Architect of the Boiling Tide

Batzal spent years studying the tectonic tremors beneath the terraced city of Mokhara. When he warned the Coral-Caste elites that the upcoming monsoon would trigger a catastrophic flood of boiling subterranean mud, they stripped him of his rank and exiled him to the slums. Undeterred, Batzal spent his life savings retrofitting an abandoned, buoyant pagoda with thermal plating and strict rationing systems. Then, the earth splits. The scalding tide rises, melting the opulent estates and drowning the mocking elites in liquid heat. Batzal is safe, watching his former tormentors beg for a spot on his floating sanctuary. The payoff is sweet - until the horrific math of survival kicks in. The temple's buoyancy is finite. Every sobbing aristocrat he pulls from the deadly mud adds physical weight, inching the sanctuary closer to sinking beneath the boiling surface. To save a wealthy magistrate who possesses the only navigation maps to dry land, Batzal must jettison something of equal weight. Will he toss his vital food supplies, or will he cast the innocent laborers who trusted him from the start back into the boiling tide?