The day they left Tuwallo came faster than Seph had expected.

After Lume's fight with Uol Mattus, they'd had a windfall that dwarfed their earlier payouts. Between Seph and Nax, they now had almost 500 chips more than the market rate for ignition. When Seph looked at the wealth they shared, he couldn't help but feel numb.

That realization of their wealth came shortly after discovering the vulcanite's frustration with Verrin.

Nax knew Winora from a fling a few cycles back, and while things hadn't worked out they remained friendly. She'd told him about the vulcanite's outburst in Verrin's viewing box, and Seph had confirmed the story by strolling by. The new limestone door was impossible to miss.

Seph had put feelers out with the local igniters to see who was available, and he'd met walls at every turn. The earliest window anyone had was nearly two weeks after Lume's final scheduled fight, which meant they weren't an option. They'd had to pivot quickly.

"We go to Poltare. Matin, specifically."

Nax looked up at Sephs's words. "Matin? Worse than walking into the jungle."

"Yes," Seph agreed. "But there's no oversight, and they have more igniters than any other population. In Tuwallo, they're all in bed with the vulcanites and their kin. There, we might be able to find someone to ignite you." He paused, looking to see where Lume's mind was before continuing. "And you're forgetting something," he said, turning to Nax. "The lack of order is a benefit. There are no groups in power Verrin can approach to find us, no structure for vulcanites to track us down. We'd be disappearing into the maelstrom, and believe me. The vulcanites will try to find us. Verrin, if not them."

Lume sighed. "I don't like it. Salihf only rules Matin by the strictest definition. The land is basically lawless."

Seph had to acknowledge the truth in that. Tunari Salihf was the only Lutetium that called the continent of Poltare home, and to say she ruled it was a stretch. Her title was The Sundered Chain, and she'd made clear her feelings on the chains of law. He had trouble blaming her, considering the captivity she'd experienced before her rise to power.

"I know. But Nax can protect us from other Hollows, and what would vulcanites want with a few no-name Hollows anyway? Once he's on the vulcanite ladder, we can go wherever we want."

"Forgetting something," Nax said. "It'll take me months to ignite you both without snuffing my crucible. Have to survive in the meantime."

"True," Seph replied. "Which is why, as soon as we ignite you, we leave." He turned to look at Lume. "We head to Gorunhold as soon as Nax solidifies his crucible, and we don't look back."

Deliberation continued, but Seph knew they would agree. He was the navigator of their little trio, dubious position though it was.

Now, they were at the docks trying to charter a ship to Poltare.

"Three passages, three hundred chips," the gillfolk captain said, her enormous, dark eyes glittering with an unblinking stare.

Gillfolk were shorter than the average human, which meant they were on a level with Seph. Their scaled flesh came in as many colors as the fish they shared the seas with, and the spines that crested their snout and brows did the same.

This one was a deep blue speckled with white, likely descended from some of the deepest societies the gillfolk had. Their capital, Hadal, was so far beneath the waves the pressure was dangerous for even higher vulcanites. Seph hadn't caught this gillfolk's name, but her look was distinct. Gillfolk women didn't wear torso coverings since their bodies were all sleek scales and spined fins, but her pants were so bright a yellow they bordered on painful.

"Two hundred and fifty," Seph replied, letting the chips in his bag clink against each other as he shook it. "We'll help keep the ship in order as well."

The captain made a sound that was the gillfolk equivalent of a snort, more of a bubbling noise from the back of the throat. "Three-fifty if you're doing crew work. You shorelanders break more than you fix."

"Two seventy-five, and we touch nothing," Seph replied with a grin.

The gillwoman looked like her amusement had withered and died in the crib. "Three. Unless you want it to be three-fifty. Price goes up in two minutes."

Nax shouldered Seph aside, grabbing the bag from his hands to count out the chips. "Three," he rumbled.

The captain looked him up and down before nodding with approval. "Done. Rules are simple. Stay out of anyone with gills' way. My word is law on the ocean. And if you start any fights with other passengers, we feed you to the leviathans. Questions?"

