For the first time in a long while, the questors were beginning to believe that they could enjoy a little peace.
Skyreach Observatory had given them something they had almost forgotten existed.
Time.
Time without a battlefield.
Time without an ancient machine awakening beneath their feet.
Time without an enemy waiting behind the next door.
The vast Observatory floated above the surrounding landscape like a monument from another age. Its enormous astronomical rings slowly turned above the central tower, following movements that had been calculated by forgotten civilizations. Ancient lenses gathered starlight. Technomagik conduits hummed beneath the floors. Long-abandoned chambers had begun responding to the presence of the questors, revealing pieces of knowledge that had remained dormant for centuries.
Dorion had taken particular interest in the Observatory's mechanical sections.
Lirion had practically disappeared into its archives.
Sorion spent much of his time walking through the observation galleries, studying memories embedded within the ancient structure.
Valek trained in the outer platforms.
Bardin, naturally, had found the Observatory's highest balcony and had declared it an excellent place for composing songs.
For several days, nothing happened.
And that alone felt strange.
Then, during the Observatory's artificial night cycle, everything changed.
THE TRANSMISSION
The first sign was not an alarm.
It was silence.
The enormous astronomical rings above the Observatory suddenly stopped moving.
No grinding gears.
No humming mechanisms.
No movement.
The entire structure became unnaturally still.
Lirion noticed it first.
He was standing inside one of the Observatory's archival chambers when the blue-black data streams surrounding him suddenly vanished.
His eyes narrowed.
Lirion: "That's not supposed to happen."
He immediately turned toward the central console.
Across the Observatory, Sorion opened his eyes.
Something had changed.
He could feel it.
Not through sound.
Not through sight.
Through resonance.
A faint disturbance had entered the Observatory.
Something distant.
Something desperate.
Dorion was the first to reach the central chamber.
Dorion: "What happened?"
Lirion was already working at the controls.
Lirion: "Unknown transmission."
Bardin arrived behind him.
Bardin: "From where?"
Lirion didn't answer immediately.
His fingers moved across the ancient interface.
The Observatory attempted to identify the source.
Nothing.
It tried again.
Nothing.
The transmission did not correspond to any known city.
No registered Veil Gate.
No known Technomagik frequency.
No recognized civilization.
Finally, a message appeared.
SOURCE: UNKNOWN
REGION: UNKNOWN
ORIGIN: UNRESOLVED
Dorion frowned.
Dorion: "Can we answer it?"
Lirion: "I'm trying."
The transmission crackled.
Then a voice emerged.
Weak.
Distorted.
Almost buried beneath static.
Unknown Voice: "Skyreach Observatory...we detected your resonance."
Everyone became silent.
Unknown Voice: "If you can hear this..."
Static interrupted the message.
Unknown Voice: "...please answer."
Lirion adjusted the receiver.
Lirion: "Signal stabilizing."
Sorion stepped toward the console.
Sorion: "We hear you."
For several seconds, there was nothing.
Then the voice returned.
Unknown Voice: "Thank the old stars."
The speaker sounded exhausted.
Not frightened in the way someone sounded during an attack.
This was different.
It was the voice of someone who had been watching something terrible happen for a very long time.
Unknown Voice: "We have tried every remedy."
Unknown Voice: "Every treatment."
Unknown Voice: "Every ritual."
Unknown Voice: "Nothing stops it."
Bardin lowered his lute.
Bardin: "Stops what?"
The answer came quietly.
Unknown Voice: "The dying."
A REGION SLOWLY BEING CONSUMED
The Observatory responded to the transmission.
Its central projection activated.
A three-dimensional landscape appeared above the floor.
At first, it looked beautiful.
Vast forests.
Green valleys.
Rivers crossing fertile plains.
Towering trees whose branches formed enormous natural canopies.
Lakes surrounded by flowering vegetation.
The region appeared untouched.
Then the projection changed.
The colors faded.
Leaves disappeared from the trees.
The rivers became darker.
Patches of soil turned gray.
Black veins began spreading beneath the ground.
Lirion stared at the projection.
Lirion: "That's corruption."
Dorion's expression hardened.
Dorion: "How bad?"
