Chapter 2: There is no escape from the Sea
In the cellars of the Great Library, there where the light of the oil lamps barely drove the moisture from the walls, they finally found something that could no longer be mere coincidence. A map, older than the oldest chronicles of both peoples, drawn on seal leather, its edges gnawed away by salt. No name stood upon it. Only a symbol: a circle devouring itself, and at its centre a tiny vertical stroke-like a breath that would never be released again. The archivist who discovered it, a gaunt man named Lirren whose eyes had long since taken on the colour of ancient parchment, spoke to no one for days. He compared. He measured. He calculated.
And when at last he opened his mouth, his voice was so low that the other librarians had to lean close to hear him. “It is not an island,” he said. “It is a hole.” Not a hole in the sense of abyss or crater. But a hole in the world itself. A place where the rules of here and now paused for a single moment. The coordinates where the reports broke off did not lie so close together by chance - they formed a perfect circle. And in the centre of that circle, on the ancient map, stood only one word, written in a script that was neither human nor magmarian: Waiting.
Lirren vanished three days later. They found only his cloak, neatly folded on the table, and beside it the map, opened to exactly that spot. The symbol had disappeared. In its place, in fresh ink, stood a single mark: an arrow pointing downward.
The rumours needed no week to reach the coastal cities. Some said Lirren had set out of his own free will. Others claimed he had been taken - by the same invisible fingers that had also seized the fleets. Still others whispered of voices that rose at night from shells and empty message bottles, always the same words, always in the rhythm of the waves: “Come. It is time.” The governments of both realms tried to quell the unrest.
New commanders were appointed, new edicts issued, new wanted posters printed—this time bearing Lirren’s face. Yet the lines at the fronts grew thinner. Soldiers no longer disappeared alone; entire outposts emptied overnight. No blood. No corpses. Only weapons left behind, still warm, and boot prints that led to the water and ended there abruptly.In the taverns, new songs were already being sung. Of the vanished, who were not dead but waiting. Of a place beyond the horizon where peace was truly possible - but only if one left behind everything one had ever been.
Some laughed about it. Most did not. And then, on a morning when the fog lay so thick over the harbour that one could barely see one’s own hands, a single ship weighed anchor. No grand sailer. No basalt battleship. Only an old cutter, barely seaworthy, with a single sail, gray with age. At the helm stood a woman whose name no one remembered anymore. She wore no armour, had no entourage, no flag. Only a small bundle wrapped in linen under her arm - and in her eyes the expression of someone who had already taken leave.No one stopped her. No one called after her. As the ship sailed into the fog, the sea seemed to hold its breath for a moment. Then the gray wall closed again. And somewhere, very far out, where the sea charts end and the legends begin, something was perhaps still waiting.
Something Old. Something Hungry. Something that had learned that peace is not given—one must pay for it. With bodies.
With names.
With the certainty that no one ever returns to check the bill. The sea remembers everything. And it has a very long breath.
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Task and Schedule
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Your task:
Over the next seven days, answer thematic riddles and questions. Each question is loosely based on the current theme and their answers could be found drifting upon the dark waters of the ocean! For more details - Visit the forum thread
Schedule:
09.08.2026 20:00 - 16.08.2026 20:00
Do not make your answers public. All answers must only be submitted as per the details provided in the forum participation thread.
Rules:
This event follows the GENERAL FORUM EVENT RULES.
Depending on the extent, rule violations can lead to the exclusion of individual tasks or even disqualification from the entire event.
Asking for answers and copying other players' answers is clearly against the event rules and will not be scored!
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Rewards
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| 1st place: |
1 |
| 2nd place: |
1 |
| 3rd place: |
1 |
At least 6 points:
1
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Read the story in the Library.
The sea demands knowledge.
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