Midnight Reef
At precisely midnight, the sea around the Archipelago of Serren shimmered as though struck by moonlight from within. The hidden coral reef, veiled in an isolated timeline pocket, appeared from nowhere—its vibrant structure arcing up from the depths. Taro and Kee, both seasoned Time Keepers, watched from the deck of their boat. Each wore a specially calibrated $TIME watch strapped over a sleek diving suit. They could almost feel the dissonance in the water, the subtle pulse of a timeline not meant to exist.
Taking a final breath, they submerged into the moonlit waves. The water was astonishingly clear, revealing a sprawling reef aglow with strange luminescent corals. Schools of shimmering fish meandered through columns of branching anemones. Yet, an uneasy hush lingered; the reef felt too still, as if aware of its forbidden nature.
Further along, they came upon a series of carved stone archways jutting from the seabed. Kee’s watch beeped a warning, detecting temporal anomalies. Through the swirling eddies of plankton, they glimpsed the outlines of an impossible underwater city—walls draped in kelp, statues half-buried in shifting sands. The architecture spoke of a lost civilization, but the technology scattered about told a different tale: Coalition devices lay half-buried like sinister relics, their metal casings still gleaming.
Taro hovered closer to one such artifact, heart hammering. The device ticked in sync with a faint current, as though actively reshaping the environment. Each pulse destabilized the coral structures, fracturing them into smaller timeline fragments that threatened to unravel at any moment. Kee gestured emphatically, shining a beam of light over a complex tangle of wires and swirling fluid. Whatever the Coalition had planted here radiated malevolent energy—and one misstep could spark a full collapse of the reef’s ephemeral existence.
A sudden ripple coursed through the city, toppling a nearby statue and showering them with drifting debris. Taro and Kee exchanged alarmed glances. Time was short; if the devices went critical, the entire reef—and everything living within—could slip into oblivion or worse, spill into adjacent timelines. Gritting their teeth, they readied their $TIME watches. They hadn’t come this far to lose an entire piece of reality to the Coalition. As the midnight reef quivered, the two Keepers steeled themselves to dismantle the threat, knowing the slightest mishap could doom them—or countless future oceans—to eternal night.
Micro stories are a content feature offered by $TIME's dev Woj. Handwritten and accompanied by art, they serve to deepen the story world we're creating here. Enjoy!
