It has been a long, but, ultimately, fruitful journey. When Tray had first proposed the trip to Cathen island to look for treasure he read about in some old journal, most people thought him mad. Now that he returned with a ship filled with items from that old temple devoted to one of the Pagan gods… yes. He would show them all. Maybe the money from this expedition would fund a trip to one of the other locations the journal mentioned, especially since Tray now had a crew that trusted and believed him. Too bad that Halain had to die, but the kid would not just listen to reason. He tried to stop them from taking artefacts from the temple, calling that sacrilege. It got to the point that Merv had to… silence him. A brutal, but necessary measure, and nothing bad had happened in the end. If anything, they had favourable winds and perfect weather all the way home.

The only snag was that just now, as they were in sight of their home port, all the wind died and the sea became perfectly calm. It was infuriating too, as they were so close that Tray could swear he could see people milling about in the port.

So it came as a great surprise when, despite it being a clear day, Tray heard a thundercrack. It was nearby, too.

‘Hello there, boys!’ said a female who sounded both cheerful and absolutely incandescent with rage.

He turned towards the source and saw a beautiful elven woman dressed in a blue shirt, and white jacket and pants. She had short hair that seemed to be made out of clouds. Her sky blue eyes were cold, and he could see occasional flashes inside them.

Most perplexingly, however, she was sitting cross-legged on a cloud.

‘Who are you?!’ he shouted. ‘How did you get on my ship?

‘While I go by a different name these days, I believe you lot may know me as Ter’ius, which I believe should tell you all you need as far as the other question goes.

The Pagan goddess of Air. No. It can’t be. She shouldn't exist.

And yet, there she was. The temple wasn’t devoted to her, though, so maybe…

‘T-to what do we owe the pleasure, M-my lady,’ Tray said doing his best to keep his voice steady.

To his terror, he noticed that storm clouds began gathering in the sky.

‘You’ve been a bunch of naughty boys, I heard,’ she said with a smile. ‘Killing your crewmate. Looting a temple of the ol’ firehead, said crewman dying while trying to stop you.’

The goddess’s smile got fainter and the tone of her voice colder with each word.

‘Luckily, the murderer is here so…’

She pointed her hand at Merv and a ball of lightning shot out of it. He tried to run, but the projectile pierced his chest and the man fell dead on the deck.

Artes, always the first to take action during crises, drew his sword and moved to charge at Ter’ius, his weapon raised.

‘St-’ Tray began but it was too late.

There was an ear-splitting boom and a massive lightning bolt struck from the clouds and engulfed Artes’s body. Tray could briefly see the man’s body disintegrate, and when the lightning dissipated, there was nothing but a pile of ash remaining.

‘Did he seriously decide to swing a metal object while in the presence of the goddess of Air and STORM?’ Ter’ius said in disbelief. ‘I would say I was doing some poor woman a service by ensuring he wouldn't be having any descendants, but well… it’s not like a different fate would have awaited him if he didn't do that. So I guess… A for effort.’

There was a gust of wind and Artes’s ashes were carried away overboard.

Before Tray could say anything, he noticed that Gelyt, a lad just eighteen years old, decided to try his luck swimming to the shore.’

‘Oooh,’ Ter'ius winced. ‘I wouldn't do that if I were you, kid.’

Gelyt ignored her, and, just as he was over the railing, a greenish liquid tentacle shot out of the water and wrapped itself around the kid, holding him in the air. He started to scream as his flesh began to melt. A massive… green liquid thing with a zig-zag of a mouth emerged from the water, then. The boy’s screams of pain were replaced with those of sheer terror. The tentacle suddenly disappeared and the monster snapped Gelyt from the air, and Tray and his men could see him almost instantly dissolve inside of the creature. Only his bones remained, which the beast spat out before disappearing below the sea again. One of Gelyt’s femurs landed next to Tray.

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‘Wh-what the fuck was that?’ someone asked with a breaking voice

‘An acid elemental,’ Ter'ius explained. ‘Irmi usually doesn't like having those appear in the ocean, they are bad for the environment, you know, but sometimes exceptions need to be made.’

Tray fell to his knees.

‘W-we’re sorry, Lady Ter'ius,’ he begged. ‘We’ll give everything back.’

‘And then some other idiot will think they can get away with doing that too, this time thinking they could just cover their tracks a bit better. No. Usually, when I’m running errands as a divine messenger I just deliver the messages. But from time to time… we need to send one, and you, my friends, are that message.’