Lirion: "Not immediately catastrophic."
He enlarged the image.
The corruption was spreading slowly.
Painfully slowly.
But it was spreading everywhere.
Roots were becoming infected.
Plants were weakening.
The soil itself was changing.
Lirion: "That's the problem."
Sorion studied the projection.
Sorion: "It isn't attacking the region."
Lirion: "No."
He pointed toward the underground image.
Lirion: "It's consuming it."
The unknown voice continued.
Unknown Voice: "It began with a few trees."
The image showed a small grove.
Unknown Voice: "Then entire gardens."
The grove disappeared.
Unknown Voice: "Then the outer forests."
The projection expanded.
Entire stretches of woodland were now dying.
Unknown Voice: "We thought we had years."
The speaker paused.
Unknown Voice: "Perhaps we still do."
Another pause.
Unknown Voice: "But every year, the corruption moves deeper."
Sorion looked at the others.
Sorion: "How long?"
The voice answered.
Unknown Voice: "We don't know."
That answer was worse than a number.
Because a number meant certainty.
This meant the people were living beneath an invisible clock.
Unknown Voice: "When the roots of the oldest forests are consumed, the corruption will reach the settlements."
Unknown Voice: "When the soil fails, our crops will fail."
Unknown Voice: "When the plants disappear..."
The transmission became quiet.
Unknown Voice: "...we will follow."
THE NAME OF THE DYING LAND
Lirion began searching the Observatory's ancient archives.
The system rejected the first searches.
Then another.
Then another.
Finally, an ancient record opened.
A name appeared.
VERIDIAN ENCLAVE
The Observatory displayed an old map.
It was much larger than the area shown in the transmission.
The region had once been described as a vast ecological sanctuary.
The records spoke of forests that could stretch for hundreds of kilometers.
Ancient wetlands.
Living rivers.
Giant trees.
Medicinal plants.
Flora found nowhere else in the known world.
The description was almost poetic.
A LAND WHERE LIFE REMEMBERS HOW TO GROW.
Sorion stared at the words.
Sorion: "Veridian Enclave."
The unknown voice suddenly responded.
Unknown Voice: "Yes."
Everyone looked at the receiver.
Unknown Voice: "That is our home."
Bardin quietly repeated the name.
Bardin: "Veridian Enclave."
The name sounded peaceful.
Yet the region was dying.
THE OBSERVATORY REMEMBERS
Lirion continued searching.
Suddenly, the Observatory's entire central chamber changed.
Ancient symbols appeared across the walls.
The floor lit up.
The enormous projection of Veridian Enclave disappeared.
In its place appeared a single symbol.
A blue droplet.
Inside the droplet was a green seed.
Lirion stopped.
Lirion: "Wait."
Dorion turned.
Dorion: "What?"
Lirion: "The Observatory has a record."
The system began displaying ancient text.
Lirion translated the first section.
Lirion: "Regenerative fluid."
Another line.
Lirion: "Capable of restoring damaged vegetation."
Another.
Lirion: "Capable of restoring exhausted soil."
Sorion stepped closer.
Sorion: "And corruption?"
Lirion continued reading.
His expression changed.
Lirion: "It can cleanse it."
Everyone became silent.
Bardin looked at the dying projection of Veridian Enclave.
Bardin: "Then you have their cure."
Lirion shook his head.
Lirion: "Not exactly."
Bardin: "Why not?"
Lirion pointed toward the archive.
Lirion: "Because the Observatory doesn't have the water."
The ancient symbol expanded.
A name appeared.
THE TEARS OF THE SIREN
The records described the Tears of the Siren as one of the rarest naturally occurring regenerative waters known to the ancient civilizations.
It was not simply water.
It possessed an unusual biological and Technomagik resonance.
Plants exposed to it could regenerate damaged roots.
Barren soil could recover.
Ancient seeds could awaken.
Even vegetation affected by certain forms of corruption could return to life if treated before the corruption reached irreversible stages.
But there was a limitation.
The Tears of the Siren were not located in Veridian Enclave.
They were nowhere near it.
Lirion searched deeper.
The Observatory generated another map.
This time, the projection showed an enormous ocean.
Then the image descended.
Below the waves.
