Chapter 10
The storm did not come from the sky.
It rose from the ocean itself—an ancient, slow-breathing fury that rolled across the horizon like a living beast awakening from sleep. Orion stood at the water's edge, the wind tearing at his coat, salt mist clinging to his skin. Beneath the roar of crashing waves, he heard a different sound: a rhythm. A heartbeat. Something deep beneath the island was moving.
The sea receded.
Not gently, but as if dragged away by invisible chains. The shore stretched outward, exposing slick black stones and the carcasses of long-dead sea creatures fossilized into the ground. Orion narrowed his eyes. A faint vibration hummed beneath his feet. The island was inhaling.
He stepped forward, each footfall sending tiny ripples through puddles that swirled with silver light. The air itself thickened—heavy, charged, almost metallic. His instincts flared instantly.
Another illusion? Another fabricated reality?
No.
No illusion could replicate this pressure.
The ground rumbled, and the ocean surged back toward him with devastating force. A towering wall of water swept across the exposed shore like a devouring maw. Orion raised his hand slightly. The black blade on his back vibrated, sensing danger.
But the wave froze.
Not by his hand.
It was held in place—mid-air, suspended, trembling—by a thin line of blue light that cut horizontally across the beach. Orion followed the line with his eyes.
A woman stood several paces away, her hair whipping in the storm wind like strands of moonlight. Her hand was raised, fingers curled with effortless authority. She wasn't suppressing the wave.
She was commanding it.
The ocean bent to her will.
The suspended wave dissolved into mist at her gesture, scattering into the wind. Orion watched closely. This wasn't magic, or aura, or divine sense.
It was something older.
Something that made the world itself obey.
She lowered her hand, the mist drifting around her like a veil. When her gaze met Orion's, his instincts screamed again—not out of fear, but because the pressure she emitted felt… familiar. Like space folding. Like time adjusting itself to acknowledge her presence.
He didn't move. She didn't either.
The storm quieted around them, as if waiting for their next breath.
"You walked into the wrong memory," she said softly.
Her voice was gentle—too gentle. Soft enough to be mistaken for kindness, but heavy enough to crack mountains. It pressed against Orion's thoughts, brushing against his mind like a whisper carried by an ancient wind.
He lifted a hand to cover his eyes.
Not because she was bright.
But because when he looked directly at her, a dull ache stabbed behind his skull. A pressure he had felt only twice before—when he stepped into the Domain of Rivers and Mountains, and when Yggdrasil merged with him.
He could feel her presence etching itself into his vision like a symbol too old to decipher.
"You…" Orion murmured. "What are you?"
A faint smile curved her lips.
"The island remembers me," she replied, stepping closer. "Even if you don't."
The headache spiked. Orion staggered back, gripping his head. Images flickered behind his closed eyes—rivers flowing backward, mountains turning upside down, black bamboo forests spreading across a dying battlefield. A woman's silhouette stood at the center of it all.
Not this woman.
But a presence so similar that his Domains resonated instinctively.
The ground beneath them split open as another tremor shook the island. The sky dimmed. Something ancient stirred again beneath the earth, and the ocean retreated a second time in fear rather than obedience.
The woman glanced calmly toward the horizon.
"It's waking earlier than it should," she murmured. "Your arrival accelerated it."
She turned her gaze back to Orion.
"You'll need to survive this island if you want answers."
Her eyes darkened.
"And if you want to meet her."
Orion's headache sharpened into lightning.
He knew exactly who she meant.
The woman behind his fragmented memories.
The presence that whispered through the black bamboo fog.
The one tied to his Domains in ways even he couldn't understand.
The one waiting at the heart of this island.
He lowered his hand slowly, forcing the pain down.
"Then show me," he said.
The woman looked at him for a long, quiet moment.
Then she stepped aside.
And the island opened its jaws.