The Salt-Glass bridge. Groaned under the weight of a big change in the air. As Lyra walked deeper into the Sea of Tears the cold air started to feel warmer and got really thick and sweet. It was weird. Did not feel right. This was the Dead Zone, a part of the ocean where the Salt-Glass bridge was. The wind did not blow at all and the waves of the Sea of Tears were totally flat, like a piece of black stone.
The sweetness is really bad, for you Malachi said, covering his mouth with a part of the Shroud. It is made by the Lure-Algae. The sweetness makes your mind feel funny before the water pulls the body under. Malachi pulled the Shroud a little tighter his eyes serious. The Lure-Algae is very dangerous he. The sweetness it makes is a big part of that danger.
Lyra slowed down. Her Eclipse-Core was giving her a warning. It was an steady beat that was like a sound she could hear coming from under the ground. This sound was not like the shaking of a Kraken. It was like a song. The Eclipse-Core and this song from under the ground had the rhythm. This song did not go into her ears.. She could feel it in her bones. The song was like something that was vibrating inside her. Lyra could feel the Eclipse-Core pulsing. This was making her feel the song even more. The song from under the ground and the pulsing of her Eclipse-Core were, like two things that were connected.
Lunar Art: Clarity of the Void.
Lyra felt a chill run through her body. It was like a wake up call that stopped her from feeling sleepy. She looked down at the salt glass that you could see through. The salt glass was right, in front of her. Lyra was looking at the salt glass.
Below about three hundred feet there was a city and it was glowing. The city was really. You could see the light, from where you were standing. It looked amazing this city that was three hundred feet below.
This place was not made of stone or gold. It was made of coral and polished shells. This was Salacia, the place where the Silent Ones lived. The Silent Ones were people who grew things and took care of them. They had run away, from Lyras empire six hundred years ago. The Silent Ones had gotten used to the high pressure of the deep salt water.
Lyra whispered to Malachi "These people are not just people who made it through Malachi." She said this quietly. Her eyes were, on the shadows that were moving around below. "The people there are a trap, Malachi " Lyra said.
The sea started to swell up like it was answering her. Six people came out of the water. They stood on the surface of the sea just like Lyra was standing on her bridge. These people were really pale, like the inside of a pearl and their hair was moving around like they were still underwater. They had on armor that looked like it was made from salt that had dried up and each one of them was holding an instrument made from a whales bone it was a lyre. The sea people and their lyres it was a thing to see the sea and the lyres they just seemed to fit together.
The woman who was the leader had eyes that looked like purple stones. She lifted her hand. The music stopped right away. The quiet that came after was even harder to deal with than the loud noise was. The leader with her eyes, like amethysts just stood there.
The woman said "The Empress returns". Her voice was really pretty it sounded like music like a lot of clicks and whistles. The water, in the air helped us understand what she was saying. She said "or rather a shadow wearing The Empresss face".
Lyra Van-Heal said "I am Lyra Van-Heal". She had her hand on the hilt of her claymore. "I am not here, for your city" Lyra Van-Heal said. "I am just passing through" Lyra Van-Heal told them.
"No one gets through the Sirens Silence " the leader said. The world you made was all ice so we went to the sea. Now you are bringing the Eclipse to the place we have left. We have been working on the Art of the Heart for six hundred years. Your hot and cold temperatures do not affect the people who have already given up. The Eclipse is a problem for us and the Art of the Still Heart is what keeps us safe. You do not understand what the Sirens Silence is or what the Eclipse means to us. The Sirens Silence is our home. The Eclipse is a threat, to it.
The six sirens struck their lyres at the time. The sound of the six sirens and their lyres was really beautiful. The six sirens played their lyres with a lot of feeling.
There was no noise all but the salt-glass bridge, under Lyras feet did not just break. It completely fell apart. The hard crystal turned back into a white powder in a very short time. Lyra and Malachi started to fall down towards the blue water below. The salt-glass bridge was. Lyra and Malachi were falling.
