Location: Isle of the Forgotten → The Black Coral Catacombs → Altar of the Dreaming God
Time: Hour of the Abyss (Noon) → Hour of the Depths (Eternal Night)
I. The Procession of the Damned
Location: Obsidian Causeway
Time: Hour of the Abyss
The priests moved like marionettes with tangled strings, their chitin masks clicking in discordant rhythm. Lysander followed, his steps unsteady—not from the jagged stone beneath his bare feet, but from the hole where the priest had torn the parasite's essence.
"Symbiosis Alert: Critical Instability"
"Parasite Integrity: 58% (Deteriorating)"
"New Symptoms:"
Saltwater Tears (Nonstop)
Echoes of Drowned Voices (Constant)
Taste of Rot (Persistent)
Behind them, Nyessa and her mute boy carried the hatching eggs. The shells had turned translucent, revealing squirming shadows within that matched the parasite's movements.
The causeway ended at a sheer cliff face—or so it seemed, until the lead priest pressed its webbed hand against the stone.
The mountain opened.
A tunnel of black coral yawned before them, its walls glistening with bioluminescent algae that pulsed like a slow heartbeat. The air smelled of preserved corpses and deep ocean pressure.
"You will kneel here," the priest croaked, shoving Lysander onto a circular platform carved with spiraling runes.
Nyessa hesitated. "Our bargain—"
"Will be honored." The priest's mask split vertically, revealing a second mouth inside. "After the feeding."
The platform descended into darkness.
II. The Cathedral of Bones
Location: Black Coral Catacombs
Time: Hour of the Depths
The elevator stopped with a wet crunch.
Lysander stepped into a cavern so vast its ceiling vanished in gloom. Leviathan ribs formed arched buttresses, their curves framing a central nave where thousands of preserved corpses knelt in perfect rows.
Not human corpses.
Dragon corpses.
Their skeletal wings formed a macabre canopy, each set of bones strung with pearls and shipwreck chains. At the far end, a throne of fused vertebrae supported a being that defied understanding.
The Dreaming God sat motionless, its form shifting between:
A drowned giant with skin like bleached coral
A mass of tentacles threaded through with golden wire
A void that hurt to look at directly
The parasite screamed inside Lysander's skull—not in fear, but recognition.
"System Override: Cognitive Hazard Detected"
"Recommendation: Do Not Look At The God"
"Secondary Warning: It Is Looking At You"
The lead priest scuttled forward, pressing its forehead to the ground. "We bring the promised feast, Great Dreamer. The shadowkin and its get."
A sound like a thousand conch shells moaning in unison filled the chamber. The god's attention settled on Lysander, and in that moment, he remembered:
A pact made before Valyria rose
A betrayal beneath the waves
A debt written in dragon blood
The vision vanished as the mute boy spoke for the first time, his voice the crack of breaking ice:
"He doesn't want the eggs. He wants you."
III. The First Betrayal
Location: Altar of the Dreaming God
Time: Hour of the Depths (Continued)
Nyessa moved faster than Lysander expected.
Her viper struck first—burying fangs in the nearest priest's throat. As the creature choked on its own black blood, she flipped the egg crate onto the altar.
Six shadowkin hatchlings spilled out, each no larger than a house cat but wrong in ways that made the eyes water. They immediately began:
Devouring the nearest dragon bones
Mimicking the god's shifting form
Screaming in Lysander's voice
The mute boy grabbed his arm. "Run. She's not saving you—she's saving them."
Too late.
The Dreaming God uncoiled, a tentacle lashing out to impale Nyessa through the stomach. She gasped, firewine-blood bubbling from her lips as she was hoisted into the air.
"Worth... it..." she choked, tossing Lysander a serrated harpoon from her belt.
The parasite reacted before he could, forcing his arm into a throw. The harpoon struck true—embedding itself in the god's central eye.
The scream that followed shattered the cavern.
Stalactites rained down as the dragon bones reanimated, their wing-claws slashing at anything that moved. The shadowkin hatchlings multiplied, their forms splitting like amoebae each time they fed on bone or priest-flesh.
Lysander ran—not toward the elevator, but deeper into the catacombs, following the mute boy's tug on his wrist.
Behind them, the Dreaming God began to wake fully.
IV. The Prisoner's Gate
Location: The Lowest Vault
Time: Hour of the Depths (Endless)
The boy stopped before a door of living coral, its surface etched with Valyrian glyphs that glowed faintly blue.
"You made this," he whispered, pressing Lysander's palm against the door. "Before you were you."
The coral parted like flesh, revealing:
A prison cell.
Inside floated a figure clad in the remnants of a dragonlord's robes, his silver hair drifting in some unseen current. His face was Lysander's—but older, wearier, with mercury eyes like Maelora's.
The prisoner looked up, and his lips formed two words:
"About time."
The parasite convulsed, its remaining integrity plummeting as it recognized:
Its original host.