He Xuan is at the docks, on a shaky little wooden pier down the quiet end, as he often is since he came to Trench. The other fisherman know him, or know of him, the black-robed Sleeper who some days trades away his whole catch and some days keeps it. They can give directions, if Shen Yuan finds he needs them.

Black Water Submerging Boats has a particular affinity for water, one that has remained even as most of his power has become linked to his blood, but he doesn't "cheat" by pulling against the tide or coaxing the fish to him. No, he sits quiet and patient and still, bare feet dangling into the ocean, his singular skeletal Arowana swimming in lazy figure eights through the air. Occasionally it will read aloud a new reply from the network in a toneless voice, and He Xuan will reply equally unemotionally, and it will send the message for him. They have no further communication than this.

When Shen Yuan walks the pier, he feels the vibrations but doesn't turn, or speak to acknowledge the arrival of the civil servant. His lure bobs with the waves, light tackle to fish the school of shad that have come with the break in the weather (perhaps hoping to swim against the oncoming ice, but for one last day the water is free of rime and squid alike.) He already has a bucket with a few caught fish beside him.