The Rust Eel Tavern was exactly as terrible as its name suggested.
Built from the rusted hull of an ancient warship, it sat at the edge of the Scavenger's Market a sprawling tent city where the desperate came to trade, and the predators came to hunt. The owner, a one eyed woman named Mags who claimed to have been a general in the Iron Dominion's army before the Shattering (a claim that grew more elaborate with every cup of rotgut she served), ran the place with an iron fist and a crossbow under the bar.
Lee pushed through the canvas flaps, Onyx Tempest strapped to his back, and immediately wished he hadn't.
"LEE ZAOU!"
The scream came from a table in the corner, where three figures sat huddled around a bowl of something steaming. Lee recognized them immediately his only friends in this hellhole of a world.
The screamer was Kira Ven, a girl his age with hair the color of copper wire and a temper to match. She was small, fierce, and absolutely terrifying when angry. Which was most of the time.
"Where the hell have you been?" Kira demanded, jumping to her feet. "We were supposed to meet an hour ago! Do you know how long an hour is when you're sitting in a place that smells like fermented feet?!"
"Fermented what?" Lee asked, genuinely curious.
"Don't change the subject!"
The second figure at the table a boy named Taro Moss, thin as a reed and twice as flexible held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Kira, calm down. I'm sure Lee had a good reason "
"Don't you calm down me, Taro! You know what happens when Lee goes off on his own! Last time he came back with a demon arm!"
"That was a prosthetic," Lee said. "And it was a gift."
"IT WAS STILL ATTACHED TO THE DEMON!"
The third figure finally spoke. "Sit down, Lee. You're drawing attention."
This was Ren, the oldest of their group at fifteen. He was calm where Kira was fire, patient where Taro was nervous, and dangerous in a way that had nothing to do with weapons. Ren's eyes were the pale blue of winter sky, and they missed nothing.
Lee sat. The sword on his back hummed softly.
These are your companions? Onyx Tempest asked. One burns too hot. One bends too easily. And one... one carries a shadow in his blood.
Lee ignored the sword. He was used to ignoring things that whispered in his head.
"Sorry I'm late," he said. "I found something."
"We found something too," Kira said, her anger cooling slightly. "A job. A real job. The kind that pays in silver, not rat meat."
Lee's eyebrows rose. In the Rust Sea, silver was practically mythical. Most transactions happened in barter food, weapons, information. Actual currency was rare enough to be worthless for its metal value and priceless for what it represented: a connection to the pre Shattering world.
"What's the job?" Lee asked.
Ren leaned forward. His voice dropped. "There's a man in the market. Calls himself the Pilgrim. He's looking for people to join an expedition. Says he's found a way into the Sunken City."
The tavern went quiet. Not just their table the whole room. Conversations died mid sentence. A glass shattered somewhere in the back. Even Mags stopped polishing her crossbow.
The Sunken City.
Everyone in the Rust Sea knew the stories. Before the Shattering, it had been the capital of the Iron Dominion a metropolis of steel and soul fire, where the Sun Kings had ruled from a throne made of living light. When the Bleeding Night came, the city hadn't just fallen. It had sunk, dragged into the earth by something that still lurked in its depths.
Treasure beyond imagining. Weapons of legend. And the heart of the Dominion's power a engine called the Everburn, said to be able to power a thousand armies or destroy a continent, depending on who was telling the story.
It was also, by all accounts, a death trap.
"No," Kira said immediately. "Absolutely not. I'm not going anywhere near that place. Do you know how many expeditions have tried to get in? Seventeen in the last ten years alone. Know how many came back? Two. And those two came back wrong. One of them forgot how to speak. The other forgot how to die. He's still wandering the wastes, moaning and eating dirt."
"Three," Ren said quietly.
"What?"
"Three expeditions came back. But the third one only had one survivor. And he didn't come back to the Rust Sea. He came back from somewhere else. Somewhere deep."
Kira stared at him. "That doesn't make any sense."
"Exactly," Ren said. "That's why I want to go."
Lee looked at his friends. At Kira, whose fear was hiding behind her anger. At Taro, whose hands were trembling. At Ren, whose calm had a razor's edge.
The mark on his chest was burning again.
This is important, Onyx Tempest whispered. This is where your path begins.
"Tell me about the Pilgrim," Lee said.