They were divided into teams by drawing lots. Predictably, no one wanted to be on Alicia's team. She ended up paired with Zane Ryder, who had also been ostracized for not joining in the initial pile-on.

"Guess we're the outcast alliance," Zane said with a charming grin. Alicia offered no reply.

The competition began. Other boats burst into activity. Jamie Burt was live-streaming his every move. Chantal was flirting outrageously with the boat's captain. Julius and Kian's team had hired a professional fishing guide and were deadly serious.

On Alicia's boat, there was only silence. Zane cast his line a few times with no luck.

Alicia didn't even pick up a rod. She sat at the edge of the boat, staring out at the vast, blue expanse of the Pacific.

The cameraman assigned to their boat sighed, already bored.

"Aren't you going to try?" Zane finally asked. "We're going to get crushed."

"The time is not right," she said, her voice placid.

An hour passed. Other teams made small catches, their whoops of excitement carrying over the water. Chantal's team landed a decent-sized grouper, and she held it up, shouting taunts in their direction.

On Jamie's livestream, the comments were merciless. "LOL she's probably too scared to touch a worm."

In the main control room, the director was about to cut their feed entirely.

And then, Alicia stood up.

She picked up a heavy-duty rod and cast the line into the water with a simple, artless flick of her wrist.

Then she closed her eyes.

Her consciousness expanded, spreading under the water like a sonar wave. She felt the currents, the temperature shifts, the faint seismic hum of the planet. She didn't command the fish-that was a crude and energy-intensive act. Instead, she searched for a nexus of probability.

She found it. A minor, deep-sea volcanic burp, which she had gently encouraged with a whisper of energy half an hour earlier, had diverted a massive school of migrating bluefin tuna. They were now heading directly for this spot.

She wasn't here to catch a fish. She was here to create a miracle.

She opened her eyes and looked at Zane. "Get the largest net on the boat ready."

He looked confused, but her tone compelled him to obey.

Suddenly, the rod in her hand bent into a violent arc, the line screaming from the reel. A force of impossible strength was on the other end.

At the same moment, the boat's fish-finder erupted in a series of frantic beeps. The screen was a solid mass of red, indicating a colossal school of fish passing directly beneath them.

The boat's captain stared at the screen, his jaw hanging open. "My God... it's a bluefin run! I haven't seen a school this size in thirty years!"

Alicia ignored the straining rod. She looked at Zane and the crew, her voice cutting through the chaos with absolute authority.

"Net down. Now."

---

Zane and the crew scrambled, wrestling the heavy, reinforced trawl net into the churning water.

Below the surface, a river of silver and blue bodies flowed past-hundreds, maybe thousands of prime bluefin tuna.

The moment the net hit the water, it was pulled taut with a groan of protesting rope and metal. The winch shrieked, threatening to buckle under the immense weight.

"The winch is gonna break!" the captain yelled, his face a mask of panic and awe. "There are too many!"

The other boats had drawn closer, their occupants staring in stunned silence at the spectacle. The water around Alicia's boat looked like it was boiling.

Chantal's smug expression had been replaced by wide-eyed disbelief.

In Jamie's livestream, the chat had gone from mockery to a waterfall of "WTF" and "OMG." His viewer count was exploding.

Just as the winch was about to give way, Alicia walked over to it. She placed her hand casually on the machine's housing.

Unseen by anyone, a sliver of her power flowed into the metal, reinforcing its molecular structure, hardening it from the inside out.

The tortured screaming of the winch ceased. It began to pull smoothly, powerfully, bringing the net up from the depths.

The crew stared, thinking the machine had just righted itself. Only Zane shot a quick, questioning look at Alicia.

The net broke the surface.

The sight silenced everyone for a hundred yards.

Hundreds upon hundreds of large, powerful bluefin tuna thrashed within the mesh, their silver-blue scales catching the California sun. It was a catch of mythical proportions.

In the control room, the director was on his feet, shouting into his headset. "All cameras on her! Drones, everything! Now!" He knew this single shot would define the entire season.

The net was hoisted onto the deck. The first scale they used to weigh the catch broke. They had to bring in an industrial-grade scale from the dock.

The final number was so large it seemed like a typo.

The show's on-site marine biologist stammered into his microphone, "This... this doesn't just break the show's record. It breaks the commercial single-haul record for this entire coastline. And to do it out of season... it's... it's impossible."

A dead silence fell, broken only by the whir of cameras.

Everyone stared at Alicia. She stood beside the mountain of fish, her expression as calm as if she were looking at a basket of laundry. The contrast between the sheer spectacle of the event and her profound stillness was terrifying.

Julius, Kian, and Jamie looked on, their faces ashen. Their plan to humiliate her had backfired in the most spectacular way imaginable. She hadn't just avoided embarrassment; she had performed a miracle.

The director's voice crackled over the PA system. "The challenge is over! The winners... are Alicia Ruiz and Zane Ryder!"

Zane let out a whoop of joy, looking at Alicia with a mixture of worship and suspicion.

Alicia's gaze went past him, toward the distant horizon. She wondered if this display would be enough to get the attention of a certain Sovereign.

On the internet, the hashtag AliciaTunaMiracle was the number one trending topic worldwide within minutes.

The world was debating whether it was a hoax, a fluke, or an act of God.

But one thing was certain. The name Alicia Ruiz was back.