The Mimic Becomes a Merchant King

Cold icy water surrounded Coin from all sides, rife with a blackness that his eyes couldn't pierce through. His body was moving purely on reflex, kicking at the wetness that surrounded him. While he felt his limbs dragging through the water, he felt no need to breathe.

Is this… a dream? He asked himself.

You weren't supposed to be able to feel things in dreams, he knew, but it was the only possibility that made sense to him in that moment.

The last thing his mind could recall, with any degree of clarity, had been a crossbow bolt puncturing his flesh. And he could not recall of any logical reason for this sudden change in location. Bubbles began to encircle around him, tides rising to life and seeming to slowly lift him through the jet black water. Bit by bit he was dragged toward the surface, a shimmering light slowly piercing through the waves.

You. At last, we speak again.

The voice was vast and booming, like the noise of thunder on a distant horizon. Coin's eyes widened. It didn't fill his ears. Rather, it was as if it had spoken directly into his brain. It was a deep and powerful voice, each syllable carrying a resounding echo to it.

It has been… difficult to reach into your mind.

Coin gasped as his head breached the surface of the salty, brine-filled water. His eyes stung considerably, and he found himself coughing up thick mouthfuls. The taste was vivid, as if he'd really swallowed a great mouthful of the ocean. The sky overhead was a deep shade of red, utterly devoid of any clouds. And the water around him was eerily calm. He strained his ears and heard nothing. No birds, no hiss of the lapping waves.

Nothing but the sound of his own breathing.

You are unique. A strange specimen. When I first sensed you, I thought it was a trick.

Slowly, Coin felt the rippling waves lifting and twisting him around. He was facing westward, directly toward the crimson sunset. A star that blazed with the hue of blood. Coin's eyes slowly widened as something took shape on the horizon line.

A black speck that rapidly grew in size, expanding out further and further like the slowly unfurling wings of a great bird. The shimmering haze of the sun distorted the shape, but Coin could tell that not only was it getting bigger… he was being dragged toward it, like the pull of gravity.

But you are real. My senses were not playing tricks on me. A mimic with a rational mind.

Coin squinted against the glare. But soon the shape had grown so large that its colossal peaks had managed to block out the sunlight.

It was an island, Coin quickly realised.

The landmass had a colossal central peak, a mountain near as big as any Coin had seen on the mainland. It stood right in the middle of the land mass, two other lengths of land spreading out from the sides of the mountain at an equal distance. A veritable forest grew on either side of the mountain, while the shores teemed with a myriad of whelks, mussels, octopi, and urchins.

"What…" Coin swallowed harshly and tried to ignore the burning sensation in his throat. "What are you? Who's talking to me? Where… where am I? And how do you know what I am?!"

It was a dream, Coin told himself. It simply had to be. Well, it would be easier to believe that were it not for the icy chill assaulting his bones.

You will know what I am in time. We have much to speak of. One such as you… we will need to meet.

His eyes were focused entirely on the mountain, and the massive shadow that it cast. And whenever he tried to look away, or examine any other part of the island, an unseen force dragged his eyes back toward it.

"That doesn't…" Coin grit his teeth and continued kicking at the chilly ocean water. "That doesn't answer my question!"

The mountain was looking at him, Coin realised. As utterly insane and absurd as that sounded, he couldn't shake the sensation. That craggy, ivory rock, was watching him just as intently as Coin was watching it.

Wearing the appearance of a human. Intriguing. I would like to read your memories, and your innermost thoughts. But, at this distance, communicating in this way is the best I can currently do.

Coin blinked in confusion. "Distance?" he muttered.

Was there really a talking island somewhere in the world? He furrowed his brow. That seemed unlikely. Impossible, more likely. Perhaps he was talking to some distant, wise wizard. Someone using magic to speak directly into his dreams seemed much more likely.

But already I can feel this link growing weak and tenuous. Your consciousness slips through my grasp like grains of sand. I am… unused to communication. It has been some time since I felt a need to.

Coin grit his teeth. "No more of these stupid cryptic comments! Tell me who you are!" he snapped. He'd been brought to this strange place for a reason. It wasn't just some insane hallucination.

A rumble shook the island, kicking up great waves and surges of foam. Coin gasped, nearly being swept under by the crashing waves. In reality he couldn't swim at all. But whatever this dreamscape was, it

kept his body afloat with an unnatural buoyancy.

The rumbling grew more intense, and the island seemed to almost lurch in place. The shore broadened, the treeline shifted, and great tremors raced along the craggy surface of the mountain.

Suddenly a furrow began to form in the middle of the mountain, cracks racing outward in a spiral pattern. Strands of rock began to break apart, opening outward like the petals of a flower. Beneath the unfurling strata lurked an eyeball, nearly as large as a palace.

The ivory orb swivelled in place, until the great golden serpentine pupil in the middle was glaring directly at Coin.

A chill raced through the mimic's body, far colder than the sea water that surrounded him.

Call me Colony.

​

"Ah… Ah…" Coin was paralysed where he floated, unable to so much as blink. He felt the sheer weight of that eye on him, leaving him feeling as insignificant as a leaf in a hurricane.

And the more Colony stared at him, the more he felt the sheer pressure of that foreign mind. It was vast, mighty, a monolith nearly as large as the drifting landmass before him.

And in that moment, as that foreign mind pressed against his own, he understood the terrifying truth. This wasn't the work of some powerful wizard, as he had initially believed. No human mind could feel like this. Even without a prior frame of reference, Coin understood that instinctively.

Colony, whatever it was, certainly wasn't a human.

As impossible as it sounded, Colony was indeed an island that could talk and think. And now it was focused solely on him.

Come.

​

Colony's voice tore through the air with the force of a raging explosion, snapping Coin from his stupor.

"This isn't possible…"

He felt his body lurch in the water, some unseen force grabbing at his consciousness to drag him swiftly back to reality. But as he was pulled under the water again, engulfedin the impenetrable blackness, he heard Colony's voice a final time:

Find me.