The image Lassim witnessed in his mind terrified him, for he was being shown things on a scale the likes of which he couldn’t begin to fathom. Things of which he previously had zero reference for their existence or of their likenesses.
His mind was transported to the memory of the High Priestess.
In the backdrop of the immense vastness of the cosmos, a mighty being appeared, flickering into reality from nothing.
This being’s gender was impossible to tell from Lassim’s perspective, slightly shifting between more male predominant features and then more female every moment.
Its gigantic, cosmic level body was majestic. Their enigmatic figure held essence seemingly woven from the cosmos itself.
Their visage was hauntingly beautiful, with dark, almost pure void black skin that melded with the dark swirling energy that enveloped it.
Their eyes burned with a deep, unsettling red glow, mirroring the chaotic, raw power that they commanded.
Intricate markings, reminiscent of ancient celestial star ways, traced its features. Almost suggesting a deep connection to that which governed space and reality.
Their attire was as spectacular as the galaxy-spanning realm it surveyed, composed of flowing robes that shimmered with stardust, interwoven with dark tendrils that seemed to pulse with the life force of the universe.
Around them, the fabric of their garments ebbed and flowed like the swirling nebulas of the heavens, adorned with ornate, silver stardust filigrees that captured the light like the rings of distant planets.
Their crown was not made of gold or jewels, but rather an intricate lattice of what appeared to be more frozen branches and cosmic dust, framing their face like the halo of a dark moon.
The deity’s presence then shifted with a quick twitch of their fingers to then be surrounded by a nebulous cloud of cosmic elements, with black holes and stars dotting the landscape around them as this being looked directly towards the High Priestess in her memory before being cut off there.
Returning to the deep communion of their minds, the High Priestess unveiled more about the being.
This was their god, the deity of this elemental plane, overseeing its denizens and their feral lives.
The creator of the creatures known as the [ilythiiri] or Drow in the common tongue. They were made in its image.
She named it Khaalseru, the Sovereign of the Celestial Heavens, a god whose essence and very focal point of power was intertwined with the fabric of space itself.
Khaalseru’s dominion was vast, encompassing all the interspaces between objects, the stars, the gaps and crevices where reality thinned and the unknown burgeoned. The gaps between planes and the event horizons of the deepest black pits in the heavenly skies.
Khaalseru was an ancient entity, one of the original, primal, elemental gods, born from the cosmos’s initial chaos.
Over the eons, it had ruled and governed the formation of the planes and managed the entrances betwixt them.
Yet, a fateful encounter with a lower realm being forced Khaalseru to become tainted by a mysterious corruption, a bloody red hue that seeped into its realm and the very beings it governed.
This corruption was a remnant energy this lower realm being got a hold of from a cosmic battle fought long before the written memory of any known world. That energy was used as a weapon and they clashed, leaving Khaalseru wounded with its essence frayed and falling apart.
Their god never explained who the enemy was to the Priestess, but it chose to lock its children away in this plane for safety while it recovered from its wounds.
However, the corruption inflicted on this realm was unending and strong. She took a moment to images from her memory of her traveling years on end to reach the edges of the plane, where she witnessed first hand the corruption that tainted and ate away at the frayed edges of their prison.
She’d been unable to commune with Khaalseru for several thousands of years now, even the High Priestess before her time, nearly 500,000 years ago, was only able to hear the last breaths of Khaalseru before they entered their current slumber.
She’d been chosen in the hopes of someday hearing their commandments again and eventually leaving this space once again. They were trapped until their awakening, but with the space shrinking... she feared the worse for their God’s wellbeing.
At that revelation, Lassim’s mind shuddered and froze in shock. These Drow had been locked away and forgotten for hundreds of thousands of years, abandoned even, and he was trapped with them! He was only a child that was nearing his 9th birthday. How could he spend the rest of his life here?
His mind started to panic, but the High Priestess tried to assuage his concerns.
Read 𝓁at𝙚st chapters at ƒrēewebnovel.com Only.
"Lassim…. Fret not, for you are a being that has walked among the Gods. You’ve received their divine intervention and gifts. When you called out for safety, they sent you here. There must be a reason for this. You can possibly help us!" The High Priestess uttered with almost a fever pitch near the end of her speech, fervently believing in his ability to possibly save them from their eternal prison.
Lassim just felt overwhelmed and he hadn’t the slightest inkling in what he should do or how he could help. His body was also still being desperately drained by the ropes and he overall was weakening by the moment.
Luckily, in this mental space, the communication was taking only fractions of a second to relay and speak to each other at a very high speed.
As she was watching his thought process, she took her hand away for a moment before signaling the rows of priestesses to urge the rest of the pack to untie Lassim.
They took a few moments, but they untied him and helped Lassim to his feet, though seriously unsteady, it was at least better than being on the cold hard ground.
The High Priestess then informed Lassim in the common tongue before walking back towards her spire, "If you can walk, follow me. We’re going somewhere warmer."
The surrounding Drow had nervous looks on their faces as she spoke a unique and unknown tongue, before she then called out, "[Ud’phuul aluin harl.]"