deepundergroundpoetry.com
The Valley of Lost Souls
- The Valley of Lost Souls -
Note: I originally wrote this story back in 2007, under the name Chaos_Theocrat.
(What separates they who are living from those who are dead? When an explorer is foolish enough to enter the most sacred and forbidden part of a lost valley, he accidentally crosses the fine line that lies between life and death, and in his growing desperation, he discovers that he cannot return to the world from whence he came.)
Across continents I have traveled, in my search for what occult secrets I dare not disclose. In all my errant journeys, I have encountered things not of this world... and some of these things, it is now for me to thusly disclose in this, my account of the final trek that I did undertake for understanding. This was to transpire in the summer months... but: it was autumn when our ship so sailed into those cold, icy waters of I know not where. Our navigator had perished quickly… of frostbite... or so the physician we had on board said, before he too died. I knew the land around the icy stretch was most perilous, filled with rocks and shoals of every stripe. Would this hardship be worth it for us, mayhap for all of mankind? I would know... soon enough... for our little craft ran aground on the ice, and we were forced to head inland in search of food. Soon, the frigid ice and wet snow grew so horrible that we thought our deaths would be ensured. But, like a true miracle, this condition of weather ceased, and the terrain became green and lush... the air warmer, and breathable like upon a fair spring day. We passed from cold into paradise, and never even saw the barrier between! In an instant, the air was pleasant, the sun warm, and the sky as blue as a clear day anywhere allows. There was green grass, babbling brooks and streams, and butterflies playing amidst wildflowers. Tall trees grew here and there, and we soon found a rough trail that led us across the rugged, snow-capped mountains to a domain where we at last felt at ease. Initially, all was well. We drank some water, ate some berries, and recovered our spirits if not our health. Far behind us, our merchant vessel was covered in ice. Technically, we had no way home. But some mad impulse kept us from giving up. It was, doubtless, the urge to simply survive… no matter what. But it was also the thought that somehow we needed to realize our mission, and prove that our reason for coming this far was not for naught. Men had died for knowledge, and so far we in truth were no wiser than we had been before we departed. It was only the captain’s death… an accident… that made the men look to me as their leader. And so I led them from that tomb of ice to this place. Were I a wise man, I might have given up! But I was not wise… I was lucky. And soon, luck would lead us to the prize we sought! But for now, we trudged ever onward: heedless of what lay either behind us or before us.
Thusly, did I come to the place known as the 'Valley of the Gods': which, is not found on any one map of our world that I have ever seen in my life. From the Americas, we hailed, and as men of that country… we were fond of green fields and grassy plains, dotted with flowers, and trees. Wide open spaces, where the bounty of nature could be experienced! That was what we first saw of this valley, and it did but little to tell of the beauty of it. Often, though, beauty is deceptive and so it proved here. We lost most of the crew, who had survived thus far in our walk across this lovely landscape, ever where fell beasts lurked unseen and as could not ever be harmed, even by silver. I had taken to thinking that, should one fall upon me... I would fall on my own blade, rather than be savaged by their wicked jaws. I kept a single musket ball ready to end my life more mercifully, just in case. But, they did me no harm! In a strange way, they all appeared to regard me with kindness, if one could call it that... and so: it came to pass that before these lands were crossed, I walked alone and in the dire company of beasts. My feral guides had led me to a ravine, and within it I so beheld ruins lining this expanse like crawling ants. Oh reader, to tell of what I saw there would take great art and skill with words… for great art and skill of architecture went into the buildings that rose up just then before my weary vision. At first, I believed myself mad, or delusional from some illness that was doubtless setting in from so long out in the rough. Bu it was real! And to me it seemed as though I stood before some great Valhalla, where gods dwell and sinner come to be judged. I was ready for my judgment, too. Men had died for my cause, not their own. And so, I alone stood ready to answer for this incursion into the unknown where no man should dare to tread. The beasts all about me made certain I could not go back the way I had come… and to fight them would be to perish. I regarded the ravine before me, clearing my eyes with my hands. The vision I had beheld was still there, unchanging. No mirage, but a sight so strange that any sane man would have regarded it with as much wonder as I did, if not more. Like a frozen heaven, I would dare to say it was! But wait just a moment, and I will attempt to describe for you more rationally what this sight consisted of. For if you are reading this, then you will doubtless know that something odd befell me.
