The sunken place
951 Words
The Two Worlds
Episode 5: The Sunken Palace
The sea was angry.
Dark waves crashed against the cliffs as Arjun and Maya stood at the edge of the Arabian coast.
Far beyond the horizon lay the Sunken Palace of Velliyam.
And somewhere inside it...
The Second Key.
"Tell me again why ancient magical objects are never hidden somewhere normal?" Arjun asked.
Maya adjusted the diving gear she'd borrowed from one of her agency contacts.
"Because that would make our lives easy."
"I miss easy."
"You miss complaining."
---
According to the silver shard left by the Shadow Collector, the palace sank nearly a thousand years ago.
Once it had belonged to the Sea Queen Velliyamma, a ruler who supposedly commanded storms.
When the Mirror King first rose to power, she hid one of the seven keys beneath her palace.
Then the entire kingdom vanished beneath the ocean.
Most believed it was only a legend.
Until now.
---
Hours later, they stood aboard a small fishing boat.
Moonlight shimmered across the water.
The glowing map on Maya's phone suddenly stopped moving.
The golden dot flashed.
They had arrived.
Directly beneath them.
The sea began glowing blue.
Ancient symbols appeared beneath the waves.
Arjun swallowed nervously.
"That's not normal."
"Nothing is normal anymore."
Then the ocean split.
Not completely.
Just enough to reveal stone stairs descending into darkness.
Both froze.
The ocean itself was making a path.
---
"This keeps getting weirder," Arjun muttered.
Together they descended.
The water remained suspended on either side like giant walls of glass.
Fish swam inches away from them.
Ancient sea creatures watched from the depths.
The deeper they traveled, the colder the air became.
Finally, they reached the bottom.
And there it was.
The Sunken Palace.
---
Even in ruin, it was beautiful.
Coral-covered towers stretched upward.
Pearls glowed within cracked walls.
Silver fish drifted through broken windows.
Ancient statues lined the streets.
The entire city slept beneath the sea.
Waiting.
Remembering.
---
As they approached the palace gates, Maya suddenly stopped.
"Do you hear that?"
Arjun listened.
At first there was nothing.
Then...
A voice.
Faint.
Calling her name.
"Maya..."
She froze.
The voice sounded familiar.
Too familiar.
"Maya..."
Her heartbeat quickened.
No.
It couldn't be.
The voice belonged to her mother.
A woman who had died years ago.
---
"Maya?"
Arjun looked concerned.
She didn't answer.
The voice continued.
"Maya, come home."
Without thinking, she started walking toward it.
One step.
Then another.
Her eyes became distant.
Empty.
Entranced.
"Maya!"
Arjun grabbed her arm.
Instantly the illusion shattered.
The voice disappeared.
The palace returned.
"What happened?" she whispered.
Arjun's expression darkened.
"The palace is inside our heads."
---
The main doors opened by themselves.
Inside waited a vast throne room.
At its center stood a crystal pool.
And floating above the water...
The Second Key.
Golden.
Radiant.
Beautiful.
"We found it."
For the first time all day, they smiled.
Then the water behind them exploded.
---
Something emerged from the pool.
A creature made entirely of water and moonlight.
Its body towered above them.
Its eyes glowed silver.
Ancient armor covered its form.
A guardian.
The protector of the Second Key.
---
The creature raised a massive trident.
A voice echoed through the chamber.
"Only those worthy may claim the key."
Maya stepped forward.
"We don't want a fight."
"The key must be earned."
The guardian pointed its trident at them.
"Face your greatest truth."
The water erupted.
The room vanished.
---
Arjun suddenly stood in his own world.
His original world.
His original body.
For a moment he thought he was home.
Then he saw the grave.
A simple stone grave.
One name written across it.
MAYA NAIR
His breath caught.
"No..."
The date beneath it made his stomach twist.
Three years earlier.
In his timeline...
Maya had died.
---
The vision shifted.
He saw news reports.
Agency files.
Photographs.
Every version ended the same way.
Maya died during a mission.
She never lived to become seventeen.
She never met him.
She shouldn't even exist.
---
The vision shattered.
Arjun stumbled backward.
His face had gone white.
Maya noticed immediately.
"What did you see?"
He hesitated.
For once the cold-hearted lawyer had no words.
Finally he answered.
"In my world..."
"You died."
Silence filled the throne room.
---
Maya stared at him.
"What?"
"In my timeline you died three years ago."
The words felt impossible.
Neither knew what to say.
Neither knew what it meant.
But one thing was certain.
The timelines were connected far more deeply than they had imagined.
---
The guardian spoke again.
"Truth accepted."
The creature dissolved into water.
The Second Key slowly descended into Maya's hands.
The trial was over.
Or so they thought.
---
Suddenly every mirror in the palace shattered.
A shockwave raced through the city.
The sea trembled.
The silver shard in Arjun's pocket began glowing violently.
A voice emerged from it.
Not the Shadow Collector.
Someone else.
Older.
Stronger.
Terrifying.
"The prison weakens."
The chamber shook.
Ancient cracks spread through reality itself.
For a split second, Arjun and Maya saw another world beyond the palace.
A third world.
Neither Timeline A.
Nor Timeline B.
Something else.
Something hidden.
---
Then the vision vanished.
The sea became calm again.
But both knew what they had seen.
A secret world existed between their realities.
And somehow...
It held the answer to everything.
A new message appeared on their phones.
SECOND KEY ACQUIRED
THIRD KEY LOCATION UNLOCKED
DESTINATION: THE CITY BETWEEN WORLDS
Arjun looked up.
Maya looked back.
For the first time since this adventure began, both felt the same thing.
Fear.
Because whatever waited in the City Between Worlds...
It was expecting them.
To Be Continued...
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