The Legacy of the Uncharted

~ Chapter 56 ~ Gallen secret reveal

The sea had gone silent unnatural quiet that pressed on the eardrums like the pause before a storm.

In the lowest cabin of The Abyss Fang, Alexandria sat bound to a chair, wrists rubbed raw by rope, her pulse loud against the echoing creaks of the hull. The lantern hanging from a nail swung with the waves, throwing fractured light over damp planks and the dark silhouette of Captain Mordecai Thorne.

He stood over her journal the old one she'd found in her family's ruined manor—its pages written in a language half lost to time. His iron jaw gleamed when the light hit, the edges blackened from years of salt and war.

"You've stared at this book for weeks," he said, fingers brushing the ancient ink. "But you only understand fragments. Don't you wonder why it speaks to you at all?"
Alexandria's voice was steady despite the ache in her shoulders. "I don't wonder. I know. It belonged to my mother."

Mordecai's grin widened. "Half-right." He turned the journal toward her. "Your mother may have carried it, but this... this is much older. This belonged to the first of your line the Keeper of the Deep, the woman the sea itself obeyed."

He began to read, the words spilling from his mouth in a tongue Alexandria barely recognized fluid, guttural, melodic and terrifying all at once. The flame shuddered in its glass, and for a breath the entire cabin pulsed blue.

Alexandria stiffened as the medallion at her neck warmed against her skin.

"What are you doing?"

Mordecai's eyes gleamed. "Proving that what flows through your veins is more than mortal blood."
He leaned close, voice low, almost reverent.

"Child of tide and storm, bearer of the sea's breath your heart is the key, your blood the map."

He whispered the last syllable and the light died, leaving only his shadow stretching over her.
"Your ancestor sealed the Heart of the Ocean. And I," he whispered, "will unseal it."

Alexandria's heartbeat thundered. "You expect me to help you? You murdered innocents. You've burned entire coasts."

"I'm reshaping them," Mordecai said sharply. "The sea needs order. The pirates squabble like children, the navy plays god and you think freedom is anything but a pretty word to die under? No." He crouched before her, grin twisting. "I'll take the chaos and carve it into a kingdom."

"You mean a graveyard."

He laughed. "You call it madness. I call it legacy."

He stood and circled her, like a predator inspecting prey.
"I could rule the seas alone. But destiny enjoys irony. It chose you to finish what it began. Your blood calls to the Heart, Alexandria. It will open only for you. Together, we can awaken it. You'll be my queen, the ocean your throne."

Her glare could have cut steel. "I'd rather drown in it."

Something cold flickered across his eyes. Then he smiled again too calm. "You will change your mind. The sea always collects its debts."

He took the journal, closed it, and left. The door clanged shut, the bolt sliding home.

Alone again, Alexandria drew a breath that trembled with fury. She had no full translation of the book but she remembered enough to know that the Heart of the Ocean was not a weapon. It was a warning.
And Mordecai, she realized, was not chasing power. He was chasing extinction.