Near the end of summer, Jasper's family spent a Sunday at an ordinary beach near home.

Not Tidefall's beach.

No hidden road, no cliff wards and no Academy towers above the water. There were families beneath umbrellas, children digging enormous holes for reasons known only to children, people carrying boards toward the surf and the mixed smell of sunscreen, salt and hot chips.

Jasper walked along the edge with water around his ankles.

His parents had settled farther up the sand, close enough that he could hear his father complaining about gulls.

For months, Jasper had not felt the Water Titan.

He had expected that silence to bother him more.

The ocean was bright and noisy today, full of ordinary waves collapsing over themselves. Jasper watched the horizon and let the questions come without doing anything with them.

Was the Water Titan only close to Tidefall?

Could something connected to water be nearer in one place than another?

Did Jasper's Titan-sense depend on the Academy cliffs, the old Selari magic beneath them or something else entirely?

Had the first dream come from Water, or simply from Jasper being frightened about leaving for school?

He did not know.

A year earlier, that list would have been unbearable.

Now it was just a list.

A wave curled around his ankles and retreated.

Nothing pressed behind his ribs.

Jasper picked up a shell, looked at it and put it back where he found it.

No investigation required.

His father called from the towels.

"Chips!"

Jasper turned immediately.

Some signals deserved urgent action.

They ate beneath the umbrella while a gull watched from a carefully calculated stealing distance.

His mother asked, "Excited for Year Two?"

"Yeah."

"Nervous?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

Jasper looked at her. "Why good?"

"Because two answers can be true at once."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Ava has infected you."

"I like Ava."

"Everyone likes Ava."

"Does Harper?"

"Especially Harper. She just complains louder."

Jasper's father stole one of his chips.

Jasper stole two back.

The gull took this as evidence that civilisation was collapsing and moved closer.

"Not today," Dad told it.

The gull remained unconvinced.

On the drive home, Jasper fell asleep against the window.

There was no water dream.

When he woke, the coast had disappeared behind suburbs and roads.

That evening he found the temporary Brannor scarf from Choosing Tide folded on his chair. His mother had washed it carefully. Permanent uniform trim would replace it next year, but Jasper wanted to keep the first one.

He folded it again and carried it to the history box.

The sea had been ordinary all day.

Jasper realised he was glad.