The morning tide in the Azure Gulf rose higher than it had in three hundred winters, washing clean sea-salt over the submerged granite shoals.Along the southern coastline, the jagged reef barriers that had once wrecked fishing skiffs and trading ketches were smoothed by the gentle, rhythmic surge of the newly awakened ocean leylines.From the high tower of the capital archives, Evan watched the white sails of an unfamiliar vessel glide effortlessly through the newly opened maritime channel.The ship was not a jagged war-galleon or an imperial iron-clad raider, but a graceful, three-masted schooner carved from bleached driftwood and bound with polished sea-brass.Flying from its mainmast was the azure-and-silver pennant of the Seven Pearl League—the ancient, neutral maritime syndicate of the southern archipelagos.Seraphina entered the solar with an unhurried grace, holding a freshly unsealed parchment that carried the faint, briny scent of sea-wax."The southern fleet did not send wa