The Palace

Beneath the sea stood a palace of curved roofs and black pillars, and in it lived 2,222 dragon gods. They ruled the tides from a throne no human ever saw.

The dragon god who sat on that throne held two jewels. One pulled the tide in. One sent it out. Held together, they kept the sea honest. Harbours never dried. Shores never drowned. Ships came home because the water allowed it, and not for any other reason.

The dragons did not think of this as mercy. It was maintenance. The sea was a thing they owned, and a thing you own is a thing you keep in order.

For a thousand years the water obeyed, and the world above forgot the dragons entirely. That suited them. Being forgotten is its own kind of throne.