Sea of Golden Sand: Chapter 8
Yellow sand has buried what used to be an island. Now only bare city walls, scattered roof tiles remain, and some dried, withered branches and twigs reaching up high towards the sky.
MC: I seem to really recognize this place…
I walk alone through these ruins poking out from the yellow sand. Rafayel quietly follows beside me, seeming to be waiting for something.
MC: This street, I’ve walked it… I’ve seen that style of roofing tile…
MC: This seems to be…
I caress the leftover ruins and broken walls, and come to the side of a small broken window. Outside the window, I can almost hear the sound of lead-grey waves beating against the rocky reef.
The solitude and loneliness that was in the dream seem to have gained concrete form, and tightly wrap around me.
MC: Here, this is the place I dreamed about!
Rafayel: …
Rafayel: You’ve remembered.
MC: In the dream, I seem to…
Seem to have been repeatedly doing something… beside me, there should also be a thing of some kind…
I sift through the yellow sand and search. A strong intuition tells me there is definitely something very important here.
MC: You said this is the place where the Sea God legend began…
MC: Legend… there must be some kind of legend here…
Finally, I find a piece of a shattered stone tablet in those ruins.
When I hold this stone tablet in my hand, my heart suddenly begins to pound uncontrollably.
MC: This is the one…!
It isn’t until Rafayel presses down on the back of my hand do I gradually calm down a little.
Rafayel: This stone tablet, only those who have made a mutual bond with the Sea God can converse with it.
MC: …
Rafayel: The Fishtail Beacon that I gave you before, did you bring it?
Rafayel very rarely has times when he is this serious. A strange premonition spreads in my heart, as if something uncontrollable is about to happen.
MC: … I brought it.
I pull it out from my waist band. Rafayel pulls me over and we hold it together.
Rafayel: It’ll hurt a little.
Before I can react, he uses the fishtail beacon to slice open both our palms.
MC: … Ouch!
Fresh blood very quickly flows out of the wounds. Rafayel tightly holds my hand, until our blood is completely mixed together, and drips on the old weathered stone tablet.
MC: …!!!
Starting from where the blood droplet lands, it’s as if a ray of light gradually begins to glow from within the tablet. The wind scatters the dust on top. As the light gets stronger and stronger, line after line of golden symbols slowly materialize before our eyes.
MC: This is…!
Rafayel: The Tome of the Sea God.
MC: The Tome of the Sea God? What does it say?
Rafayel: …
Those symbols are like golden leaves on the surface of water, floating and gliding towards all four directions, and spread out into a grand chapter.
Rafayel: About Lemuria, prophecies of Sea Gods through the ages.
That is ancient Lemurian writing, I don’t understand it at all, but one symbol gives me a sense of huge familiarity.
MC: I seem to… recognize it…
I lightly touch that floating golden symbol. The moment I make contact, from under my fingertips comes white light like ripples.
Some sort of sensation seems to be passed up from my fingertips, and wind into my mind like silk threads.
MC: This symbol… I’m the one it represents?
Rafayel: …
MC: Rafayel, what does the prophecy say, does it have anything to do with me?
Rafayel looks again at those symbols. Because the stone tablet is fragmented, some of the golden words have also been lost.
Rafayel: It says… the seas will eventually gradually dry up.
MC: And then?
Rafayel: …
Rafayel: Only by restoring the Sea God, can the sea be awakened.
Rafayel: So, the Sea God must personally kill his beloved, and personally take back what was once lost.
Suddenly, I seem to understand all of it.
MC: … The Sea God’s heart.
Even more silk threads draw out of those golden words, tumbling and circling in my mind.
MC: If the Sea God’s heart is not taken back, the Sacred Flame will go out, and the Sea God will forever sleep eternally…
I pull up Rafayel’s hand. On his palm a cluster of black flame lights up. I tightly grip my fist and let fresh blood drip, and that flame suddenly becomes bright and dazzling.
In the raging flames that spring up, I seem to see the two of us from another time and space.
—You want me to offer the most devout faith… you’ll have to offer something that is one of a kind in exchange for it.
—Then I’ll give you my heart. The Sea God’s heart, you want it?
MC: …!
The flame gradually weakens, and our surroundings return to nightfall. Rafayel and I silently look at each other in the evening breeze.
MC: It turns out, you really are the god who gave me this heart.
Rafayel: Prophecies are just the nonsense people spew in their dreams, they cannot be completely believed.
MC: But if you brought me here because you wanted to take back this heart…
I pull Rafayel’s hand that is carrying the dagger, and press it to my chest above my heart.
MC: I’m willing to return it to you.
Rafayel: … Do you know what meaning this holds?
MC: Of course.
MC: … We already made the exchange a long time ago. You are the Sea God who owns my most devout faith.
MC: This heart originally exists for this very reason.
Rafayel: …
Rafayel: You’re willing to return it, but I’m not willing to it.
MC: Why?
Rafayel: A god’s duty is to protect his followers.
Rafayel: If the legend about the Sea God is fated to come true, then—
Rafayel raises his hand. Among those floating golden words, cluster after cluster of black flames ignite from every symbol that represents “me”.
Rafayel: Why can’t the Sea God be the one to change this legend, then.
MC: Rafayel, what are you doing…! This is a prophecy for all of Lemuria!
On line after line on the Tome of the Sea God, the symbols that represent “me” are gradually swallowed by the black fire, and disappear from that legendary story.
At the same time, my memories related to Rafayel also gradually separate from my mind.
MC: No, you can’t…
Rafayel: Since the ending cannot be changed, then let’s erase this story from the very beginning.
As the black fire burns away those special symbols, I can only feel something is being drawn out from my own body.
It seems like it is some sort of connection with Rafayel, deeply etched into the deepest part of my soul.
MC: Rafayel… you stop that!
Rafayel: …
Watching Rafayel’s face, I gradually sink into a daze—how did I get to this place?
MC: Rafayel!
This name, it’s so familiar, but how do I know him…
Rafayel: Very soon it will be over.
MC: You can’t, I don’t want to forget…
But, my brain is a blank white expanse.
??: Stories about Lemurians must be re-written by the Lemurians themselves.
MC: (Rafayel… who is Rafayel?)
??: …
The face before me becomes more and more unfamiliar.
Darkness drowns my line of sight like seawater…
At the end before both my eyes close, only a stretch of dim purple remains before me.
Rafayel: … Farewell, bride of the Sea God.
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