Just seconds after drinking from the chalice, Sami swayed on unsteady feet as a wave of dizziness struck him. He felt his head spin wildly, his stomach churn, and a sharp ringing echo in his ears. The stone chalice slipped from his grasp, clattering to the floor and rolling away as he staggered forward, catching himself against the basin of the altar.
'Shit! Did I choose wrong?'
He glanced at the other chalice, wondering if he should have drunk from that one instead. The reason he had chosen the one with the opaque liquid was simple. Unlike the other, which seemed to contain water, this one held something unrecognizable and it felt dangerous. But that was the point. His sigil kept urging him to face dangerous situations, so he thought that, since it looked the most perilous, he should drink from it.
Now, though, he wasn't so sure if he had made the right choice or if he had just doomed himself. He was still tangled in his racing thoughts when a sharp pain suddenly stabbed his chest, making him yelp and drop to one knee, clutching at it. The pain grew worse in the next second, and with it, the agony intensified until even kneeling felt impossible for Sami.
'…I don't want to die…' he thought as he collapsed onto the floor groaning and writhing. His body folded in on itself as if every fibre of his being was coming undone.
Then right when he thought that it was really over for him and that was really going to die, he felt something change. It was as though the stabbing pain in the center of his chest was gradually being replaced by a strange cold, that kept growing and spreading outward, softening the agony with each passing second.
A few moments later, he was finally able to breathe again and then he noticed that the cold energy kept spreading from his chest to his stomach, then his legs and arms, and even his head until it filled every fibre of his being.
Under that cold, Sami felt his bones, muscles and every fibre of his being rebuilt and revitalized as if he was being reborn, or something like that.
He no longer felt pain, but rather, he felt good, so good that it was euphoric.
After only a few moments, the transformation became even more profound as he suddenly felt stronger and more alive than ever. As if every ounce of his body was being sharpened and enhanced.
A large smile tugged at Sami's lips as he lay sprawled on the floor, sweating and breathing heavily.
'Is this it? Did I pass the test? …It looks like I did… I mean, I'm not dead… so… I did. Right?
…Ha! I passed! I passed the damn thing!'
Sami couldn't contain his excitement and even began to laugh. 'Can't believe i did it. I'm finally becoming dominant!'
Just then, the cold energy that had filled his body began to recede, returning to his chest before fading completely.
Then Sami felt a sting on his right hand. Slowly, he raised it, and his eyes widened as he saw his sigil changing. The writing on the tattoo faded, and in its place, a large new design of a creature began to emerge. The tattoo grew, spiraling from his hand up toward his torso. It wrapped around his chest and back, and in the next instant, Sami bore a massive tattoo of a creature that looked like a fusion of snake and dragon, the same one he had seen before, etched across his body.
Sami blinked. 'Huh…'
He slowly sat up and studied the enormous inky-black tattoo covering his torso and arms.
'Man… this looks so cool. So that really was my path, huh…'
After examining the somewhat intimidating tattoo for a few more moments, he glanced around and then pushed himself off the floor.
Right now, he wanted nothing more than to check the abilities he had awakened since he had probably completed his initiation. From the little knowledge he knew through the rumors he had heard, after initiation, a Dominant gained what was called a whisper-script. It was said to be a mystical grid of runes that acted as a guide, helping Dominants see and understand their abilities. However, for reasons unknown, the Whisper-Script didn't appear immediately after initiation, so one had to wait a while for it to manifest.
Sami took a deep breath. Since had no choice than to wait a while before being able to see his abilities, he decided to look around the sanctuary while he waited.
His eyes roamed over the space. When he saw how broken it was, with cracks running along the walls and pillars, parts of it collapsed onto the floor, and dead kelp, vines, and algae scattered everywhere, he wondered if this was how all sanctuaries in the different realms looked or if his was just different.
'Who exactly is this Tiamat, the owner of this sanctuary, and what realm is this anyway?'
