Come and listen, O Seeker Mine... Come and see, O Seeker Mine...The tale of fire, opulence and gold, daring to trifle upon time. Borne by capricious currents, tumultuous tales tainting treasures of treason bought. O Seeker Mine, be blinded not by Light nor Dark, fortuitous to gaze upon legend. Gelid grasp upon the lifeblood of the land, servants of inevitable truth, brought thy ancestors to extinction. So it was, so it had been, and so it should be. Apocalyptic apotheosis through glacial embrace. Entropy, expressed in eternal executioners. All succumb to the existential end, nothingness in stasis brought by spectral steeds. Wendigo, O Seeker Mine. Nomenclature elected by mortality for entities beyond mortal kin. Fortune, Fate, and spirit. None served as bastion to blind obliteration. And so you were found, O Seeker Mine.
A capricious saviour, devastation danced between on hooves of smouldering conflagration. Sigil of subservience upon their throat, paracausal power perched upon their brow. So it was, thy forebearers’ bargain for power answered. The first Risen strode through that which cast oblivion upon their fellow. And yet, O Seeker Mine, they were not unmade. Presented to that which all cease before, the Risen did not. Hate and wrath and fury fed within, tempered in hope and love, the Risen were reforged upon Devotion. And so, when naught remained but ice, inevitability was condemned to slaughter. From blackest nothing sprung resolute existence, and so the Risen claimed their name by flame and hammer and infernal spirit.
O Seeker Mine, forget thy altars. Cast aside thine idols and statues. For salvation came naught from stone, but from fire. Awash in heat and light, Windigo found another being paracausal. An entity borne of power beyond existence, sculptor of reality by nature alone. Though the war cast much to oblivion, brought by blaze and chill in equal measure, rejoice O Seeker Mine. For Wendigo was, and is, and shall be found ever wanting.
Beneath hoof and claw thy forebearers brought oblivion to trample. Ten thousand’s thousand marched, in conflict finding peace. Mine armor in Love. Mine shield Friendship. Mine arms are Devotion. In those whom became Mine, shall bear Fire within and without. So it was, where seas grew thin, Beginning and End came to Fate’s final crossroads. Hearthlight became the end of all.
In greatest triumph, that which Rose thy forebearers realized loss. Servant of flame, bearer of Devotion to all but herself, was found wanting. Marked by negation, as none but those Risen would return. None remained beyond that end, body and soul lost to the logic of the cold. This creature of mortal blood, as that blood was spilt only to be no more, buoyed by that which births Devotion, cast herself to sacrifice. What would be made cold oblivion was hurled to the Flame, and consumed. This will not do, O Seeker Mine.
O Seeker Mine, suffer not to be Risen. Such a fate is beneath you. O Seeker Mine, cinders shall be thine least mark upon thy world. O Seeker Mine, thy soul shall be Heat and Fire and Light. Thy body shall be flesh and inferno thine soul. Thy Love shall flow, thy heart shall shine, thy form adamantine. Thou shalt be Fire. So thou shall be mine, I shall be made manifest. O Lover Mine, bear and be born anew. Thou shall know no death, and by thy sacrifice shall give Devotion life. So that thine world shall be known, and Loved, and made Greater. Collelia, O Lover Mine, by thy will, I am. By thy consent, thou shall be. By your Devotion. By your love. We are one.
~The Journal of Saint Collelia, on Apotheosis. Scribbled in the margin, written in smouldering adamantine: "The First Eternity."
THE BEGINNING