Her first thought at seeing the lights were that morning had come in a blink.

But then she heard a voice other than her own come from her mouth.

“Two hours.”

Sera watched transfixed-

No, she watched as if forced to.

Each blink, or turn of the cornea and her own followed, each muscle pulled and as her mouth opened again Sera realised what was happening.

I’m dreaming.

Suddenly she stopped moving.

Sera thought she had been heard but instead in the distance she saw what looked like a tent open for a second before closing once again.

Then this must be Keira, where am I?

Her perspective changed again as Keira turned away from the tent, despite there being no light the atmosphere around her lit up unnaturally, as if all she needed was the moonlight.

Why can she see so much more? If I had that type of vision, the caves with the skeleton jawed fish wouldn’t be dangerous at all!

Then as if pulled downwards, Keira dived into a barely lit cave, dodging and weaving past the insurmountable edges and jutting outcrops, before the light got brighter and a person could be seen lazily watching Keira descend.

Her movements too, we have the same body so why-

Sera didn’t finish her thought as the figure hugging the wall came closer to her at an impossible speed.

But Keira didn’t slow down-

Sera could only watch, waiting for the expected blow to her head and stomach, only for the two to stop at the last second.

“Hmm~ Finally getting faster?” Keira whispered in a teasing voice as the surrounding water swooshed around her.

Smashing into his own water pressure, the man kept his composure for a moment longer.

Then like seaweed being blown away by the crashing waves a slow but growing sigh came from him.

“Keer can you just tell me if it worked, or if you failed. Because if you did fail, then I get to sleep on a rocky tribal bed, and you get to sleep in the newest wave hammock.”

As the man spoke he turned around and Sera finally had Keira’s eyes focus on him rather than the cave’s roof quartz.

Sera noticed the scaled armour with what sounded like metal scratch against them with each movement, while his hair was the same shade as her own.

He feels normal, almost like I’ve known him for years.

“If I failed, did you really think I would bother telling you?” Not waiting for a reply, Keira continued, “It worked, almost perfectly, like wine.” Hearing a small growl, Sera could feel her body hold back a giggle.

The man didn’t react when Keira began slowly swam towards the other end of the cave, “Wined you should get used to the name, neriead ladies just love a funny man.”

Silence filled the cave, and even Sera could feel the tension in the water.

Despite this, Keira continued on with a knowing glint in her eye.

“He was about to leave the tent, but it took hold of him just as the slider opened.”

Sera could feel Keira’s mouth curving upwards as she put two and two together, Was that what she turned around and waited for? How did she know from just a tent opening and closing?

Keira meanwhile began looking around the two bags nonchalantly, “It was almost too good to be true, just like this assignment-” Keira didn’t act surprised as one of her hands was caught and pulled up, but the man couldn’t pull her away.

“Keira-Depths, as if I would leave it anywhere you could steal it. It’s been years, but your title of the innocent thief won’t be forgotten so easily, sister.”

Sera felt like she was sitting on the edge of her seat as more details came out about Keira, but the second Wined spoke about his sister-

At least let me look at him. Sera begged the memory, but Keira was already moving out of the cave.

Shoving past Wined, Sera could feel her arms move quickly as they began fanning through the waters and out of the cave.

“What?” Sera could hear Keira’s brother shout at her as she began swimming away, “I’m going to be using it Keira, Kade doesn’t and won’t trust you. Your reputation’s getting the better of you.”

His voice grew dangerously loud, but Keira continued upwards, her forehead crinkling and Sera could feel herself gripping something.

Wait, that feels like-

“He doesn’t have to.”

Kicking off the edges of the jutting rocks, they began falling to the cave below.

That’s when Wined noticed.

“What? How did you-”

“You said it yourself, I shouldn’t get full of myself. Well…”

Keira made it to the top and finally brought the artefact out.

“You shouldn’t underestimate me.”

Sera tried to look downwards, but she could only see the sights of what looked like a barrel.

As she looked down the barrel, the tent Keira had left was now highlighted-

She could see a mirage of symbols but only for a moment before a circle of tents a distance away caught the sights.

“Keira! Don't-Kade won’t let you get away with it this ti-” Sera could hear a rumble from the cave beneath her as Wined desperately tried to swim upwards.

“The Orn’s never just take orders. We adapt, we improve, we attune.”

Sera could feel her arm go into the device.

It was as if time slowed.

She could faintly hear a shout from behind her, but even she knew it was too late.

The device rapidly morphed around her arm and Sera could see a familiar blue screen.

User synced.

Weapon is charged.

[Proceed?]