Literally, did utterly alien-seeming buildings fill the entirety of the rugged ravine… from the lip to the base... down below, in what looked like a natural, bowl-shaped arena! I could not fathom the true depths of it, for it seemed to get that much deeper as it neared the center in a way that so defied easy perception. I neared the edge to take a look, and one of the wild beasts I had forgotten about nudged me over, so that I fell into the ravine, and so falling began to roll. Rolling and crashing as I tumbled on my way... along what once had been buildings... of the most foreign design, so that I did not recognize them. Oddly, it was the logical and symmetrical layout of the ravine that saved me from death, for as I said I had rolled rather than fell. All the way to the bottom, thus, where a large hole in the ground opened up just before where I regained my feet. And in front of the hole, as well as in front of myself, was to be beheld a very big and grand temple with a mighty crystal dome and upon the face of it, doors of purest jade. The dome, was also of a pale green hue, and this thusly lent the whole structure the appearance of being lit up slightly by some ethereal glow from within, for when the sun struck these parts it seemed that something inside of it responded in kind to that touch. I felt as though I had disturbed something, and knew the guilt that only explorers can know about it. Within moments, I so stood knocking at those large doors... laughing at myself for expecting any answer. The old doors were unlocked, predictably, and I then entered. Within... was a great circular chamber, upon which was the most finely polished floor as could be decorated with a vast painting of the cosmos, with all of it showing the constellations, which were outlined in jade and lit by some unseen source of pure magical power. Soon, I heard a rustling... and knew that I was not alone. Robed figures stood, like darkly hooded spirits, floating the circumference of the chamber, flitting thus like ghosts amongst the odd columns in that manner like unto spirits who float upon the air. Soon, they had surrounded me... and I saw one of them as it drew near, as he pressed into my hand a key made from a bone, upon which was a mystical sigil that even all my arcane scholarly learning knew naught of. The spirit beckoned me unto a set of doors; these made from obsidian; and bade me to enter through those unusual portals. I felt terror, and the scent that filled my nostrils was of frozen water and moist earth. There was something else, too. Something… foul.
Those cold, black obsidian doors were decorated with images of countless entwined human souls, naked, and in an unending sea of shadow that was likewise so haunted by things that did look like fiends of the Abyss itself. I so put the key into the lock, and the doors thence lumbered open, soon to reveal that inner chamber... which I shall never forget. It was, at first... blacker than any midnight sky. And I could make out nothing! Then... I realized: I was not alone. A shrouded figure moved, like those others had done, towards me. It was taller in stature than they, and an aura of such mad malice came from it that I am frightful, even now, to speak of it. This being was lit by that kind of aura, that beings not of this world possess; and when it pulled the shroud back, it revealed an inhuman face, red and demonic. 'Welcome, oh stranger, to this old forbidden place... wherein I have been confined. Allow me to show you the wonders of my realm, which others have discovered before you. Behold!' and at this command... the massive chamber was lit by pale green light, and what I saw within that place strained my very sanity to the brink of monstrous madness. I shall describe it without delay! A cavern it was, and it was as filled with humans as the image on the doors I had passed through... every one a shade but as utterly solid, and fresh, in his or her appearance as if they did still live. Many horrors with tentacles, and countless serpents of every kind, were wrapped about a multitude of them, the lost souls, and all of them as together were entwined in an unending and serpentine writhing. As I had looked above, flying demons both reptilian and hideous flew to with sharpest long spears, and dove into the masses below... increasing their agony. To some, this state seemed pleasurable. In my maddest of mad nightmares, I had never imagined any place like this! The green glow was sickly to behold, making this sickening scene even far worse. So high was the ceiling, that clouds of a pale color formed, lit as green by the radiance of the room; from those clouds came very beautiful and angelic beings, which did descend to kiss some of those ensnared below. But the unlucky few saw another side to these, and what had so been angelic to others appeared to them as skeletal and demonic. A bite, rather than a kiss! At once, I averted my eyes and told the being with the red face to stop showing me all of this terror. But he only chuckled, and did so wickedly. The horrible, inhuman things were now swirling all about my body.
