<div class="floatright">(http://puu.sh/o69Lc.jpg)</div><br/>All was as it should be. The divine flame inside her had burnt away the last vestiges of mortality, all that was flawed, all that had an end. Though the goddess still carried the name, she was barely even Nuria anymore. She was fire; she was destruction. She was life. Her worshippers, they now sacrificed at the altar of an elemental force, a primordial force and found strength in it. When they died, they cast their soul into her very being, to burn along with her, forever. She could feel them even now, if she but closed her eyes and listened. Their ecstasy as they danced in the flames until they<em>were</em>the flames.<br/><br/>This was all that she ever hoped to be. Free to burn forever, powerful beyond reckoning, all men and women waiting to attend her, to worship. Hers to use or discard whenever she pleased.<br/><br/>For a moment there was a strange, dull throb in her head, but the goddess ignored it. She was no longer mortal, she could not experience headaches. She must have imagined it. All was as it should be.<br/><br/>All was as it should be. The divine flame inside her had burnt away the last vestiges of mortality, all that was flawed, all that had an end. Though the goddess still carried the name, she was barely even Nuria anymore. She was fire; she was destruction. She was life. Her worshippers, they now sacrificed at the altar of an elemental force, a primordial force and found strength in it. When they died, they cast their soul into her very being, to burn along with her, forever. She could feel them even now, if she but closed her eyes and listened. Their ecstasy as they danced in the flames until they<em>were</em>the flames.<br/><br/>This was all that she ever hoped to be. Free to burn forever, powerful beyond reckoning, all men and women waiting to attend her, to worship. Hers to use or discard whenever she pleased.<br/><br/>The smile that curved her lips as she regarded her two pretty firelings was generous and with a brief wave she bade them to come to her. Their love was unconditional and total, as all things should be. As all things should always have been.<br/><br/>She'd been different once, hadn't she? So many pushes and pulls, so many small things in her mind that had kept her from being a true goddess. That dull throb was there again, for a moment, before it vanished.<br/><br/>All was as it should be. But wait, no, there was one thing. A pounding was in her head, again, again, as if her heart were racing -- as if she still had a heart of flesh! And there was the one who did not worship her. The Illithid.<br/><br/>But all worshipped her, didn't they? No, no, not him, but he was no threat anymore. No longer. His sister was dead, slain long ago, when she was still with those Delver girls she'd always had such fun with. So many adventures even after that, she could barely recall any single one, they all swam together.<br/><br/>But there had been many, that was certain. And the illithid's sister was dead. She could not quite recall his sister or when she had met her. But they had defeated her, that was certain.<br/><br/>"So we do," she said softly, her voice oddly lacking in its usual strength. They were meeting again. Again. Everything was as it should be. "Speak quick, [('}*{')], before I tire of you." How strange his name on her lips, even now, a veritable blur when she thought of it again. But as alien as its tongue was to a mortal, it proved no hindrance to a goddess. She could say it if she so wished.<br/>