Chapter 1 The night the Sea Howled
The moon was wrong.
It hung to close to the horizon, swollen and silver blue, tugging at the sea with an insistence that made water tremble. Lyra felt it in her bones as she stood on the cliffs above Aeralis Bay. Salt wind threading thru her dark hair, heart beating a fraction to fast.
Something was waking up.
Below her, the Ocean churned in slow luminous spirals. Bioluminescent veins flickered beneath the surface, like constellations drowned and restless. Merfolk lights, the elders would say. A warning.
Lyra tightened her cloak around her shoulders and glanced back toward the city. Aeralis rose behind her in tiers of glass and ancient stone, half spires humming with star tech, half towers grown from living crystal. Faelight lanterns floated between streets, their glow dimmer than usual, as if even magic was holding its breath.
She wasn't supposed to be here.
Humans weren't.
At least that what everyone thought Lyra was.
A howl cut through the air- low, raw, unmistakably close.
Lyra froze.
The first wolf burst from the tree line in a spray of silver leaves.
It skidded across the cliff pass, claws scraping stone, sides heaving. Its eyes locked on Lura - Not with hunger, but with something close to panic.
Then it bowed.
Low. Submissive.
Lyra stumbled back. "No-"
The sea answered.
A pulse rolled the bay light flaring beneath the waves. The howl of the pack broke into scattered cries as others veered, fleeing inland, uphill-anywhere but here.
The lone wolf whined, pressing its forehead to the ground.
Behind Lyra, glass chimed as the city's wards flickered.
And from the depths below, something vast shifted.
Not rising.
Listening.
Lyras breath shook.
The moon dragged the tide higher.
And the sea finally found her.
