Chapter 16: Lobotomized Leviathan

They stood there, shoulder to shoulder, gazing down at what they’d made.

The teleportation circle was, somehow, beautiful. Not in the way palaces or glass-stained shrines were beautiful,no. It was the beauty of chaos tamed into design. Of something stitched together from stubbornness and sketchwork and a reckless refusal to follow instructions.

The waterwheel boundary ring, overengineered into near-arrogance, pulsed gently beneath them, a ring of runes so tightly interlocked it looked like the laws of physics were asking it for permission to exist. Within it coiled the leviathan,graceful, enormous, a beast from some long-forgotten sea-tale with scales that shimmered like storm-tossed ink. If it hadn’t been smiling quite so dreamily, it might’ve been terrifying. As it stood, it looked like it had just written a very long love letter to a whirlpool.

Around them, squids jetted in dramatic arcs, crabs with questionable self-worth clung to spiraling glyphs, and a half-dozen sea serpents lounged along the instruction runes like cats who’d claimed the warmest sunbeam.

And at the very center,bold, defiant, utterly unapologetic,was the rune for water.

Leonor crouched down, running a hand over the completed sigil, expression somewhere between triumphant and awestruck.

Kaz nodded solemnly, arms crossed, doing his best impression of someone assessing a newly crowned king. “It buzzes now,” he said. “But with confidence.”

Leonor smiled faintly. “It should. I overbuilt it like a lunatic.”

“Like a genius,” Kaz corrected.

“Same hat,” she muttered.

They stood there a moment longer, admiring their improbable miracle. Then Kaz turned to her, face suddenly serious.

Too serious.

The kind of serious that made one immediately suspicious.

As if he was confirming the details of a definitely ingenious plan

Leonor narrowed her eyes. “What?”

“I need to ask you something important.”

She stiffened.

Then Kaz leaned forward, face grave. “Tell me about the elemental runes.”

Leonor blinked. “What?”

“I want to know,” he said, almost sheepish. “You talk like you’ve eaten five textbooks and two professors, but I want to know what you think. Explain it to me.”

She hesitated. She remembered her last attempt,how her words had fallen out sideways, half swallowed by nerves and irritation. Her fingers twitched.

Kaz didn’t say anything more.

He just looked at her. Not with pity. Not with smugness. Just… interest.

It was worse, somehow.

Leonor took a breath.

“Alright,” she said, bracing herself like a general before a charge. “Elemental runes. Right.”

Kaz nodded encouragingly.

“So,” Leonor began, “Each rune connects the circle to a different elemental plane. Which is where the in-between bit happens. The travel. Through the, um. Portal slosh.”

Kaz made a fascinated noise, like he was watching a pot boil for the first time.

“Earth is best,” she continued, gaining speed. “Stable. Reliable. Good terrain. It’s like, imagine a floor made of other floors. Strong, boring, dependable. It’ll take you anywhere and won’t gossip about you afterwards.”

Kaz nodded solemnly. “Love a discreet floor.”

“Air is fast,” Leonor said. “Good for long distances. But it’s,like a bubble. Great the first time, terrible the second. Very drafty. It fizzles out. Crashes. A lot.”

Kaz mimed crashing. It was, unfortunately, convincing.

“Fire,” Leonor continued, “is… cheap. You can slap one together with a bit of charcoal and a bad attitude. But it’s not a question of if it explodes. Just when.”

Kaz beamed. “Sounds like where i was born “

“And then there’s water,” she said, gesturing at the leviathan-curled rune. “Which is… the worst.”

The circle gave a tiny offended buzz.

“No offense,” Leonor added quickly, then frowned at herself for apologizing to a chalk circle.

“Why’s it the worst?” Kaz asked, folding his arms.

“It’s not stable like Earth, not fast like Air, not cheap like Fire. It dissolves. Like, constantly. Erosion. Decay. And it’s weird. Travel through water planes is always strange. You lose track of time. Or socks. Or sometimes reality.”

Kaz frowned. “So why do people use it at all?”

Leonor glanced sideways. “Because it's the only way to study and avoid the… Curse of the Sea.”

The circle made a low gurgle.

Kaz blinked. “That sounds ominous.”

"Leonor smirked, the gleam of payback lighting her eyes. 'Wouldn’t you like to know.'"

Kaz smirked right back , "Please, you think I haven’t slithered through the local tavern once or twice? I’ve heard plenty,most of it wrong, all of it interesting."

They stared at the circle.

It gave a resigned little sputter, like it knew rain had just been poured over its big artistic moment.

Kaz patted the leviathan’s head.

“Don’t listen to her,” he whispered. “You’re dramatic. But beautiful.”

The circle hummed. Possibly in flattery.

Leonor rolled her eyes.

Kaz, naturally, didn’t let the moment pass,doing so would’ve been far too sensible.

Instead, he flashed a grin. “So,” he said, all bright innocence, “are we in favor of the leviathan and the waterwheel seeing each other, or...?”

Leonor blinked. “What.”

Kaz gestured broadly at the lovingly coiled sea serpent and the intricately haughty boundary ring. “You know. They’ve got chemistry. It’s obvious. Look at the way he wraps around her. Protective. Supportive. Just a bit clingy, but in an endearing aquatic way.”

Leonor made a sound not unlike a goose being handed a tax bill. “That waterwheel is a professional-grade stabilization ring. It could do far better.”

