Chapter 5 - The Sunken Cathedral
At the very bottom of the trench, rising like a jagged black crown from the floor of the abyss, stood the Sunken Cathedral. It was an ancient structure, built from the black volcanic rock of a long-dead underwater volcano. Its stained-glass windows were broken, filled with dark kelp that moved in the currents like long, black hair, and its massive bell tower was cracked in half.
Lyra and Aria slipped through the shattered rose window, stepping into the massive, echoing nave of the dark cathedral.
The interior was terrifyingly silent. The stone pews were covered in colonies of blind, white crabs, and the high altar was dominated by a massive, pulsing shell of black obsidian. Inside the shell, a brilliant, glowing orb of pure blue light was trapped.
Lyra’s heart hammered against her ribs. She recognized that light. It was the color of her golden hour songs; it was the frequency of her own soul. Her voice was trapped inside the stone.
"So, the little songbird has crawled into my nest," a voice echoed through the stone hall. It was a horrible, disjointed sound—a tapestry of a hundred different voices, young and old, male and female, woven together into a discordant, mocking melody.
From the shadows behind the altar, Vespera emerged. She was not a mermaid; she was a creature of the dark deep. Her upper body was that of a withered, grey-skinned sorceress, her hair made of living, venomous sea-snakes that hissed in the water. Her lower body was a mass of eight massive, pitch-black octopus tentacles, covered in glowing purple suckers that left a trail of toxic slime on the stone floor.
In her hand, Vespera held a dark silver trident, its prongs dripping with a black, oily magic.
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"You want your little voice back, child?" Vespera mocked, the stolen voices in her throat laughing in a terrifying harmony. "Look at the window above. The shadow of the earth is already touching the edge of the moon. In one hour, the eclipse will be complete, and your pretty little soul will belong to the foam of the surface. You are already half-dead."
Lyra looked up. Through the shattered roof, the silver moon was beginning to turn a dark, bloody red. The eclipse had begun.
