The silence inside the ship was too strange to be just silence.

There was no creaking of wood, no rustling of wind in the sails. Only the muffled sound of the sea breathing beneath—slow, steady, as if each wave were the beating of a heart buried deep below.

Aurora walked across the deck, her body still wet with salt. The floor beneath her feet seemed to pulse. Every now and then, she felt something vibrate under the soles of her boots, as if the ship reacted to her mere ...