and removed a trident smaller than Kael's but crackling with ancient energy. "This belonged to the first queen. It can stabilize a breach, but only one at a time."

Kael took the weapon, feeling its power hum through his arm. "I'll take the western breach. It's closest to the military barracks-I can gather troops there."

"What about the others?"

Kael's face darkened. "We need Tharros and Sophia."

Arin placed her hand over his. For a moment, they weren't rivals for Tharros's affection but allies in a desperate fight. "I felt them earlier. They've found something powerful on the surface."

"Can you reach them?"

"I'll try." Arin closed her eyes, her consciousness stretching toward the surface world.

Aboard the yacht, Sophia felt a strange tingling at the base of her skull.

"Arin?" she whispered.

Victoria Shaw paused in her explanation of the Heartstone. "Is everything alright, Dr. Rodriguez?"

Before Sophia could answer, Tharros grabbed her hand, his eyes flashing gold. "It's Arin. She's reaching out."

They stood frozen for a moment, their minds filled with urgent images-the palace crumbling, the corruption spreading, Kael fighting a losing battle.

"We need to go back," Sophia said, her heart racing. "Now."

Victoria stepped forward, her face tense. "The modifications aren't complete. If you leave with the device half-finished-"

"They're dying down there," Tharros growled, scales rippling across his skin.

Dr. Chen looked up from the workbench where he'd been studying the Heartstone's connections to their sphere device. "We need another hour, maybe two."

Victoria's eyes darted between them, calculating. "There might be another way." She pressed a hidden panel in the wall, revealing a small safe. From inside, she removed a slim metal case.

"What's that?" Sophia asked.

"Insurance." Victoria opened the case to reveal seven small, glowing objects shaped like tears. "Barrier fragments. We've been collecting them for decades."

Tharros hissed, his transformation accelerating in his anger. "You've been weakening our defenses!"

"Not intentionally," Victoria insisted, stepping back from his growing claws. "These were already broken, washing up after storms. My great-grandfather began collecting them, believing they were pieces of the world that saved him."

Sophia examined the fragments, her scientific mind racing. "These are like smaller versions of the Heartstone."

"Yes," Victoria nodded. "Each one connected to a different part of the barrier around Aquaria."

Chen looked up sharply. "If we could attune these to the sphere device-"

"We could stabilize multiple breaches at once," Sophia finished, excitement building despite her suspicion.

Tharros loomed over Victoria, now seven feet tall with scales covering half his body. "Why didn't you mention these before?"

Victoria didn't flinch. "Because they're irreplaceable. And because I wasn't sure I could trust you with all of our secrets." She rolled up her sleeve further, revealing more markings beyond the birthmark-patterns that matched the ancient symbols Sophia had seen in Aquaria.

"You're not fully human," Sophia realized with a gasp.

Victoria's smile was thin. "My great-grandfather didn't just get saved by the people of Aquaria. He fell in love with one of them. My grandmother was half-mer."

The revelation hung in the air between them. Sophia felt pieces sliding into place-Victoria's knowledge, her company's obsession with the ocean, the familiar magic Tharros had sensed in her blood.