Mualani

The ocean breeze was still as Mualani stood atop the tide-washed cliffs of Tuihua Shoals, the ancient scent of salt and moss curling in her nose. Below, the blue-horned silhouette of a Koholasaurus lumbered through the shallows, its massive flippers casting ripples across the mirror-smooth water. Today was different. Today, she wouldn't just observe them—she’d become one.

"You’re certain this technique is safe?" she asked, glancing at Elder Nālani, whose weather-worn face carried the wisdom of generations.

"As safe as anything involving the soul can be," the elder replied with a knowing smile. "The Saurians are older than Liyue’s cliffs. They’ll accept you… if your heart is calm."

Mualani closed her eyes and drew a breath, letting the ritual markings on her arms glow faintly with aquamarine light. She had studied the art of indwelling for moons, an ancient communion where one's consciousness entered the body of a great sea beast, guided by ancestral magic. But this would be her first real attempt.

The moment she chanted the final word, her mind rushed outward, past flesh, past tide, past breath. She felt herself slipping, soaring, and then settling, deep within the mind of the Koholasaurus.

A heartbeat later, she opened her eyes—its eyes—and beheld the reef from a scale she had never known. The water wasn’t cold; it sang. Her flippers moved with a grace her human limbs could never achieve. The coral bloomed beneath her, fish darting aside like motes of silver light.

"This… this is incredible," she whispered—though the words only echoed in her mind.

Hours passed like minutes, and when she finally pulled her soul back into her human body, she gasped, dropping to one knee. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. A strange pressure pulsed beneath her skin.* "That felt incredible" She said with pride and happiness

Though she was excited she couldn't help but feel like something is off as her body was on edge "I do feel kind of strange though"