Eleez

Written: Early 2009. This is one of the things where I learnt that writing in a weird style is stupid. Also: this is one of the things I'll rewrite if I ever return to the area in a story (actually, I honestly should post up the maps for the fantasy world if I can get good scans done).

***

she awaits the return of her husband, the fisherman, with the sunset. she sits alone on the grass near the shore of the lake, her hands set out to support her. Behind her a tendril of living flame, flowing like lava. it does not blacken, but does leave a trail char behind it.

she cannot smell it over the lake, from which a breeze is coming. it stabs into her outstretched hand, and she screams in pain as it flows into her. her eyes burn within, and she is struck by a vision...

i am the evergrowing inferno, the voice says, or so you may call me. he shows her his true name; unspeakable, as it is the fact of the words, the existence of a large inferno that grows and grows and grows, to leave all in flame.

i am trapped (and she saw his cage; arcane and magnificent, carved of unmeltable, unbreakable, magical stone, decorated with fierce images to serve as a warning) but there is a crack in my cage. through it, i have reached you.

she saw his power, the moving, liquid flame, brilliant and divine. it dribbled from his cage, deep beneath the lake. you must find my prison, he commanded her, find it, raise it from the depths, and place it on dry ground. do this, and your reward will be magnificent.

she saw where he lay, beneath the lake. where he had lain for a hundred thousand years, slowly searching to find a crack through which he could escape, at least in part.

... and the instant ends, and her eyes no longer burn. she raises her hand - the hand his power entered - and stares at it, as she causes a flame to be born upon it. it curves up from her palm, through the cracks between her fingers, and spirals up, around, above them.

she gasps, and knows what she must do.

***

she grabs their money, painfully saved to buy a boat that could be crewed; she takes her shawl; and she takes their horse. As she kicks it into a gallop she looks back, and in the distance, out on the lake, she believes she can see the small boat her husband sails.

But she turns her back on it.

***

she reaches the town in the middle evening, when the inns are still open. it is a small port town, with some traders coming through, and many fishermen. (though mostly those well enough off to have a boat with a crew, who need a proper port to land their boats at)

she leaves her horse at one of the two inns in town, and hires a room there before heading to the other inn. she knows who she is looking for, and he usually spends his evenings there. she sees him at a table at the other end of the common room, and walks over. "Hello," she says to him.

"Eleez?" he says, puzzled. "What are you doing here?"

she has a story ready for him, so she tells it. "Danwis wants me to hire you for a day, Haral," she says.

"Hire me with what?"

she tosses the money purse at him. "With this."

"Eleez," he says, "is this-?"

"Yes, it's the money for the boat. Danwis is - he's certain there's some treasure out in the lake, in a place he told me. He wants me to hire you to head out and retrieve it with me."

Haral looks at her, questioningly. "Why isn't he here?"

"I was in town shopping for some things, and he wanted me to hire you with some of the leftover money. He thinks it's worth the risk, and i couldn't talk him out of it."

Haral grunts, humoured. "Well, we can't head out tonight, although the ship is free tomorrow," he opens up the purse, and paws through it. "It'll take maybe a third of this to hire my boat for a day, and - look, lass. Both of your families have been friends to me for most of my fifty years. I can't bring myself to take any of this, but I'm sure Danwis will set you on someone else if I won't, so... I'll take a sixth of it, if there's no treasure, and I'll take the third if the treasure's there. Danwis is sure about this? Can you tell me how?"

"Th-thank you, Haral," she replies, "He is. He won't tell me exactly how, but he is."

"I hope we find something tomorrow Eleez, I really do. Do you have a room here?"

"No, I have a room at the other inn. I think I'll head to it now, as well - I feel tired."

"We'll see you at the third pier just before daybreak, Eleez. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight to you too, Haral," she says, and leaves.

***

she arrives at the pier just as the sun begins to peek over the horizon on the lake. Haral waves to her, and she boards his ship. it is the largest of the local vessels, and is usually hired out as a salvager, hauler or guard.

"Welcome to the Lake's Dawn," Haral says, with a grin. he helps her aboard, and conspiratorially whispers "I never get tired of saying that at daybreak."

she smiles and shakes her head, and he leads her to his cabin.

