Ripples in the Sea - Hunting Safikma (Part I)

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

The History of Terrinore.

The Laws of Wizardry.

The Forgotten Continents: A Guide to outer Althanas.

A Ranger's Tale.

Just beyond the heavy, mahogany doors stood 'them'. Thousands upon thousands stacked in neat rows, all orderly arranged and alined back-to-back where their insides could not be judged by their covers. Each set in groups surrounded on five sides with wood as deep and dark as blood and each one a mantra of the previous. Their titles all curled and looped in one direction and turned to the side so that one had to tilt their head in order to read them. Each book held its own world of wonders and answers to short and lifelong questions about humanity that had lasted for hundreds of years before the library had even been assembled.

One of them, surely, would contain something to quench the triumvate's thirst for knowledge on this new threat.

Shinsou, with a veritable fortress of used books on the table behind him, ran a finger over the spine of each book. They smelled the same way the Brotherhood ones did back in Whitevale, old, dry and real. They were physical, even if some of the stories inside of them weren't true. Some, of course, were. As he progressed slowly over the mischief of seemingly randomly placed books, a part of the library at the back made itself known to him. When his gold eyes adjusted to the dark, musty room, the Telgradian was surprised at what he did see. He saw huge stacks of books, leaning against shelves and stretching even higher towards the ceiling. The leather spines lined up perfectly, a whole room filled with valuable first editions. Shinsou hadn't expected all the dust. It looked like the whole library hadn't been touched for a decade, maybe more.

As he examined the pillars of paper, one title above all else caught the Brotherhood leader's eye. The runes on its spine almost exactly matched that of those on Draconus, and again from the man who described the great beast who swallowed Caedron whole.

The Genesis of the Thayne

Sitting back down at the table without saying a world, the Telgradian took the cover between thumb and forefinger and begin to read. After a few pages, the book had a vice-like grip on his mind. It told the story of Draconus and the Thayne before it. It told how the deity liked to summon lesser deities to do its bidding, so that it would never have to leave its mountain abode and could feed on the souls that the lesser deities sent to the underworld. Then, as he turned a number of pages in quick succession, Shinsou finally found what he was looking for. Reading the paragraph below the sketch of the gargantuan sea creature was much like being slapped with a brick; shocking, attention grabbing, but not entirely pleasant.

The sketch above resembles Safikma, lesser diety of Draconus. It is said that the great dragon first kept this colossal beast for personal amusement before training Safikma to feed upon the living. Eventually, Safikma was re-purposed and was told to consume and grow until, in the event of Draconus's death, it attained the size required to devour the world.

Shinsou poured himself into the pages. He scoured the book, skim reading it for further information. He read until he was almost cross-eyed and the words merged into nonsense and then, convinced there was no more to learn, picked the book up by its spine and walked the short few steps to where Joshua Cronen, Philomel and Petr were furiously searching. Carefully, as the others watched him, Shinsou placed the book on the table, opened at the page where he had discovered the name.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Safikma - eater of worlds."