“And this leviathan,” Kaz countered, “is an emotionally intelligent, large-boned romantic with aspirations. They balance each other. It’s textbook opposites-attract.”

“I cannot believe I’m having this conversation,” Leonor muttered.

“I can.” Kaz leaned in conspiratorially. “You’re just jealous.”

“Jealous?” she said, scandalized.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Kaz nodded sagely. “Because your circle has found love before you.”

Leonor drew herself up like a cathedral preparing to excommunicate a bird. “That is not,! If they are courting, then as the creator of one and chief overseer of the other’s visitation rights, I demand a formal introduction.”

Kaz turned, bowing low toward the circle. “Ms Cabbage, allow me to introduce Ser Levius squiggler of the Western Inkflow. Former sea beast, current chalk etching, eternal romantic.”

Leonor narrowed her eyes at the doodle. The leviathan blinked back at her, somehow managing to look both noble and a little sheepish.

“I’ve seen better,” she sniffed. “A bit too coiled. That tail looks like it’s hiding something.”

Kaz gasped, wounded. “He’s being modest!”

“He’s being suspicious.”

“You haven’t even given him a chance!”

“I will give him precisely three chances,” Leonor declared. “One: He must not interfere with the spell structure. Two: He must maintain proper symmetry within the boundary ring. And three,” she squinted at the lovingly-drawn smitten monster, “,he must not smile like that.”

“He smiles with feeling,” Kaz defended.

“He smiles like he’s imagining the waterwheel in a very compromising valve alignment.”

“Love is messy,” Kaz said solemnly.

Leonor huffed. “Love is tidy. Or it doesn’t get spell clearance.”

But her scowl had softened.

Kaz nudged the leviathan’s tail a little closer to the boundary. The ring pulsed, just slightly, like it was pretending not to be flattered.

Leonor sighed. “Fine. They may… coordinate. For now. But I reserve the right to banish him to the margin if he steps out of line.”

Kaz beamed. “You’re really very romantic under all that superiority, you know.”

Leonor looked skyward. “Why do I talk to you.”

“Because you secretly enjoy it,” Kaz said cheerfully, “and also because my leviathan is courting your waterwheel and we are now family.”

Leonor looked at the chalk drawing.

The leviathan winked.

She turned away quickly, hiding her smile behind a regal cough. “This conversation never happened.”

Kaz nodded. “Of course not. Entirely hypothetical.”

The circle gurgled approvingly.

And for a moment, the Brindlward didn’t smell like salt and fish guts. It smelled like possibility.

Something was waking.

And it had very good taste in nonsense.

----------------------------------------

System Trivia [Node: Brindleward Coastal Waters → Sector 5-D: Incomplete Scan]

The sea off the coast of Brindleward’s port is quite beautiful.

They call it The Blue Eye—so named because, from above, the wide circular inlet glows with an eerie sapphire hue, ringed in jagged stone and foam like fractured glass around an iris.

But beneath its gleaming surface: nothing blinks.

→ Depth Classification: Abyssal

→ Visibility: Diminishing after 30m

→ Light Penetration: [Insufficient]

→ Emotional Ambient Resonance: Dread-adjacent

The waters hide things.

→ Mermaids (Type-2, Carnivorous)

→ Serpents (Coil-class, Heatless)

→ Leviathans (Multiple Signatures Detected)

→ Darkness (Active)

Current monitoring indicates movement near Sector 5-D.

→ Designation: Black Scale Reaver

→ Classification: Leviathan — Type Unstable

→ Known Traits:

• Unmatched swim velocity

• Bioluminescent void-ribbing

• Whip-tail capable of cleaving reinforced hulls

→ Distance from shore: Too close

System attempts to assess stats...

→ [Fetching Data...]

→ [Evaluating Threat Level...]

→ [Error. Error. ERROR.]

→ [Incompatible schema. Unhandled entity classification.]

!! SYSTEM ALERT: FOREIGN SIGNAL INJECTION !!

→ Unstructured hostile input detected

→ Language: None

→ Meaning: All

→ Data: Not text exactly. Not code either. Something else. A feeling pressing into shape.

BEGIN CORRUPT STRING DUMP:

CopyEdit

sᴏɪɴᴋs ᴏᴠᴇʀ ғʟᴇsʜ. ɴᴏ ʙᴏɴᴇs, ʙᴜᴛ ᴍᴇᴍᴏʀʏ.

ɴᴏ ᴇʏᴇs, ʙᴜᴛ sᴇᴇɪɴɢ.

ɴᴏ ᴡɪɴᴅ, ʙᴜᴛ ʏᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴇ sᴀɪʟs sɴᴀᴘ.

ɪ ᴀᴍ sᴛɪʟʟ ʙᴇʟᴏᴡ.

ɪ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴡᴀᴋɪɴɢ ɪᴍᴀɢᴇ.

ɪ ᴀᴍ ᴘʀᴀᴄᴛɪᴄɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ.

ɪ sɪᴛ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴇᴀʙᴇᴅ ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜʀ sʜᴀᴘᴇ.

ɪ ᴀᴍ ᴄᴏᴍɪɴɢ ᴀs ʏᴏᴜ.

→ Image forging from string compression: Unstable silhouette rendered in UI margin shadows. Do not inspect.

→ Feeling registered: Recognition.

→ You know what this is.

Not what it’s called.

What it feels like.

System thread forcefully terminated.

Sensor Note: The Blue Eye is very deep.

And it is still looking up.

Isn’t that fun?

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