Chapter 6 - The Breaks Over

The room is shrouded in darkness, except for a faint glow of moonlight streaming through a jagged opening in the ceiling. All I can see is sand—endless, suffocating sand stretching in every direction, stone walls cover all around me, beetles skitter across the floor, their tiny legs clicking against the stone, while snakes slither around my ankles, there cold scales brushing my skin. In the distance, I spot a doorway, its faint light barely piercing the gloom. I bolt toward it, my feet pounding down a narrow hallway. Torches flicker on the walls, casting long, trembling shadows as they illuminate a path that’s scarcely visible. I veer right, then left, my breath ragged. A deep voice rumbles through the air—that voice. I know it. It’s the voice from my dream. No, I’m back—trapped again in this nightmare I can’t escape. Something’s there, lurking. In the distance?

“No, I’m behind you,” it growls.

I freeze, terror rooting me to the spot as I squeeze my eyes shut. A subtle breeze grazes my neck, followed by the clatter of chains banging against the wall. It’s close—too close.

“Turn around,” it commands.

I can’t move, paralyzed by its presence. My eyes snap open, and down the hallway, I see… Tad? No, it can’t be. He’s waving his arms, beckoning me toward him. I run, desperate, too afraid to glance back at whatever stalks me. I reach out, straining to grab him, but he drifts further away, just beyond my grasp.

The voice calls again, chilling and inescapable: “You can’t run. You can’t hide. We are one. I’m always with you.”

Suddenly, water surges around my feet, rising fast. It lifts me, dragging me backward with relentless force. Tad vanishes as the current pulls me under. My head bobs in and out of the flood, lungs burning as I gasp for air. I slam against a wall, the water pinning me down, crushing me. I can’t swim up. The voice invades my mind, merging with my thoughts.

“Say it, and I will free you,” it promises. I’m drowning—my body won’t move. “Say it, and I will free you,” it repeats, louder, insistent. I don’t know what it wants. “SAY IT!” it roars. In my panic, I scream inside my head: I want out! Get me out!

A blinding light erupts around me, and I collapse onto the floor, soaked and coughing, fighting for breath. Beneath me glows a sapphire stone—my stone, the one that started this madness. If only Solomon had known what he handed me that day. I pick up the stone, staring into its depths. A rune shimmers within it—not the one from before, but a new one.

The voice returns, low and ominous: “Use them wisely, for once they’re gone, you’ll roam this labyrinth forever, lost to the stars.”

What is happening? I stagger to my feet, leaning against the wall, exhausted. My head turns, and I see I’m in a vase room, moonlight gleaming down cascading across the wall. What is this place? Inside, a mural sprawls across the stone: people raising their hands to the stars, their light shining down. I step back, taking in more—death, famine, drought surrounding the people. The stars’ trailing their flow into a monstrous being, legless, with a wispy tail and chains binding its hands. Is this the voice tormenting me?

“Find the others,” it intones. “This is your path—my path—our path. When the final moon falls on the twelfth day, this world will be mine.”

My vision blurs, and I collapse, fainting. I jolt awake, drenched in sweat, my hands clutching soft fabric with every shuddering breath. I’m inside the tent. The memory floods back—what happened, what was said, who I saw. There’s only one way to know if it was real. Trembling, I reach into my pocket and pull out the gem. The once-empty stone now bears the rune I saw. I gasp, panic clawing at my chest. This is real.

Entered by: 0xD9f7…1b90 and preserved on chain (see transaction)