We followed the screaming wind for hours, and when it stopped… that’s when we heard the other thing. Not a roar. Not a beast. A voice. Hollow, wet, and cold like bone marrow.
They worship it. The rats, the beggars, the ones with boils on their souls. They bring it offerings — teeth, tongues, dead dreams. And in return, it whispers to them beneath the city.
There’s a room in the ruined asylum where mirrors scream and water bleeds sideways. They say something’s trapped there, watching — and if you meet its gaze, you remember things that never happened.
He was once a man. That much we’re sure of. Then the skin cracked, and the teeth… there were too many. He spoke in backward prayers, and what he said… it’s still in my dreams.
They didn’t just die. They split — like sacks of blood and teeth. I saw it happen to Davren. And the thing that came out of him was laughing.
"I can forge a blade, a bargain, or a bureaucracy — which one do you need broken today?"
"I don't fight for glory. I fight because the roar silences the rest."
"I didn’t mean to become a symbol. I just picked up the damn pitchfork and stood where no one else would."
"Darling, if you can’t dance with it, drink to it, or sing about it — why’s it in your life at all?"
"You don’t see me unless I want you to. And if I want you to — it’s already too late."
Where the land forgets whether it is water or earth, the Brackish Brinelands fester and flourish in equal measure—an ancient estuary of murky canals, resilient folk, and secrets lost beneath the peat. Here, decay births life, and even the still waters whisper of old magic.
The archivists sealed off the lower stacks after the air started humming and books opened themselves. They say something’s still floating down there… something that remembers every mind it’s touched.