The lower docks were less exciting when adults took you there legally. Harper considered this a design flaw.

"The rule made it sound dangerous."

Professor Elowen tightened the strap on a life jacket.

"It is dangerous if you ignore the rule."

"But we're not."

"Exactly."

Every first-year wore a bright orange life jacket. Harper hated hers. Ava checked the buckle twice. Jasper's sat too high against his chin and made turning his head annoying. The class descended through the same restricted corridor where the door had once opened by itself. The new silver ward plate recognised Professor Elowen's staff token. The lock clicked. This time the door opening felt ordinary. Jasper was grateful. A stone stair wound downward inside the cliff. Cold air rose from below. The sound of waves grew louder with each landing. At the bottom, the stair emerged into a covered platform above the academy's working harbour. The lower docks were not one dock. They were a system. Harper looked around.

A sheltered basin cut into the cliff, breakwater outside, two floating piers, one stone cargo platform and several narrow boat bays protected by heavy gates. Winches hung from beams. Ropes coiled on hooks. Warning lines marked wet edges. Older students in dark jackets worked with staff on one pier. A maintenance boat rocked near the outer wall.

"Okay. This is good."

Ava said, "The life jacket improved it?"

"No. Boats."

The lesson was marine safety. No mystery. Professor Elowen showed them where rescue rings were stored, how dock alarms worked, why students stood behind yellow loading lines, and what the tide gates did during storms.

"Year Four students who pass dock safety may use designated areas without direct staff supervision," she said. "That does not mean every area becomes open. Working zones remain working zones. Red closures remain closures."

Harper nodded solemnly. Ava whispered, "Remember this in three years."

"I remember everything."

"You forgot your left shoe last month."

"That was different."

Jasper barely heard them. The pressure had begun halfway down the stair. Here it was stronger than ever. Not painful. Dense. The presence filled the harbour without being located anywhere in it. Jasper could not point and say there. It felt beyond the breakwater. Below the platform. Far out at sea. All of those and none. Professor Elowen noticed his face.

"Jasper?"

He nodded.

"Strong."

She did not need the rest.

"Stay beside me."

Harper and Ava moved too. Elowen looked at them.

"You may stay."

No argument. The class continued to the outer observation rail. Five old metal markers were fixed into the stone below. Not the same as Ocean Studies tide markers. These were thick brackets set at uneven heights around the harbour wall. Several looked newer than the surrounding stone. Ava stared.

"Safety boundaries?"

Professor Elowen followed her gaze.

"Part of them."

"Deepwater?"

Elowen was quiet.

"Some were replaced after Deepwater."

Harper pointed to one high bracket.

"Why there?"

"Old surge line."

Jasper's chest tightened. A flash hit him. Water. Not the harbour as it was now. Dark water rising against the stone. A person kneeling near an edge. Another shape running toward them. Then confusion. Fear. A huge pressure in the sea. The image vanished. Jasper grabbed the rail. Professor Elowen caught his shoulder.

"Sit."

He sat immediately on a bench behind the safety line. Harper crouched in front of him.

"What?"

Jasper told them. A person kneeling. Someone running. Surge. Nothing clear enough to identify faces. Ava looked at the old brackets.

"Deepwater memory?"

Professor Elowen did not answer immediately.

"Possibly."

Jasper looked at her.

"Can it remember?"

"If what you're sensing is a conscious magical presence, memory would not be impossible."

Harper said, "That was a very careful sentence."

"Yes."

Ava asked, "Do you think it is conscious?" Elowen looked out through the breakwater.

"I think some events in the records are difficult to explain without choice. That is not proof of what kind of thing is choosing."

Jasper's skin prickled.

"So you think something's there."

"I think pretending there is nothing would be irresponsible."

That was the closest any adult had come. Professor Elowen looked at him.

"How do you feel now?"

"Fine."

"Pressure?"

"Still there."

"Stronger?"

"No."

"Then we stay five minutes. If it changes, we leave."

Jasper nodded. The class moved toward the inner pier. He stayed with Elowen, Harper and Ava. The pressure remained. Not pushing. Not demanding. Aware. Jasper looked at the old Deepwater brackets. The presence sent no more images. After five minutes, it faded. Professor Elowen let them rejoin the class. Harper finally got to step onto a floating pier. She looked delighted until it moved under her feet.

"I don't like that."

Ava smiled.

"Adventure."

"Shut up."

They practised throwing rescue ropes. Jasper missed the target three times. Harper hit it but threw so much rope that half the coil landed in the water. Ava landed closest. By the end of the session, the lower docks felt less like a forbidden magical location and more like a place where people worked. That mattered. Deepwater had happened here. So had thousands of ordinary mornings. The presence had once been involved in something dangerous. It did not make every rope, boat and wave part of the mystery. As they climbed back toward the academy, Harper said, "Still going there first day of Year Four." Ava said, "During open hours."

"Yes."

"After safety training."

"Yes."

"Not at night."

Harper sighed.

"Why are you ruining future me's fun?"

Jasper laughed. Behind them, the lower door locked normally.