Prologue: Part 3

Part 3

Ten thousand dreams. Ellesef knew each one as if they were her very own thoughts. They were not, of course, Ashallalah had put them there. Night after night, she continued the various stories which Ashallalah shared. Every morning, in accordance with her goddess’ wishes, she wrote them down word for word, image by image. 

It had been decades since that fateful night that she had been chosen. Still, she could never forget it. Like the faint burn scar on her hand, those memories would never go away. Even now, as she penned the seventy sixth chapter of her book of dreams, which she called Kala, she could still feel the tremors shaking her very hand as she wrote. 

Intent on finishing this chapter, she ignored the painful memories and continued the story of the unnamed man from her dreams. She called him Inivio. Ellesef loved Inivio as if he were her own son. Her daughter, Hilde, loved him too. 

When she was young, Hilde would ask her mother to read her the tales of Inivio and his best friend Jora and Ellesef would oblige. It was a beautiful thing, the connection that they formed over a name on a page. Ellesef always felt guilty about her distance from her daughter, the book and her goddess demanded it. But, through these dreams, that gap was mended just enough.

Setting down her pen, Ellesef held her arm to her face and stifled a strong cough. For weeks, she had been sick and living had grown more painful by the day. She knew her time was coming, but she chose to ignore it thus far.

Movement in the corner of the room caught her eye. Turning to meet it, she saw a young woman with an immortal beauty.

“You are N’kune, aren’t you?”

The woman nodded. Ellesef smirked. “If so, show me your true form. I know it is not this.”

The woman nodded again and lifted her hand so that it was straight above her head. Upon dropping it, the form had shifted. What now stood in the room, was a thin figure with skin like a shadow, its face was a bone like mask that cascaded over its shoulders in tendrils of white. “Are you pleased, witch?”

Ellesef smiled, a more genuine grin. “Indeed. Now, you must understand, I have much work to do…”

The N’kune shook its head. “Your work is done. Leave behind the bangle on your wrist. It has no place where we go. There the gods are as mortal as men.”

Looking back at the book, she took a small piece of paper from her desk. On its blank side, she wrote a note.

‘To Hilde,

I know I haven’t been perfect, and I never believed myself to be. Take care of yourself and Inivio. His story is not finished and neither is yours. Never stop dreaming, min elskede. I will see you later.

-Ellesef, the first of Ashallalah’

When she had completed the note, she put it on top of the closed book and placed the bangle on it. 

Her last task completed, she stood to meet the spirit. “Now, my work is done. Tell me, is the great beyond as good as they say it is?”

The N’kune laughed, hearty and full, before taking her now wrinkle free hand. It turned to the twelve year old girl with which it now spoke. “They know not what they speak. It is beyond even me to explain. The only way to know is to see for yourself. Are you ready?”

Ellesef spared The Book of Kala one last glance.

“Yes.”