Page 29 of Darkest Dredge

Obsidian towers, as broad and tall as any man-made skyscraper, shot up from the rocky sea floor, twisted and contorted in strange formations. Glowing runes like the ones tattooed in my throat covered them—ancient accounts of a civilization long dead.

Not dead. Sleeping. The mask corrected. And it is you who will awaken us.

Awaken? And who was “us?”

A river of information flooded into me. In the darkness, I felt the pull of something too vast to know. It let me see, allowing my mind to sense all around me for miles, as if scouring the ocean floor in a huge psychic net.

The mental bond that drew me closer, and opened my eyes came from right here. Now, I could see why.

Shapes, larger even than the towers that littered this place. There were many of them, like bodies scattered across a killing field. Each one was as big as a mountain, vast enough that they displaced and dislocated these colossal towers like blades of grass. Their forms were wildly different, some appearing as little more than an enormous fishy humanoid. Others were far stranger, formless masses of flesh, tentacles and eyes. In any case, no two were remotely the same.

It was the fifteen primary eldritch gods. Creatures with names I'd studied my whole life. My faith always kept me positive that these beings–or ones like them–existed, and were existential threats to humanity.

Corpses.

Dead. All of them.

When I read about them, I pictured these exact beings. But they were alive and brimming with power, swimming in the vast cosmic sea of space. Not dead. Not here. I thought only Cthulhu lay waiting for us here on earth.

As I swam closer, the runes around my throat burned out and the voices in my head grew so loud, I could barely think.

Those voices. It wasn’t just the one mask speaking to me. It was fifteen separate voices of the eldritch gods who lay here in this underwater graveyard for who knew how long.

Even though I knew these cold, motionless things had been here for eons, I heard their humming minds.

“What do you want from me?” I felt like I was whispering in a hurricane.

Suddenly the other voices faded away until only one remained. The loudest, most commanding of all.

By some dark magic, I knew it was Cthulhu who spoke to me, his voice rising inside my heart and filling me with a golden heat.

The eggs.

Reclaim them.

Place them inside the statue belonging to the mask you wear now. Then, find the others.

And repeat.

Frighten.

Feast.

Incubate.

All fifteen. Only then can We awaken.

I knew what I had to do. And I had a feeling, my little egg-filled mate was going to enjoy what came next.

***

Swimming up and out of the circular pool, I climbed onto the ledge and froze.

There she was.

My mate.

She looked so small laying there on the floor surrounded by fifteen statues, representing each of the cosmic gods I’d seen below.