The Fjord That Remembers
When a superstitious rival skipper hurls Marcus's family cat into a freezing Arctic storm, Siru's scepter and Marcus's own long-hidden tattoo have minutes to find her before the fjord takes her for good.
Home in Lofoten for the first time since he left, Marcus Gray watches his childhood harbor descend into chaos when a rival skipper, convinced the family boat's uncanny luck is a curse, throws its ship's cat overboard into a rising winter storm. Siru's scepter drags them into a stolen skiff and Marcus, forced to actually read the tattoo he has spent his life hiding under long sleeves, uses it to find Koba before the cold or a blind, panicked trawler does. The whole village hauls them ashore into its midwinter gathering, where the rescue becomes a roaring drinking song and Koba, furious and dripping, sings it right back. By the fire, Vivek finally admits what he's been sitting on: someone paid to provoke tonight, and it wasn't Salugi's people.