Blackwater Islands bruise

another piece fell into place, another shadowy corner set ablaze; deeper understanding began to dawn upon the prophet as she heard ingram's words. the bones, the spirits... it all made sense.

she would not lose him to marriage, then, but to madness. the same madness which had created her.

you do not know what you ask for, the listener echoed her own words from moments before. to lure such an entity...

they were drawn to imbalance, spawning from great festering wounds of suffering and of indulgence. the listener herself had been drawn to the darkness in ursus, the great and terrible shadows cast by their dreadwitch and his murderous lover. yet that was not the source of her hesitation. such scenarios were easily found, or created, within this disjointed world.

there will be much death. first to strike the imbalance which lures my kind, to tear the very fabric of our reality and allow the screams of the spirits to draw a creature of the void. it will devour you. it will take everything you are, everything you have, and forge it anew in red and black. the bloodlust will rule you for a time, as it ruled me. you will not be yourself. then there will be more death.

he would not truly be himself ever again. the listener thought of cerulean, of the woman's hunched form as she wept over her sister at the height of viridian's illness. though her eyes were ever dry, the depth of her own grief could only be compared to cerulean's wracking sobs.

and when you wake from the haze of violence, you will feel as if you walk in a dream. you look around and see all is as it should be, yet it feels unreal. it feels wrong. this is not your world, this is not your life, this is not you. but there is no escape, except in true dreams when the otherworld beckons. little else will please you.

this would be your life, all of your lives from now until the end of time. you are certain this is what you want?

he would never be mortal again. the listener did not know if he would hold the same appeal without that spark. but if this was the unnamed god's will — and how could it be anything else? — then she would pay the price. ingram's own price to pay was far greater.