The ocean ran deep, and in that depth a palace rested on the shadowed seafloor.
All around it, Thalvyr's power had once been saturated into everything—pillars, doorframes, even the flowing seawater. Now it drew inward all at once…
and vanished without leaving a trace.
Thalvyr rose slowly.
He brushed at his sleeve, then opened his palm. A miniature Voruun floated above it—hazy and unreal, the way a soul looked when it had been peeled out of a body. A few half-transparent tentacles drooped weakly.
Thalvyr studied him for a moment and sighed.
"How are you this careless? I told you to take people with you. You go out… and you don't come back. Honestly."
His dragon tail swept lightly across the doorframe. The current near the entrance shifted on command, and a massive octopus—shaped just like Voruun—was carried out by the water, drifting to a stop before Thalvyr.
