Cale waded deeper into the impossible ocean, his movements no longer his own. The water embraced him, curling and swirling around his body not as ordinary waves would, but like an attentive servant welcoming home a long-absent master.

It parted before him, then closed behind, leaving barely a ripple where any natural sea would churn.

Apollo felt the bow against his back suddenly calm its violent thrashing, settling instead into a steady, rhythmic pulse that matched perfectly with Cale's steps into the surf.

The gold in his veins hummed in harmony, recognizing the connection between the young man and the ancient power that saturated this place.

'Poseidon's blood calls to his domain,' Apollo thought, watching as Cale moved with dreamlike certainty toward the half-submerged temple. 'And his domain answers.'

"What's happening to him?" Mira's voice trembled as she stepped forward, her injured arm forgotten in her concern. "The water, it's moving wrong. It's moving for him."

"It recognizes him," Apollo said softly, the words escaping before he could consider their wisdom.

Mira turned to him, hope and fear warring in her expression. "Then he's safe? The ocean won't hurt him?"

"I wouldn't count on that," Thorin growled, his thick fingers clenching and unclenching around his axe haft. "Nothing in this forest has been kind so far. Why would an ocean that shouldn't exist be any different?"

Nik limped to the water's edge, his injured arm cradled against his chest. "Cale!" he called, his voice carrying across the unnaturally still surface. "Cale, come back!"

If Cale heard, he gave no sign. He continued forward, now waist-deep in the azure waters that swirled around him with deliberate care.

The drowned temple drew him onward, broken columns and shattered archways rising from the depths like the skeleton of some ancient, magnificent beast.

"We have to follow him," Mira decided, already shrugging off her pack. "He needs us."

Thorin's hand shot out, catching her uninjured arm in a firm grip. "Have you lost your mind? That's not natural water. Look at how it moves, like it's alive."

"All the more reason not to let him face it alone!" Mira wrenched free, her eyes flashing. "He's our friend. He needs us."

"He's not even aware we exist right now," Thorin countered. "Look at him! Whatever's happening has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with whatever power brought an ocean to the middle of a forest."

Renna stood slightly apart, her hunter's eyes assessing the situation with calculated precision. "The water is behaving strangely," she acknowledged, "but it's not attacking him. If anything, it seems... protective."

"Or luring him," Thorin insisted. "Like a spider drawing prey into its web."

Apollo felt Lyra's presence before he saw her, the slight shift in air as she moved to stand beside him. Her green eyes fixed on his face with that same penetrating assessment that seemed to strip away layers of careful concealment.

"You know what this is," she said quietly, not a question but a statement. "The bow, the temple, Cale, you understand the connection."

Apollo kept his expression neutral despite the sudden increase in his heartbeat. "I have theories, nothing more."

"Lies don't suit you," Lyra replied, her voice dropping lower. "That bow nearly tore itself from your back when we first saw the temple. Now it's humming like a satisfied cat while Cale communes with an ocean that shouldn't exist. Tell me what you know."

The directness of her challenge caught Apollo off-guard. The gold in his veins quickened with warning, urging caution, reminding him of the dangers of revealing too much to mortals. But looking into her unwavering gaze, he found himself wanting to share at least a portion of the truth.

"The temple was built for a sea god," he said carefully. "Ancient, powerful. The bow recognizes its purpose, as does the water. And somehow..." he hesitated, weighing his words, "somehow Cale carries something of that god's essence within him."

Lyra's eyes narrowed slightly. "A descendant? Is that possible?"

Apollo said nothing, but the gold in his veins pulsed in confirmation. Before Lyra could press further, Mira's voice rose in alarm.

"Look! The water, it's changing again!"

The ocean's surface, which had been swirling around Cale in gentle patterns, suddenly shifted. Waves that had been breaking naturally against the shore flattened, forming an unnaturally straight line that stretched from the beach directly to the temple ruins.

Where Cale walked, the water parted shallowly, creating a pathway of sorts, not dry land, but a submerged trail where the depth remained consistent at ankle height.

More strangely still, objects began emerging from beneath the surface, shells larger than any Apollo had seen before, stones encrusted with barnacles and sea growth, even fragments of marble that might once have been part of the temple itself.

They broke the surface in a deliberate line, forming stepping places along the half-submerged path.

"It's making a road," Nik breathed, wonder momentarily overcoming his caution. "The ocean is building him a road."

"Not just for him," Renna observed, pointing to how the path widened behind Cale, the stepping stones multiplying. "It's inviting us to follow."

Thorin spat onto the sand. "Or it's baiting a larger trap."

"I'm going," Mira announced, already unlacing her boots. "Cale wouldn't abandon any of us. I won't abandon him."

Before anyone could stop her, she stepped onto the first shell, a massive scallop half-buried in the sand where water met shore.

The ocean lapped gently around her bare feet, blue-tinged water swirling once before settling into the same unnatural stillness it displayed around Cale.

"It's warm," she said with surprise. "And... it feels almost soft."

Nik hesitated only briefly before limping forward to join her. "If you're going, I'm going," he declared, though his voice betrayed more fear than confidence. "Cale would do the same for me."

They proceeded cautiously, following the half-submerged path that continued to form ahead of them, shells and stones rising from the depths just before they needed the next step.

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