Every day, an undersea vent off the southern coast of the New World tears open, releasing a wave of magma and poisonous fumes. At that moment, Mavra the Naga Witch awakens, her mind her own once more. With the handful of conscious minutes gifted to her, she desperately adds threads of magic to a spell: an ongoing masterpiece attached to her own mind that she has slowly – so very, very slowly – crafted across the decades. When it is complete, she hopes to use it to sever her soul’s connection to the Dreaming – the plane to which all creatures connect in their moments of rest.

Long ago, Mavra sought to gain dominion over this realm by forging a gate through which her conscious mind could enter. She knew a firm, untouchable anchor would be needed to prevent her connection between mind and soul from snapping, and so she enchanted a flawless diamond and secreted it deep within the seabed, where none could touch it. Thinking herself protected, she then cast the spell that would allow her to fully enter the Dreaming. It succeeded, but only partially – the energy required to maintain the spell shot through the planes, cascading out of the diamond and sinking it into a cauldron of molten rock, while the backlash threw Mavra’s dream self into her body and cast her conscious mind into the Dreaming. Now, in the New World, Mavra’s coiling body wanders as if in a daze, thinking itself asleep for much of the day, while her true self rages within the Dreaming, a prisoner of the realm she sought to rule.