The waves crash through you

[Session 13, 22.02.2024 ]
 
The waves crash through you
 
We rush toward the servants’ quarters, each of us pulling up boots and strapping pieces of leather armour. My muscles are sore, but the adrenaline takes over, and we rush, down until we reach the gardens and then through them, following the stonewall and through the gates - Belinda has gathered a bunch of other servants with her, shielding them with magic. On the other side of the courtyard one of the doors has been bust open, and a collection of all too familiar gigantic crabs swarms around it. One of them is disturbingly human-like, walking upright on two feet. The size of a young child - or an adult halfling, I try to tell myself. I chase away the thought of children, there ought to be none on this island. I tell myself that as I pull out my rapier, Eira right beside me. Together we take the brunt of the attack, the crabs aggressive enough for me to not feel sorry when I strike through with my blade. Surprisingly, it’s Kazys whose voice carries over the sound of our blades hitting chitin and the snapping of their horrible claws. He asks them why are they here, why are they attacking. Curiously, the crabs seem confused, and simply want to return home. Kazys, much like the pied piper, leads the company of crustaceans out through the gardens, myself and Eira following behind them, just in case they begin attacking once more. Rusalka and Luciano stay back with Belinda.
 
We watch the crabs disappear into the sea one after one, and for a moment we simply stand there, watching the horizon. This is not the first time we’ve come across them, and the first time around we were left with an unsettling feeling of something humane about them. Now, fear grips my stomach as I think about what has just happened. We head back to Belinda and the others. She’s still visibly shaken, and I rush to her. Rusalka and Luciano are investigating the house with the open door. I don’t dare to go in yet, I stay with her for now. She tells us that some servants had been feeling a little under the weather lately, but they hadn’t suspected anything until now.
 
This time I’m courteous of her boundaries, but she really, really looks like she could use a hug. She lifts an eyebrow at a bruise on my collarbone, but says nothing about it. After a brief chat, she gifts me with another pearl of sending when I tell her that I’ve already used up the previous one, and like a buffoon, I realise I’ve got nothing to give her in return. I slide one of the bracelets on my wrist off - it has lovely bits of blue seaglass mixed in with warm wood beads and slide it on her wrist instead. It’s not much, but maybe it’s enough to remember me by.
 
Luciano and Rusalka return, and they both look shaken up. Rusalka doesn’t want me to go inside the house, and I appreciate their caretaking. However, I feel like I must know - inside, we see pools of blood and … carnage is the only word I can think of. Corpses still lying down on their cots, some on the ground, their bodies distorted as if in pain. I look away when I notice their chests all torn open, ribcages jutting out of the wounds like gaping mouths full of teeth. The sight makes me sick, and I leave the house to heave out my breakfast. Eira, Luciano and Rusalka stay to investigate more. I feel blood rushing in my ears, it sounds like the waves of the ocean. I try to focus on that, and the gentle touch as Belinda pats my back. We do not talk about the horrors until the rest of them return.
 
For a while, we chat with Belinda, and of our plans to visit the cellar once more. We now have the ring to open the door, we only need to get inside without anyone seeing us. I feel like it’s good to share our plans with her, in case we get in trouble, she’ll at least know what happened to us. We’re all still shaken up from the… corpses. The sight.
 
We decide we ought to go immediately, since it seems to be busier during the night time, now might be our only chance to actually look around. We find our way through the cellar door easily enough, it seems unguarded. Eerily silent and abandoned. We check the small room we saw earlier, and it smells of cleaning supplies, of strong soap and herbs. We all see the scrubbed red stains on the floor and the freshly changed linens, but do not speak of it. I guess I’m not the only one disturbed. We push on, this time remembering to avoid the trap plates.
 
