A New Mythology--Oramon--Triona's Abode

   Denu explored the vast seafloor, chasing fishes and playing with the eels. He found in the mysterious depths strange places that mirrored those above: forests of dancing fronds and living stones, great deserts of glittering sand, mountains and valleys. There was even a place like unto Amalteron: a beautiful peak whose cliff fell away, not to a glistening sea as above, but to a churning ocean of deep, impenetrable darkness. It was a place where Nomra’s creation met the Dark within Oramon, a place of unformed possibility.

   Denu called it Unamalteron. He would perch on the peak and stare down into the whirling void. His eyes were the Light of creation and they teased shapes from the Dark. The fancies of Denu were slicked from the abyss and given form and life. As Neron above on Amalteron, Denu was a craftsman. He made the Denites first, a spiny, many-legged contingent to guard his summit should Neron and Nemrus discover him there. They were terrible creatures with poison lances and champing mandibles.

   But the Denites were not skilled in conversation, and Denu grew lonely. He missed Onera, and as he gazed into the abyss below Unamalteron, his longing solidified and detached from the Dark. She was identical to Onera in every way but one: she had no eyes.

   Unonera instead looked into the future.

   “A Light will arise in the Night, and the Children of Denu will be chased from the Day to live in Darkness as a new Age begins,” were Unonera’s first words to Denu.

   Denu fled from Unamalteron and Unonera and wandered the seafloor until he came to the coral forests of Triona. He found her frolicking with the fishes and she bade him join her. So Denu sang songs in the deep for Triona’s dances and soon he had forgotten the horror of Unonera. When night came, their dances ended and they huddled in the dark reef until dawn. One of Triona’s rays had told her of the Denites and how they devoured eels and sea slugs and hunted the larger fish. She was afraid that they might come in the night and she begged Denu to stay with her. Denu promised that no strange creatures from the deep would harm her, but he stayed nonetheless.

   Each day they frolicked and danced and sang and Triona admired the eyes of Denu. One night she watched as the tendrils of a barnacle retreated into its rocky fortress.

   “What if we were to have a dwelling place like that?” Triona asked. “We could curl away when the night comes into a safe repository and await the dawn in peace.”

   “Better yet,” said Denu, “We could light this barnacle and dance the night away.”

   “But how shall we make such a dwelling?” asked Triona.

   The next day, Denu returned to Unamalteron, where the Denites devoured any passing creature and Unonera sat in stony silence. She heard him approach.

   “The Race of Nez will take your eyes,” she told him.

   “Eyeless thing,” said Denu, “do not speak to me of the future.”

   “Your children will be reviled forevermore,” Unonera said. Denu ripped out her tongue and cast it into from Unamalteron into Darkness, then he brought up creatures from the Dark: scaly creatures with empty eyes and skilled hands. Then he took them to the shore beside the mountain Neronimahnon and took fire from the volcano and set it in the creature’s empty eyes and he called them Trinites.

   He brought them to Triona and instructed them to build a beautiful dwelling.

   The palace formed by the Trinites from coral and spun pearl became the first house ever built. And the Trinites lit it at night with their flaming eyes. Triona called the house Denona, gift of Denu. Triona and Denu sang every day and danced every night and fell in love beneath the sea.

   Until Unonera came to Denona.

   The mute and sightless seer tried to warn Denu to flee, but he could not understand her warnings and locked her out of the palace, hoping Triona would not recognize the likeness of his former wife. But Unonera returned with the Denites to force him to leave Denona.

   Denu and Triona closed the gates and the Trinites defended the palace with fire.

   As they lay besieged, Nemrus had heard from his animals that Denu had been sighted on the slopes of Neronimahnon and had slipped back into the sea. Nemrus went and told it to Neron and Neron called Ariaj.

   “Find the sea monster that once we rode to Onerae,” Neron commanded. “Tell it to find Denu under the sea and kill him.”

   So Ariaj found the monster and sent it to slay Denu.

   Upon the seafloor, Denu mustered a force of Trinites and led them out to do battle with the Denites. The battle was fierce but at last the Denites turned to flee. Denu pursued them back to Unamalteron and faced Unonera. She drew for him pictures in the sand, telling of the sea monster. So Denu made a spear from the abyss and had Unonera stab him with it before the Trinites that had pursued the Denites with him.

   The Trinites returned to Triona with the news of his death, but the spear had not killed him and he transformed again into a dolphin and swam away, up towards the surface where he hid in the desert in the form of a dragon.

   The sea monster came to Denona and found Triona and the Trinites in mourning. The monster returned to Ariaj with the news of Denu's death.

   Beneath the sea, Triona laid a bed of eggs and from them hatched fourscore maidens like unto Triona, but with the heavenly voice of Denu, and they were called Syré, for they did not cease to sing, bringing joy and a balm to the broken heart of Triona.