Chapter 1: King of the Red Tide

"**Chapter 1: King of the Red Tide**" is the first chapter of *Phantomarine*. The original beginning of the webcomic, it began publication on July 11, 2015, and finished on June 28, 2017. The prologue, released in May 2021 when the comic joined Hiveworks, superseded Chapter 1 as the beginning of the story.

## Plot summary

Princess Phaedra Philemon is dead. She challenges Cheth, god of death and the haunted sea, for the chance to return to life. After deciding she has no chance of winning a swordfight against any of the dead swordfighters he has in his vast collection of souls, Phaedra opts to challenge the god to a test of knowledge: each will ask a question. Insisting on the restoration of her friends as well, Phaedra agrees that a draw will also count as a win condition for Cheth.

The fallen god's question is cold: her father won a great battle the previous year, but hundreds of soldiers were killed. Cheth asks Phaedra how many children lost a parent that day. The answer is 217, including Phaedra herself. Cheth is shocked that she knew the answer, and possibly even a bit sympathetic. But he still cannot believe that a Philemon would care enough to memorize that number. Phaedra explains that her father folded paper manta rays for children who had lost parents in his battles, and she inherited the tradition after his death. Cheth asks how he was supposed to know that, and Phaedra realizes she has the perfect question.

Summoning up a representation of the monastery atop Crucible Hill with its bleached coral altar, Phaedra talks about the tradition, that every New Year, High Priestess Halea sees a symbol in a dream. She marks it upon the altar as an omen of the fortune of the coming year. Cheth is annoyed, being well aware of the tradition. Phaedra asks him what this year's symbol is. Insulted, the god retorts that it's the Twin Ravens of healing and hurting, one of his sister's many birds, and that Phaedra could have lost the contest differently.

But the symbol that Phaedra reveals from under the altarcloth is not two ravens. For the first time in ages, the omen is not a bird at all, but the Bonefish. The symbol of Cheth. Phaedra explains that Halea decided to keep the truth secret to avoid a panic, and that the two of them had been keeping an eye out for any trouble Cheth might cause. But Cheth is struck speechless by the revelation. Phaedra, emboldened, starts to work out the details of the god's prison sentence, and Cheth yells at her to shut up with as many souls as he can manage.

Phaedra comes to to find the god, now in the body of a woman, talking to themselves... or possibly someone else entirely. The princess interrupts the god's cryptic remarks by smugly pointing out that she won, so Cheth must honour their deal. Cheth responds by bringing out the seaghost of Phaedra's father, commenting that he had challenged the god as well and *almost* won. Possessing the dead man's soul, Cheth comments that Pharos makes him look rather sharp. Horrified, Phaedra asks Cheth to stop, swearing not to insult him again. Cheth's two favourite bodies reappear, and he says that he will honour the deal, but has to make some compromises.

Phaedra opens her eyes to find herself on the ocean's surface. Thrilled, she turns to see her friends lying behind her, only to notice that the entire group is now coloured in shades of blue. She demands to know what Cheth did, and the god explains that he is only allowed to bring back one life after a victory. Since Phaedra and her friends are a group of five, Cheth had to split her soul five ways, so they are all still dead. Phaedra accuses Cheth of cheating, but the god dismisses that, claiming that Cheline would have appeared if he had cheated, but as usual, she is nowhere to be seen. He further laughs off a claim that Cheline would have sent Shoshana to save her and everyone, as Cheline promised she would.

Cheth, however, has heard of a way for Phaedra and her friends to be properly resurrected: a sacred relic hidden somewhere on the Candlelight Sea. Claiming not to know where it is – only that it can't be in the ocean because otherwise he would know all about it – he tells the princess that there is one complication if she wants to find it: she'll need a living volunteer to help, because the dead can't reach it on their own. And, as the god is all too willing to point out, this world hates and fears the dead, so that is no easy task.

Cheth gives Phaedra a deadline of New Year's, four months away, to find the artifact, promising to reclaim her and her friends for his collection should she fail. As the god speculates over whether Phaedra could even replace his favourite lady, even though he's not a fan of blondes, Phaedra cuts the woman's left hand off, demanding that he not touch her. She declares that she will find a way to remain above the Horizon Line even if there is no relic, but Cheth laughs it off, framing her potential failure as a holiday present for himself. The god's two bodies sink beneath the water, singing of Phaedra's possible return.

As the princess sinks to her knees, her friends wake up, confused. As Irving wonders where their ship and the lighthouse road have gone, Lani questions why they are all blue, and Katja gives off a mournful cry. Cal simply asks Phaedra if she defeated him. Suddenly overwhelmed with guilt, Phaedra says she did, and she is sorry.

## Appearances

### Characters

* Cheline (Mentioned only)
* Cheth
* Cheth's favorite lady (As a ghost)
* Irving Ellery
* Halea Haumea (Mentioned only)
* Katja
* Hinalani Leina
* Phaedra Philemon
* Pharos Philemon (As a ghost)
* Shoshana (Mentioned only)
* Caladrius Silenus

### Events

* Assassination of Phaedra Philemon (Mentioned indirectly)
* The Fracture (Mentioned indirectly)
* New Year's (Mentioned only)
* Pharos Philemon's last battle (Illusion)

### Groups and titles

* High Priestess (Mentioned only)
* Philemon family
* Royal Marine Navy (Mentioned only)
	+ King-Admiral (As a ghost)

### Locations

* Crucible Hill (Mentioned only)
	+ Crucible Hill monastery (Illusion)
* Saberfort (Mentioned only)

### Other

* Coral altar (Illusion)
* Gods' Tongue
* Horizon Line (Mentioned only)
* Lighthouse road (Mentioned only)
* *Mantaluna*
* *Narval*
* Sacred relic (Mentioned only)
* Seaghost
* *Silvervein*
* Twin Ravens

## Pages

1. King of the Red Tide
2. Choose Your Challenge
3. Lack of Confidence
4. Annoying and Indecisive
5. An All-Knowing God
6. Other Consequences
7. An Uncaring Princess
8. Paper Apologies
9. The Crucible
10. Mark of the Bonefish
11. Disintegration
12. Soul Clothing
13. Lonely Victory
14. Healthy Failure
15. Blank Stare
16. Puppet Monarch
17. Father's Shadow
18. Remember Your Place
19. Pallor Mortis
20. The High Cost
21. Spirited Sabers
22. Waves of Ridicule
23. Absentee Prophets
24. Dawn and Desperation
25. The Catch
26. Insatiable Monsters
27. Merciful Boundaries
28. Wear and Tear
29. The Magic Touch
30. Tongues and Teeth
31. The Echoing Graveyard
32. The Dark Morning