[h3][color=slategray]Vorris and Nahargu’ul[/color][/h3]
[b]Somewhere out in the ocean[/b]

They had traveled a ways. For them, it was not too long a swim at all. But they had stopped seemingly out in the open. Nagargu’ul, still quite formless, had been halted. In the [i]water[/i]. Vorris and his new colossal mount simply idled by his presence, waiting for him to speak. The feeling in the air, it could be sensed he was… thinking.

[i]“Hagers…”[/i] Nahargu’ul finally spoke. Vorris simply listened, staring into the watery expanse. Something was different from this point onwards. The water, shifting into a putrid green… [i]rejected[/i] them. Ahead, they could see the wilted corpses of all sorts of sea life. Merfolk, leviathans, even a handful of human sailors, some freshly dead… many more, now but heaps of water-warped bones. No wounds, no signs of simple old age… they had been poisoned, by the water. And this water, it was not made by Nahargu’ul’s will. It, in and of itself, was a transgression against him, spread in his absence.

And it was coming from the old, violated fishing village of Hagers.

[i]“I expected pollution only from mortals… I should have known better. She is still alive. She is awake once again.”[/i]

She? Vorris didn’t know whom his god spoke of.

[i]“She has strayed her accursed, ethereal hands too far.”[/i] Said Nahargu’ul, shifting into his physical form behind Vorris, who turned to face him. He simply waited for the order he knew he would receive. “Vorris…” The Sea-Fiend began, “The waters we behold here are no longer mine. They have been seized by… by an abomination, risen from the past. From before the Silence, before the Cataclysm. You, not even I, may tread further beyond here. Thus, even so soon after your awakening… I must task you this most crucial of ventures.”

Vorris made no remarks or refusals. He was ready for whatever his god commanded of him.

“Hagers is nestled into a far-strung cliff ridge, and the waters around it are too virulent to cross. You must plant your feet on the mainland. You must find your way there, and quell she who would so [i]infect[/i] my domain.”

Vorris nodded. Yes, he would do this, but still… who was this ‘she’ he spoke of? All this death and decay looked the work of Yigzavath, or even Kulorerstus… but they had both been just as absent as Nahargu’ul. It was someone else entirely. Someone who would dare transgress against the Sea-Fiend with this terrible aquatic blight. And whoever was causing it, Vorris would put an [i]end[/i] to her.

“Once again, I would have you as my arbiter amidst the mainland.” Nahargu’ul said, “Do this for your god. Go to Hagers. Kill everything you see there. [i]Stop[/i] this.”

And Vorris would.

[hr]
[i]She stands on gray sands, littered with the corpses of her loved ones.

She runs her hand on the rough, crimson surface of her hooked spear.

She stares out into the vast, open waters, still beneath the fog she herself has breathed into existence.

And she speaks.

“I will be ready.”[/i]