LORD OF WATER

BOOK II

They came for the water. He came for them.

Copyright © Mike King, 2026. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations in a book review.

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Coming forward from Lord of Water: A Precious Water Planet

They were too late.

The White Sapphire Crystal — silent guardian of a precious water planet for almost a million years — sent out the signal before they could reach her. The universal alarm. The one a Lord of Water is never supposed to need. The one that says: he couldn’t do it alone.

Somewhere out there, the Marshal heard it.

And now the Rigs have arrived. Dark machines on the other side of the globe, operated by beings too enslaved to question their orders. Their mission is as old as greed itself — find water, drain every last drop, leave a dead rock spinning in the dark. The global evaporation has already begun.

Our Lord of Water has half a year to cross this ocean and stop them. Not just to save a precious water planet — though that alone would be enough — but to prove that he never needed saving himself. To finish what he started before the Marshal arrives and decides the matter for him.

Gary is at the bridge. Mila is at his side. Max and Pei are scampering across the decks like they own the place.

Hi-Sun is already sailing. And there is no time left.

None at all.

Chapter 1

Set Sail!

The moon fell away and the gravitational lift on the ocean abated. The intense energy of this annual epiphany dropped away as the king tide circled out and down across the globe. The next day would see the highest tides of the solar year through all the continents, just as it had for billions of years.

Gary regained his demeanour of relaxation and cheekiness. Mila took my arm and strolled the deck with me, holding my hand, flowing admiration and warmth toward me and I to her in my boyish and warm way. Below the lean hull of Hi-Sun, the dorsal pilots finished their bruising assault on the slicer sharks, leaving them scanting like wild scavenger dogs, yelping below the waves.

“Which way, my Lord?” called Gary.

I turned my head out over the horizon.

“We will follow the systems to the other side, my fine rhyming captain. We have but half a year to get there.”

“Let’s go, go, go,” called Gary, with Max and Pei scampering in all directions straightening the decks and trying to look busy.

“That was pretty wild,” Mila whispered into my ear. “You had me going there. I thought that I had lost you, but refused to believe it.”

“I’m here Mila. Our fun has only just begun. We have half a year. Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime?”

“Of course my handsome man. I wouldn’t miss this for all the slicer sharks in the sea.” She leaned her forehead against mine and just pressed as close as she could. Both of us smiling, holding each other tight. I hoped she felt what I intended — that I would never let her go.

“Come on, let’s give Gary a rouse about.”

We both strolled across to the bridge and loafed there while Gary and his wild crew prepped Hi-Sun for the start of another awesome adventure.

“Take a grip,” hollered Gary as Hi-Sun took a slicing launch into the ocean below. The whole crew steadied as she built her momentum and then Gary, out of nowhere, contagiously started to laugh. The whole crew joined in, laughing and enjoying the exhilaration as once again we started to chase the sun’s tail.

“To the other side we shall sail, my Lord of Water.” Gary looked prouder than any seasoned captain on all the seas. Everyone laughed and sang and laughed even harder. Then Gary turned, everyone falling into silence. I knew exactly where he was coming from and needed not say a word.

It dawned on me then — we had been together through all of this wild adventure and still hadn’t exchanged this most ridiculous but customary of formalities.

“It’s totally fine, Gary. My name is Shane.”

Chapter 2

On the Deck with Gary. The Disentanglement.

I came back on deck to find Gary still at the bridge. Hi-Sun had built up to full energy flow once again — easing at an even height, cutting a clean angle through the tops of the ocean swells below.

“We’ve got some nice momentum happening now, Gary. She’s riding so much quicker than on our journey in.”

“That’s right, Shane. Now that we’re riding the swells, she slices beautifully either way — but when we ride with the direction of the ocean swells, it really is something else.”

“I can feel it. She flies like a slinker bird touching the tops of her wings on the crest of the swells. Effortless!” I spoke softly to Gary.

“We surely are on an adventure now, Shane. I haven’t much touched these waters on this side of the globe. I feel we are going to find new things that I haven’t come close to for many lifetimes past.”

“Maybe even some never experienced before,” I replied.

Gary contemplated my words and thought of the past.

“Now that’s what I’m in for. Tell me more about that planet, Shane. You know — Blue-3. It sounds so incredible to me.”

“It’s quite a place. Insane beyond belief! Well, it was. But it has a special feel about it too. I made a good home there.”

Gary paused, thought, and shot again.

“Shane — these dark beings. What is it with these guys and how do you handle them?”

“Blue-3 wasn’t really much in relation to true evil,” I said, “but you can never underestimate the damage that can be caused when even minor grade bad guys are concerned. We all have the power to imagine and create the most amazing effects — and what some of these guys got up to was no exception.”

Gary and I paused for a while to take in the stars and the colourfully lit clouds, moving in contrast to the distant galaxies. The smaller moon sat low and clean, still casting a shimmering reflection to the left of Hi-Sun’s line.

Below, the dorsals turned easily with the wake of the keel.