In the room we found earlier, the one that seemed awfully convenient for sacrificial rituals, we’re faced with a dilemma - someone is mopping the floors. Thankfully, they seem to be alone, and there’s five of us. Anyone working here must be a servant, so I truly hope we shall not harm this person, but then again, they are mopping blood from the stonework. How blind can you pretend to be, when this is happening? Eventually, Eira plays up her cards and successfully intimidates the guy into silence, and we tie him up and lower him into the trap we discovered on our previous run of the area. He mentioned a child, Leo. Cleo? I do not keep the details, and instead we push forward. We all hold our breaths when Rusalka sets the signet ring into the lock mechanism of the large door we previously couldn’t open, and slowly, slowly the door opens to a dark hallway and stairs that lead even further down. Without further ado, we all head inside.
 
Inside, the stairway opens to a large cavern. Waves rush against rocks somewhere down below us, but it’s so dark we can barely see anything. Above us, water drips down occasionally and echoes as it hits the surface of stillwater pools that have gathered on the ground. We head down the wet stone stairs that have been carved into the rock, they’re wet with algae and moisture. As we reach the opening, we notice the ground is soft, white sand, ground fine with age. Small, white seashells sprinkle through it all, and I don’t know if the others can feel the same, but the place feels holy, heavy with the presence of Something old. In the dim light of the cavern, we can see shapes of fallen pillars and heavy, old stonework partly hidden under the beach sand. On some of the stonework there’s symbols of the waves and the eight-pointed star. Rusalka mentions something about the history of the castle and the Hanivers, how it was originally built by? For ? the gods of the sea and stars, who used to be lovers. The navigational star of the Hanivers is a testament to the goddess. I try not to think of the constellations I’ve connected on Valerian’s back, from one beauty mark to another.
 
We all jump when Luciano cries out in pain, complaining a sharp headache. He tells us more of his dreams, and how the place seems all too familiar. The dark, endless beach and the suffocation ever present. I try to tell myself they’re only dreams, nothing more.
 
Eira and I are the only ones brave enough to venture into the water - we take a moment to take our armours off, I rid myself of my shirt much to Rusalka’s annoyance. It takes me a moment to remember I still have love bites from yesterday, but thankfully it is dim in the cave, and soon I’m diving under either way. It is Eira who sees the creature first, watching us from just under the surface. It is huge and eerily human-like, with piercing eyes that seem to see more than they ought to. When it speaks, it speaks inside our heads. I do not understand it, but the language is older than anything I’ve ever heard before. Quickly, we swim back to the shore, not wanting to be near it when it clearly has advantage against us on its hometurf.
 
Surprisingly, both Eira and Luciano seem to understand the creature. It rises from the depths, disturbingly human but not. At its hips, instead of human legs, it vanishes under the waves but I get the impression that its body is long and crustacean-like, and I shiver. I do not want to think of the eerie, child-like creature we saw earlier, that hatched (?) from one of the servants’ rib cages. I push the thoughts down, and focus on the sound of the … it’s not an animal, but neither do I want to call it a monster.
 
After some time discussing with Luciano, he lifts his veil that I’ve come to associate with him, finally showing us his face. His eyes are radiant, is the only word I can think of. Hes stunningly beautiful, and what gives him an even more preternatural look is how his eyes glow faintly in the darkness. The creature speaks to him of angels’ blood, and of those who are cursed with it having to bear the visions. So perhaps that’s what they are, the dreams.
I wonder what Valerian’s dreams mean, what mine mean. Are those merely dreams?
 
The creature tells us that he does not worship her who brings the ruin, but instead an older god, my god. The quiet god of the ocean, the one who has disappeared without a trace. It’s comforting to find another, who speaks of him instead of the Lady of the Tides, and the sorrow in his eyes is enough for me to promise that we shall find a way to release him from his prison, for this is what this is - a cave-in has trapped him inside the cavern under the castle, and ever so often, horned people come to him and take from him to suit their own needs. Something heavy sinks in my chest, I truly, truly hope in my heart he’s talking about the Hanivers and not Valerian, but in my heart I know that cannot be the whole truth.
 
My ears perk up at the mention of a pact made with the lord of the seas, to make the angel visions quieten in his head - this is the price he pays now, the deformed flesh, being sea-bound. But it has already been hundreds of years since his pact was made, and the gods have been silent.