'I cannot but show you this, for it is to be your fate. You have perished, in my valley… and so my beasts brought you hither unto me. You are dead, and your soul is forever within my icy realm now and it cannot return to its’ former state. But, I do not 'solely' rule this place! If you would be spared the eternity as these others know, you will so have to prevail upon our queen, who also rules here... to spare you of that darker suffering. However, you must bow before her... and pledge her eternal service. Naught else will deliver you from here so content.' And so, I was answered darkly, once his laughter ceased. He took me to see this queen, and soon, I stood within a long, columned hallway wherein a black throne sat upon a bloodstained dais, bedecked with many soft red cushions and scarlet draperies. Upon that throne... attended by more of the odd angelic things I had seen in the chamber of suffering... was the queen herself. A short woman; with jet-black skin, pointed ears, and hair of snowy white was she. Young and fair did she seem, but her eyes were red as fiery embers, and filled with an unspeakable hatred which she could barely control. She was clothed in silken garments of the purest and softest white: a loose blouse, and pantaloons of the eastern variety, all of which seemed as to flow about her as she walked nearer towards me, with the pure grace of a skilled dancer. I could hear singing and the playing of music. Pipes, harps, and strings of all manner and types! They played at first in a chaotic cacophony, but then blended into a perfect harmony like no other I had ever heard. Sweet was the singing, and perfect was the music. Almost like some mystical chanting, it was, and it seemed to come from unseen corridors and shadowy hollows where I suspected more spirits to be lurking. I was entranced by the music, spellbound by the beauty of the queen, and quite unable to so much as think a single coherent thought. I was dead! Then, surely, that would explain all of this. The souls, the demons, the angels, and this magnificent and terrible place… all of it was to be my eternity. I recalled old thoughts and beliefs about heavens and hells from all the world’s great religions. But I remembered not a thing like unto this! It was as if I had stumbled unto an alien dream of the afterlife that was swiftly grown into a nightmare as well. There were no pearly gates, but there was a judgment in progress… my own. And if I did not please this… queen… then surely the alternative was to prepare myself for unending torments.
The dark woman spoke, with a fair and lilting voice... like a silver-tongued bard: 'Once was I the matron of a noble house, so that once my name was feared and respected. But, I so turned against the goddess of my people, and she sent me to this place, as punishment for my transgressions. You know us... as dark elves, I believe. But here, I have long since become something more than I once was. My ironically eternal punishment has become my eternal reward; and, I am a goddess here in my own right, now nameless and powerful. Why... does my seneschal thus bring you before me, mortal? Are you come here to escape your rightful suffering, perhaps! Do tell me, and I shall not be unmerciful to you, even in my imperious judgment of your worth.' I bowed, then; overawed, by something in her presence, which mastered my reason; and so I did ask to be spared of the torments that I had been shown. The dark goddess, then placed upon my face both of her hands, and said almost tenderly: 'Do allow me, then, to lessen your pain!' and I so felt my face burning as if on fire, surrounded by sickly green flames. I screamed, at the intense pain of this new, and so very piercing experience... and when it had subsided, I felt my face with my tender hands and upon doing this they came away bloody, even though no pain was felt anywhere. I looked in a mirror that was hanging upon one of the walls, and I saw that my skin was blackened and my ears made pointed. Not just my face: but my entire body had been transformed until I had become like unto a dark elf, with the bloody remnants of my humanity falling away from me. 'Consider yourself spared of the horrors of that other cavern, oh man. Consider yourself my slave, you who were once a man! I would have, at last, a lover in this place: one who is as worthy of my attentions as I am of granting my favor to. You will do, dear one. Attend me!' And then I began to pen my story… in what spare time my queen allotted me. Each day, I am progressively losing more and more of the man I was. As I am becoming someone… something… else in its’ stead! Soon, it will not be possible to record what is transpiring. So many alien sights and sounds are assaulting me each and every day. And I realize… if I am truly dead, then why do I write this? Surely, no one will follow me into this damnation! Yet… somewhere deep inside me is the thought that I still live and am imagining all of this.
