The English translation of the Wattpad Featured & Wattys 2015 Winner story.
... And the moment you allow that tiny evil enter your heart, the moment you act in a manner unbefitting your race, the moment you start complaining about life - they...
Each of our souls is a deep, dark pit. And whatever may be
dormant at the bottom, the call of the Abyss will awaken it.
Nimiol Close-to-the-Source
If you head south out of Rual, climb the Aenejan Mountains of Naeria, and then, pining away under the scorching sun, cross the sands of Preen, you will find yourself on a dead, grey plain. It is called the Desert of Bared Fangs, for it is all studded with rocks – thin, sharp and curved, like dragons' teeth. Rarely do the heavy black clouds above it part, and when they do, it is only to shed deathly moonlight or the sun's blood-red rays upon the cracked earth, rendering the picture even more bleak.
In the middle of the desert gapes a colossal crater. Surrounded by the rocky fangs, you might mistake it for wide-open jaws of some gigantic beast, ready to devour the sky with all its gloominess. Its jagged slopes are entirely lined by ancient skulls, each socket deep enough to fit two or even three Alae stacked one on top of the other.
The edges of the crater seem alive: myriad beings cover the rocks with a moving layer of their own dark bodies, like bees over a ripe honeycomb – sinewy, agile, winged creatures. Their voices fill the air with a loud hum. They're always waiting for prey, always fighting for it. Upon spotting a traveler who has dared to approach the crater, with a greedy squawk they dart from the rocks and rush towards the would-be prey, eyes flashing, claws tearing at the membranes of their competitors...
The larger ones deliver passengers and cargo to the nearest settlements; others help all those who wish to descend to the skulls, to the city that lies beyond the inviting glow of the eye sockets. They wish to descend into Laennes – the Abyss, the City of Skulls – a giant stone anthill, decorated with a dull mosaic of bones and fragments of weapons, lined with a barbed network of underground dandelions, filled with the drunken honey of their golden light.
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The light's rays penetrate from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes – dizzying, invigorating. Your body loosens, like a shriveled, dried up sponge dipped in a fragrant bath. Your muscles ache sweetly. Desires overpower you. You want everything and all at once: to try fried caterpillars, dance on the table, pick a fight, sketch an outlandish lizard in your notebook, learn what it's like to spend the night with a multiarmed courtesan. The brilliance of the "Abyss suns," mingled with the crimson light of its famous fiery lakes, flows into your soul, washing away the foundation of morality, melting the icy fetters of caution. And you're ready to cast prudence to the winds, to go on a spree, to fall into the hot embraces of this predatory city, where adventure and mystery lurk in every crevice, under every rusty pot like cockroaches – poisonous killer cockroaches. Oh yes! It seems that the very air here trembles in anticipation of something unknown, exciting, sweet and terrible.
Of something sweetly terrible...
Laennes, like sundew, lures guests with its perverse, exhilarating aroma and the promise of unprecedented miracles, then devours them mercilessly. Nobody bothers to count the casualties, nobody goes searching for the missing. In a matter of days they are said to "have sunk into the Abyss." The insatiable Abyss. Its boundless bowels can soak up thousands of times more blood than the cracks at the bottom of its caves already have...
