A Gathering
A strange convocation of spirits gathered at the outskirts of the Crater, where the Lanneisse churned in the hatred and hunger and broken promises that had bedeviled the entity since its inception. Each of the Cardinal Induks of Melrath were represented there. Myrkvior shored up the eastern flank of Flayer's End, the woods that hadn't been burned away in the initial conflagration that had precipitated the creation of that landmark. Svariella swept up on the southern flank. Vynmur guarded and flitted about exuberantly around the northern, while Ymir guarded stoicly the western flank. They all waited, uncharacteristically preoccupied with the small crater that sank into the earth, where once a fledgling Induk and lake had rested.
They came, knowing that something must be done to forestall the Doom that approached their shores. A Doom that had been cast off from another continent, and now wandered the deep places of Idalos, gathering what strength it could from the life of the deep, twisting it, consuming it. Gnawing its way north toward the ripe lands that were Melrath. What it hadn't bargained with, was the preparation of the Induks of the Melrathi.
Lanneisse danced in her writhing and agonizing way around the center of Flayer's End. The Three Sisters joined her, flowing into the crater with their blackened waters, borrowed from Vynmur.
The waters sizzled as they touched the still burning grounds of Lanneisse, of Flayer's End. Lanneisse revolted against their caresses, as the waters surrounded the very core of her being.
From the shores, north of Vynmur, the Sleeping Heart rose from the sea. It'd long ago encompassed many of the sea creatures, and now resembled a mixture of things. It was a veritable mountain of flesh and vegetation. Perhaps it'd once been a humanoid tree, but had since incorporated the flesh of several Leviathans. A beard of tentacles dropped from its cavernous maw, its limbs were part tentacle, part root-system as they made landfall upon Melrath, intent on joining with the entity at the core of Flayer's End.
Yet the Induks were not intending to host that foreign monstrosity.
With a conflux of their power, they met together at the core of the Flayer's End, and there clashed with Lanneisse. What ensued was a battle of wills and elemental fury that blinded anyone who was there to witness it. Yet in the end, what was left, was what had always been. Flayer's End became just another inert wasteland in the middle of a forest. Perhaps in time new growth would feed upon the Ashes of that central fixture of land. Yet that would take time.
The Four Induks, so strangely united in their purpose to seal away Lanneisse, turned to each other with not a word, but shared meaningful glances. Their power had been spent several times over to consume the four corners of Lanneisse in order that she may remain separated. And that the Sleeping Heart would find another source to plunder. As it was, the Beacon that Lanneisse provided had gone out, and the Sleeping Heart crawled back into the Abyss from whence it'd come, swimming for more fertile shores.
Crisis for Melrath had been averted, but at what cost to the spirits? Perhaps, that was another's tale to tell.