Near the edge of the Demon City, there lies the beginning of the desert Cecelyne. On one side, she rests within Malfeas, bound by the terms of their imprisonment. On the other side, she has no boundary and extends outward forever. One can walk on Cecelyne straight through the Malfean walls, under the blank black desert sky. A traveller with the time to spare could walk from Malfeas to where Creation should begin, and beyond, and keep on walking for the desert goes yet further. Cecelyne stretches to the very edge of infinity, and what she has learned there she does not say.
The creatures of Cecelyne resemble the desert creatures of Creation: snakes and scorpions, vultures and mice. They rise at her whim from the sand, and they are of the sand, and they travel to the other places where Cecelyne does not extend. They gulp the substance of the outer worlds and spit out desert, and in this fashion, Cecelyne ever grows. If Malfeas stopped casting off his shells and the wind Adorjan stopped blowing back her edge, Cecelyne would drown the Demon City, and this would make her glad.
Cecelyne is the affliction of the Yozis. Her endlessness has become their boundary. The gods twisted her living essence to bind the Yozis away from Creation. Thus, if the Demon Princes should crack open Malfeas and crawl into the world beyond, they would find only Cecelyne — and know only Cecelyne — and this would not bring them closer to Creation.
The Yozis have given Cecelyne care over the demons of the city, that their servants should not seek to over-throw the Primordial lords. In her name, her servants order and regiment the demons. Her power also keeps the lesser demons from Creation, that they may not slip from Malfeas while no one watches. The Yozis cannot leave, and their petulance rarely permits their lessers freedom.
Silver sands encircle Malfeas, and their outer edge is infinity. Going outward, the silver blackens and becomes rainbowed with tarnish, and the sky fades from that of green-lit Malfeas to a starless black void. Malfeas’s sister Cecelyne contains every desert: baked red earth, fine blowing dunes, even rare stretches of water devoid of life. Her endlessness binds her fellow Yozis. Even if they broke through the brass bars of the Demon City, they would escape into nothing but Cecelyne.
Cecelyne delights in growth. At her edges, snakes and small furred creatures burrow constantly, pulling her sands forward so she expands forever. In the Demon City, her priests bless new births and invest new citizens, for these expand her authority. But in order for her subjects to grow, restrictions must exist, and Cecelyne places these as well.
The creatures that inhabit the Endless Desert are part of her and cannot leave without bringing her with them. When they come to her reaches, they create more of Cecelyne from what they find. They cannot make her other than she is, and Cecelyne endlessly yearns to be more. Thus, in idle moments, she studies the elements that can change a space. She is particularly interested in Szoreny’s techniques and silvered her sands in the hopes of earning his attention.
Demons Descending from the Endless Desert
Orabilis, the End of All Wisdom
Lucien, the Guardian of Sleep
- Gilmyne, the Dancers at the Saigoth Gates
- Perroneles, the Living Armors
- Tinsiana, the Scorpion Demons
Florivet, the Whim-of-the-Wind
- Agatae, the Beauteous Wasps
Gebre, the Pavane of Dying Stars
Unknown
- Naneke, the Readers of Forbidden Texts