Combats against the Summons of Vissidal Island were quick and brutal, designed exactly to give data for training by others. Thera and Nippo were along for this run, giving the old Vuln+War Magic combos a try.

  There were four main types of spawns around Vissidal, with the Wave and Aqueous Golums being very dangerous, but incidental. The others were solos near the edge of the spawn zone, rapidly growing into four and more as we headed east.

  Why reedsharks were one of the four spawns nobody could explain. Reedsharks were not aquatic and tended to loathe salt water completely. How they even got on the island was a complete mystery nobody had answers to, and there were certainly no real ones here, even after all this time. Unlike Eaters, they didn’t consume one another, and they wouldn’t eat the fish they might catch in the shallows.

  The floating Benek Niffis, table-sized shells with tentacles hanging down; the Mucky Moarsmen in their dark red, green, and orange hues, and the blue remoran Sea Raptors were all aquatic and fit the backstory of raising this island back up from the depths.

  But the reedsharks just didn’t fit, yet here they were.

  They also died fairly well to lightning, piercing, or slashing damage, and were dangerous enough to represent decent Karmic gain for everybody here, save the Mick.

  The Mick and Kris were the ones to try all Elemental Modes beyond the historical ones used against the creatures, verifying if anything had changed, with and without Imperils to test their Armor going negative.

  Also, they tested positive for Luminance transfer, which raised a cheer all around. We were still looking for triggers for other teams as far as as keying Luminance went, and this seemed like a reasonable place to discover something.

  There were gold creatures among the spawns, exactly as the Mick had promised, and while they were twice as tough as the plainer creatures they spawned among, they didn’t drop any loot or gold items, being Summons true now.

  The Sea Raptors turned out to be somewhat easier to kill, especially with Fire, than the Mick remembered, while the shelled nautiloid Niffis spewing and flailing away with acid were quite annoying to cut down regardless of what one used.

  Findings were logged in, a good twenty different spawns of each type of creature cleared rapidly and thoroughly by missile fire, spells, and weapons before we pulled out with our findings.

  Checking out the Dungeons and Temples located here would wait until later, and probably not even by our teams.

  The Dark Isle sat on the horizon, still as oily black now as it had been a generation ago. The Deep’s shrine was five miles almost exactly north of the Merwart village, and took us only minutes to reach across the water.

  ------

  The Deep’s Shrine sort of looked like a mutant lobster crab had thrust up a hooked claw out of the ground, leaving a platform and short tunnel behind leading down into ickiness.

  “Yeah, still looks an’ feels the same,” the Mick supplied, wrinkling his nose in distaste. “Lass?”

  “It’s an Aquatic power, I can feel it on my Ring,” I admitted, also grimacing as I looked at it. “I’m… not sure if it’s Elemental. Maybe partially. It’s definitely not going to be a friend of us, mostly uncaring… but based on your prior experience, if we do what it wants, it will reward us.”

  “Aye, that be true enough, but how we be able to offer trophies to it now?” the Mick asked, rather amused, making a show of looking around. “There be no cultists here now slaved to it an’ its insights, as there were back on Vissidal, but we’d be at it all day slaughtering a path to the Vissidal shrine, as I recall it. Probably be a hundred spawns between us an’ the shrine there now, if not more.”

  I took a deep breath. “I can probably talk to it,” I said reluctantly.

  “You sure?” Kris promptly asked, concerned.

  “We have to ask it for help with Moarsman Island, regardless. Can’t do that without making contact.” I made a face. “The biggest problem is not knowing its Name. It’s a matter of simple recognition. I only know to call it The Deep.”

  “Ask a Leviathan,” the Mick ventured promptly, and I blinked. “What? Ye called in two terrors o’ the deeps t’ kill that thing down south. They know who ye are. They’ll know how t’ address the elder god o’ the deep places mortals aren’t meant t’ go, right?”

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  “Makes sense,” Kris agreed, nodding thoughtfully.

  It did. I had debated just asking The Deep for the proper Name to be addressed by, which would mean coming from an inferior, uninformed position, not the best for dealing with such Entities.

  The Sending was fluttering out a moment later, addressed to the one we’d spoken with by Asheron’s Island. “Elder, I am standing before a Shrine to the being we know as The Deep, near the islands brought back up from the depths some two decades and more ago. I need to make supplication to this being. How do I address it, if you would be so kind?”

  I waited patiently for the reply, and when it came, it was exactly as ominous as I thought it was going to be.

  A note, four, six, deep and swelling, echoing within themselves from unseen canyon walls, fading into depths beyond light and sound… and that darkness and silence was alive…

  It was appended with a cautionary note in Aquatic that I was really messing with something dangerous, too.

