The way you open, the point you chose to bring us into the story, is so very well picked. A little boy trying to pay with soil he cleaned nets to earn gives us such massive insight into your world with so little explanation, skilfully done. The shop owner’s opinion of the stranger just adds to it, it creates the impression of a close knit floating community before you even introduce it. How you build it up with the conversation about iron, and a stronger knife, then drop in the first mention of a Seaper, you really have great world building skills. The intrigue of the shopkeeper sending Kiro to follow the stranger is irresistible. Him stowing away in the ship, and then the fear of the stranger having disappeared, and it interfering the Thraz’s plans to get into a Seaper ship, forcing him to return to the child to the floating village, this is just so action packed! I have to admit, I would have liked a little more on the attack and escape, it happens so quickly, but then given the rest of the story I can appreciate why that is the case. With the reveal of the Seapers as aliens, and Thraz as an escaped experiment, leading into him and Kiera having a child, this really comes together and seriously delivers. This feels like an origin story for a comic book/scifi series hero, Amelia, the girl unwittingly brought into existence by the Seapers, with the power to stop them. I do love a good origin story, and this really feels like it could be telling the backstory of a beloved hero, rather like Superman’s parents giving him up, or Professor Charles Xavier and Gabrielle Haller meeting and giving birth to Legion. This is such a rich world, with a deep sense of history, that feels like a complete story, and yet still feels like it could fit into a wider universe that you already have me hooked on!