And so it was, dear reader, that this is how I came to be the sole consort of the nameless goddess of the lost Valley of the Gods, which has I have noticed in the recent years come to be called the Valley of Lost Souls and this due, no doubt, to the fact that all who do venture where I have gone... never return. If anyone should discover my tale, which I have penned and left in a chest at the base of the ravine, just at the foot of the doors of the temple, I urge you to turn back if you be amongst the living. If you are amongst the dead, then know that you are lost... and at the mercy of a cruel mistress. Aye, she is so very brutally cruel, even beyond rational measure! But... she has shown me such pleasures, too, that the pain involved is a delight to me now. So it is in my blood, since my transformation... and I heed the call of it like a sailor heeds the siren that is about to devour him. The ruins wherein you do walk, is the haunted wreck of a once-glorious dark elfin house. Respect this, and do not defile our halls should you come here still in flesh. As the dead, here, are still living! Let my fate serve: as a reminder to those who would enter forbidden tombs. There is no escaping the undead. For, like one who slumbers… they can awaken at any time, if disturbed in their rest. Turn back! Turn back, if you are able to still do so. Defy the beasts, but do not defy those who slumber in the halls beneath the ice… lest you find yourself making a new home amongst the shadow-haunted halls.
Thus, was the odd account found by the second expedition to the Valley, funded by a powerful and wealthy Spanish merchant cartel… and headed by a party of renowned adventurers. All as they found was this old manuscript, and upon returning home from their cold and otherwise fruitless voyage, they spoke of some great old temple with a large, shattered dome and huge broken doors of jade; a monumental room, also, in which was seen a massive and faded map of the cosmos, highly impossible to make out, now. And, more terrible still had been a colossal cavern filled with the bones of those long dead, beyond which lay in a dark hidden hall: an ancient throne room. Upon the throne, amidst ruined finery no longer at the splendor of past days, sat the bones of the queen spoken of in the account, all of her silken garments but tatters; and there chained to the throne at her side... was a much more recently deceased man, who seemed to have hailed from the Americas: he who had been the author of the manuscript that had thus come to light. Perhaps he had but imagined what occurred, for clearly he had been alive when he had been chained up to the queen's throne, not dead like he claimed in his writing; for indeed, how was he able to write this if he had not been alive to do so! But, one nagging question remained to be answered: who chained him to the throne, if all these people are as long dead as they seemed to be? For, indeed... those shackles were as new as if but recently forged, and of a type of metal-craft that was alien to those of any human race. Plus, what had he seen in truth, which had caused him to hallucinate such terrible things! Truly we may never know, but the legend of it has prompted no further expeditions as sponsored by the merchants of the Americas, or of the county of Spain. Whether or not others will undertake such a long and pointless journey to that place, this scholar cannot say... but thus far it has not reached my ears that anyone has expressed a desire to. Not since that second, and final, expedition. Perhaps that is for the best. Let the dead rest, I say, for they do appear not to be trifled with when they are angry! The manuscript, I shall keep in my family’s possession.
