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‘H the beauty of it all,’ Lenk replied as he stared out over the vast, dreaulfing hi, Lenk decided, for the sheer uncaring nature of it all It did not e as the sky did There wasn’t a cloud tounderwater world
The sky had betrayed him too many times It had hidden his sun behind clouds and sullied his earth with rain The sky was a spiteful, wicked thing of thunder and wind The ocean didn’t care
‘The ocean … it loves me,’ he whispered His face contorted suddenly and his eyes ide, not feeling the salt that should be stinging the,’ the voice said
‘No, I said the "ocean lovesto say I said the sky was spiteful, it betrayed ht you weren’t listening’
‘Not to your voice, no’
‘Then …’ He clutched his head, not feeling his fingers on his skin ‘It’s finally happened I’ve gone insane’
‘You didn’t stop to think that when you realised you weren’t breathing?’
Lenk’s hands went to his throat The panic that surged through hi still He knew he should be terrified, should be thrashing and watching his screams drift to the surface in soundless bubbles But, for all that he knew he should, drowning simply didn’t bother him
But it should, he told himself I should be afraid But I’m not … I feel …
‘Peaceful’
The voice, or rather voices, that finished his thoughts were not his own, but they were familiar to his ears Far more fanised them, reme ached
It would have seemed redundant to call the Deepshriek by name, even as it drifted out of the endless blue and into his vision Three pairs of eyes stared at him The pair of soulless black eyes affixed to the massive shark that served as the aboin to worry until he looked into the gliolden stares of the two fe upon delicate, grey stalks frorey back
‘It could always be this way, you know,’ the one with the copper hair said ‘Drifting Endless Peace Lay down your sword’
‘I can’t,’ he replied
‘Why do you want to kill us?’ the black-haired one asked, her lips a pout ‘We merely wish to deliver the peace you feel now to all who have been lied to by the sky’
‘It deceives,’ the red one hissed ‘Tricks You are told to pray to it, to give your troubles to the sky’
‘It gives warht to reach him below It arm down here, far too warm for the ocean he had co When you need it ht? What does the sky offer then?’ the black one sighed ‘Rain, thunder, sorrows How can you trust so?’
‘It lied to you,’ the red one growled
‘It sent you down here,’ the black one snarled
‘But we eive you peace We give you …’
‘Endless blue,’ Lenk finished for them He narrowed his eyes ‘I’ve heard that before’
‘Have you?’
‘From every one of your demon servants, yes’
‘Demons?’
‘What else would you call the question,’ the black one reed It looked to its counterpart ‘What would you call Mother Deep’s children?’
‘Hellspawn,’ Lenk chiue,’ the red one said ‘Deeplings?’
‘A tad too predictable,’ the black one replied ‘What are they, after all? Creatures returned from whence they were so unjustly banished Creatures fro of mankind and his sky and earth’
‘They had a word for such things,’ the red one said
‘Ah, yes,’ the black one said
‘Aeon,’ they both finished
Lenk felt he should ask a question at that, but found that none in his head would slide into his throat He felt the ocean begin to change around hian to fall, his head like a lead weight that dragged hi in slow circles that shrank with every passing breath
It was getting war, his skull an oven for his h a tightened throat: laboured, heavy, then impossible
Breath His eyes widened at the word Can’t breathe His throat tightened, heart pounded, pulse raced Can’t breathe, can’t breathe!
‘What a pity,’ canise
This one was deep, bass and shook the waters, changing them as it spoke It drowned the sky, doused the sun with its laughter It sent the waves roiling up to meet him
He tilted his head, stared down into a pair of glireen eyes that he kneell They stared up at hi ears that floated like feathery gills, as a slender, leather-clad hand reached up to beckon hio,’ she whispered, her voicethe sand beneath her shudder, ‘we do not sin with breath’
His scream was silent Her stare was vast The sun died above The ocean floor opened up, a great gaping yawn that callously sed hi in screay to do it this tiht polished eyes that stared back at hih a thin sheet of silk His screaespider loosed a frustrated hiss before leaping off of his chest and scurrying away into the surf
He stared up at the sky through the gauzy webs the ht as he inhaled great gulps He re, he found, between the twitches of his eyes He remembered the Deepshriek, what it had said He remembered Kataria … had that been Kataria? He re That had all happened Hadn’t it? Was it some temporary, trauma-induced madness? His head hurt; he had been struck in the wreck, he recalled