“Curiously, the Oikoumenians developed only a single religion and national identity of note. This unusual homogeneity is often attributed to the harshness of their native wildlife, which remained a threat to the people of Oikoumene even after they’d reached a level of advancement akin to our Renaissance, demanding cooperation over division. Ultimately, however, the true reason for their singularity remains open to speculation.”

  —Notes on the Oikoumenian, compiled and annotated by Corwin Laertes.

  Nikos eyed his boots as he quietly followed the procession, the hood of his dark-green cloak falling to hide his face. Within a carriage mere yards away, Cassie—and Theonides—sat. Ten guards—these professional rather than volunteers—protected the Hierophant and the sacrifice, however; for now, he could do nothing.

  Nothing but listen to the sounds of the carriage wheels rolling over the cobblestone, a clock counting down the seconds until Cassie’s death.

  The scent of brine hit him as they neared the docks, and, for a brief moment, he could not resist the urge to raise his head and look out at the sea.

  The horizon was dark, marked by flashes of lightning. As he stared out at the restless, waving waters, thunder growled within his ears and a chill ran down his spine. He forced his gaze back down, not wanting anybody to see the marking of a heretic that adorned his cheek. It was for that same reason that he resisted the urge to watch the sky for signs of smoke.

  The ocean was always restless when the Incarnation was near, but the storm was abnormal. Nikos hoped that it was merely a coincidence and not a bad omen.

  Nikos flinched as the sound of the Hierophant’s carriage against the cobblestone changed, slowly coming to a stop before the pier.

  ‘It can’t be too much longer now, surely?’ He questioned, increasingly nervous now.

  Through brief glances, he watched the lieutenant of the guard open the carriage door. He waited, even as the Hierophant stepped out, glancing at the crowd and smiling warmly. The man was followed by Cassie, her hands bound together in a pair of manacles.

  He was glad to see that she did not seem to have been hurt in any way. Not physically, at least. Her expression was hollow and tired, her eyes bloodshot and puffy. She followed Theonides stiffly, eyes trained on the ground.

  It was what he had expected, but his grip tightened on his dagger regardless. He did not like seeing her like this.

  The Hierophant stepped out onto the pier, followed by Cassie, slowly making their way to its end. While they did, the guards formed another wall before the pier. Only eight were necessary to do so, and so the lieutenant and another guard walked behind the Hierophant.

  “Fire!” A man suddenly—finally—screamed over the low loudness of the crowd. Nikos suddenly lowered his head again, realizing he’d been staring for too long. “The Hierophant’s estate is on fire!”

  Nikos’ knuckles turned ashen on the handle of his dagger, chaos briefly overtaking the crowd. The time was soon.

  “Quiet!” Theonides shouted over the crowd, his voice carrying. Obediently, quiet settled over the crowd. Panicked, he waved his hands at the guards. “Go! Deal with it! Quickly!”

  After all, his family was in there.

  The lieutenant hesitated for a moment before nodding quickly. “You all,” he gestured to roughly three fourths of the guards. “Come with me!”

  “Yes, go!” Theonides urged.

  As the Hierophant commanded, eight of the ten guards left. More than he had even dared to hope—but still enough to kill him, easily. One stood to the left of the pier, while the second stood beside Theonides himself.

  There was only so much that a plan could do. Now, everything came down to chance.

  Nikos took a deep breath as he moved to the right side of the crowd, moving closer to the front. By then, the guards had left, and Theonides had reluctantly turned back out to the sea and resumed the ceremony, walking to the end of the pier.

  There was no better time than now.

  Nikos shoved past the people in front of him. Escaping the crowd, he dashed forward—and, fortunately, with the crowd’s closeness to the pier and the perimeter guard to the far left while he was on the far right, he met no resistance. He sprinted with all his might, his boots thudding dully, rapidly, against the wood.

  Before him, the Hierophant paid the sounds of chaos behind him no heed. Having reached the end of the pier, he withdrew a ceremonial dagger from the folds of his robes. Holding Cassie’s hand out over the water, he brought it to her wrist.

  Panicked, Cassie tried to pull her hand away from the blade, but it was held firmly in place. The cold metal reached skin, and she cried out in pain.

