The Great Hall of the North Star, once a place of raucous feasts and the scent of roasting meat, had become a tomb of damp echoes. The six inches of salt water covering the floor acted as a sensory web for Elara. Every ripple, every splash, every heartbeat that dared to displace a single drop was transmitted directly to the Trident of the Tides.
"He is in the walls," Elara whispered, her voice carrying a metallic resonance.
She didn't run. She glided through the shallow water, her iridescent tail occasionally brushing against the submerged obsidian pillars. Behind her, a dozen Merman Sentinels moved like sharks through a reef, their tridents leveled and glowing with a predatory violet light.
"My Queen, the lower dungeons are flooded," the lead Sentinel reported. "If the Alpha is down th
