Read Eclipse Era: The Forgotten Realms :: Chapter 4: The Driftmaiden’s Curse

The Tidebreaker slowed as it approached the Driftmaiden, the wreck’s skeletal frame looming through the fog like a forgotten monument. Its hull was splintered, draped in glowing blue vines that pulsed in time with the ship’s mast—a beacon that matched the whisper in Echo’s skull: “Find the Lost Name.” The voices were a cacophony now, pleading, screaming, guiding them closer. Echo stood at the bow, their leg still aching from the wraith’s touch, but the pull was stronger than the pain. Answers were here—they could feel it.

Raiven joined them, his eyepatch glinting in the rune-light. “Careful, Spark,” he warned, gripping Chrono Edge. “This ship’s been cursed since before I was born. Things that die here don’t stay dead.” Veyra’s shield flickered as she scanned the wreck, her voice tight. “The air’s thick with void echoes. Something’s waiting.” Zeyn’s lyre played a soft, trembling note, while Korran stood ready, his storm-blade crackling.

The crew lowered a rowboat, and Echo, Raiven, and Veyra climbed in, the others staying to guard The Tidebreaker. The water around the Driftmaiden was unnaturally still, reflecting the crimson-black eclipse above. As they reached the wreck, the blue vines writhed, and the air grew cold. Shadows coalesced on the deck—three ghostly figures, their forms translucent but familiar. A woman with Echo’s eyes, a man with their jawline, a child clutching a broken blade. “You… left us,” the woman hissed, her voice a distorted echo of the whisper.

Echo froze, a memory fragment slashing through their mind: laughter, a ship, a storm—then screams as the sea swallowed it all. “Who are you?” they whispered, but the ghosts lunged, their blades drawn from mist. Raiven’s Eternal Pause slowed the woman’s strike, giving Echo time to Void Dodge, but the man’s blade grazed their arm, its touch burning with void-cold. Veyra’s Starfall Veil flared, pushing the child back, but the ghosts reformed, their voices a chorus of rage. “You erased us!”

“I don’t remember!” Echo shouted, dodging again, their heart pounding. The whisper shifted, a single voice rising above the rest: “You are Echo.” The name hit like a wave, unlocking another fragment—a hand, their own, carving that name into a blade. The child ghost screamed, its form twisting into a void wraith, smaller but fiercer than the last. Raiven and Veyra fought back-to-back, but the wraith’s tendrils targeted Echo, its voice a snarl: “You’ll erase us again!”

Echo’s vision blurred, the memory surging: they’d led this crew, loved them, but failed them. Guilt clawed at their chest, but they pushed it down, dodging a tendril. “I won’t fail now,” they growled, the name Echo fueling their resolve. Veyra’s light burned the wraith’s core, and Raiven’s blade finished it, the ghost dissolving with a final wail: “Find… us…”

The wreck’s glow dimmed, the vines stilling, but a cracked blade lay on the deck—the one from Echo’s memory, etched with their name. They picked it up, its weight familiar, and the whisper softened, a promise of more to come. Raiven clapped their shoulder, his grin returning. “Knew you were a spark, Echo.” But as they rowed back, the sea hummed again, the World Eater’s shadow circling closer. The curse wasn’t broken—just stirred.