Round 257

The surface of the water broke, a ripple spreading outward from some unseen disturbance below. Then another, closer this time. Too close. She stumbled backward, mace raised defensively even though she knew it was useless against such a foe. The thing that emerged was no mere beast—its form ancient beyond counting, skin glowing with an unnatural bioluminescence, eyes like chips of frozen starlight scattered across its hideous bulk.

It moved with impossible grace, muscles sliding beneath chitinous plates in ways flesh could never mimic. The water cascaded from its body as it rose, each droplet trailing slime that caught the torchlight and refracted it into something sickly and wrong. Merrin's grip tightened on her mace until her knuckles turned white, but she didn't retreat further—because Varikka was still out there somewhere, and this... thing... had taken her.

She forced herself to speak, voice barely more than a rasp. "What did you do with her? Where is she?" The creature tilted its head, a movement that seemed almost curious despite the utter wrongness of it. Then it opened its maw wide, revealing rows upon rows of needle-sharp teeth and something deeper inside that pulsed with an inner light.

Merrin's stomach twisted with fear, but she refused to look away. "Answer me," she hissed, taking a half-step forward despite every instinct screaming at her to run. "What did you do with Varikka?"