The Fall of Giant

Sigh for the Apostle of the Sea. Sigh for our light, our hope. Fated to be cast out upon the sea, we cry out, we mourn, we weep ourselves dry.

Oh, please watch over the afflicted! Cast your merciful gaze upon us, and grant us the black wellspring of life.

Mercy, mercy, mercy...

The sun bakes the waves until the spray runs hot, and the salt wind carries a heavy reek of brine into your nose.

Goliath sucks in a pained breath. Beneath him, a pool of dark blood spreads slowly, creeping all the way to your feet.

Tangled memories come flooding back.

In the last battle that mattered, Goliath underestimated the enemy and lost to a rival tribe.

The Philistines had no tolerance for defeat. Gravely wounded, Goliath was cast out with nothing but a battered little boat, and you...

The weakest Philistine alive, the kind who'd lose a wrestling match to a ten-year-old.

You blurt out the witch's legend on reflex, and only afterward does something about it start to feel wrong.

A smile spreads slowly across Goliath's cold face.

Splash!!

The rotting little boat finally gives out under the waves. A gaping hole splits open in the hull, and the sea pours in.

Goliath sprawls against the deck, bored, letting the blood beneath him turn the rising water red.

Goliath takes in the view across the water, then tilts his head toward you with a faint smile.

Splash!!

As if to prove him right, a wave slams into the boat and splits it clean in two.

Briny seawater pours into your lungs. You open your mouth, and more of it rushes in to swallow you whole.

You sink deeper and deeper, and breathing grows harder...

As your mind fades, you hear what sounds like a weary sigh.

Before you can react, a huge hand closes around your hair and hauls you out of the sea without effort.

You look around and realize the two of you are crammed onto a single plank of wood that's barely holding together.

Goliath pushes the wet hair back off his forehead and looks out at the fog-covered sea.

Goliath's voice trails off, as if the question is meant as much for himself as for you.

Cast out by his own people, badly wounded, the road ahead of him looks like the fog-shrouded sea, endless and empty.

Goliath shakes his head.

Goliath lowers his head and studies you for a moment.

Sunlight scorches the surface of the sea, as if to wear away all life in the endless heat.

The plank you and Goliath cling to is the only island left in the sea. You squint up at the blazing sun, and another wave of dizziness rolls through you.

A tunic reeking of sweat and blood drops over your head, and the stench jolts you upright.

According to Goliath's Awakener file, this so-called "witch" can only be Miryam.

Whatever came of it later, Miryam did save Goliath's life.

BANG!!

The blow knocks the breath out of you, a hand clamps around your throat, and your feet leave the plank as the giant hauls you up to his face.

His voice is flat, his face unchanged, as if he were only making small talk about the weather.

But you are close to him, close enough to see the red rims of his eyes, from pain and from refusing to yield.

For this one moment the glory of the sea's master falls away from him, and he is only another fish lost in the endless water, no different from you.

Wooooo,

A low horn sounds somewhere far off across the water.

The weight leaves your throat all at once. Goliath lets go and turns toward the horn.

Soon a great fleet closes in and pens you at its center, and the drifting plank becomes the only island in these waters.

You are surrounded.

The glare off the water is too bright; all you can make out is a dark shape standing at the bow, looking down at you.

Iglenn's face flushes red. His cloudy eyes twitch and dart until they settle on you.

Goliath lifts his head and looks at you in surprise through the jeering laughter.

Splash!!

The laughter cuts off. A vicious gust screams past, and a severed leg rolls to a stop in front of them all.

The old overlord of the seas stands over Iglenn like a mountain, and the menace pouring off him chills the blood.

Goliath takes his time wiping the blood off his blade, then lifts his head and smiles coldly at Iglenn.

The heavy blast of horns rolls on and on across the water. With a bounty like that, warriors keep pouring into the hunt.

Goliath is almost spent. He swings the great blade again, but this time he is too slow, and someone finds the opening.

He drops to his knees. Bone gleams white in the open wound, and the blood runs like a stream that will never dry.

The warriors closing in swarm forward like sharks scenting blood.

Everything in front of you seems to freeze.

Instinct takes over before you can stop it. You hurl yourself forward and plant yourself in front of Goliath.

The blade opens your throat. You clamp a trembling hand over the wound as blood keeps welling through your fingers, your mind a formless blur.

A poisoned arrow tears through the air and buries itself in Goliath's shoulder. He pitches into you, unable to stop himself.

A dull, furious tremor runs through the sea. The giant blots out the blazing sun above you, then crashes down.

Your blood runs together with his, staining the blue water crimson.

You hear wind, waves, and far-off cheering and brawling. All that waits for the two of you now is endless slaughter and humiliation.

Salt water licks at the wound on your neck, and the pain has you sucking in sharp breaths.

Goliath is in no better shape than you.

Battered as he is, the sight of you in such a sorry state still puts a nasty grin on his face.

Sigh for the Apostle of the Sea. Sigh for our light, our hope. Exiled to the ocean, we wail, we mourn, we weep until no tears are left.

Your vision dims all at once. The harsh sunlight sinks away, and a thick fog settles over the whole sea.

Oh, watch over the stricken. Look upon us with mercy...

The strange old song drifts across the water. At the bow, the woman fades in and out of sight, a ghost prowling the mist.

Mercy. Mercy. Mercy...

The sea's pale calm breaks apart. Purple-black serpents burst from the water and coil tight around every man aboard.

A thin, wrong sound, and the serpents harden into black blades that punch clean through them.

A soft, cold touch spreads from your neck where the black serpent coils, and the wound begins to close.

The black serpent abandons you both without hesitation and whips around Iglenn, coiling tight.

Black serpents come writhing out of Iglenn's eyes and mouth. He crumples before he can finish the sentence.

Moments later, broken bodies rise to the surface, too many to count.

It is a silent slaughter.

The woman in the black veil says nothing. She stands straight at the bow of her ship, with nothing between you but a wall of fog.

Close enough to touch, and a world away.

She looks at the dumbstruck Goliath, and a faint smile touches her lips. She lifts a hand and points into the distance, a silent invitation.

Then she turns her ship about and drifts away.

The fog thins, a shaft of daylight breaks through the clouds, and the spray takes on the color of gold.

You blink, and the far end of the sea is empty.

The wind and waves die down. You and Goliath crowd onto the one plank still whole, both of you gasping.

The sea, blue not long ago, is red with blood now, and the two of you drift in it like weeds.

Goliath draws up one knee and stares off in the direction Miryam went.

You drop your voice and give his own words back to him in his own growl.

A flock of sea geese sweeps past. White wings beat like clouds in flight, riding free on the sea wind.

Goliath pays the birds no mind. He stares ahead, his eyes bright with excitement.

You lean hard on that one word, and Goliath roars with laughter.

Sunlight breaks through the clouds in a wash of gold, and loose strands of hair drift and dance beneath the bright blue sky.

The sky darkens before you notice. The sunset runs along the horizon in rivers of glittering gold.

The small, broken words scatter like dandelion seeds on the sea wind, carried off somewhere very far away.

You and Goliath sit on a few thin planks, from far enough away, two little leaves adrift on a golden sea.

No one knows where the two of you will end up.