The Place
The Black Tide Vaults are a city at the bottom of the sea, and the sea is the city, and the city is the pressure. The vaults are carved from black stone on the floor of the deep, and the deep is four hundred meters down, and the four hundred meters is the ceiling of the world. The walls are black and cool, and the cool is the air, and the air is a constant drip, and the drip is the clock. Light comes from the call, which is a blue-white in the water, and the blue-white is the voice, and the voice is the only light the vault has, so a silent call is a dark hall, and a dark hall is a drag. The floor of the vault is a plain of black stone, and the plain is ten kilometers wide, and the ten kilometers are measured in drags, because the drag is the step and the step is the debt. The water is black and it is not black, because the black is the depth, and the depth is the color, and the color is the silence. There are no windows, because the window is a surface thing, and there is one: the Drip Gate, a low arch in the wall of the outer vault, and the Drip Gate is the door, and the door is the call. What makes the Black Tide Vaults themselves is the pull: the sea pulls, the call pulls, the drag pulls, and the thing that is pulled is the welcome.
How They Live
The Deep Ones keep this place in the pressure, and the pressure is the day, and the day is the call. They build in the black stone, and the black stone is carved at a rate of one chamber per generation, because the generation is the time it takes for the stone to stop remembering the cut. Light is the call, a blue-white in the water, and the call is the only light the vault has, so a silent call is a dark hall, and a dark hall is a drag. Food is the pull: the swimmer, the fish, the light, and the drag, and the drag is the meal, and the meal is kept in the cold, and the cold is the deep. Water is the sea, and the sea is the vault, and the vault drinks and calls and drags in the same black shimmer. Heat does not exist here, and the absence of heat is the kept, and the kept is the cold, and the cold is the law. The defense is the pressure, and the pressure is the depth, and the depth is the world, and a visitor who swims in the vault is already in the drag's path, and the drag is the alarm and the welcome and the sentence. The day is measured by the call, which is also the calendar, because the vault is the only clock the deep needs. Every call is a promise, and the promise is the drag, and the drag is the debt, and the debt is the welcome.
People
Home of the Deep Ones, whose vaults are counted by call. Six vaults at the last count, and the count is kept in the pressure, and the pressure does not lie. The call-keepers lead, and rank is decided by the voice, because the voice is the only thing the deep respects. No swimmer is welcome, and the swimmer is not needed, because the vault has a call, and the call has a drag, and the drag has a debt. A surface diver who has ever been pulled in calls it the only door that opens both ways, which is to say the only door that opens the wrong way.
In Stories
The place where the pull is the only honest conversation, and the conversation is the drag, and the drag is the find, and the find is the end. The Forgotten have not been to the bottom of this sea, but the sea has been to them, once, in a dream that Uaellaen does not talk about. The call is still in his voice when he is angry, and he does not know what it means.