Gary broke the silence with some cool dorsal facts, as always.

“They travel in their sleep. You can see the front and rear sentries holding the line. All of the rest pocket into the energy wave and shut down to recharge themselves.”

Gary sat back on his stool with the fingertips of his right hand just touching the rod, letting Hi-Sun know he was still with her.

“She knows where we want her to take us. Tomorrow we will find some calm corner and give her a well-deserved break. Now! Tell me — how is it that you can handle these dark beings?”

I began.

“Any Lord has this ability, and in truth, any one of us can become a Lord. It is called the disentanglement. Deep down we really are all basically good. But what more powerful energy cell than the spirit himself — placed inside a black machine and then convinced that his actions are ‘good.’ If arranged properly, you could keep a dark being enslaved and in full force forever. For as you know, Gary — we are immortal spirits. And whatever it is we believe is right or wrong, we will keep on carrying out as many ‘right’ actions as we can, no matter how bad they actually are.”

“That is what we do. Yeah!” Gary exclaimed, laughing. He could now see it so clearly — all of those crazy little idealities that we do, and sometimes keep on doing, because they seem ‘right.’

“You’ve really got it, Gary. What a lack of fun, and life, we could be missing out on if we didn’t have a problem here and there to challenge us from time to time. This is the exact point you are demonstrating right here in front of me. But the dark being is so trapped that there is no way he could even stop and take a look at himself or his actions. It is just not within his capabilities. So he just needs a little help.”

“And how do you do that?” Gary asked.

“As I said, Gary, it is an ability that all of us Lords have. We just disentangle the being from this trap. It goes a bit like this. Once we can get in close enough to the being himself, we just touch him and establish a streaming contact.”

“It’s a connection!” Gary replied.

“Sounds easy — but how do you get close enough?”

“Well, that’s a whole other kettle of fish. In the future, you will be helping me get close when the time comes.”

“Well, thank you for letting me know, Shane. I hate to ask — but once you have this connection established, what do you do then?”

“Well, Gary, they are just trapped in a machine. Barely visible, like the haze of a black cloud — but a machine nonetheless. The spirit is trapped inside and is operating purely on the information that the machine feeds him. Generally the calculation is along the lines of ‘Destroy to Victory!’ Not just destroy a few things — I mean to carefully and computationally destroy all others about him until eventually all are dead or enslaved. Even himself.”

“Now that is a dark idea. What do you do with that?”

“That’s right, Gary — it is a black thought. But still nothing more than a machine. To explain it in the simplest way possible, it is no less than a miracle to take a spirit and draw him back away from that machine so he can see it clearly. See it from the perfect life force that he is — and to see the machine and what it does, and nothing less.”

“So what happens to him?” Gary asked.

“Well, there is always some entertainment involved — and this is what usually happens. When he is clearly able to see the machine for what it is and what it is doing to him, then the disentanglement begins.”

“Mmmmmmmm!” Gary voiced.

“The machine has recorded a perfect stream of all that it has put the being through. All of those vulgar transgressions in wonderful animation — ready to present itself at any time. At that moment of disentanglement, it all plays back, one after the other, so clearly for the being to see. All of the lives that were killed, all of the trickery and treachery — one after the other until each and every one of them are streamed into clear view, presenting to the being what he has been through and, more importantly, what he has done.”

“And then?” Gary asked.

“And then we have the ‘Weeper.’ The grief, regret, and sadness has to come out somewhere. It lasts anywhere from a short moment up to a matter of days — the being goes through the Weeper and cries and cries and cries until finally it is all gone. Then he will pick himself up and just do what we all do so naturally. Find a way that he can get busy and help.”

“Wow! I think I would also like to do that, my young lord. It sounds like it would be great fun.”

“I think you’re up for it, Gary. Already you are proving yourself to be Lord of the Wild Seas. I can show you if you’d like — and if needed, you could help me too.”

“I would like that, young Shane — for I am never happier than to help another.”

“So, Gary — with the trap of this machine exposed and the mystery unravelled by the being, this dark machine has nothing left to keep it alive. It just falls apart. Evaporating into the aether.”

“That is so cool!” Gary replied, gleaming at his own imagination of the possibilities.

“It is very cool. But the difficulty we face is not in disentangling and freeing these beings — it is in getting close enough to do so. Or not being destroyed while trying to get there.”

“I have full confidence in you, my young lord. We have a mighty team and we will do whatever it takes, no matter what we come up against.”

“Thank you, Gary. Your bravery and loyalty is clearly demonstrated. We will do just fine.”

Max and Pei suddenly appeared with the pre-morning breakfast for Gary and I to share. We feasted as the first sign of sunrise touched the horizon. Then Gary and I retired for a long nap while Max and Pei took control and carried out the orders of the day.

Slinker Bird — spearing scout birds that often travel with ocean vessels, seemingly as a guide. They not only follow the journey but will scout a huge circumference, as though keeping the watch.

Lord of Water II Global Evaporation