I followed a passageway between what were once buildings, each carved by meticulous hands, and came to an incline leading toward the surface. When I emerged, I found myself in a colossal dome, illuminated by light for which I could not find a source. I rose up on my arms, dragging myself out of the water along the rough obsidian until I could regain my legs.
Rising on two feet, I stared in awe at the intricately carved interior of the giant chamber. Images of gods. Sirens. The fury of an ocean I never knew. History written in stone with an artist’s chisel decorated a great hall. Waves crashed against the exterior wall like angry animals stampeding to break through. It shook thewhole foundation. From above, water rained in like a storm, funneling through a rounded skylight.
“How did you find this place?” a voice said.
I spun around to see a tall, slender woman sitting in the shadows, her ebony hair hanging over her bare breasts. She looked like… me. Or what I thought I looked like. I scarcely remembered my face anymore. But then a memory flickered before me like a spark between two stones that had been struck together.
“Lyla?” I muttered.
The woman uncurled from the crevasse in which she was tucked and looked me up and down, her eyes darker than the obsidian beneath our feet.
“Has he grown bored of you?” she asked.
“Who?”
“Oh,” she smiled. “Losing ourselves already, are we?”
I wanted to ignore that. It made me feel cold and wretched inside, so I turned my eyes to the dome again.
“What is this place?”
“You don’t recognize it? This is where we were born. The city of the gods.”
I searched whatever fragmented recollections I had. I saw blood in the water. I heard screaming bouncing off the walls.
“Theloch,” I whispered.
“A dead city now,” Lyla said. “But still more lively than the depths. At least here, there is sound. The waves. The wind as it howls through the peaks. Sometimes, there is even light.”
I listened and as if on cue, the winds shifted and the whole dome sounded like it was a chorus of humming women. The melody was haunting, yet strangely tender, and I found myself lulled by its ghostly grace. Lyla, however, seemed to cherish it. Her eyes fluttered closed, a serene smile softening her face as she tilted her head to the dripping sea above, letting the falling water anoint her like a blessing from the heavens.
“How did I get here?” I asked.
“Dreams don’t often make sense.”
“Dreams?”
Lyla paused and stared at me. “Right. Well, soon, it will do no good to remind you that you are dreaming. Soon, he’ll have all of you and reality will mean nothing. The lines will blur until everything is just one big fucking nightmare.”
“How can I be dreaming? I am not even sleeping.”
“That is the beauty of dreams. They fool you. No matter how outrageous, you will always think them true.”
“Then how do you know this is a dream?”
“Because I can walk in dreams with my waking mind intact,” she sighed, running her nails along the stone pillars. “A trick I picked up over the years. It’s rare, I understand, but not impossible.”
My heart began to race, drowning out any other sounds. I shook my head, shrieks reverberating against the inside of my skull. The screams of many in agony.
“How many times has he made you watch them die, I wonder,” Lyla said. “Your pirate. That Naros that follows you like a pup. You remember every one, you know. Deep down. That is the point of this. To destroy the foundation so your walls simply crumble.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, come now, Dahlia. You’ll bore me with your stupidity. I can’t help you, you know. Even if I wanted to. You have wandered into my dream, but you won’t find sanctuary here. My mind hasn’t been my own since I ripped my way out of mother’s womb. He’ll find you. Then he’ll punish us both because he enjoys it.” She raised her hand, looking at her gnarled nails after the walls had chipped them to rigid points. “There was a time I grew to enjoy it, too. I suppose when something is done to you enough, you must find delight in it or it will just…” She looked up at me, smiling. “Destroy you.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, you do,” she barked.
