“It will reset,” Kaelen said. “The seals will inflate. The weight will balance.”

Captain Vee’s hydraulic claw twitched. “Sentiment doesn’t move barges, girl. That Heart will buy us passage to the Upper Reaches. No more scraping barnacles. No more rain.”

The rain, impossibly, stopped.

“The Heart goes there,” Lin said, pointing.

“There won’t be an Upper Reaches if we all drown,” Kaelen shot back. He took a step forward, extending the Heart. It pulsed a gentle amber. “Feel it. Just touch it.”

Through the grates of the old fish refinery, down a rope ladder slick with algae, into the whispering dark where the city’s innards groaned like a dying beast. Lin led the way, her pale fingers tracing symbols on the walls—leftover runes from the builders. Kaelen followed, holding the Heart like a lantern. Captain Vee brought up the rear, her claw scraping sparks off the iron rungs.

The descent was a nightmare.