Below the seabed.
Far beneath the surface.
A different region appeared.
A vast underwater territory.
Lirion stared at it.
Lirion: "There."
Dorion approached.
Dorion: "What is it?"
The ancient map displayed another name.
THALORIN DEPTHS
Sorion immediately noticed the distinction.
Sorion: "That's not Veridian."
Lirion: "No."
He expanded the map.
The two regions were separated by a tremendous distance.
Lirion: "They're completely different regions."
Veridian Enclave was a living terrestrial region.
Thalorin Depths was an ancient oceanic region.
They were connected only by the old records concerning the Tears of the Siren.
Dorion: "So the cure is somewhere else."
Lirion: "Far somewhere else."
The map descended again.
Something enormous appeared beneath the ocean.
A city.
Its architecture was unlike anything they had seen before.
Massive towers rose from the seabed.
Circular structures surrounded enormous domes.
Bridges connected sections of the submerged metropolis.
Ancient channels carried water through the city.
And beneath the deepest structure was a massive underground flow.
Lirion: "This must be it."
The records supplied a name.
THALORIN CITY
The ancient metropolis of the Thalorin Depths.
The city had once existed beneath the ocean.
Then the records became incomplete.
No explanation.
No final account.
Only one surviving statement:
THE TEARS FLOW BENEATH THE CITY.
A CURE BURIED IN ANOTHER WORLD
Bardin stared at the map.
Bardin: "So let me understand this."
He pointed toward Veridian Enclave.
Bardin: "People are dying there."
Then toward the Thalorin Depths.
Bardin: "Their cure is there."
Then toward the ocean between them.
Bardin: "And the ocean is between us and it."
Lirion nodded.
Lirion: "Correct."
Bardin sighed.
Bardin: "I suddenly miss the desert."
Dorion laughed.
Dorion: "You said that last time."
Bardin: "Because the desert didn't try to drown me."
Valek stepped forward.
Valek: "Can we reach the Thalorin Depths?"
Lirion examined the records.
Lirion: "The Observatory has no active route."
Sorion: "Then we'll find one."
Lirion looked toward him.
Lirion: "We don't know what happened to Thalorin."
Sorion: "Neither did we know what waited in half the places we've already visited."
He looked at the dying image of Veridian Enclave.
Sorion: "But we know what happens if we do nothing."
THE PEOPLE OF VERIDIAN
The transmission returned.
The speaker had been listening.
Unknown Voice: "You found the records."
Sorion answered.
Sorion: "We found the name."
Unknown Voice: "Then you know."
Sorion: "We know the cure exists."
A long silence followed.
Unknown Voice: "You would go?"
Sorion didn't hesitate.
Sorion: "Yes."
The voice became quieter.
Unknown Voice: "You do not understand what you are promising."
Dorion stepped forward.
Dorion: "We've made worse promises."
Lirion gave him a look.
Dorion shrugged.
Dorion: "It's true."
The speaker gave a faint laugh.
It was the first emotion in their voice that wasn't desperation.
Unknown Voice: "Then may the old guardians guide you."
Sorion looked toward the map.
Sorion: "Tell us about Veridian Enclave."
The speaker began explaining.
The region had once been protected by enormous forests.
Its people lived alongside the plants rather than simply harvesting them.
Their settlements were surrounded by living walls of trees.
Their medicines came from flowers and roots.
Their food came from cultivated forests.
Their water systems depended on natural wetlands.
Everything was connected.
That was why the corruption was so dangerous.
It was not destroying one thing.
It was slowly breaking the entire ecological system.
Unknown Voice: "We can still fight it."
Unknown Voice: "But we cannot win."
Unknown Voice: "Not without the Tears."
Sorion looked at the map.
Sorion: "Then we'll bring them back."
PREPARING FOR THE OCEAN
The expedition preparations began immediately.
Lirion transformed one of the Observatory's workshops into a temporary laboratory.
He studied ancient underwater technology.
Pressure systems.
Breathing mechanisms.
Water-resistant Technomagik conduits.
Navigation instruments.
He discovered references to old diving armor.
The ancient civilizations had apparently possessed methods of traveling beneath the ocean for extended periods.