Eclipse Art: Gravity Fold.
Lyra caught Malachi. Held Malachi suspended in mid-air but the sirens were not finished with Malachi. The sirens started to dance around Malachi. Their movements were really wild. They created a big swirl of air that started to pull the oxygen right out of the air, around Malachi. This was getting bad for Malachi. The sirens just kept on dancing. The air was getting thinner and thinner around Malachi.
Malachi said "They are attacking your breath." His face was turning blue. "They are turning the air into water." The air was being attacked by something and it was like the oxygen was being replaced with water Malachi thought about the breath the breath that people need to live and now the breath was being attacked.
Lyra knew that fighting them with strength was not going to work. These people were called Stillness Cultivators. They got power from movement. The more Lyra tried to fight the more powerful the Stillness Cultivators became. They were, like a vacuum that got stronger when Lyra struggled against them. The Stillness Cultivators were getting more and more powerful because Lyra was moving and trying to fight them.
"You want it to be quiet?" Lyras voice sounded really scary and cold. "I will give you the quiet of being dead."
She closed her eyes. Did something she had not tried to do since she made a big change in her life. She reached into her Eclipse-Core. Found the "Zero-Point". The small spot where the fire and the frost were exactly balanced and canceled each other out. She was looking for this place, in her Eclipse-Core where the fire and the frost of her Eclipse-Core were completely still.
Eclipse Art: The Absolute Silence.
Lyra did not let out a wave of energy. She let out a wave of Nothing. This Nothing that Lyra released was really something. Lyras wave of Nothing was very strange. When Lyra released this wave of Nothing it was, like something was there. It was not. The wave of Nothing that Lyra released was really weird.
Lyras body was surrounded by an area of grey space that had no color. This grey space got bigger and bigger. When it touched the water that was swirling around the sirens something weird happened. The water did not get cold. Freeze and it did not get hot and boil. The water just stopped moving. The bubbles in the water stopped going up. Just stayed there in the air. The sirens were dancing,. They stopped moving too. They just stood still. The light, from the city made of coral under the water got dimmer. This was because Lyra had made a void, an empty space and the light could not get out of it. The void that Lyra created was very powerful.
She walked through the cold air and went right up to the Siren Leader. The air was. It was very chilly. She kept walking. Stood in front of the Siren Leader. The Siren Leader was there, in front of her.
The Empress did not just rule with ice Lyra whispered into the womans ear. The Empress ruled because The Empress knew when to stop the clock.
Lyra touched the leaders whalebone lyre. This was a big deal. The lyre was important to the sirens. A big crack that was purple went across the lyre. The "Stillness" that the sirens had worked on for a long time was broken. The quiet was gone. The water in the sea just shot up into the air like a fountain. The sea exploded upward in a geyser. The lyre was. The "Stillness" was gone because of what Lyra did, to the leaders whalebone lyre.
The sirens were thrown back into the depths their formation was all broken.. Lyra did not kill the sirens. She looked down at the city of Salacia it was glowing.
"Tell your people " Lyra shouted into the water. I did not come back to be in charge of you. I came back to destroy the Sun that made you live down here. If you want to see the sky then you should stay out of my way. I am talking about the Sun, the thing that forced you to live under the water. I want to kill the Sun so you can go back, to the surface.
She grabbed Malachi. Then she used the power of her Shadow-Veins to throw them across the sea. It was like they were a flash of lightning but instead of being yellow they were a violet color. She moved fast like a streak of lightning and it was very powerful. The Shadow-Veins gave her a lot of strength. She was able to launch them a long way all the way across the sea, with Malachi and her flying through the air together.
The Siren Leader was behind them watching from the waves. The Siren Leader had these beautiful eyes that were a deep purple color, like amethyst. The Siren Leaders amethyst eyes were filled with a kind of hope and it was really scary. The Siren Leaders hope was terrifying to see in her amethyst eyes.
"She has the Void," the leader clicked to her sisters. "The prophecy was wrong. The Moon isn't coming back... the Shadow is."