SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant

The first explosion came from somewhere behind and above, muffled by forty feet of brick and packed earth. Trafalgar felt it in his chest before the sound properly reached him.

BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

Three more followed in sequence, each farther out than the one before, running along the curve of the ring toward the dome wall. These weren’t random charges. Someone had placed them carefully, measured the distances between them and known exactly which sections needed to break.

Maledicta was still rising toward Rhavel’s throat, Last Dusk gathering along the edge with barely a fraction of the swing left to travel. Trafalgar was already committed when the world around him changed.

The dome gave way before the blade could finish its path.

There was almost no sound at first. Just a sudden change in pressure, the kind Trafalgar felt through his entire body before his mind understood what had happened. Then the ocean hit the opening.

Trafalgar lost his footing immediately. One moment he was standing in front of Rhavel, the next the current had ripped him across the chamber and slammed him into a stone pier hard enough to drive the air from his lungs.

The pier stopped his body. The water didn’t.

Pressure crushed him against the stone from every direction, pinning his ribs, hips and skull until even moving a hand became difficult. Maledicta tore free from his grip and vanished into his inventory.

The obsidian plates held under the pressure. Trafalgar could feel the force spreading across them instead of driving directly into his body, turning something that should have crushed him instantly into something he could survive for a little longer.

Taking the armour off wasn’t an option. He knew that without testing it.

The lamps failed one after another as the water climbed, leaving only brief flashes before the chamber disappeared into darkness.

Then the sirens started.

They weren’t the harbour horns Trafalgar had heard since arriving in Meraval. These were sharper, faster, repeated without pause, and almost immediately something enormous moved somewhere inside the walls.

The emergency bulkheads dropped.

He couldn’t see them, but he felt both impacts through the water. Huge metal plates came down on either side of the damaged section and slammed into their frames hard enough to send a shock through the pier against his back.

CLANG.

CLANG.

The whole chamber shook twice. The violent current weakened almost immediately, but the water didn’t disappear. With the exits sealed, it simply began filling the section instead.

It was already at Trafalgar’s chest and climbing.

That was when he heard the screaming.

The passages below had been cleared. The maintenance crews had been removed. The people living and working above them had not.

Through what remained of the ceiling came one continuous roar of voices. Hundreds of people had been caught inside the sealed section, and the sound of panic carried down through the broken stone almost as clearly as the water.

Someone kept shouting the same name. Another voice screamed about a gate that wouldn’t open. Farther east came the deep grinding sound of something large breaking apart, followed by another surge of water.

Trafalgar tried to pull one shoulder away from the pier.

The pressure forced him back against it before he moved an inch.

’Fuck! I can’t move.’

The water reached his collarbone, then his jaw. Trafalgar tipped his head back into the last pocket of air beneath the vault and drew one final breath before the water covered the helm.

The seals closed automatically.

Everything became black, heavy and strangely quiet.

Trafalgar started counting because there was nothing else he could do.

At forty, the water in front of him split open.

A circular opening appeared where there had been nothing a moment before, clean-edged and completely untouched by the current around it. Through it Trafalgar could see dry stone somewhere far beyond the flooded chamber.

[Dimensional Passage] Rhosyn stepped through and grabbed him by the gorget.

A second passage opened behind her almost immediately. The pressure around Trafalgar shifted twice in the space of a heartbeat, and then he hit dry ground face-first with what felt like half the second ring pouring out of his lungs.

He stayed there for a few seconds, coughing water onto the floor and giving his body time to remember how breathing worked.

When his vision cleared, he found himself inside a service alcove on the safe side of the eastern bulkhead. Emergency lamps burned along the corridor, dust hung in the air, and water poured off both of them before disappearing into the floor drains.

Trafalgar dismissed the armour.

Pain hit almost immediately.

Without the plates holding everything in place, every bruise and strained muscle announced itself at once. His ribs hurt when he breathed, his hip still burned from Rhavel’s lance, and half his body felt like it had been hammered against stone.

Rhosyn crouched beside him. Her black robe was plastered against her body, and a shallow cut ran across one cheekbone that she clearly hadn’t noticed yet.

”Shit, I was too late. ” Rhosyn stared at him. ”You look terrible.”

”I’m fine.”

”You can barely breathe.”

”I said I’m fine.” He forced a deeper breath and immediately regretted it. ”They weren’t trying to stop me. They wanted to make sure I didn’t leave.”

Rhosyn glanced toward the bulkhead.

Trafalgar continued before she could say anything. ”Rhavel had this planned before we got there. The charges, the closed crossings, all of it. It was going to happen whether he beat me or not.”

”So we got too close.”

”That’s what I’m thinking.”

Rhosyn looked back at him. ”Can you stand?”

”Probably.”

”Then we should move.”

Trafalgar shook his head. ”No. I’m staying.”

Her eyes narrowed. ”Trafalgar.”

”Think about what just happened.” He pushed himself upright against the wall, slower than he wanted to. ”Sixteen soldiers and a commander tried to kill an observer from one of the Eight with no warrant. Then they blew open part of their own city.”

Rhosyn watched him for a second. ”And you want to stay here?”

”I want them to find me here.” Trafalgar wiped water from his face. ”Everything I did down there was self-defence. If they drag me into a room and question me for the next two days, good. Every question gets written down.”

”They’ll keep you there as long as they can.”

”Exactly.”

She understood before he finished.

Trafalgar looked toward the sealed bulkhead. ”While I’m answering the same questions over and over, you can keep moving. There might still be something left down there once the water drops, but after that pressure I wouldn’t expect much.”

14:39

Rhosyn didn’t answer immediately. She was looking at him properly now, taking in the bruises, the blood and the way he was leaning against the wall.

”They know about me,” she said. ”They’ve seen me.”

”They’ve seen another observer. That’s all.” Trafalgar shifted his weight and winced. ”Nobody can place you in that chamber tonight, and nobody at the freight plaza can talk about seeing you without first explaining why thirty soldiers were waiting there with no posting order.”

Rhosyn kept looking at him.

”Right now, you’re the only person I still have who can move without every faction watching.” Trafalgar shook his head carefully. ”The second your name ends up in an official report, that’s gone.”

She exhaled through her nose. ”Okay.”

”Good.”

Rhosyn stood, then paused before leaving. ”Find me when they let you out.”

”I will.”

She looked him over once more. ”You really do look like shit.”

”I’ve looked worse.”

Boots struck wet stone somewhere farther down the corridor.

Several people were coming quickly, accompanied by shouted orders about sealed sectors and casualty counts. Trafalgar looked toward the sound, then back at Rhosyn.

”Go. Before they see you.”

She disappeared before the next set of footsteps reached the corner. No sound, no door, nothing left behind except water where she’d been standing.

Trafalgar leaned his head back against the wall and waited.

The first soldiers appeared around the corner less than thirty seconds later and stopped when they saw him.

Trafalgar was sitting alone in the service alcove, soaked through, unarmed and wearing the remains of his undersuit. Behind him, beyond the sealed bulkhead, part of their city was still flooding.

The soldiers spread out immediately. Four became six, then nine, and every one of them had a weapon in hand.

Nobody offered to help him stand.