Chapter 80: Captured Soldiers

Sera was waiting at the base of Pillar Three, exactly where she’d said she’d be. She’d traded her civilian clothes for something closer to her usual armor, dark leather and plate that would serve equally well in combat or diplomatic functions. Her sword hung at her hip, the blue blade catching the ambient light from the pillar’s glowing runes.

"You’re early."

"So are you."

She acknowledged the point with a slight nod. "The rescued Sirens made it to the rendezvous point without incident. They’ll be in Lumen by morning."

"Good."

"The Rat King’s network is more extensive than I realized. He moved forty people through a hostile city in less than six hours without triggering a single alarm." Her pale eyes studied his face. "How much did that cost us?"

"Information. The same documents I gave you, more or less. He’ll use them to carve out territory from what’s left of Vex’s operation in the city."

"You gave a crime lord the keys to the criminal underworld."

"I gave a crime lord leverage against a worse crime lord. There’s a difference."

Sera was quiet for a moment, processing. Then she shook her head slightly, a gesture that might have been resignation or respect or some combination of both.

"I suppose it doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done." She turned toward the pillar’s entrance, gesturing for him to follow. "We need to move. I’ve arranged passage through the security checkpoints, but the authorization is time-limited."

They approached the checkpoint together, Sera handling the brief conversation with the guards while Nacho hung back and tried to look like a bored escort rather than a wanted criminal in disguise. His Phantom Talent suppressed most of his presence, making him forgettable to anyone who glanced his way.

The guards waved them through without incident.

The lift platform was smaller than the one Nacho had taken on his way up, designed for personnel rather than cargo. It hummed with the same ancient magic he remembered from before, runes pulsing along the pillar’s surface as they descended into the darkness.

Going down felt different than going up.

The pressure was subtler this time, or maybe his enhanced physiology had adapted to handle the transition better. His Apex Senses picked up details he’d missed during his ascent, little things that painted a clearer picture of how the Empire maintained its grip on the traffic between worlds.

The wards were oriented wrong.

He noticed it first as a faint itch at the back of his mind, a sense that something wasn’t quite right about the magical architecture surrounding them. When he focused, he could see it clearly. Every detection spell, every alarm trigger, every trap designed to catch unauthorized travelers was pointed downward, aimed at anything trying to come up from the Ocean rather than descend from the Mortal World.

"They built this system to watch us," he said quietly.

Sera glanced at him, her expression unreadable. "What?"

"The security. The wards. All of it’s designed to keep the Ocean contained. To make sure nothing comes up without permission." He gestured at the walls around them. "There’s barely anything watching for people going down. They don’t care who leaves the Mortal World. They only care who enters it."

"You’re just noticing this now?"

"I was distracted on the way up. New body, new powers, new everything." He met her eyes. "But you already knew. Didn’t you?"

"Every Siren who’s ever used these pillars knows. It’s not exactly subtle." Her voice carried an edge of old bitterness. "The Empire likes to pretend they treat us as partners in trade. Equal participants in a mutually beneficial relationship. But this is what they really think of us."

The pillar’s runes flickered as they passed through some invisible boundary, the magic shifting in ways that made Nacho’s enhanced senses tingle uncomfortably.

"The checkpoints were easier than I expected," he said, changing the subject.

"I have authorization codes. Being Grand General still means something, even if the Elders have been trying to undermine my authority for years."

"And the security personnel didn’t think it was strange that the Grand General was personally escorting some random Siren down from the Mortal World?"

"I told them you were an intelligence asset being relocated for operational reasons. It’s even technically true." The ghost of a smile crossed her face. "The best lies always are."

They descended in silence for a while, the only sounds the hum of magic and the faint whisper of displaced water as they dropped deeper into the Ocean’s embrace. Nacho watched the walls slide past, noting the way the construction changed as they went lower, from polished Imperial stone to rougher Siren work to something older and stranger that didn’t match either aesthetic.

"Vael," he said eventually.

Sera’s whole body went still.

"What about her?"

"You said you needed to know what happened to her. That finding out who betrayed her was more important than finding her." He kept his voice neutral, careful not to push too hard. "But that’s not entirely true, is it?"

For a long moment, she didn’t answer. The lift continued its descent, carrying them deeper into the darkness between worlds.

"Thorne’s confession," she said finally. "The one you extracted. It mentioned a facility. Somewhere in the Empire’s interior. A place where Sirens with military value are held for specialized processing."

"Processing?"

"Breaking. Conditioning. Whatever methods the Empire uses to turn captured soldiers into loyal servants." Her jaw tightened. "Vael would be exactly the kind of prisoner they’d send there. High rank, extensive knowledge of Siren military operations, personal connection to the Grand General. She’d be worth more to them alive and compliant than dead."

"You think she’s still alive."

"I think she might be. And if she is, I need to find her." Sera’s eyes met his, and for the first time since he’d met her, he saw something vulnerable in their depths. "Not because of strategy or politics or the good of our people. Because she’s my friend. And I sent her into that trap."

The words hung between them as the lift continued its descent, carrying them away from the Mortal World and toward whatever came next.

Finally, Sera spoke again, her voice steadier now.

"Finding that facility is the next step. Thorne didn’t know its exact location, but she knew enough to give us a starting point. Somewhere in the northern provinces, near the old border with the Sky territories."

"That’s a lot of ground to cover."

"Yes. It is." She turned to face him fully. "Which is why I’m not going to ask you to come with me. You’ve done enough. More than enough. You don’t owe me anything."

Nacho considered his options.

He could walk away. Return to Lumen, rebuild his massage parlor operation, continue accumulating Talents and power at his own pace. Sera had the resources of an entire military at her disposal, even if those resources were limited by politics and bureaucracy.

She didn’t need him.

But that wasn’t the point, was it?

"I’ll come."

Her eyebrows rose slightly. "Why?"

"Because you asked. Because finding Vael means dismantling whatever operation the Empire has running in that facility, and that sounds like an excellent opportunity to steal some interesting Talents." He shrugged. "And because I want to see how this story ends."

"That’s not a reason."

"It’s the only one I’ve got."

She studied his face for a long moment, searching for something he wasn’t sure she found. Then she nodded once, sharply.

"Thank you."

"Don’t thank me yet. We haven’t found her."

"No. We haven’t."

The lift shuddered slightly as it passed through another magical boundary, and suddenly there was water all around them, dark and deep and familiar in a way that made something in Nacho’s chest relax.

The Ocean.

Home, or the closest thing to it he had in this world.

The platform settled into its dock at the pillar’s base, and they stepped out into the familiar pressure of deep water, their Siren bodies adapting automatically to the environment. Lumen’s lights glittered in the distance, a constellation of bioluminescence marking the last stronghold of a people fighting for survival.

Nacho took a deep breath, tasting salt and magic and something else he couldn’t identify.

Whatever came next, he was ready for it.