Chapter 35: The Shadow That Forgot
The night was still aboard the Black Pearl. The stars were veiled behind slow-moving clouds, and the sea whispered in low, restless murmurs. The crew slept deep and dreamless, but not Elias.
He twisted in his hammock, brow furrowed in unrest. Sweat gathered at his temples.
Then the dream began.
No—memory.
---
He stood upon a blood-soaked battlefield.
The wind howled with the screams of the dying. The sea churned red with the bodies of pirates, sailors, and creatures not born of this world.
Ancient ships clashed—massive galleons blackened with age and flame. Cannons boomed, swords clashed, and old magic hummed in the air like broken hymns.
In the center of the carnage, towering and crowned in coral and rot, stood the Drowned King.
His body was monstrous, half-flesh, half-sea, and his voice thundered like tidal waves crashing against cliffs. He moved like the ocean itself—inevitable, relentless, merciless.
The pirates fought bravely, old captains of legend, names lost to time. Their eyes held the fire of rebellion. They bled for the sea, for freedom, for life.
But they could not kill a god.
So they did the only thing left.
They bound him.
---
Elias watched them forge chains of salt and gold, inscribed with ancient runes. One pirate—tall and missing an eye—held a glowing compass, pointing the way to the Spiral Deep, a place beyond time and current.
A graveyard of gods.
They dragged the Drowned King into the depths. Screaming. Thrashing. Vowing revenge that echoed for centuries.
And then… silence.
The sea forgot.
The world forgot.
Even the gods… forgot.
---
But not him.
Elias's dream shifted.
A dark chamber beneath the ocean. Black stone. Echoes of water dripping forever.
And there—the Drowned King, trapped and rotting in chains.
But his eyes still burned with fury.
With purpose.
He raised a hand and spoke in a language that chilled the marrow. In the center of the chamber, a pool of ink boiled.
From it… a shape emerged.
Small. Human.
A boy.
Eyes closed.
---
The Drowned King leaned in close.
"You are mine. You are the key. You will set me free."
But something went wrong.
The boy opened his eyes… and they were not empty.
They were human.
He looked around. He cried. He ran.
He escaped.
The Drowned King roared in fury as the shadow slipped from his prison into the world above. A fragment of godhood with a soul not meant to exist.
The dream changed again.
Years passed.
The boy wandered.
He forgot his purpose.
Forgot the ocean's call.
He laughed. He drank. He fought. He lived.
And then, he found the sword again.
And the compass.
And Jake Sparrow.
---
Elias woke up gasping.
He sat upright in the hammock, the ship swaying gently beneath him. Sweat soaked through his shirt. His hands trembled.
Jake stood in the doorway, holding a bottle of rum and blinking blearily. "You alright there, mate? Heard you muttering like a lunatic."
Elias looked up at him, pale as a ghost. "I saw it. All of it."
Jake raised a brow. "Saw what? Hopefully not me shirtless again. That's a sight you can't unsee."
Elias didn't smile. "The Drowned King. The war. The pirates who sealed him. And me…"
Jake frowned, more awake now. "What about you?"
"I'm not just a key," Elias said. "I'm a piece of him. A shadow he made to free himself. But I slipped away. Somehow, I became something else. I became me."
Jake stepped inside, closing the door softly behind him. "So… you're his shadow? His backup plan?"
Elias nodded slowly. "Yes. But I chose to be something more."
Jake leaned on the table, thoughtful. "Funny thing about shadows… they only exist when there's light. Maybe you found yours. Maybe that's what changed you."
Elias looked down at his hands. "I should be a monster. I was made to be. But I'm not. Not yet."
Jake raised the bottle in salute. "Then don't be. We make our own curses, mate. And more importantly… we break 'em."
The door creaked again.
Raina entered, eyes sharp even in the dark. "You remembered, didn't you?"
Elias nodded. "Everything."
She didn't ask what. She simply walked to his side and sat beside him. "Then we've got work to do."
Jake nodded. "Aye. Because if you remember… then so does he."
Outside, the sea groaned.
And deep beneath, far below even the grave of the Spiral Deep, the chained Drowned King opened his eyes…
And this time he smiled.
---
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