  He ran faster, the burst of adrenaline pushing him further.

  The guard at Theonides’ side had long since reacted, lowering her spear and interposing herself between him and Cassie.

  Faced with a spearhead directed at his chest, his body urged him to slow down—yet, he could not. Not only because Cassie needed him, but because, behind him, he could hear the guard he had sprinted past pursuing him. So… he did not slow his suicidal charge.

  Closer and closer the sharp, triangular steel head of the spear came, directed at his chest. In seconds, it was suddenly mere feet away from skewering him.

  At the last instant possible, in the same moment when the guard thrust her spear forward, he twisted his body sharply to the right, shoving the shaft to the side with his left hand. In the same movement, he drew his dagger, clutching it tightly in his right.

  The move wasn’t clean. The blade cut into his side with a searing bite, cleaving fabric, skin, and flesh in two with the ease in which a knife cut through parchment. The surge of adrenaline roaring through his body dulled the pain to the point it only barely registered.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Nikos continued forward with his momentum, barreling into the guard. The force of the impact brought them to the ground, the spear, thrust far out to his left, slipping from her grip as she hit the wooden pier, Nikos falling atop her. The padded armor she wore absorbed much of the impact, but it did not extend to her neck.

  She tried to push him off, her sole free hand grasping his throat and trying to shove him to her left—but it was too late. He lashed out towards the exposed flesh with his dagger.

  She saw it coming. Her eyes went wide with terror. She flinched back, awkwardly trying to twist an arm so that her elbow would protect her neck, but he was too close. The sharp iron of his dagger bit into flesh and blood sprayed, covering the blade, his hands, his face, his…

  Bile rose in his throat, but Cassie was screaming. The guard didn’t matter.

  He pushed himself up off of the guard’s limp body, shaking himself free of her. Shakily, he stepped over the guard, the movement causing pain to flare in his side. He was… far more tired than he had expected, chest heaving and body aching. He tore his gaze from the guard’s body, focusing on what was before him.

  Feet away, Cassie stood facing him. She was sobbing, tears, snot and traces of blood covering her as she heaved. Theonides was behind her, his ceremonial dagger held at her throat, blood dripping down its blade. He didn’t say a word, but that was because the threat required none.

  Nikos tried to say something—anything, but the words wouldn’t come.

  He could only stand there, the rapid footfalls of the second guard drawing closer and closer another clock counting down to his death.

  How many of those were there, now?

  Then… he heard a sound. A horrifyingly familiar sound, heralding the arrival of a being none could resist.

  It began as a low, resonant hum. It grew rapidly, layering with the hiss of turbulent water and the eerie screech of grinding currents. As the sound grew louder and louder, a pressure seemed to descend upon the world, making his hair stand on end and the air feel thick and heavy. Before him, the Hierophant let out a sigh of relief as Nikos turned ashen.

  Theonides took a step back from Nikos, turning away to throw Cassie to the ground at the end of the pier.

  Nikos surged toward Cassie, not wasting even a second to deal with Theonides. The Hierophant didn’t interfere as Nikos fell to his knees, shoving his bloodied dagger into its sheath and scooping her up. He began to stand, holding her in a crackle carry… but it was too late.

  One of the clocks ticking down to his death went off.

  The pressure on him redoubled, forcing him back to his knees. The resonant hum sharpened into a horrible, deafening roar—the sound of a thousand crashing waves that did not exist.

  From the sea, now dark as night, the Incarnation of Múrián emerged, its form both awe-inspiring and horrifying.

  Within seconds, a mound of still water, large as a hill, towered over them. Its lower half melded seamlessly into the water beneath it, giving the impression that it had no end—no boundary between it and the ocean from which it rose.

  Rising from the Incarnation’s dark depths, a head formed at the top of the liquid hill—except, where a face might have been, there was instead an expanse of swirling water. A single, glowing orb was at its center, white as a pearl except for the sapphire-blue pupil at its center.

  …And as its gaze settled on them all, the pressure became paralyzing. Behind them, the footfalls of the guard still staggering towards him, of the uproarious sounds of the crowd, horrified at what he had done—it all came to a halt. Even the growling thunder was cut off, silenced by the Incarnation’s gaze.

