The chamber of the Sea Serpent pulsed with blue light. Ancient water flowed upward, defying gravity, and in its currents swirled memories not just of Aarav—but of all who had come before him.
Aarav stepped forward.
"What does it mean—'what anchors me most'?" he asked aloud, voice echoing oddly through the submerged hall.
The serpent's eyes—vast orbs of storming tide—blinked slowly.
"Your anchor is not a chain. It is love, guilt, memory… the root of your strength and the limit of your freedom."
A glowing orb floated before him now, drawing from his mind and heart.
Within it shimmered images:
Ishira, his mother, smiling faintly.
Rivan, placing his hand on Aarav's shoulder.
The ring, burning on the day it awakened.
A boy kneeling beside his father's corpse, covered in ashes.
His past.
The serpent whispered, "To pass, you must choose to let go of one."
Aarav stood still for a long moment.
He could not let go of his mother—his last link to the man he once was. Nor could he let go of the pain of loss. It forged his path. Even Rivan's guidance… was a light in his darkest times.
But the ring…
It had granted him power. But also bound him to a destiny not his own.
"I will let go of the ring," he said.
The orb pulsed, then shattered.
The ring dissolved from his finger.
A silence fell.
Then, slowly, the serpent smiled—a grin made of curling currents.
"The ring is not your strength. You are."
And the Second Ring formed from water and light, wrapping around his other hand—a band of shifting ocean blue. The Ring of Waters.
It hummed with calm—and the wisdom of surrender.