Chapter 3: The Navigator

She was not what he had expected.

He had put out careful, indirect inquiries for someone who knew the eastern waters — not the trade routes, not the fishing channels, but the deep water beyond the mapped edge of the world. He had expected a sailor, perhaps, or an aging former merchant captain willing to talk over enough rice wine.

What he got was a woman who arrived at his door at dawn, looked him up and down with the assessing gaze of someone deciding whether he was worth her time, and said: "You're looking for the Sea of Eternity."

It was not a question.

"I'm researching historical maritime routes," he said.

"You're a bad liar," she said. "My name is Shui Lan. I've been to the edge of the mapped water twice. I turned back both times because I was not ready." She paused. "I think I might be ready now. Are you coming or not?"

Wei Hailong stared at her.

She was perhaps twenty-five. Her hands were calloused from rope work. She was wearing practical clothes with no ornamentation, and she looked at him with the particular confidence of someone who had survived things that would have ended other people.

"You've been to the edge," he said. "What did you see?"

"Light," she said. "Coming from below the water. And I heard—" She stopped. Something moved in her expression. "I heard my mother's voice. She died when I was six. I couldn't tell if it was a gift or a trap." She met his eyes. "That's why I turned back. Because I wasn't sure I wanted to know."

The morning light was coming through his window, falling across the map still spread on his desk. Wei Hailong looked at it for a long moment.

"When do we leave?" he said.