Contents
Chapter 5
Overview
Sancia is jolted from drunken sleep by a direct encounter with Valeria, who warns that the Maker is returning. In a harrowing vision, Sancia sees a tomb, a ship approaching, and a desert peristyle with a black-cloaked figure whose presence overwhelms her. She wakes terrified and tells Berenice that factions are trying to resurrect Valeria’s creator, escalating the stakes.
Summary
Sancia, drunk and asleep, awakens to a presence in her room. Valeria manifests as a towering figure and bellows in Sancia’s mind that someone is bringing “him” back. The world blurs, and Sancia is plunged into a vision soaked in vast age and dread.
Images cascade: a burning horizon and a black-cloaked figure floating cross-legged; a subterranean tomb with a black sarcophagus holding a single knuckle bone, whose location Sancia recognizes as plantations across the Durazzo; a vast sea with an approaching ship; and a desert peristyle under starry skies where the black-wrapped figure hovers.
As Sancia draws nearer, Valeria repeats that the Maker must not return and admits she is too weak to face him. The figure slowly turns, its attention crushing Sancia with palpable pressure. When the veil lifts, the sight shatters Sancia’s composure; stars vanish amid a shriek, and she screams.
Sancia snaps awake to Berenice shaking her. Shaken and in tears, Sancia explains that Valeria was in the room, took her through visions, and warned that “he is coming.” She identifies him as the man who made Valeria—the Maker—and concludes that someone intends to bring him back.
Who Appears
- Sancia GradoProtagonist; receives a terrifying vision from Valeria warning the Maker is returning, then tells Berenice.
- ValeriaAncient entity; appears in Sancia’s room and vision, urgently warning that the Maker must not come back.
- BereniceSancia’s partner; wakes Sancia from the nightmare and hears the warning about the Maker.
- The MakerBlack-cloaked, floating figure in Sancia’s vision; Valeria’s creator, whose return others are attempting to engineer.