When mercy becomes a corridor, even the sea stands to listen. The city of Neken has learned to speak in rope and bell, in witness and word. By night, a skiff called the clause boat sails through a parted storm, carrying names that refuse to drown. By day, Zila’s Stillwater Minutes cool the fever of the streets while Vale writes what the river will defend. But when the Counter-Chorus rises from the depths with forged amnesties and false mercy, the tide itself demands judgment. The Tide Hearing is coming—a trial no court has ever dared to hold, where water weighs truth, and every word must float or sink on its own honesty. To survive it, Ketz, Zila, Vale, and Harl must navigate a corridor of living sea and light while enemies try to turn their mercy into a weapon. In this haunting fifth installment of Seals of the Ninth Horizon , The Gate of Tides blends mythic resonance and cinematic fantasy into a tale of redemption, rebellion, and the courage to defend compassion in a world built on debt and silence. Storms will be stored. Lies will be skimmed. Names will be carried. The sea remembers everything—and tonight, it remembers you.