The surface dwellers called the claw coral "hydra's stone" because of the seven collective offshoots that grew from its center. Sharply edged facets covered every inch of those coral fingers and even the slightest touch could open flesh to the bone. A number of the undersea races in Seros used claw coral to make weapons.

Spotting a thick copse of the claw coral ahead, Flyys turned and swam for it. Ahead lay only open water and certain capture before he could ever get out of the shallows and into deeper Seros.

Little more than five feet long, the young triton knew he wouldn't be a match for the morkoth warriors. One on one he felt confident he could have held his own, but the morkoth didn't fight that way. Flyys had heard stories that the morkoth in the outer seas lived solitary lives, much different than the morkoth who dwelled in Seros. In the Sea of Fallen Stars, they lived in the Arcanum of Olleth, on the lowest reaches of the Hmur Plateau along western Seros, a community that fought and conquered together.

He grabbed fistfuls of water again, altering his swimming stroke into a finfirst descent in the middle of the claw coral he'd chosen as his impromptu fortress. He drifted down to the soft silt below, carefully avoiding the sides of the claw coral. He nestled quietly into the coral like a hermit crab taking on a new shell, then he waited.

He gazed up, wishing he wasn't so frightened. A warrior wasn't supposed to be frightened, but he'd barely made it through his training before he'd been sent on his first mission.

His shoulder-length dark blue hair was tied back in a ponytail to keep it from his brilliant blue eyes.