“Tell me,” the ring of a voice travels for miles, disturbing the leaves of the south and the water of the north. Unnatural, yes. “Tell me what resides in the depths of this lake. What shall I find beneath the surface? Let me down now, after my treacherous journey. Are there fish born from the stars of above? A lost city, a relic? Are these waters bottomless like a great pit? Or will you raise my spirits and tell me that I have found as I intended? Might you say that knowledge, the secrets of science, hide a mere ripple of waves beyond my place here on the shore?”

The lake is calculating and a force of something stronger than silence, but it’s heartbeat, far beyond the boundaries of discovery, slows for only a moment. It answers the pleas of very few, and when it does, terrible, unspeakable disasters settle on the horizon.

Fear consumes the invisible voice. “I come from a near land. Your wisdom is all I dream. Tell me without hostility. Let me down or raise my spirits. Use your strength and ability to assist me, I hope, or against me. I take these moonstones now and send them by way of your ethereal waters,” the voice produces two fingers, which pluck a glowing blossom from the ground.

The lake rises.

“Tell me, dear Lake Abilarity, for I must know. I shall not defy you, if only you tell me. Tell me, dear Lake Abilarity. Take my soul in the end, as your own if you wish, but I must know your secrets.”

The lake flows around the voice, floods the north and the south, shrouding all in eternal drowning darkness.

The voice, a mere whisper amongst the swirl of the lake, “Lady Lake Abilarity…”