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Japanese

Ryūjin

the dragon-king, tide-holder of the deep palace

water

Ryūjin dwells in a coral palace beneath the sea and rules the tides with two jewels that swell and still the waters; to dream of him is to descend where time slows to nothing and to bargain gently with the depths that hold you.

Fragments

In his palace beneath the waves a single afternoon can swallow three hundred years, and fishermen who feast at his table return to a world grown old.

He keeps the jewel of the flowing tide and the jewel of the ebbing tide, and with a lift of his clawed hand the whole grey ocean obeys.

dragonseatidesjewelsdepths
Meet it in the dream →