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I was swept into the vortex, then sucked even lower through a tunnel--as if down a drain. Or down Alice's rabbit hole.
The water turned fresh. Before me was the structure from those pictures! I flowed around the stone exterior.
Swarms of phosphorescent creatures teemed on the walls, illuminating carvings in the rock. The symbols were in the same language as the words engraved on my trident. I read:
Abysmal temple of the Great Priestess, the Ruler of the Deep.
All who hear the Priestess's call will fear her catastrophal powers.
TERROR FROM THE ABYSS.
This structure, these markings, those creatures . . . I was seeing things no normal human had ever beheld. All my life, I'd been obsessed with the sea, with Atlantis.
I was the sea. Was I also an Atlantean?
Live coral adorned an entrance, each branch ending in a trident shape.
Curiosity driving me, I flowed through the opening. Inside was an airlock with steps rising out of the water. I instinctively knew how to regrow my form, to become a woman again. Trident in hand, I arose from the sea and climbed the steps.
Shafts of that phosphorescent light beamed inside. Shadows rippled.
Ancient mosaics decorated the walls. I ran my fingertips over the damp tiles. The eerie scenes depicted tidal waves engulfing helpless lands, and monstrous sea life--giant sharks, whales, squids, a kraken--attacking ships. The shadows made the scenes appear to move.
Chills skittered up my back when I came upon a bloodstained altar, liberally carved with trident symbols. I glanced at my own weapon.
Could this be my temple? Hadn't Death called me "Priestess"?
As I eased farther inside, memories from my dreams arose. This place was mine.
I got the sense that my temple was a refuge. But also a . . . jail? Somehow I knew I would quickly die on land, but slowly die here in this lonely, echoing abyss.
Solitude would be my punishment, and fear my jailor. What crime had I committed to be cursed like this?
No, I didn't care about my fate; one way or another I would return to Ned! He would accept these changes in me. I believed in him.
I ran to the airlock and became the sea once more. I'd almost reached the top of the tunnel when the seafloor above began to quake.
The water was heating. I gazed up from
the tunnel opening, disbelieving my vision.
A giant submarine was hurtling down, far too fast to be a normal descent through the depths.
Past the vessel, I could see lights in the sky--as if the ocean above me had disappeared, the water sucked out.
Though it must be night, the sun seemed to be shining. And I thought I saw a sky full of . . . flames. I was riveted. Until that light went dark--snuffed by the submarine crashing down atop my only exit.
I was trapped.
In my lonely, echoing abyss.