Lirion rebuilt what he could.
Dorion helped reinforce the equipment.
Valek tested the armor's mobility.
Bardin tested absolutely nothing.
Instead, he was busy wrapping his lute in layers of protective material.
Lirion looked at him.
Lirion: "What are you doing?"
Bardin: "Protecting the most important instrument on this expedition."
Dorion: "More important than your armor?"
Bardin: "Much more important."
Valek smiled.
Valek: "You realize we're going beneath the ocean."
Bardin: "Which is precisely why I need to protect it."
Lirion shook his head.
Lirion: "I am not designing a waterproof lute."
Bardin: "Then we have a problem."
THE LAST LOOK AT SKYREACH
The preparations took several days.
During that time, the Observatory continued receiving small transmissions from Veridian Enclave.
Each one was weaker than the last.
The forests were deteriorating.
Some settlements had already begun rationing food.
The corruption had reached new valleys.
But there was still hope.
The Tears of the Siren existed.
That was enough.
On the morning of their departure, the questors stood upon the Observatory's outer platform.
Below them, clouds moved like an endless ocean.
Above them, the great astronomical rings turned once again.
Skyreach had become more than a temporary refuge.
It had become a place of knowledge.
A place that had opened its ancient memories to them.
But their journey could not end there.
Sorion looked toward the distant horizon.
Sorion: "We've spent too long following relics."
Lirion adjusted the equipment on his arm.
Lirion: "This isn't a relic."
Sorion nodded.
Sorion: "No."
He looked toward the transmission device.
Sorion: "It's a life."
Dorion tightened his gauntlet.
Dorion: "Then let's save it."
THE ROUTE TO THALORIN
The Observatory projected the map of Orinthal above the central chamber.
The questors gathered around it.
For a moment, none of them spoke.
The map revealed the ancient civilization in its entirety.
At the center stood Aurion Citadel, the Heart of Orinthal.
To the north, beyond the great mountain range, stood Skyreach Observatory, surrounded by the Cloudspine Peaks.
Far to the southwest lay the vast green expanse of Veridian Enclave.
And far below Skyreach, beyond several stretches of ancient territory, lay an enormous blue region.
THALORIN DEPTHS THE ENDLESS OCEAN
Lirion expanded the map.
A glowing marker appeared over Veridian Enclave.
Lirion: "This is where the transmission originated."
The marker moved.
Then another appeared over the ocean.
Lirion: "And this is where the Tears of the Siren are recorded."
Bardin looked from one marker to the other.
Bardin: "They're not exactly next door."
Lirion: "No."
He traced the route between them.
Lirion: "But we don't have to travel overland."
Dorion looked toward the hangar.
Dorion: "The Skiff."
Lirion nodded.
Lirion: "Exactly."
The questors had acquired and modified their flying Skiff during their previous adventures. It was no longer simply a means of transportation.
It had become their expedition vessel.
Its Technomagik core could lift the craft above the terrain and carry them across enormous distances without forcing them to follow roads or ancient trade routes.
Lirion calculated the route.
Lirion: "We'll leave Skyreach and fly south."
The map shifted.
The Skiff's projected route appeared.
Lirion: "We'll maintain altitude over the wilderness, pass beyond the southern mountain ranges, and continue toward the Endless Ocean."
Bardin raised an eyebrow.
Bardin: "And Veridian Enclave?"
The map highlighted the green region.
Sorion looked at it.
Sorion: "We need to know what is happening there."
Lirion: "We can make a reconnaissance stop."
Dorion nodded.
Dorion: "Then continue to Thalorin."
Sorion agreed.
Sorion: "Yes."
The objective was now clear.
Veridian Enclave was the region they had been called to save.
Thalorin Depths was where they needed to go to obtain the cure.
Two different regions.
Two different journeys.
One connected fate.
THE FLYING SKIFF
The following morning, the questors gathered at Skyreach's aerial dock.
Their flying Skiff waited beneath the enormous Observatory.
Its hull was compact compared with the massive ancient vessels described in the Observatory's archives, but its Technomagik systems made it remarkably capable.
The craft resembled a traditional expedition skiff adapted for the sky.
Its reinforced hull carried a central Technomagik engine.