Seph opened his mouth, and Nax spoke before he had the chance.

"No."

"Great," the captain replied, pocketing the chips and ignoring the look of despair on Seph's face. "Name's Hileria. You call me captain or ma'am. Choose a cabin. You all are our first pickup."

Before Seph could get a word in, Hileria spun and strode off, shouting orders to the bustling sailors loading cargo onto her ship.

He felt a hand fall on his shoulder.

Nax's eyes bored into him. "Irritate a gillwoman on the water and we're good as dead. Let me and Lume talk so you don't annoy your way to a watery grave."

The girl nodded absently, her locks bouncing with the motion. "Are the spines dangerous?" She whispered. "We don't trade with gillfolk. The tribes are less... tolerant than I'd prefer."

"They're mostly ornamental," Seph sighed. "A remnant from when their species was more predisposed to brutality. Sharp, but no more dangerous than a prickerweed." He picked up his bag, slung his light possessions over his shoulder, and stepped toward the boat. "You don't have to worry about me. I'll keep my mouth shut."

He tried to ignore the look Nax and Lume shared.

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Verrin's month was an exercise in frustration.

He'd received another visit from the local vulcanite gangs, this representative all cold indifference where the last was hot fury. Verrin had given assurances about the upcoming fight, made promises about how it would quell the masses.

Vulcanites were stronger than Hollows, but what man wanted to fight an army of biting insects?

He could feel his heart pumping, the traitorous organ having seldom settled for the past few weeks. He was making more chips than he ever had, his fight attendance was skyrocketing, and even with him tripling ticket prices, there were nights you couldn't find a single empty seat in the arena.

He felt like he was going to shit his stomach out.

"Winora!" He yelled, banging an empty glass on his desk. "Find me Sephyr Tarmin! I need to speak to the boy!"

The timid girl popped her head into his office to nod in acknowledgment before swiftly retreating.

Seph and the Wressom boy would be the death of him. He was grateful for the opportunities they'd given him, but neither understood how the world worked. Seph acted as if Verrin liked living under the vulcanite's boots.

It burned him, the quiet fury setting him alight from the inside. But he was a Hollow, no matter how rich he was, and if Verrin paid for ignition, he'd turn from a nuisance into a threat. The vulcanites killed or crippled more than a third of newly-ignited within days.

He sat in his office, turning figures in his mind and spinning webs until Winora returned almost an hour later.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"They've disappeared, sir. Seph didn't show for his shift in the bay this morning, and their home is barren. Lumellin Ojentus was less obvious, but most of her belongings were missing. It looks like..."

She trailed off, but Verrin knew the words she'd left unsaid. It looks like they're running.

He sat for a moment, his mind spiraling through the possibilities. Winora started to speak.

"Sir-"

She cut off as she ducked the glass Verrin threw at her head, her face flushing crimson.

"Leave! Now!" He shouted, slamming a fist into his desk.

She fled like a ship before a hurricane.

The more Verrin thought, the more he despaired. Both his fortune and his life rode on Lume losing this fight. If they'd decided to run, Verrin was left holding a bonfire.

He called Winora back in. "Winora! Get me Uol, and the rest of the top-ranked fighters! I want two through eleven in my office an hour ago! And contact one of the vulcanite representatives. If those children want to hide like snakes in the grass, we'll burn it around them!"

He prayed he wasn't too late.

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Seph heard the riots a few minutes before their departure. The bells at the city center rang an hour before in the pattern that signaled danger in the outskirts, and he saw dockworkers sprinting from their posts to protect their families. He hadn't seen as much activity since the Sunscourge had come to Tuwallo's shores.

"What in ten depths is that racket?" Hileria yelled, the diminutive gillwoman making herself heard easily despite the cacophony in the city.

One of the more grizzled-looking gillmen responded. "Danger in the outskirts! The shorelanders use it for wild beasts or riots!"

