{"It is unavoidable. It is your destiny."}
THE DEEP ONE'S POV
It was in the silence before the storm that I first felt it. A presence, a weight, and it clung to the edges of my thoughts like the distant scent of decay, faint but suffocating. The ocean had always whispered in my ears, but this was different. The water no longer sang in the soft rhythm of tides or the call of faraway creatures but it churned now, as though something below was stirring.
I had always thought the sea was my friend, a place of freedom and solace. But tonight, as I stood on the shores of the Emerald Gulf, the horizon seemed wrong. The stars had dimmed, and the wind held a damp chill. The waves were too dark and they curled unnaturally, as if seeking to consume the very air around them. And I heard it, the voice. It was not a voice, exactly, but something deeper, something primordial.
"Uroth…"
I didn't know the name, not yet, but it was unmistakable as the voice didn't speak in words. A pulse, a beat that synced with my very heart, and there was an inevitability to it, an ancient purpose that had been long forgotten, but now it called to me.
I had heard the stories, and everyone in Emerald Gulf knew the myths of the great deep of creatures that lurked beneath the waves, of gods long banished and forgotten. They spoke of Uroth in hushed tones, eyes wide with terror, as if the name alone could bring about the end of all things. I had always dismissed them and thought it was foolish superstition. The sea was just a thing, an endless expanse. It had no malice, no evil. It was simply a force of nature.
But today, I know that I was wrong.
The waves grew restless, as if stirred by the same cold breath that ran down my spine. I could feel Uroth's presence now, not in the air, but in the very marrow of my bones. He was not the sea, he was before it. Before time and an ancient hunger wrapped in darkness, hidden beneath the water's veil, waiting for an answer. I could feel it, tugging at my soul, pulling me closer to the water's edge.
The air shifted, and the smell of salt was suddenly thick with rot, and beneath it, something sharper, something metallic, like blood and rust. I could feel the whispers then, though not with my ears. It was a pulling sensation, deep inside me, as if the currents of my mind were being stirred by something larger than myself.
"I see you."
It wasn't a sentence, but an assertion of an undeniable truth. As if he had always known me, and I had always known him, and then he added, "The time is coming, little one. You will not escape the depths, and none of you will. The tide is rising, and my time, and you will lead the way."
I staggered backward, heart racing, and I wanted to scream, to flee, to cast this madness away from my mind. But my body was not my own anymore. My limbs moved with a will I did not command, stepping toward the water as if it had a force of its own. The sound of the waves became a low, rhythmic hum, a chant, a song older than the stars themselves.
I collapsed to my knees on the damp sand, and the world around me seemed to bend, as if the ocean was pulling at the very fabric of reality. I could hear the distant groans of something vast moving beneath the surface, something far deeper than I had ever imagined. "I am Uroth. The hunger of the abyss. The end of all things. I have waited for eons to rise," The voice echoed in my skull, not loud, but omnipresent, reverberating through the hollows of my mind.
I had been a fool to think I was untouched by the sea. I had been blind, deaf to the whispers, deaf to the warnings in the patterns of the waves. Uroth had always been there. And now he was calling me. "Join me, little one."
His words wrapped around me like chains, twisting tighter, and I knew, with a bone-deep certainty, that I was not meant to resist. I had no strength left to fight it. The sea surged forward, as if beckoning me to join it, to sink beneath its surface where nothing could touch me but the cold, endless darkness.
But as I stumbled toward the water's edge, the world tilted. I saw shapes moving beneath the waves, great, writhing horrors, creatures with eyes that glowed like the depths of the abyss, and mouths that stretched impossibly wide, ready to devour all that existed. And I heard them, the voices of those who had come before me, the lost sailors, the forgotten kings, their souls consumed by Ruth's insatiable hunger. They whispered to me, "You are not alone, child of the surface. You will never be alone again."
And then, as if a great hand had plunged from the depths, the world went dark.
*******
Five years later, loud sounds woke me up, and I felt them. Every one of them and their souls were fragile things, delicate threads weaving in the currents of fate, yet they were all I needed. Their fear, their ambition, their insufferable hope burned brightly in the darkness, drawing me toward them. They gathered, oblivious to the storm that was closing in on them. Their Sanctuary, their supposed haven, was nothing more than a brittle mockery of safety. It would not protect them. Soon, they would understand.
I stretched my awareness far beyond the familiar brine of the deep, past the crumbled wrecks of ships, beyond the drowned cities of old, to where the surface world trembled. Their hearts pulsed like fragile candles against the endless night. I felt them, each breath, each fleeting desire. They thought they were hidden, that their little haven could shield them from what stirred beneath the surface. Foolish mortals.
But what caught my attention most was the other and the damn leader, the Sovereign Abyss. We were bound by the same ancient chains, once rulers of the deep, cast down into oblivion. But he had always been different, and his patience stretched beyond mine, an unyielding calm, like the waters before a storm breaks. He waited, weaving his plans with silent precision, calculating his return. He sought power, just as I did. He thought he could reclaim what we had once ruled, but he was mistaken.
His time had passed, and I could feel him in the shifting tides, the subtle current of his power slipping from his grasp. He was weaker now. Much weaker than he had been before they exiled him. His influence was fading as the true ocean, my ocean, rose once again. The land had forgotten the law of the deep: there could be no peace between us. I could taste it now, his presence in the forest, where the earth had forgotten the salt and shadow of the sea. He clung to the edges, playing his game of protection, of feigned guardianship over these mortals. But he was a liar, and I would prove it to them all.
I could feel those weak creatures, those mortals in the Sanctuary. Their minds were small, their power fleeting. They could never stand against me. They gathered together, thinking their unity would shield them, but they were nothing more than flickering lights in the dark. They could not outrun the coming storm. Their leader, the one they called The Warden, had felt my wrath before. He would feel it again, and he would know my name. He would not escape. I would make sure of it.
And suddenly, I felt a new power moving among them. A Fae-Witch. I watched him from afar, felt his blood stir with the same ancient currents that coursed through me. He thought he was different, but he was not. He did not know it, not yet, but he was my bridge, the one who would bring the waves crashing back to where they belonged. He would lead the mortals into my grasp, and they would break beneath the weight of my hunger.
The mortals spoke of the Sovereign Abyss, their protector. I could hear their trembling voices, filled with misguided hope. They thought he was their salvation, but he was nothing more than a drowned prince who could not protect them.
Their Sanctuary was a fragile thing, nothing more than a temple of sand. The first cracks had already appeared, the slow decay creeping in like rot. I had whispered to their dreams, yes, but I had not revealed my true form. I would be the one to turn the ocean against them, to flood their precious lands and leave nothing but ruin in my wake. Their cities would drown beneath the waves, and the Earth would crack. They would know the true terror of the deep, and it would be too late for them.
The Sovereign Abyss, I would end his reign and rule the realm both the land and the sea.I would not wait forever and my time had come. The balance between us was delicate, but I would tip it. I would tear through the cracks he had hidden behind, drag him into the dark with me, and leave nothing but ruin in his wake. There was no place for him in this world. No rival for the ocean.
"I am Uroth. The hunger of the abyss. The end of all things, and I would never let happiness reign in the realm, either the sea or the land.