Location: The Drowned Maw — a sealed trench altar beneath the Sir enfold Deep
Far below the ocean, where pressure breaks stone and light has never dared linger, the cult gathers in a sacred trench, around a pulsing shrine of bone and barnacle.
High Priestess Vey'Sharr, her limbs a lattice of ink-black coral and seething veins, steps barefoot into the ring of hollowed skulls. Her breath fogs with unnatural cold, and around her, acolytes chant in the old tongue—the one only the drowned remember.
On an obsidian slab lies a curled, lifeless beast—a Leviathan whelp, harvested in secret from the edge of the Pearl Shard Veil. Its body is stitched with silver hooks and thorn-rituals.
Vey'Sharr lowers her hands. A silken prayer-coil unfurls like a serpent of smoke.
"By blood unbled, by flame that never burned, by the Sire of the Hollow... we unseal the Mouth."
The sea trembles.
Above, entire shoals flee. The currents change direction. In coastal villages, people awaken screaming from dreams of teeth and silence.
The creature on the slab moves—not by life, but through possession. Its maw opens. A scream pulses upward through the sea.
Scene Shift: Tidal Quake Reaches the Surface
Back at the Jade Isles, a massive wave crashes into the outer reefs, throwing watchtowers into the sky. Elders stagger from their chambers as the reef trembles beneath their feet.
Luo Fen stares at the rising sea foam, breath stolen. "That's no natural quake. Something... was born."
Feng Xian grips his crown-marked hand. The glyphs burn hot, resonating with something old. He hears it again—
A voice. No words. Just hunger.
Back Below: Vey'Sharr Turns North
In the trench, the High Priestess smiles, her eyes blind and weeping salt.
"Let the Bone Armada be the blade," she whispers, "but we shall be the flood that follows."
From beneath the trench altar, something vast and chained stirs—Szuul, the First Drowned, begins to turn.