The sea changed color three hours into the new morning, and Fraisea was the one who noticed it first.
"That's not current," she said, standing very still at the bow with her palms out over water that had gone from violet to a deep, restless gold. "Currents don't spiral like that. Something below is pulling."
The pull was a whirlpool, slow and enormous, its center a full mile off the Chainbreaker's bow, and at its heart the ocean's surface had begun to glow, faint gold light rising from somewhere so far down that no one on deck could guess the depth.
The Hub answered before anyone had to ask.
[Rare Event Detected: A Rift has opened.]
[Fourth Objective: The Drowned Palace of Thurmugin lies beneath this Rift. Claim what it holds before the Rift reseals.]
[Time Remaining: 06:00:00]
"Six hours," Marcus read aloud, and something in his voice sharpened. "That's a tenth of what we've had for anything else."