Hileria let out what Seph could only assume was a gillfolk curse. "We leave! Now! I don't want to be stuck at the docks while the city goes to the Leviathans! Certainly not with a hold full of cargo!" She turned to Seph and his friends, the only passengers she'd managed to pick up for her voyage. "Get below decks, and stay out of the way! We'll be in Leviathan waters before nightfall, mark my words!"

They did as instructed, but as soon as they were below, Seph scrambled to the porthole that looked out of their cabin. He watched as fires sprang up in the city, distant though they were, and couldn't help but feel a sense of awe intermingled with his horror. Nax and Lume sat beside him in silence, the light of the fires reflecting in their eyes as they did his.

A lone gillman came sprinting towards the ship with trader's markings on, his elaborate robes impeding his efforts at speed. He carried only a hefty money pouch over his shoulder. The gillfolk must have elected to abandon their stall to the riots.

Seph watched through the window as more people trickled towards the docks from the city proper, most carrying goods or bags for a quick departure.

True to her word, Hileria had them withdrawing from the harbor within the hour. The trio watched as Tuwallo disappeared over the horizon, fires springing up and being stamped out throughout the city.

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Hileria called them to the decks once the city was well and truly behind them, and if Seph didn't know better, he would've thought they'd made a meandering trip of the day's flight. Her casual demeanor was betrayed, however, by a fanning motion in her forearm spines that kept repeating, not unlike a human tapping their foot.

"Any of you sailed before?"

"My father was a fisherman," Seph replied. He felt stupid as soon as he said it.

"Good for you. Are you a fisherman?" The gillwoman asked.

Seph hesitated. "No," he replied.

Hileria swiped a webbed hand over her forehead, smoothing the spines on her brow. "Then why in the depths did you tell me that? Listen up, all of you. We're entering Leviathan waters. Your daddy tell you what that means?"

"He did not."

Hileria stared at him for a second. "Shorelanders," she muttered. "It means you stay quiet, don't make waves, and pray to all the gods above and below that one of the Deepstriders doesn't stumble upon us in the night."

Seph looked incredulous. "So, what? We just hope they don't run into us?"

Hileria sighed. "No. I have two Calciums below the waterline right now making sure that we look like just another patch of saltwater for any hungry leviathans. They mostly hunt with anima senses, and they're so in tune with the ocean they can sense a bird diving for fish ten leagues out."

Seph looked at Lume and Nax, not surprised to see the larger boy unconcerned.

Lume looked like she might vomit.

"So if we're hiding from them, what do we have to worry about?" Seph asked, laying a steadying hand on Lume's shoulder.

"They still have the rest of their senses, even if they prefer using animus. If one gets close, they might decide we're a tasty snack. Us gillfolk lose one in twenty ships to Leviathans every cycle, and that's only surface craft. You don't want to know what it's like down below. That's why we don't make noise, we don't rock the boat, and we don't, under any circumstances, throw anything over the side!" She hissed, running to stop Lume from leaning her head over the water before the woman could get sick. A quick-witted crewman provided her with a bucket, and Seph looked away to avoid sharing her fate.

Hileria relaxed, the quiet urgency in her voice from earlier fading to relief. "If you have to be sick, keep it on the ship. They can smell almost as far as they can sense."

Seph suppressed the urge to ask, but he couldn't help himself. "So, just to make sure I have this right: we're in the middle of a giant death trap, and the only thing preventing us from being eaten is two vulcanites hiding us from one of the Leviathans' six senses."

"That's the gist," Hileria replied.

"And you do this all the time?"

Hileria shook her head. "We take a month off every cycle to vacation in Hadal."

Seph stared at her for a moment, trying to see if that was a joke. It was not.

"We're all going to die out here," Nax deadpanned.

Seph looked at him.

"Relax," he said. He nodded at Hileria. "She's still here, right?"

Hileria smiled for the first time that Seph had seen. "Right. Follow the rules and we don't die. And by the ten depths, don't get sick over the side. Fair?"

Seph tried to ignore the sounds of Lume's suffering while the captain said it. Nax answered the question for him.

"Fair. Straight to Matin?"