Her mouth rose upwards, and her eyes widened as she could feel the pressure build in her arm rapidly, with it came the sound of water pressure sloshing and compressing.

Even Keira couldn’t keep her eyes on the array of tents, turning to look at the cannon it had transformed in size, whereas before it felt like a small slate it was now the size of a small coral tube.

But the look was unmistakable, it was an artefact, it was part of the temple, part of the ancients. It resembled what a sniper rifle looked like if there was no magazine or trigger, if the technology was a thousand years in the future and if it had not one barrel but four.

Sera was still staring amazed as Keira went into overdrive, holding the cannon in her other hand while using her sleight of hand to press the button.

The next moment’s went quickly.

The beam shot a piercing green laser towards the crowd of tents which looked like it belonged to cavemen compared to the absolute firepower, the intensity of the light nearly blinded her.

The second the beam shot, Keira was sent backwards into someone before being sent into a harder surface, but still the beam was pulsing as water was being pulled from the surroundings.

Sera could only stare at the destruction of the camp-No, the rapidly growing crater.

The water pressure began to grow until Keira released something, then the pressure began to slow down, as did the laser.

Until it stopped with a short pulse.

Another menu shown on the screen, but Keira pushed it away as she turned to see Wined pinned against the rock.

Looking at her in disbelief.

“Go get the mercs. We have a princess to kidnap.”

PID Interface

Light armour crafting completed!

Capable of interacting with created dwellings and accelerating movement speed.

Sera shot up as she stared at the blue screen.

Her arm shakily went out to push it away as she remembered the pulsing-

The power that went through her body.

“That… that was real and Keira she,” Sera tried to calm herself down as she looked around for Iva who was lying down nearby with her fins tucked in.

She looked almost like a silicone plushie if not for the slow breathing.

Reaching out to pet her, Sera stopped herself, Iva needs the sleep after all that happened.

She looked over to the half empty bag, the light armour had cost a lot and the results sounded like they should help her. But words were just words if not tested.

Sera swam out of her makeshift seagrass blanket and over to her PID in the corner.

The vibrations had bothered her more each time she crafted, which made sense considering each time she crafted something it was either more complex or requiring more materials which made it take a lot longer.

Barely able to see the full outfit, Sera brought out her scanner and was amazed.

“Wow, this is completely different to the… academy’s outfit.” Sera looked down at the crafts work and appreciated the two masterworks before she began shimmying out of her old gear.

I’ve only taken this off to… But even then I put it back on immediately, maybe I should try cleaning it after every day.

As she took off her old academy gear Sera’s eyes stuck to the light armour, where her gear had scaled neatly in plate the light armour had scales jutting out in patterns that seemed to let her eyes flow easily from each scale.

It was like the academy outfit in that it was a one-piece, which felt weird, but she supposed having two bits of clothing would make it hard to swim without her clothes falling off.

Now out of her old gear Sera neatly put her it to the side, peaking a look at Iva she saw her seal hadn’t moved from its spot and if anything seemed to sink deeper into the seafloor.

Without an annoying neriead shifting and turning in her sleep, it seemed life was easier.

Turning away from the seal with an almost unnoticeable pout, Sera put on the light armour.

“Oh. Right it doesn’t fit, did I miss sizes or am I meant to-” Sera heard a small slap on her skin as the light armour almost shrunk to meet her flesh.

She nearly squeaked but found herself staring down at her new look.

It was like she had thorns to bite any hostile fish, and the armour was a light grey and shone more like… traditional armour, more like plate mail than scales.

Let’s try this ouuu-

Pushing off the ground, Sera found the water move around her swiftly as if being guided, that’s when she recognised the patterns.

It’s the same that I saw on the knife! The armour is hydrodynamic too!

Looking to the cave entrance, Sera was about to try her gear in the ocean before a blue screen popped up in front of her.

PID Interface

Survival Guidelines:

Congratulation on completing the first two goals.

Guidelines have been updated.

Craft knife. Craft light armour.

The moment Sera finished reading the PID refreshed it’s screen.

PID Interface

Survival Guidelines:

Craft medium room dwelling. Search for modules using the map visualiser. Explore the surroundings before winter approaches. Complete before Winter approaches (Three days.) Reason: Winter is predicted to bring more predatory animals, the User’s safety will be at risk. Winter temperatures have been mostly negated by light armour, however stay close to shelter for best results.

Sera read through the guidelines rapidly and began planning her day.

But as she did, she couldn’t help remembering the dream she had, especially the last sentence she heard.

“I…”

“I kidnapped Loretta.”