The Goddess hopped off her cloud and started walking on the deck. A lightning bolt formed in her hand and formed into a sword with a cross guard.

‘You see,’ she continued, ‘We are not all that big on being worshipped, that's more of the Light’s thing. But sometimes our followers do insist on building us temples, and well… use their own possessions and resources to do so. That's a very heavy gift for us to receive. So, when someone decides to take or destroy something that was freely offered, that's disrespectful to both us, and, more importantly, those who made those sacrifices.’

‘But no one has lived on that island for decades!,’ someone, Rolt, Tray thought, blurted out.

There was a whooshing sound mixed with crackling, followed by a heavy thud. Tray saw Rolt’s severed head roll into the corner of his vision.

‘And that is where your friend was wrong, which is why this lesson is necessary. That temple was one of the last remnants of the civilization that was once devoted to Gin-ig. You know… the monument to their existence. You think this would make us care less about it?’

‘Why not smite us immediately, then?’ Tray asked steeling himself for a blow that didn't come.

‘An excellent question, Tray. I would say there is hope for you, but there isn’t. Not anymore. The reason why we almost let you get home is simple… That way we can ensure there are witnesses. Part of my job here was making sure you get the best winds for that. People in the port will see something happening to your ship. You know… one they know went treasure hunting in old temples. It will drift closer to the shore, and, eventually, someone brave will board it, see what happened here, maybe find a survivor, some bauble devoted to Gin-ig and well… it won’t be that hard for them to connect the dots. The story will spread and our holy sites will not be bothered for a while. Until another object lesson is needed.’

‘So why are you here, and not lord Gin-ig?’ Tray asked.

‘We’re in the middle of the sea. That's Irmi’s domain, and to some extent mine too, so it’s a joint effort between the two of us. You could always say that the last thing that had happened to you was being tag-teamed by two goddesses. Three if you count Ereshkigal. A lot of mortals would die for that opportunity. Anyway, my part here is almost done. The one who will be attending you now is Phosi. Say hi, Phosi.’

The ship rocked and a green liquid arm with a hand easily the size of a grown man emerged from the sea and grabbed the starboard railing. An acrid, sweet smell filled the air. Tray could see wisps of smoke from where the monstrous hand touched wood. The ship almost overturned when this “Phosi” used the railing to support itself. Tray and most of his men managed to grab onto something, but two sailors weren’t that lucky and fell into the water. He caught a glimpse of them disappearing down the gullet of the acid elemental. A crack of wood brought his attention back to the monster dragging itself onto the ship.

The claws of its other hand were now digging themselves into the deck and a massive head slowly emerged from behind the railing. It was roughly female in appearance, though very gaunt, and the greenish liquid it was composed of gave it a sickly appearance. The long wet-looking “hair” wasn’t helping the impression. Its ears had a frill and a fishing pole-like antenna that ended with a small yellow light protruding from just below its hairline. The worst part, however, were her eyes. They shone with red light and were filled with malice and hunger.

‘Hi, my tasty snacks,’ it laughed in a gurgly distorted voice.

‘Phosi here is a sconryoll, a kind of a water spirit,’ Ter’ius explained, once again sitting on a cloud. ‘She’s a real sweetie once you get to know her, but has a bit of a grudge against sailors, so I hope you will forgive her a bit of rough treatment. Now, I have dinner with some friends to attend, so I’ll be heading out.’

She turned to Phosi.

‘Be sure not to play with your food too much, honey. And try to leave one of them alive. No biggie, though, if you get too excited. Are we still up for karaoke night?

‘Yes, Nyxie,’ the monster smiled, revealing a toothy grin.

‘Awesome! Bye, love!’

There was another crack of thunder and Ter’ius disappeared.

The sconryoll began dragging itself onto the deck. The rocking it caused resulted in Tray losing his grip from the mast. Before he could hit the water, however, a tentacle shot out from under the monster and wrapped itself around him. He felt intense pain as it started burning his flesh.

It lifted him so that he was eye to eye with Phosi. As Tray stared into the face of death, it struck him that maybe he misunderstood those warning him against this trip. Maybe, they didn't think the temple wasn’t there. No… they were afraid that it was.

Phosi’s mouth opened far wider than it should have been possible. A long tongue lolled out and licked his face, which only intensified his agony, as he could feel his eyes melt. He was quickly put out of his misery, though, as the monster threw him into her mouth. The last thing Tray heard in that world was the panicked screams of his men.