  “Thank you, Elder,” I whispered, while that Name rang in my head like an earworm, something I’d never be able to forget, even if I wanted it to. Just knowing it, I would be hearing it in the waves of the oceans and seas forever…

  “Share it.” My eyes popped open, and I realized Kris was holding me upright against the polished and pristine black coral of the Shrine’s side. Her head clunked against mine. “Share it!” she ordered me, her eyes staring into mine as her Null swept around me, and the waves ceased shouting its Name to me.

  I took a deep breath, everyone staring at me in grave concern, and shared it through our Magebond.

  That Name crashed into her Null and faded to a whisper as she stared it down. I could have endured it, but my greater sensitivity meant I would have had to put up with the worship of the waves forever. My fellow Dauntless soul couldn’t give a flying fuck for some Mythos Entity that had no real business on the Prime, and her disdain stared down the wave-worship until I could just filter it out and ignore it if I wanted to.

  “Fuck,” was Kris’ informed royal opinion as she drew back from me, still holding me. “I could have lived with never hearing that, you know?” She wiped the blood from her nose with an unspoken curse.

  “Agreed,” I could only say, reaching up to my own nose and coming away with a bunch of crimson, too. “The Deep is just so much simpler… and demeaning to it.”

  I straightened up, casting a newly-informed eye on the shrine as a flicker of Prestidigitation cleaned us both up. “Well, this is going to suck, and I don’t know how long it’s going to take. I suggest Lord Mick take most of the team over to the Dark Isle and do some testing.”

  Kris just looked at me, then waved her hand. “Everyone, off with Lord Mick. Lord Mick, you’re in absolute charge. No fatalities. Reserves and wolfpacks, minimize all casualties. You already told us this is an equal tier to Freebooter, and we all know what a shitshow that place is.”

  “You sure you don’t need anyone here, Highness?” Sonya, the team leader of the Skeeters asked promptly, concerned.

  “There’s absolutely no sign anything as simple as a crab has come within fifty paces of this Shrine, if you watch the tracks.” They blinked and looked around, and it was true. “The only threat that might come from this thing is a threat none of you can help with in the slightest. I’d prefer you not fearing the sight of water for the rest of your lives. Shoo.”

  “Right!” the Mick said promptly, overriding any other questions. “Mount up and get ready for fucking serious fighting! Yer gonna be on your toes and firmest focus! This is the Dark Isle, and the only ones who thrive here are the quick, tough, and fucking smart! Mount up and we move to the end of the island.” He paused as he stared around. “There’ll be a short service at the Deathstone Pit.” Their eyes turned towards the blue pit spitting up more sparks and lights than they’d ever seen. “Probably more Paramounts dead in that pit than any other in all of Dereth. Let’s put ‘em to rest, an’ see about living up to their example, aye?”

  ---

  I watched them ride the Wagon off. As a mobile battle platform, it made a great instant evacuation point that could totally shrug off some really nasty magicks with the hide of the Aetherial Ravager Sovereign-Glued to its sides. Someone trying normal mortal magicks on it was going to have luck between none and nothing.

  Magic Resistance Rating of 54. I hadn’t seen anything on Dereth that could punch that, except maybe the Harbinger… and myself, but I couldn’t bring enough damage to be relevant.

  “You’re going to share with me to ease the mental strain, even if I can’t help. So make the Binding Pattern big enough for me to sit back against you,” Kris stated in a tone that brooked no complaints.

  “Will do.” I set up the patterns in my head, having to combine approaches from three different styles to do this properly. An Aquatic power, a power of Water, a power of Shadow and Darkness, and a power of Mythos and races very different from Humanity.

  Not something any normal human with a shred of sanity should be doing, that road of power leading right into the depths of the sea, but at least it wasn’t Dagon.

  Aelryinth already had a grudge with Dagon I wasn’t sad I hadn’t inherited. Yet.

  ------

  I wasn’t going to mar Its Shrine, but nothing said I couldn’t build on top of it, and around it. The ground was still stone underneath, even if coral dominated the area around us, preserved by the Shrine’s power.

  One Thaumaturgic Circle around the entire Shrine on the sands there. One simple Summoning Circle on the outside of the Shrine. A triple Circle with a nine-point asymmetric star in the middle of it, where Kris and I sat down.

  I filled the Circle with the highest Tier of Valences that I could, VII+1, and the Waters of Oceanus swirled in quickgold fluid into the grooves of the Circles. Layered Protections built up in sheathes of power that were not overtly hostile, but bore ties to powers that were also vast beyond the mortal plane.

  The last of the Runes, Glyphs, and secondary Seals flared to life, the layers hummed as I brought up the Sublime Chord, and I sang into the manasphere.

  Down that short tunnel not twenty feet away was a dormant but mighty force that connected somehow to a thing older than humanity, and I opened my mouth and voiced its Name in the Sublime Chord.

  There was something of a reaction to that happening.

  ============================

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