The weapon curled out of the darkness like ink stirred through water.
Northern watched Sael's face as the bow materialized fully, coiling into itself before settling into shape. Its limbs were not carved wood or shaped metal but living architecture: eight sinuous tentacle-forms of deep navy and gunmetal blue, intertwining and spiraling around each other like frozen currents caught mid-dance. Each tendril gleamed with an oily iridescence, shifting between midnight and burnished silver depending on how the light caught it.
The central grip featured a diamond-shaped eye motif carved from polished kirithon cartilage, housing a pale, milky lens that seemed to watch. An unsettling remnant of the Apex Maelstrom's gaze, repurposed into something new.