  Nikos could not move an inch. He could not tremble, he could not breathe; even the beating of his heart slowed, his vision darkening at the edges. And then, the eye settled on him.

  His body went limp in an instant beneath the full pressure of its gaze. Cassie slipped from his arms, hitting the pier roughly.

  The hill of still water that made up the Incarnation’s body shifted forward, a tendril of water extending from its body, wider than he was and far longer. Its end shifted into something resembling a hand as it reached forward, grasping Cassie as though the water was solid.

  With all his will, Nikos pushed, trying to move even a single muscle. The Incarnation’s gaze had long since moved from him to Cassie, yet it was still too great. His mind burned and his lungs begged for oxygen as it lifted Cassie from the pier, bringing her level to the vortex where its face should have been.

  Its eye shifted to Theonides, and he felt the Incarnation’s anger flash through him. Behind him, he heard the Hierophant let out a nervous chuckle, somehow still perfectly fine beneath the crushing pressure of its gaze.

  And then, finally, it began to sink again, slowly dissolving into the depths. Its hold did not weaken, its gaze still above the sea, gaze directed at them, but…

  Nikos lurched forward, groaning as a piercing pain lanced through his burning mind. He struggled to his feet, the act feeling as though he was lifting the sky. He could only stagger a single step forward before he fell again, his knees giving out.

  His gaze never left Cassie, even as he hit the pier and desperately crawled forward. He watched futilely as the Incarnation sunk deeper and deeper into the water, bringing Cassie with it—until, finally, the only thing left above water was its head.

  A guttural scream tore from his throat as even that—and thus Cassie—disappeared beneath the surface of the ocean. The weight of its gaze lingered for a few seconds, but he dragged himself to the edge of the pier regardless.

  The pressure lifted, and he finally tore in a deep breath to sate his yearning lungs, granting his burning, damaged mind a few seconds of reprieve. Then, unsteadily, he pushed himself over the end of the dock.

  The water was cold and the depths were still dark with the Incarnation’s presence. The light from his eyes was too weak to see by now, but it didn’t matter—the Incarnation’s eye glowed, and through its light, he could still see Cassie.

  His arms and legs burned as he clawed through the water, kicking his legs frantically. The incarnation delved deeper and deeper at a speed that no human could ever hope to—but it left behind a powerful underwater current, drawing him deeper into the ocean’s depths alongside it, at a speed his body alone could not match.

  Seconds passed too quickly, the gap between Nikos and Cassie closing too slowly. When it finally began to slow to a stop, Nikos was still yards away from the Incarnation, let alone her—and his body was giving out, adrenaline alone no longer enough to push his muscles onwards.

  Cassie floated closer to the eye, her arm pushed out by the water. The swirling whirlpool, the powerful currents of water visible in the light of the Incarnation’s gaze, closed on her arm, crimson coloring the vortex.

  He had failed. He knew it, but still, he pushed himself through the water towards Cassie. It paid him no heed… until, finally, he managed to grasp her remaining hand.

  It spared him a glance, and the water suddenly tore him upwards. Pushed far beyond its limits, he could not manage even a shred of resistance as the current he’d been riding shifted direction, forcing him up and up, away from Cassie. The underwater current had its way with him, throwing him up, to the right, to the left, twisting him around, before finally vanishing entirely.

  He limply floated there in the dark depths of the water, exhausted, feeling his lungs scream for more air, staring out at the deep, royal purple sky above, marked by gray clouds who obscured the sharp, aquamarine sun. He was close to the surface of the ocean now; far enough from the Incarnation that the water was no longer shrouded in darkness.

  Distantly, he wanted to feel something, but his will to do anything was dying with Cassie below.

  And then…

  The sky lit up, brighter than it ever had been before. He could see the underside of the docks now—even the countless creatures of the sea floating and swimming around him. The sky above fractured like glass, and suddenly, there was a sharp tug, as though some unseen force had gripped every fiber of his being and contorted it. For an instant that seemed to last forever, he was nowhere, and then surrounded by a nothing so total that even consciousness surprised him.

  His body did not exist, but the essence, the physical idea of it, did. It felt like him. Within ‘him’, something was happening; spreading throughout him. It felt powerful and important and divine.

  That was the last thing Nikos remembered.