"You can sit here while we sail, but you still need to tell me where to head!" Haral says.

she tells him where to go - in the middle of three landmarks, a small island and two large rocks poking above the water. Haral knows the landmarks, and he knows how to avoid the other rocks nearby. "Don't worry," he assures her, "We can get there in a couple of hours."

as he leaves to order his crew about, she lets a flame flit along her finger tips, and smiles.

***

the ship reaches the place she spoke of late in the morning. Haral calls her out from the cabin, and she walks up to him. "I'm going to send a couple of my divers down now. Do you know what they should look for? A chest? Loose coins?"

"A large stone box, about three metres tall, wide and long. It's covered in carvings and is a dull brown-red colour, but smoothed. Danwis saw it while fishing out here, so it shouldn't be too hard to find."

Haral nods a couple of times, his mind figuring out how he was to rope up a box that large. he calls over a couple of his men as she wanders off to take a seat on the deck. the men leap into the water, and she waits.

a few minutes later, one of them resurfaces, and starts shouting. "I've found it, Haral!"

"Good work, Bois! Laeds, Maen, get the ropes and toss a couple down for Bois and Slie. Tie it around anything you can! The rest of you, get ready to haul it up!"

***

it took an hour to haul the cube up from the lake bottom. it was dragged to the surface of the water, and then (after a few more ropes were tied to it) it was hauled aboard. they sat it in the middle of the deck, and she ran up to it, and started to stroke it. "An impressive treasure," Haral says. "I can't see anyway to open it, but even if it is a lump of solid stone it'll sure fetch a nice price." he yells a couple of orders to his men, to set them on a course back to town. "Do you want me to shift it to my warehouse when we get back? Unless you've organised somewhere to keep it, I guess. Heck, I guess you could just dump it somewhere, I doubt anyone could steal something that big." Haral chuckles.

"Yes, thank you," she says in reply, and smiles. she begins to whisper to it of how they shall soon be on dry land once more, and continues her stroking.

Haral looks at her, and worries.

***

the ship returns to the town in the mid afternoon, and she watches as a makeshift crane raises and lowers the heavy stone prison. as it comes to rest on ground for the first time in a hundred thousand years she runs up to it, and spreads her arms out upon it. Haral thinks she has taken leave of her senses, and then he sees Danwis, her husband, through the crowd, a look of confusion on his face as he approaches.

"Eleez, wh-" Haral begins to ask, but she has turned around, and begun speaking.

"I've done it," she says, and tosses the money purse at Danwis. "Now he will reward me!"

Danwis fumbles with the money purse, and then looks at her. he sees a fire in her eyes, somehow. then the living, pure fire begins to pour from one of the carvings on the cube. it forks out around her feet, and she raises her arms to the sky as it finishes encircling her.

"Eleez!" Danwis yells, and then the circle moves inwards, merging with her, melding with her. her legs are lost in the flow of the liquid power, and then her body, her face, her arms. the flow from the prison ceases, and again he speaks to her in an instant...

you have done well, he says. so well that your reward shall be as much as i can give. you will not be who you were, but shall be someone greater - intelligent, capable, knowledgeable, wise and beautiful. and you shall be the first who can truly speak my name.

then she knew everything about the powers she was gaining, his plans for the future, skills she had never had, and more. so much more.

... to those watching, that instant was an instant. the liquid fire solidifies into legs, legs that stretch up longer than her's had been, and far finer. a strange red skirt drops down to cover her upper leg as she continues to return to flesh. her belly is smooth and supple. her breasts are round and perfect, covered by a corset that stretches itself down along her curves. her arms stretched out before her, no longer raised, are lithe and perfect. her fingernails are of flame, small fires waving in the breeze. her face emerges - a new face, beautiful beyond imagination, unbelievably perfect, with but a hint of who she had been. her hair is shoulder length, and a brilliant red. her eyelids are closed, and when she opens them fire curls out from where her eyes should be. the face smiles.

"Wh-who are you?" stammers Danwis, shocked.

"I am Eleez," she replies. "And I serve the ever growing inferno," and then she lets fire grow around her, and says his name truly.