Ęḳƚ'rƀã: The All-Consuming Fire

I. The Pounding Drums in a Flurry of Madness “Ĕlĩ, Ĕlĩ, consume us, O Fire.” I hear these words chanted like a relentless arrangement of pounding drums, intently tickling my ears and mind. A bizarre state, my disquiet increases. I remember not how I arrived in the presence of these hooded figures. The flickering flames trace out shapes and signs beyond my recognition, flitting and contorting in peculiar ways. “Welcome, Initiate, to our house of god.” A speaker cloaked in such odd sigils - his face obscured, though I know not how - hands me a cup filled with a tar-like fluid. “Drink, and be one with us.” The man carried an odd height. With pause, I do as he says. Sweetness coats my tongue, with a hint of the unrecognizable. II. Candles Flicker Like Eyes in Delirium “Ĕlĩ, Ĕlĩ, consume us, O Fire.” Flames leap and dance like an uncoordinated performer, untrained yet enrapt. Shadows trace more strange shapes, like arms, longer and longer, reaching skyward as if to clutch for Heaven itself. “We present our sacrificial lamb.” Head in sack, as was promised, Beckoned by the speaker, though eyesight be obscured. The flickering dance drives me mad. My mind is altered, and I cannot turn away. I feel a flitting sensation behind my eyes, a rapid oscillation of shifting perspectives like delirious rambling. III. Devour Our Names, O Sightless One “Ĕlĩ, Ĕlĩ, consume us, O Fire, nameless being lurking behind all Time, Shape, and Space.” The flames peak, forming a shadow ever so dark, darker than yet any I had seen. This umbral form looks to flit like the surrounding fire, consuming this obscured one before me “The flames dance higher and higher; the shadows burn deeper and deeper; it grows closer and closer. O, Shapeless One, devour our sight.” The uttering chants grow louder, like a feverish gnashing of teeth, a chewing of words and syntax, ever-maddening in their recitative. A cacophony of voices in crescendo, in agony? In ecstasy? For what this insanity pervades, I am ignorant, yet I remain transfixed, a captive audience. “Our forms yearn harder and harder; the Fire climbs higher and higher; the skin, it burns hotter and hotter. O, Nameless One, devour our flesh.” The words seem to reach in my mind like spindling bone-white fingers plucking at neurons. I can almost see them as if eyes line my very skull, flitting in delirium. “Your reach grows longer and longer; you burrow deeper and deeper; the Dynasty grows closer and closer. O, Sightless One, devour our names.” IV. The Brittle Limbs Crumble Like Sulfur “Ĕlĩ, Ĕlĩ, the Fire consumed, as it was, as it is, as it will be.” The shadow retreats, the lamb collapses. Legs fail their master, retreat cannot come. The faces all turn at once, “You are us. We are you.” I peel back the sack to see no face. “You are us. We are you.” Cracks form as brittle limbs crumble like sulfur. “You are us. We are you.” The form fades, and it no longer exists. You are us. We are you. Shapeless, Nameless, Sightless. It is coming. The Dawn of the All-Consuming Fire is nigh.