Echoes Sneak Peek: Auralocation

Note: This sneak peek was provided in the Summer 2024 newsletter.

The aquatic people in Echoes of the Tides spend much of their lives in darkness.

The sun-drenched shallows are a dangerous place, where the surface dwellers known as the Burned lurk in ships, combing the sea with their nets and hooks.

To remain safe, the Breathless built Ristaborg—a network of tunnels and chambers carved from an underwater cliff—in the deepest sliver of sea they could find. And while the newer sections of Ristaborg are lit up with glow-coral, many of the older tunnels are completely dark.

And yet, thanks to magic, the Breathless don’t need their eyes to sense their surroundings. Their special connection to sound waves, combined with a set of physical adaptations, gives them a sort of magical echolocation they refer to as auralocation.

Below is an excerpt from the perspective of the protagonist, Endryn Kingdotur, as she makes her way through a maze of pitch-black tunnels.

She rounded a corner. Her aurae, a small organ nestled at the junction of her throat and jaw, emitted vibrations into the darkness. Some bounced back. She caught them with the sensitive scales that lined the tips of her pointed ears and coated her arms and legs. They told her of the cracks in the walls, of the slight downward slope of the ceiling.

The vibrations that did not bounce back, however, told her of an empty space ahead. A familiar stretch of straight tunnel.

She took off. Her legs and fins worked harder, propelling her through the lightless quiet. She relished the flow of cool water through the gills on each side of her rib cage.