Prologue
The world bleeds black.
Gaja stood beside
Lorcelas, his long tail curled neatly around his forepaws, the tufted tip flicking slightly as the earth beneath him shuddered just slightly. His shining red eyes fluttered to his fellow imperial, who met his gaze firmly with their own plagueborn eyes.
"Sornieth shifts below us, Gaja; the time will be soon. Are our Ascendants prepared?"
Gaja nodded lightly.
"Cava and Vinn watch them now. They are near the wells of power, and if the stars above favor us, each pillar will find a host."
He hesitated for a moment, eyes darting to the side. Slowly- carefully he spoke.
"And if they don't? Our Ascendants are imperfect vessels- if the power feeds into one of the priests- into one of us...we would fall."
Lorcelas stiffened, their ears flattening against their skull. They answered in a voice barely above a whisper.
"We would not fall, Gaja, we would be swallowed by their power. There is a difference."
Gaja stared at the ground a moment, letting his doubt wash over him, then letting it go. He would not change it; it would be as it wished to be, better to move with the current than to stand against it. He nodded.
"I apologize for my doubts, Lorcelas." He said simply.
The tension in Lorcelas' stance slowly faded, and they gave a slight nod.
The two sat in silence, and Gaja took the time to fully inspect his surroundings.
The two imperials stood on a small platform that barely rose above black waves. Around them, ten pointed pillars rose from the sea like jagged teeth from a gaping void.
They were spread around the imperials in a colossal half-circle, pointing inwards; towards where Gaja and Lorcelas stood.
To a passerby, this would have been odd- though perhaps not extraordinary enough in its own right to warrant investigation; not
strange enough to push someone into venturing near these malicious pillars.
It was, Gaja thought, for the best. Those that came too near were more oft than not driven mad by the strange
thing that lurked 'neath the earth deep below.
It was that thing that Gaja sought to release.
As Gaja kneaded the silver platform beneath his feet, the ground let out a violent shudder, and Lorcelas suddenly stood straighter.
"It is time, my brother. Begin."
An eerie calm washed over Gaja, and he narrowed his eyes to slits. Moonlight spilled over him, and he felt a sliver of confidence- of dreadful knowledge- worm its way into his mind.
"Shagughag nuunt 'uta aftu'a, ang sha suga raftftt."
They had not practiced. They could not rehearse what must be spoken. But as the earth shook; as unseen tendrils crawled from the depths, the words fell from the mouths of both Gaja and Lorcelas.
"Tha ghaughs fturst r'un xuia' thuiaftga't, O Da'k Lu'g. Wa a'a xuia' axat; gha a'a xuia' sungiaat; gha a'a aftft shas xuia naag un shut ghu'ftg, ang ru' xuia gha ft'ung rftath."
The language was foreign, but felt comfortable on their tongues. Gaja felt his skin crawl; prickling down his neck and spine. His forelegs tensed with excited energy, and he felt something stirring deep within the pits of this world.
"Wa ta''a unftx xuia, O Da'k Lu'g, sha rftath ur sha ianghuftftung ghaust xuia' sanga' kutt, O Da'k Lu'g."
The pillars around them seemed to strain against a great force, pieces of them falling into the churning black sea that surrounded them like a sky unsullied by stars.
"F'aa iat r'un nu'saftusx, r'aa iat r'un sha thathkftat ur shut niangana ghu'ftg; ga'uia' aftft, O Da'k Lu'g."
The world split.
Around them the ocean raged, threatening to swallow the two of them into an unrepentant maw. But it did not touch them.
The shimmering pinpricks of stars in the sky blinked out around them, and the moon faded to naught.
Darkness blanketed them like a sentient thing, bringing with it a dreadful stillness.
The ocean still rioted, yet neither noise nor wind stirred in the air, and Gaja's heart seemed to stop as the world around him began to slow. He stared with wide eyes as he looked
through the darkness that permeated the isles.
He saw the silken threads of darkness creeping through rising waves like veins of blackened blood. He could hear their whispers on the edge of his mind; their demand for loyalty and labor.
He tasted ash in the air, and felt strange pressure on his body; in his bones.
It arrives.
The world was still.
Then it was not.
Irate waves became a violent chorus of crashes around him, and wind sprayed his face with rot and water. Distant screams sounded above the angry sea; commotion from the pillars. Gaja glanced briefly at Lorcelas, then towards the rekindled sky.
Sornieth's moons hung above them in a blissful ignorance, not knowing the chaos that dawned below; not knowing the doom which had once lurked below, and now above.
They had succeeded.
They had woken that which slept below.
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