Long shafts of light filtered down into the depths from the world above. A great underwater city teemed with the activity of life as it moved from light to shadow in the endless search for food, shelter and procreation. The city sprawled outward in all directions until its farthest point vanished into the obscuring blue. It was vibrant with color, sounds and smells which made for a cacophony nearly too much for the senses to bear. Beautiful was much too limited a word to describe what lay before the Priestess.
Effortlessly, she moved from area to area first amidst tall structures covered in coral with many openings where beings and lesser creatures made their homes. Though the great masses moved about like shoals of fish, all went their way in an orderly and refined manner. Soon the Priestess passed out of the city over what looked to be vast green fields as they swayed lazily to and fro in the gentle current. Great slow moving grey creatures grazed carelessly while stirring up small clouds of sand. Tending the beasts were beings which resembled the entity using long spear-like objects to prod the feeding herd along.
The Priestess could feel a sudden change in the current’s temperature. What once was a mixture of warm and cool flows, turned into an unwelcome chill. All around, the multitude of small creatures moving about the fields scattered and the great beasts roused from their feeding stupor. All gave great wailing rumbles that shook the Priestess to the core as they turned and lumbered away with their attendants fleeing behind them. Looking to where the chill current was coming, She froze from terror.
A vast dark swarm of creatures swam toward her as one monstrously large organism! As they passed over the fields, everything in their path was being devoured. The Priestess blindly turned and fled back to the place of tall coral structures with desperate speed. She must go home! Reaching the structure in which she dwelled, the swarm descended. Suddenly, the Priestess was grabbed and panic filled her until she realized it was ‘that which was lost.’ Flowing red hair covered the countenance of her abductor and he carried her to a hidden part of their home.
The structure shook around them as the swarm assaulted it and the wailing of the dying reverberated through the cracking walls. Within the forbidden room lay the strange pool she was always forbidden to touch. Suddenly, her abductor held her tightly and the Priestess could feel the coarse red hair scour her skin. Her abductor then held her away and she saw similar red eyes bore into her. Before the Priestess could react, the abductor hurled her into the strange pool. As she fell away into ever deepening darkness, she saw the swarm burst into the forbidden room and all went black.
For an unfathomable length of time, the Priestess lay lost within the blackness. Then, a circle of light lay before her. Eager to find comforting light, the Priestess rushed towards it only to be cast from the blackness into a world strange, yet somehow familiar. After wandering aimlessly in this place, the Priestess came upon a horrific sight. Laying in ruins was her home! It was barely recognizable for life had taken a great deal of time to rebuild. She then realized her kind faded from existence ages past and she... was the very last. As she lay despondent upon the ruins, something floated down from the world above.
The Priestess was loath to bother with debris from so alien a place until she saw it. Covered in coarse flowing red hair sank ‘what was lost!’ The Priestess rushed over and cradled her loved one. There was no response and her loved one looked very different from when last she saw him. Gone was the flowing form for a much heavier one. She could only guess after so much time many changes had occurred. Yet, there was no response no matter how she tried to rouse him... him?
The Priestess reasserted herself as being a witness and not the recollector of this memory. In her arms, lay the Chief of the Aesir! Behind her, a flood of blue light burst forcing the Priestess’ eyes shut! From her arms, the Chief’s body was torn away and once she recovered her sight, she witnessed another being carrying the Chief towards the light emanating from the upper world. In a panic the Priestess reached out with all she had to draw the thief and her loved one back, but to no avail. As the light grew dim, she wailed powerfully against the loss of everything she knew and loved!
Not willing to give up, she swam to the upper world and saw amidst the great light and thin medium unfit for decent beings, creatures gathered in strange devices that sat upon the medium of the lower world. Behind them, giant waves crashed against the shores destroying the strange static places of the upper world. There was a strong sense that which was lost had been among them, but nothing more. For some time, she followed these strange creatures as they wandered aimlessly across the surface of the lower world. Eventually, they came to a place where it seemed the upper and lower worlds fought against each other. It was there she found the slightest signs of that which had been lost might have gone.
Abandoning the strange creatures, the Priestess hurled herself into the tempest and was ‘torn apart’ as she was pulled once more into darkness. Upon waking, she could see an impenetrable bank of clouds far ahead. From there the traces of what had been lost grew stronger and the Priestess began to swiftly move towards the clouds. Strangely no matter how swiftly she moved, the distance did not diminish. For endless time it seemed she tried and failed to get any closer. It was not until the long unheard sound of another’s voice did she realize it was not possible to go any farther because of some unseen barrier!
The Priestess pulled her hand away from the barrier. It was simple to surmise the rest of what happened. For several long moments the Priestess looked at the entity just on the other side. “Fish, bring the Chief forward.” Her adopted son and the Chief stood beside her and she then said, “Chief, you and this being have some history. It would seem she believes you are a lost loved one.”
The waiver in the Chief’s voice made it plain he was uncomfortable with all this. “P-Priestess? Yes, I have seen this demon before! I had to steal my body from her in order to finish the quest for my men years ago. I escaped her only to be attacked again in the fjord of my home as I tried to come back to the Valley. I barely escaped with my life then as well!”
The Priestess wasn’t so sure it was an attack the Chief had suffered. Her better judgment begged the Priestess to look through the veil of time for answers. Yet, she already knew too much of the future and decided to allow things to follow its intended course... without her interference. For good or ill, the next few moments would determine the future of the Valley. “Fish, did you observe how I communed with the entity?” “Yes Priestess, I did.” Stepping back from the barrier, the Priestess commanded, “Then you shall be the means by which the Chief will commune with the entity. Chief Svengald, you may speak with this being and decide whether to honor her request or not. Remember once done, your decision cannot be undone. I will support whatever you decide. Is that satisfactory?”
Many moments later, the Valley Knight extended his hand to his wife as she stepped upon the reeds above the Tidal Flats. Her not letting go of his hand caused him to immediately ask, “Is it wise to leave them out there without your aid?” The Priestess’ eyes returned to their normal mortal brown and she replied, “Probably not. But it is time for Fish to learn his way and the consequences of walking the path of the gods….” The Knight did not like the sound of that. “What about the Chief? What is his role in all this?” Giving him a hug that made him grunt, the Priestess replied, “That is a question we may all come to regret.”
The End
© 2012 H. Wolfgang Porter. All Rights Reserved.
Replies