And what happened to the mysterious manuscript after that, no written accounts say!
Note: I originally wrote this story back in 2007, under the name Chaos_Theocrat.
(What separates they who are living from those who are dead? When an explorer is foolish enough to enter the most sacred and forbidden part of a lost valley, he accidentally crosses the fine line that lies between life and death, and in his growing desperation, he discovers that he cannot return to the world from whence he came.)
Across continents I have traveled, in my search for what occult secrets I dare not disclose. In all my errant journeys, I have encountered things not of this world... and some of these things, it is now for me to thusly disclose in this, my account of the final trek that I did undertake for understanding. This was to transpire in the summer months... but: it was autumn when our ship so sailed into those cold, icy waters of I know not where. Our navigator had perished quickly… of frostbite... or so the physician we had on board said, before he too died. I knew the land around the icy stretch was most perilous, filled with rocks and shoals of every stripe. Would this hardship be worth it for us, mayhap for all of mankind? I would know... soon enough... for our little craft ran aground on the ice, and we were forced to head inland in search of food. Soon, the frigid ice and wet snow grew so horrible that we thought our deaths would be ensured. But, like a true miracle, this condition of weather ceased, and the terrain became green and lush... the air warmer, and breathable like upon a fair spring day. We passed from cold into paradise, and never even saw the barrier between! In an instant, the air was pleasant, the sun warm, and the sky as blue as a clear day anywhere allows. There was green grass, babbling brooks and streams, and butterflies playing amidst wildflowers. Tall trees grew here and there, and we soon found a rough trail that led us across the rugged, snow-capped mountains to a domain where we at last felt at ease. Initially, all was well. We drank some water, ate some berries, and recovered our spirits if not our health. Far behind us, our merchant vessel was covered in ice. Technically, we had no way home. But some mad impulse kept us from giving up. It was, doubtless, the urge to simply survive… no matter what. But it was also the thought that somehow we needed to realize our mission, and prove that our reason for coming this far was not for naught. Men had died for knowledge, and so far we in truth were no wiser than we had been before we departed. It was only the captain’s death… an accident… that made the men look to me as their leader. And so I led them from that tomb of ice to this place. Were I a wise man, I might have given up! But I was not wise… I was lucky. And soon, luck would lead us to the prize we sought! But for now, we trudged ever onward: heedless of what lay either behind us or before us.
Thusly, did I come to the place known as the 'Valley of the Gods': which, is not found on any one map of our world that I have ever seen in my life. From the Americas, we hailed, and as men of that country… we were fond of green fields and grassy plains, dotted with flowers, and trees. Wide open spaces, where the bounty of nature could be experienced! That was what we first saw of this valley, and it did but little to tell of the beauty of it. Often, though, beauty is deceptive and so it proved here. We lost most of the crew, who had survived thus far in our walk across this lovely landscape, ever where fell beasts lurked unseen and as could not ever be harmed, even by silver. I had taken to thinking that, should one fall upon me... I would fall on my own blade, rather than be savaged by their wicked jaws. I kept a single musket ball ready to end my life more mercifully, just in case. But, they did me no harm! In a strange way, they all appeared to regard me with kindness, if one could call it that... and so: it came to pass that before these lands were crossed, I walked alone and in the dire company of beasts. My feral guides had led me to a ravine, and within it I so beheld ruins lining this expanse like crawling ants. Oh reader, to tell of what I saw there would take great art and skill with words… for great art and skill of architecture went into the buildings that rose up just then before my weary vision. At first, I believed myself mad, or delusional from some illness that was doubtless setting in from so long out in the rough. Bu it was real! And to me it seemed as though I stood before some great Valhalla, where gods dwell and sinner come to be judged. I was ready for my judgment, too. Men had died for my cause, not their own. And so, I alone stood ready to answer for this incursion into the unknown where no man should dare to tread. The beasts all about me made certain I could not go back the way I had come… and to fight them would be to perish. I regarded the ravine before me, clearing my eyes with my hands. The vision I had beheld was still there, unchanging. No mirage, but a sight so strange that any sane man would have regarded it with as much wonder as I did, if not more. Like a frozen heaven, I would dare to say it was! But wait just a moment, and I will attempt to describe for you more rationally what this sight consisted of. For if you are reading this, then you will doubtless know that something odd befell me.
