Chapter 37
The Worm Ocean
The surface beneath me shifted, undulating in slow waves like an ocean made of pale flesh. I sat up, and the motion continued beneath me; it was warm, and disturbingly organic… worms. Millions of them. Maybe billions.
They stretched in every direction, a sea of pale bodies moving in currents. Some as thin as thread, others as thick as my arm. All of them were the same bone-white I'd come to recognize as my own. They compressed into footholds as I stood, then with each step they created a path forward.
"What is happening?"
I turned slowly, looking for anything that wasn't just endless white worms and red sky. In the distance, there was a set of broken pillars that pierced the writhing mass. I saw that the worms coiled together to form a throne.
"Fish."
Mabel rose from the ocean about twenty feet away. She'd grown.
"Where are we? What is this place?" I asked.
"Your Sacred Soul." She sounded smug. "Your inner world. The space where your Origin actually lives. Though calling it a world is perhaps a bit generous. More like a wet nightmare."
I looked down at the worms beneath my feet, watching them flow and twist. "This is inside me?"
"Technically, you're inside it." Mabel moved closer, her body cutting through the ocean without disturbing the surface. "Every Sacred has one. Most people experience it as a meditation space or storage for their Regalia. You, however, have turned yours into an ocean of parasites."
"Why am I here?"
"The troll… when you killed it, you gained a Regalia. Your consciousness was pulled here to integrate it."
"A what?"
"Regalia. The items Sacred can store and summon from their inner space." She gestured with the front third of her body toward something I couldn't see. "Yours is waiting for you. I suggest we get to it."
I followed her gesture and spotted it. It was a sphere of pale blue light floating above the sea of worms. I started walking toward it.
The worms beneath my feet responded to each step, parting slightly to create firmer ground.
It was like walking on a living treadmill that anticipated my movements.
Mabel kept pace beside me, her segments rippling. "You're handling this better than expected."
"Then you expected, you mean."
"Obviously. I expected screaming. Perhaps some existential dread. A bit of weeping." She sounded disappointed. "Instead you just accept that your soul is an ocean of worms and move on. Where's the flare?"
I stopped walking and looked at her. "You want me to panic?"
"I want you to have a proper reaction to the horror of your existence.
This—" She gestured at the ocean with one end of her body.
"—is not normal. This is not what Sacred Soul spaces should look like.
Sadie's is probably all organized light and brightly lit.
But you? You're a pile of worms pretending to be a person, and your inner world reflects that. "
"Are you done?"
"Not even close. But I suppose we should focus on the immediate concern." She turned back toward the floating sphere. "That thing is your new item. When you get close enough, you can examine it."
I started to walk again.
I got a better look at the throne. The worms that formed it were larger than most in the ocean; each was as thick as my leg. Something about it pulled at me. I changed direction, heading for the throne instead of the sphere.
"Where are you going?" Mabel asked.
"I want to look at this first."
"The Regalia is more important."
Up close, the worms that had formed it had faces. I recognized some of them, the goblins from the bridge. The Gnolls. The wyrm… Cedric.
"You ate them," Mabel said. "And now they're part of the furniture. How morbid."
I reached out and touched one of the armrests. Information flooded through me when I made contact… memories.
It was all there. Everything I'd consumed, stored in this space.
I pulled my hand back and looked at Mabel. "How much of what I eat is kept here?"
"All of it. Their physical bodies get converted into more worms, but their knowledge, the essence… their souls. You're building a library of consumed lives."
I looked past the throne toward a house that was trying to build itself, walls of worms rising and falling in stuttering attempts at stability.
"Is that… where Rell is?" I said.
"Your memory of her," Mabel corrected. "Your guilt, more specifically. You carry that place around like an open wound. It manifests here because you can't let it go."
"I don't want to let it go."
"I know... It's tedious." She moved toward the floating sphere again. "Now can we please attend to the actual item? I'm tired of giving you a tour of your own trauma."
I followed her, leaving the throne and the half-formed house behind.
The troll hung suspended within the golden orb. Runes spiraled around the troll's body, glowing. They danced with each crack of lightning.
"Touch it," Mabel said.
I listened to her and reached up and placed my palm against the troll's hide. The fur was coarser than it looked, and cold. Information flooded through me. Not memories this time, but data.
[Regalia Claimed]
Name: Ice Troll Regalia: Bound Summon Grade 4: Summon
The troll was mine. I could summon it, command it, and use it as a weapon, a shield, or a beast of burden. It would obey me without question, fight without hesitation, and return to this space when dismissed.
"Well?" Mabel asked.
"It's a summon. I can call it out when I need it."
"Can you use it now?"
"I think so—"
One of the larger worms from the ocean rose up beside me. It was different from the others; it was darker, with crimson veins running through its body. It extended toward me, wrapping itself around my wrist. I felt its intent through the contact. It wanted the troll.
I looked at the worm, then at the troll. The runes around the troll's body moved faster, responding to the worm.
I made a decision. I lifted my hand, and the worm reached for the troll's chest. "Go ahead."
The worm struck.
It pierced the troll's hide and burrowed inward, moving fast. The runes flared, burning brighter, and the troll's eyes snapped open.
Its massive hand closed around the worm's body, yanking it back out. The worm tried to burrow deeper, but the troll was stronger. It pulled the worm free and dropped from its suspended position.
It slammed the worm against the ground. The ocean beneath us rippled from the impact. It tried to escape, to dissolve back into the mass of its brethren, but the troll caught it again. Lifting the worm to its mouth open. It bit down on the worm's midsection, and I felt pain lance through me.
It was like something being torn from my soul.
The worm's blood sprayed across the floor as the troll shook its head like a dog with a chew toy; I could hear the worm's armor crack. Then the troll grabbed both ends of the worm and pulled, tearing the worm in half.
I felt it… the death of that piece of myself. The worms surged upward in waves, trying to reach the troll, trying to stop it, but the troll was faster. It slammed both halves into the ground, crushing them.
The fragment stopped moving. Its body went limp, leaking essence that spread across the worm ocean like oil.
"Well," Mabel said after a long moment. "That was violent."
I stared at the dead fragment, at the black blood staining the white ocean. "What just happened?"
"Your Regalia defended itself. The fragment tried to consume it, and the troll responded by killing it."
"The worms aren't strong enough, yet."
"Obviously. Your fragments are powerful, but they're still only Grade 5 at best. That troll is Grade 4." Mabel coiled into a tighter spiral. "If you want to convert it, you'll need to get stronger first."
I walked away from the troll, heading back toward the throne. The worms beneath my feet moved faster now, agitated by the violence.
"Where are you going?" Mabel asked.
"I need to get back to Zo and Sadie."
"You should examine the rest of your space first. There are other things here. Your mother's memories. The knowledge you consumed from Cedric. All of it stored somewhere in this mess."
I kept walking. "Later."
"Fish—"
"I said later." I stopped and turned to face her. "How do I leave?"
She regarded me for a moment, segments clicking softly. "The same way you came in. Just focus on the external world. Your consciousness will follow."
I closed my eyes and thought about the ice cave. About my friends. About the cold air, the smell of blood, and the two dead trolls on the ground.
The worm ocean beneath my feet shifted, pulling at me.
I felt Mabel watching, felt the throne behind me, the broken fragment, and the troll standing guard over its own corpse like a sentinel.
This place was a horror made from my own essence.
But it was mine.
I let the pull take me, and the white ocean dissolved into darkness.