Nathaniel eventually felt the shift. Muscles slackened, the chamber widening as schools of fish streamed past. His body lurched forward, drawn toward sudden daylight. His pulse thundered—was this release, or just another shift in the whale’s mysterious ritual? Either way, his moment of reckoning was near.
The whale tilted upward, body rising with controlled strength. Nathaniel clung to his regulator as pressure eased, light pouring through shifting water. For the first time since being taken, he felt weightlessness from possibility. The chamber widened, and suddenly, he could almost sense freedom within reach.