Literally, did utterly alien-seeming buildings fill the entirety of the rugged ravine… from the lip to the base... down below, in what looked like a natural, bowl-shaped arena! I could not fathom the true depths of it, for it seemed to get that much deeper as it neared the center in a way that so defied easy perception. I neared the edge to take a look, and one of the wild beasts I had forgotten about nudged me over, so that I fell into the ravine, and so falling began to roll. Rolling and crashing as I tumbled on my way... along what once had been buildings... of the most foreign design, so that I did not recognize them. Oddly, it was the logical and symmetrical layout of the ravine that saved me from death, for as I said I had rolled rather than fell. All the way to the bottom, thus, where a large hole in the ground opened up just before where I regained my feet. And in front of the hole, as well as in front of myself, was to be beheld a very big and grand temple with a mighty crystal dome and upon the face of it, doors of purest jade. The dome, was also of a pale green hue, and this thusly lent the whole structure the appearance of being lit up slightly by some ethereal glow from within, for when the sun struck these parts it seemed that something inside of it responded in kind to that touch. I felt as though I had disturbed something, and knew the guilt that only explorers can know about it. Within moments, I so stood knocking at those large doors... laughing at myself for expecting any answer. The old doors were unlocked, predictably, and I then entered. Within... was a great circular chamber, upon which was the most finely polished floor as could be decorated with a vast painting of the cosmos, with all of it showing the constellations, which were outlined in jade and lit by some unseen source of pure magical power. Soon, I heard a rustling... and knew that I was not alone. Robed figures stood, like darkly hooded spirits, floating the circumference of the chamber, flitting thus like ghosts amongst the odd columns in that manner like unto spirits who float upon the air. Soon, they had surrounded me... and I saw one of them as it drew near, as he pressed into my hand a key made from a bone, upon which was a mystical sigil that even all my arcane scholarly learning knew naught of. The spirit beckoned me unto a set of doors; these made from obsidian; and bade me to enter through those unusual portals. I felt terror, and the scent that filled my nostrils was of frozen water and moist earth. There was something else, too. Something… foul.
Those cold, black obsidian doors were decorated with images of countless entwined human souls, naked, and in an unending sea of shadow that was likewise so haunted by things that did look like fiends of the Abyss itself. I so put the key into the lock, and the doors thence lumbered open, soon to reveal that inner chamber... which I shall never forget. It was, at first... blacker than any midnight sky. And I could make out nothing! Then... I realized: I was not alone. A shrouded figure moved, like those others had done, towards me. It was taller in stature than they, and an aura of such mad malice came from it that I am frightful, even now, to speak of it. This being was lit by that kind of aura, that beings not of this world possess; and when it pulled the shroud back, it revealed an inhuman face, red and demonic. 'Welcome, oh stranger, to this old forbidden place... wherein I have been confined. Allow me to show you the wonders of my realm, which others have discovered before you. Behold!' and at this command... the massive chamber was lit by pale green light, and what I saw within that place strained my very sanity to the brink of monstrous madness. I shall describe it without delay! A cavern it was, and it was as filled with humans as the image on the doors I had passed through... every one a shade but as utterly solid, and fresh, in his or her appearance as if they did still live. Many horrors with tentacles, and countless serpents of every kind, were wrapped about a multitude of them, the lost souls, and all of them as together were entwined in an unending and serpentine writhing. As I had looked above, flying demons both reptilian and hideous flew to with sharpest long spears, and dove into the masses below... increasing their agony. To some, this state seemed pleasurable. In my maddest of mad nightmares, I had never imagined any place like this! The green glow was sickly to behold, making this sickening scene even far worse. So high was the ceiling, that clouds of a pale color formed, lit as green by the radiance of the room; from those clouds came very beautiful and angelic beings, which did descend to kiss some of those ensnared below. But the unlucky few saw another side to these, and what had so been angelic to others appeared to them as skeletal and demonic. A bite, rather than a kiss! At once, I averted my eyes and told the being with the red face to stop showing me all of this terror. But he only chuckled, and did so wickedly. The horrible, inhuman things were now swirling all about my body.