"Yes and no," Hileria replied. "We resupply and sleep at Roon's Respite. Quick exit means we don't have the stores to make it to Matin."

Nax nodded. "We stay below decks?"

"Please," Hileria breathed. "If you need more buckets for her, let Jeg know," she said, nodding to a red-scaled gillman.

Seph saw his shoulders slump, though he didn't look their way.

They stayed below until Jeg came to get them later that evening. The gillman had knocked quietly against their cabin door, and when they opened it he'd silently gestured for them to follow.

Lume had her legs somewhat under her now, though the ship's sweeping movements still wreaked havoc on her stomach, and she followed as they all emerged on deck.

The captain and the rest of the crew were looking out to the horizon. Seph did the same, and he saw red and yellow lights on the horizon, both of them looking less like an open flame and more like the glow of undersea life.

Hileria gestured them over, pressing a clawed finger to her lips. "Leviathans," she whispered. "Opportunity of a lifetime to see them up close. It looks like a territory dispute. If they head this way, stay silent. You're in for a show."

They did as she bid, and Seph hunkered down eagerly to await the show. He found himself envying the gillfolks' superior vision, their large eyes well-suited to both the depths they called home and the night on the surface.

The patches of light drifted toward them over the next hour, and Hileria didn't dare order they set sail. Moving while a leviathan was in nearby waters was, apparently, a death sentence.

Terror gave way to wonder as the creatures approached.

The first thing Seph noticed was the sheer size. When he'd been able to make out the creatures, he'd thought they were fairly close. He was wrong.

The yellow-lit Leviathan came in to view the soonest, and Seph was faced with the realization that the underwater behemoths were far larger than he'd expected. The creature dwarfed the ship ten times over, ridges of bone pressing upward under its skin to form twisting whorls. Along the shape of those bony ridges rested small, luminous bulbs that winked out from openings in the Leviathan's skin, the vibrant light reminiscent of the runes on the obelisk Seph had examined with Yinari weeks ago.

The Leviathan's brow protruded, a bony growth making a skeletal edifice that reminded Seph of a shipbreaker, and the Leviathan's neck sloped into its shoulders seamlessly. From there, massive fins extended along which the luminescence continued. The two fins were heavy, enormous limbs of muscle tipped with a flattened, club-like hand. Individual fingers weren't articulated, but Seph saw the 'hands' curl as the Leviathan kept itself afloat. The tail made up fully half of its size, a massive fan with a protruding fin above it spreading out over the water to arrest the creature's bulk.

Seph watched until the other Leviathan drifted into view, this one almost identical to the first. The only differences he could see were the scars that crisscrossed their pitch-colored skin and the lights that peeked out between them.

When they were within a league of each other, some unspoken signal went out between the two. They both let out a basso roar, deep enough to shake both Seph's bones and the vessel below him. Abruptly, the call ceased, and the lights faded instantly on both creatures. They accelerated toward each other like the Fortress himself was pushing them forward.

Hileria spoke aloud for the first time in hours.

"Brace!" She cried, grabbing a nearby railing as the rest of the crew did the same.

Seph looked around incredulously. The Leviathans were almost a league out, barely close enough for him to make out their scarring, and the gillfolk were nervous for the clash?

Nax was locked down as well, one arm already around Lume. That sight, more than anything, woke him up. He kicked himself for his stupidity. Gillfolk were nervous at sea.

He grabbed a railing.

The Leviathans slammed their crested foreheads together.

There was silence for a moment after the clash, and then an ugly crack that preceded a wall of water. It seemed as though the whole ocean lifted around the two behemoths, like a stone impacting a puddle.

The wave came screaming toward the ship, and Seph's stomach plummeted as the ocean lowered underneath their vessel.

He watched as one of the gillmen lost his grip and started to slide across the deck, looking on in horror as the poor soul skated over the side.

Before she lost her crewman to the depths, Hileria whipped an arm forward and manifested a tendril of water, turning air into liquid with just the strength of her animus.

Seph didn't have time to be surprised before the wave hit.