Deep in the ocean, a palace lay sunken in the dim seafloor gloom.
All around it, Thalvyr's power had always been everywhere—woven through pillars, doorframes, even the moving seawater itself. But in the same instant, that presence drew inward…
and vanished completely, like it had never existed.
Thalvyr rose to his feet.
He brushed a sleeve as if dusting off something that wasn't there, then opened his palm. A miniature Voruun floated above it, translucent in that unmistakable soul-state, a few half-transparent tentacles hanging limp.
Thalvyr studied him for a while and sighed.
"How are you this careless? I told you to take people with you. You go out and don't come back… honestly."
His dragon tail flicked lightly across the doorframe.
The water near the entrance obediently changed course, and an enormous octopus—shaped just like Voruun—was carried out by the current, drifting forward until it hovered in front of Thalvyr.