'I cannot but show you this, for it is to be your fate. You have perished, in my valley… and so my beasts brought you hither unto me. You are dead, and your soul is forever within my icy realm now and it cannot return to its’ former state. But, I do not 'solely' rule this place! If you would be spared the eternity as these others know, you will so have to prevail upon our queen, who also rules here... to spare you of that darker suffering. However, you must bow before her... and pledge her eternal service. Naught else will deliver you from here so content.' And so, I was answered darkly, once his laughter ceased. He took me to see this queen, and soon, I stood within a long, columned hallway wherein a black throne sat upon a bloodstained dais, bedecked with many soft red cushions and scarlet draperies. Upon that throne... attended by more of the odd angelic things I had seen in the chamber of suffering... was the queen herself. A short woman; with jet-black skin, pointed ears, and hair of snowy white was she. Young and fair did she seem, but her eyes were red as fiery embers, and filled with an unspeakable hatred which she could barely control. She was clothed in silken garments of the purest and softest white: a loose blouse, and pantaloons of the eastern variety, all of which seemed as to flow about her as she walked nearer towards me, with the pure grace of a skilled dancer. I could hear singing and the playing of music. Pipes, harps, and strings of all manner and types! They played at first in a chaotic cacophony, but then blended into a perfect harmony like no other I had ever heard. Sweet was the singing, and perfect was the music. Almost like some mystical chanting, it was, and it seemed to come from unseen corridors and shadowy hollows where I suspected more spirits to be lurking. I was entranced by the music, spellbound by the beauty of the queen, and quite unable to so much as think a single coherent thought. I was dead! Then, surely, that would explain all of this. The souls, the demons, the angels, and this magnificent and terrible place… all of it was to be my eternity. I recalled old thoughts and beliefs about heavens and hells from all the world’s great religions. But I remembered not a thing like unto this! It was as if I had stumbled unto an alien dream of the afterlife that was swiftly grown into a nightmare as well. There were no pearly gates, but there was a judgment in progress… my own. And if I did not please this… queen… then surely the alternative was to prepare myself for unending torments.
The dark woman spoke, with a fair and lilting voice... like a silver-tongued bard: 'Once was I the matron of a noble house, so that once my name was feared and respected. But, I so turned against the goddess of my people, and she sent me to this place, as punishment for my transgressions. You know us... as dark elves, I believe. But here, I have long since become something more than I once was. My ironically eternal punishment has become my eternal reward; and, I am a goddess here in my own right, now nameless and powerful. Why... does my seneschal thus bring you before me, mortal? Are you come here to escape your rightful suffering, perhaps! Do tell me, and I shall not be unmerciful to you, even in my imperious judgment of your worth.' I bowed, then; overawed, by something in her presence, which mastered my reason; and so I did ask to be spared of the torments that I had been shown. The dark goddess, then placed upon my face both of her hands, and said almost tenderly: 'Do allow me, then, to lessen your pain!' and I so felt my face burning as if on fire, surrounded by sickly green flames. I screamed, at the intense pain of this new, and so very piercing experience... and when it had subsided, I felt my face with my tender hands and upon doing this they came away bloody, even though no pain was felt anywhere. I looked in a mirror that was hanging upon one of the walls, and I saw that my skin was blackened and my ears made pointed. Not just my face: but my entire body had been transformed until I had become like unto a dark elf, with the bloody remnants of my humanity falling away from me. 'Consider yourself spared of the horrors of that other cavern, oh man. Consider yourself my slave, you who were once a man! I would have, at last, a lover in this place: one who is as worthy of my attentions as I am of granting my favor to. You will do, dear one. Attend me!' And then I began to pen my story… in what spare time my queen allotted me. Each day, I am progressively losing more and more of the man I was. As I am becoming someone… something… else in its’ stead! Soon, it will not be possible to record what is transpiring. So many alien sights and sounds are assaulting me each and every day. And I realize… if I am truly dead, then why do I write this? Surely, no one will follow me into this damnation! Yet… somewhere deep inside me is the thought that I still live and am imagining all of this.
