“Wow…” I didn’t know what else to say. “So are you… going to?”

He was silent for a long moment. I felt that he was examining me carefully in the impenetrable gloom. His intensity passed over me in palpable waves.

“Peak celestial chaos approaches, little one. The autumnal equinox has heralded a glorious harvest: the doom of all. My time to act draws nigh, and yet… no. I shall not.” For a moment it seemed as though he would continue. But he was silent, and I felt like I had to know more.

“But… why?”

For a split second, I thought I could see his eyes, glittering green amid the black. But he did not speak. It was clear that he was unwilling to continue the thread of conversation, so I decided to pursue a more roundabout track.

“Okay, never mind. How about… if all of this stuff you’re saying is true, why are you here?” In my life. “I mean, in Portsmouth? In high school, even? If you’re really as old as you say you are, shouldn’t you be in college at least by now?”

“It is… difficult to explain in such a way that your pitiful mind will comprehend. But I will try.” He took a weary breath. “Each being in this vast multiverse is endowed with a destiny, irrefutable and inescapable. Mine, as foreseen by some long forgotten prophet, is to call. To rouse and unleash the Sleeping Beast that would destroy your world. My call can only be sounded, can only pierce the veil of the multiverse, during the time of celestial de-alignment. There have been such Alignments in aeons past when I have not sounded my call, for the signs were not in place and the time was not right. For then, I too slumbered. But truly, I believe that this approaching peak of chaos is now, at last, the time foreseen. For you see, young thing, there is more to the prophecy than just the doom of all… there is more. And never before have the proper signs and portents arisen. But now… I see signs. I see portents. I see… you.”

“…Oh?” I was very glad that Riley could not see the look of complete bewilderment that must have been painted all over my face.

“Oh, yes. The prophecy alludes to a being who is not of the Great Old Ones, not of the Elder Gods, but one who shall arise possessing the power to prevent me from sounding my call. This… Young One, if you will… is to be a mortal.”

He paused as if expecting something of me, but when there was nothing I could offer, he continued:

“When you appeared in my dream, I understood that you were—are—the mortal of prophecy.”

I gasped. “Me!?”

“I came to Innsmouth in this human disguise—”

“You mean Portsmouth.”