Runic stabilizers extended along both sides.
Beneath the hull, luminous energy gathered into controlled propulsion fields.
It did not need a balloon.
It did not need a conventional airship envelope.
The Skiff simply rose.
Lirion stood at the controls.
Lirion: "Power stable."
Dorion climbed aboard.
Dorion: "Weapons?"
Lirion: "Functional."
Dorion: "Shields?"
Lirion: "Functional."
Bardin climbed aboard carrying his carefully protected lute.
Bardin: "Music?"
Lirion stared at him.
Lirion: "Unfortunately."
Bardin smiled.
Bardin: "Then we're ready."
The Skiff's engine awakened.
A deep Technomagik hum traveled through the hull.
The craft lifted from the platform.
Slowly at first.
Then higher.
Skyreach Observatory became smaller beneath them.
The Cloudspine Peaks stretched in every direction.
Snow-covered mountains rose above the clouds.
The questors had traveled through these mountains before.
But from the air, the world looked different.
The ancient civilization was no longer a collection of isolated regions.
It was one enormous landscape.
One civilization.
One world.
And somewhere below that world, ancient secrets remained buried.
Sorion stood at the bow.
The wind pulled at his cloak.
Ahead lay the route south.
ABOVE ORINTHAL
The flying Skiff traveled faster than any conventional expedition could have managed.
The mountains passed beneath them.
Clouds surrounded the vessel.
Then the landscape began changing.
The cold colors of the Cloudspine Peaks slowly disappeared.
Green returned.
At first, small patches.
Then enormous forests.
Lirion checked the navigation display.
Lirion: "Veridian Enclave is approaching."
Sorion looked down.
The Endless Forests spread beneath them.
From above, they were breathtaking.
An ocean of trees.
Some were ordinary forests.
Others were enormous.
Their canopies were so wide that entire villages could have been hidden beneath them.
Rivers wound between the trees.
Mist hovered over wetlands.
For a moment, Veridian looked untouched.
Then Sorion noticed something.
Gray.
A small patch inside the forest.
Then another.
Then another.
The corruption.
Even from the sky, they could see it.
The dying areas were spreading through the forest like wounds.
Sorion's expression hardened.
Sorion: "There."
Lirion lowered the Skiff.
They descended toward the edge of the region.
The distress transmission had not exaggerated the situation.
The land really was dying.
But they could not remain.
Not yet.
The cure was still far away.
Lirion checked the map.
Lirion: "We have confirmed the source region."
He pointed toward the southern horizon.
Lirion: "Now we continue to Thalorin."
The Skiff climbed again.
Veridian Enclave remained behind them.
The dying forests disappeared beneath the clouds.
Ahead, the landscape gradually became darker.
Then the land ended.
The Endless Ocean appeared.
It stretched beyond the horizon.
And somewhere within that enormous blue expanse lay the ancient Thalorin Depths.
Sorion watched the ocean.
Something about it felt familiar.
Not because he had been there before.
Because something beneath it remembered him.
He closed his eyes.
For an instant, he heard something.
A distant voice.
A whisper beneath waves.
Then it disappeared.
Sorion opened his eyes.
Sorion: "We're getting close."
Lirion checked the instruments.
Lirion: "According to the Observatory, Thalorin should be somewhere beneath that ocean."
Bardin stared downward.
Bardin: "Beneath?"
Lirion: "Beneath."
Bardin slowly looked at his lute.
Then at the ocean.
Bardin: "I suddenly remembered I have a Frog Exo-Suit."
Dorion laughed.
The Skiff continued southward.
Behind them was Veridian Enclave, a living region slowly being consumed by corruption.
Ahead was Thalorin Depths, a completely different region known in the ancient records as the Endless Ocean.
And beneath those waters waited the ruins of the ancient Ocean City.
Somewhere below it flowed the Tears of the Siren.
The water that could save an entire region.
The questors had their destination.
They had their vessel.
They had their purpose.
Now they only needed to survive the journey.
From the Cloudspine Peaks to the Endless Ocean.
From Skyreach to Thalorin.
And this time, their adventure would truly be—
wet at Thalorin Depths...
and wild at Veridian Enclave.