And so it was, dear reader, that this is how I came to be the sole consort of the nameless goddess of the lost Valley of the Gods, which has I have noticed in the recent years come to be called the Valley of Lost Souls and this due, no doubt, to the fact that all who do venture where I have gone... never return. If anyone should discover my tale, which I have penned and left in a chest at the base of the ravine, just at the foot of the doors of the temple, I urge you to turn back if you be amongst the living. If you are amongst the dead, then know that you are lost... and at the mercy of a cruel mistress. Aye, she is so very brutally cruel, even beyond rational measure! But... she has shown me such pleasures, too, that the pain involved is a delight to me now. So it is in my blood, since my transformation... and I heed the call of it like a sailor heeds the siren that is about to devour him. The ruins wherein you do walk, is the haunted wreck of a once-glorious dark elfin house. Respect this, and do not defile our halls should you come here still in flesh. As the dead, here, are still living! Let my fate serve: as a reminder to those who would enter forbidden tombs. There is no escaping the undead. For, like one who slumbers… they can awaken at any time, if disturbed in their rest. Turn back! Turn back, if you are able to still do so. Defy the beasts, but do not defy those who slumber in the halls beneath the ice… lest you find yourself making a new home amongst the shadow-haunted halls.
Thus, was the odd account found by the second expedition to the Valley, funded by a powerful and wealthy Spanish merchant cartel… and headed by a party of renowned adventurers. All as they found was this old manuscript, and upon returning home from their cold and otherwise fruitless voyage, they spoke of some great old temple with a large, shattered dome and huge broken doors of jade; a monumental room, also, in which was seen a massive and faded map of the cosmos, highly impossible to make out, now. And, more terrible still had been a colossal cavern filled with the bones of those long dead, beyond which lay in a dark hidden hall: an ancient throne room. Upon the throne, amidst ruined finery no longer at the splendor of past days, sat the bones of the queen spoken of in the account, all of her silken garments but tatters; and there chained to the throne at her side... was a much more recently deceased man, who seemed to have hailed from the Americas: he who had been the author of the manuscript that had thus come to light. Perhaps he had but imagined what occurred, for clearly he had been alive when he had been chained up to the queen's throne, not dead like he claimed in his writing; for indeed, how was he able to write this if he had not been alive to do so! But, one nagging question remained to be answered: who chained him to the throne, if all these people are as long dead as they seemed to be? For, indeed... those shackles were as new as if but recently forged, and of a type of metal-craft that was alien to those of any human race. Plus, what had he seen in truth, which had caused him to hallucinate such terrible things! Truly we may never know, but the legend of it has prompted no further expeditions as sponsored by the merchants of the Americas, or of the county of Spain. Whether or not others will undertake such a long and pointless journey to that place, this scholar cannot say... but thus far it has not reached my ears that anyone has expressed a desire to. Not since that second, and final, expedition. Perhaps that is for the best. Let the dead rest, I say, for they do appear not to be trifled with when they are angry! The manuscript, I shall keep in my family’s possession.
And what happened to the mysterious manuscript after that, no written accounts say!
Published 23rd Jan 2012
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