Soldier's Benthic Aquabreather of the Afflicted

Soldier's Benthic Aquabreather of the Afflicted rests on the table like a stubborn relic, its brass shell pocked with salt and time. The faceplate is a small, convex globe of tempered glass, rimmed with a lattice of patient, barnacle-dusted brass. A network of kelp-colored hoses coils from a sturdy mouthpiece, their rubbery skin creased and slick with brine, as if the device itself remembers every mouthful of seawater it has ever carried. The strap is stitched leather, cracked from long trials, threaded through riveted loops that gleam with a quiet, seawater-blue sheen. Carved along the valve is a crest—two intertwined waves, a trident, and the whisper of a skull—a reminder of the Afflicted whose shadowy campaigns once pressed into submerged ruins and murky trenches. The item feels alive in your hands, like a small, stubborn part of the sea that has learned to breathe with you. Lore clings to its edges as surely as the salt does to its brass. Tales say the Aquabreather was issued to disciplined squads who pressed beyond coral walls into sunken outposts where the Afflicted tangled their roots of ruin. Sailors spoke of the device as a stubborn ally, something that kept a man from surrendering his thoughts to the dark below. In the ledger of a long-dead commander, the practical notes survived: calibrate the mouthpiece, check the valve, mind the reef of static on the glass. Breath becomes not just a necessity but a whispering thread—through it, soldiers could map the unknown, strike back at the quiet threat of the depths, and carry forward the memory of every life saved beneath the waves. It’s easy to sense the echoes of those campaigns when you cradle the piece: the crackle of old air, the muffled pulse of distant engines, the slow drift of silhouettes through a milky underwater light. In today’s world, the aquabreather has become more than a relic; it’s a practical companion for underwater exploration and salvage. Worn with a sturdy diving mask, it promises extended breath, steadier buoyancy, and a calmer mind when the reef’s shadows grow thick. It lends a quiet authority to any dive, a tactile reminder that courage isn’t the absence of fear but the choice to lean into it. The gear works best alongside a suite of underwater tools—a reliable lantern that cuts through silt, a net for salvage, and fins that bite into current. Its true strength is narrative: it transforms a simple breath into a thread that ties you to the past, to those who, like you, believed the world’s secrets deserved to be found. Market whispers, too, have their own current. On Saddlebag Exchange, a few listings show the Soldier’s Benthic Aquabreather of the Afflicted changing hands for a mix of silver and coin, often priced higher when provenance hints at a storied sunken siege or a famed salvage. One seasoned trader tells a buyer that condition and traceable history matter more than shine alone, and the right inscription can tilt a deal toward a gold or two. Whether you hunt for one because you crave a tangible link to those depths, or because you want a dependable companion for the next expedition, the price and the memory ride together, like sailor and tide. So the Soldier’s Benthic Aquabreather of the Afflicted remains more than metal and glass. It is a voice from the dark below, a stubborn breath returned to the surface, and a beacon for anyone who believes that the depths, with all their danger, also hold the best stories waiting to be told.