His gaze dropped to the floor and then he noticed something that he had missed before. The stone floor of the sanctuary was littered with markings, scratched into its surface in jagged, frantic strokes. They were not arranged in any order but scattered like fragments of a broken mind. Some were shallow, others carved so deep they had bitten into the stone itself. Sami knelt on one knee, curiosity sharpening his gaze as he studied the markings. He read the first inscription in front of him:
"Too deep, too deep, too deep—"
'Huh? What's too deep?' He tilted his head and arched a brow trying to make sense of it. Then another inscription caught his eye:
"There is no end, no hope, no light. I just kept sinking, screaming, until I was no longer me. She had told me that the ocean was deep, but this deeper. This is where the ocean goes to die—"
Sami swallowed. 'Who wrote this shit? None of this makes any sense.'
He rose from the floor, his gaze drifting to the altar that had held the chalices. Its surface and sides were etched with the same wild, uneven markings.
Stepping closer to the base of the altar, he leaned in to study them:
"I have lost my master. I couldn't live without her, and so I wander. If you end up drinking from the chalice that makes you whole, it would mean that you have taken her essence. And so, I will wait for you, counting the days until you, my new master, call me to your side."
Sami straightened up, frowned, and pointed at himself. "…Me?"
Not only was he completely confused and utterly baffled by what he had just read, he was also wondering exactly what he had drunk from that chalice and who had written this.
'It tasted like water, he thought, smacking his tongue. 'So what is this talk about essence? Does it have something to do with my initiation?'
Lots of questions piled up in his mind. But since he had no answers, he ran a hand through his hair, exhaled loudly, and set them aside for now, deciding to continue his exploration.
He took a quick look at the chalice in the basin that had held the crystal-clear liquid, and made a sour face when he realized it was empty and the liquid had somehow vanished as if by magic.
'Mmm… creepy.'
Turning away from the altar, he lifted his gaze and saw something in a corner of the sanctuary a few meters away. "Oh?"
It looked like an old throne made of obsidian stone, filled with dead leaves and silt. Sami trudged over to it and studied it for a moment. There was writing at the top, but unlike the uneven etchings he had seen before, this looked imprinted. It read:
"Throne of the Drow—"
Sami frowned. The writing was incomplete, as if the rest had been deliberately struck off. He squinted, trying to make out the missing part, but just then, he felt something behind him that made him spin around in fear.
'What is that?' he thought, his eyes wide as he took a cautious step back, leaning against the throne.
Right in front of him, bubbles of water rose from the potholes on the ground into the air. They drifted toward each other and merged one by one, gradually taking shape until what looked like a tablet of water formed.
The tablet was perfectly rectangular, and its surfaces shimmered and rippled like a liquid mirror. In the center, a faint blue light blinked in and out of focus.
Sami blinked and immediately adjusted his stance, preparing to run away in case whatever he was looking at turned out to be dangerous.
Luckily, he did not have to run because just then, words began to form on the surface of the watery tablet in blue ink. They did not appear all at once but emerged slowly, letter by letter, as if written by an invisible hand beneath the water.
Sami took a cautious step closer and studied the writing, which was in the same language as everything else here. It read:
[Initiation… complete.]
Although Sami had already suspected that his initiation was complete after drinking from the chalice and having his body reconstructed, seeing this confirmation made feel incredibly elated.
After a few seconds, he tilted his head in curiosity. 'What is this?'
Slowly, he reached out to touch the tablet, but it suddenly burst into a flurry of bubbles, scattering in all directions before drifting back in front of him and reforming with the same script:
[Initiation… complete.]
'Mmm…' Sami leaned closer to the hovering tablet. 'Is this the whisper-script?'
Just as the realms were different for every Dominant, the Whisper-Script appeared in different forms too, since its design was influenced by the Dominant's power.
Looking at the watery tablet, Sami began to suspect that maybe… his abilities might have something to do with water.
He was still studying the tablet when it suddenly began to expand, lengthening at the edges as the text faded and new words formed across it.
[Whisper Script: updated.]
Sami arched a brow. 'Oh?'
[Would you like to view to your profile?]
'What sort of question is that?!'
Sami grinned, his heart beating wildly as he blurted. "Of course!"