The sea had changed.
Where once it had been still beneath moonlight, silver-laced and whispering, now it roared with hunger. The tide surged unnaturally fast, rushing inward toward the monolith like a beast reclaiming its prey. Waves rose and broke over the ancient stone road behind them, swallowing it by degrees.
Kaelen sprinted from the monolith, the Crown of Iskaran clutched tightly in his left hand, the Ember flaring against his chest. He did not look back — could not. The light that had exploded from the heart of the drowned tower still lingered in the sky, casting everything in hues of blue and gold.
Behind him, Aelric shouted over the chaos. "We need to move!"
Beside him, Lys limped from a wound — a deep gash across her thigh where one of the Hollowborn had raked her with a barbed blade. She leaned on her staff, leaving behind a crimson trail as they fled across the submerged road. Already, the sea crept up past their ankles.
"The path's closing!" Aelric snarled. "We won't make it at this pace—"
"I'm not leaving her," Kaelen snapped.
Lys groaned, but her grip on Kaelen's shoulder was strong. "Then you'd better help me run, flamebearer."
They ran. The submerged road curved like the spine of some ancient leviathan, rising and falling beneath black waves. Behind them, the monolith sank slowly beneath the tide, taking with it whatever force had protected the path. The Hollowborn had vanished — for now — but Kaelen knew they would return. He felt their hatred in the deep.
The Ember grew hot.
"Something's coming," he said.
"I know something's coming," Aelric shouted. "The whole sea's trying to kill us!"
"No," Kaelen said, breath ragged. "Something else."
The waves ahead surged — and split.
From the sea rose a colossus.
It was not made of flesh. It was made of armor and drowned bones, shaped like a knight twisted by the sea's fury. Coral grew from its chest. Seaweed trailed from its helm like rotting banners. In place of eyes, glowing voidlights stared down at them — ancient, hollow, and merciless.
Lys froze. "Gods above…"
Kaelen stepped forward.
The Crown of Iskaran pulsed in his grip — once, twice, and then flared brilliantly. As if recognizing its ancient guardian. As if challenging it.
The colossus raised its sword — a blade forged from shipwrecks, anchors, and the teeth of sea-beasts — and brought it down with a roar.
Kaelen met it with fire.
The Ember erupted in a ring of flame, forming a barrier that shattered the impact and sent both Kaelen and the colossus stumbling. Water hissed into steam around them. The ground trembled.
"Go!" Kaelen roared. "Get her across!"
Aelric grabbed Lys. "I'm not—"
"GO!"
The colossus recovered faster than Kaelen expected. It moved with surprising grace for its size, leaping forward across the road with a thundering impact that cracked the stone beneath its feet.
Kaelen met it with a war cry. His blade, still burning with Emberlight, clashed against the colossus's sea-forged weapon. Sparks and steam exploded around them.
Strike. Parry. Evade. Counter.
But the guardian was relentless — a creature of deep magic, bound not by will but by oath. Every blow it dealt pushed Kaelen back, closer to the edge where the tide had already swallowed the path.
He was losing.
Until the Crown sang.
A single note — pure, clear, ancient.
It vibrated through Kaelen's arm, and suddenly the sea stilled. Time slowed. He felt everything — the pull of the moon above, the currents beneath, the memory of Iskaran when it still lived. He became the tide.
The next blow he struck drove the guardian to its knees.
With a cry that came not from rage but remembrance, Kaelen thrust his sword into the cracks of the creature's armor — and let the Ember's fire pour into its core.
The colossus exploded into boiling mist and shattered iron.
Kaelen fell to one knee, chest heaving.
From the shore, Aelric waved frantically. "MOVE!"
The road behind him was gone — swallowed by the sea. Only broken rocks and sinking ruins remained. There would be no path back. Only one chance forward.
Kaelen rose, sheathed his sword, and ran.
The Crown pulsed once more — and from the sea, a bridge of water and light formed beneath his feet. For ten heartbeats, the sea obeyed him.
He sprinted over waves, across the temporary bridge, until he collapsed onto the stony shore beside Aelric and Lys.
Silence.
Then the sea roared shut behind them, burying Iskaran again beneath the waves.
They lay there a long time, breathless, wet, bloodied.
Finally, Lys whispered, "That crown… it didn't just open the path. It commanded it."
Kaelen nodded.
"I think I'm starting to remember," he said softly. "Not just visions. Real memories."
Aelric sat up. "That thing — the guardian. It bowed before it fell. You saw it."
"I saw it," Kaelen said.
A pause.
Then Aelric grinned. "You're a bloody sea prince now, too."
Kaelen didn't smile.
He looked out at the ocean, still whispering, still watching.
"I'm not a prince," he said. "I'm a warning."
They set camp inland, far from the reach of the tide, in the shattered ribs of what once had been a lighthouse. That night, Kaelen sat apart from the others, the Crown of Iskaran resting beside the Ember in his lap.
Three crowns now.
And with each, the weight grew.
The Hollow King would come.
But Kaelen was no longer running.
He was beginning to remember why he had started this journey.
And what he had promised — long ago — to protect.