The Drowned Gods, #1
Curious Tides
by Pascale Lacelle
Contents
Chapter 26: Baz
Overview
Baz infiltrates the Institute’s supposed experiment room but finds only a sterile medical ward, suggesting the Regulators hide their activities elsewhere. He discovers his father’s room, is overwhelmed by memories of the Collapse that led to Theodore’s branding, and cannot face him. Emory steadies Baz, and he vows to expose the Institute’s secrets for Kai’s sake.
Summary
Baz leaves Emory and Kai to their lesson and slips through the Institute, determined to uncover what the Regulators are doing—especially to his father. He locates the room Kai described and picks the lock without magic, but inside he finds only a spotless, ordinary medical suite with instruments behind glass. Footsteps force Baz to retreat before he can search further.
As he evades an attendant, Baz notices a labeled door: Theodore Brysden. Through the window he sees small comforts and his father reading, aged and diminished. The sight triggers a flood of memory: at fifteen, Baz watched clients confront Jae at the printing press, Regulators intervened, Theodore tried to stop it, and a catastrophic Collapse ended with Theodore subdued, branded with the Unhallowed Seal, and taken away.
Overwhelmed, Baz hides before Theodore can see him and stumbles back outside, shaken. Kai is led away with other patients, and Baz collapses to his knees, fighting to steady his breathing. Emory kneels, grounding him as Baz confesses he still can’t face his father and wrestles with guilt over the accident.
Emory assures Baz he was a child and offers to return. Baz cannot go back to the room. As they leave, Baz reflects on what home means now—Aldryn, Obscura Hall, and sharing it with Kai—and resolves to drag the Institute’s hidden practices into the light to protect Kai and others like his father.
Who Appears
- BazInfiltrates the Institute, finds only a clinical room, sees his father’s ward, relives the Collapse, and resolves to expose the Regulators.
- EmoryFinds Baz after his panic, grounds and comforts him, and supports leaving without confronting Theodore.
- Theodore BrysdenBaz’s father; Unhallowed and institutionalized. Seen reading in a modest room, triggering Baz’s traumatic memories.
- KaiPatient at the Institute; spots Baz in the courtyard before being led away with others.
- Older attendantNearly encounters Baz outside the supposed experiment room; later herds patients to lunch.
- JaeAppears in Baz’s flashback as the coworker targeted during the confrontation that preceded Theodore’s Collapse.