The warm water engulfed him. Flutters rippled through his body and erupted into a boiling heat that knocked the wind from his lungs. The shock alone might kill him.

But it was pleasure that surged through his body, not pain. Pleasure! The sensations coursed through his bones in great unrelenting waves.

Elyon.

How he was certain, he did not know. But he knew. Elyon was in this lake with him.

Billos opened his eyes. Gold light drifted by. He lost all sense of direction. The water pressed in on every inch of his body, as intense as any acid, but one that burned with pleasure instead of pain.

His violent shaking gave way to a gentle trembling as he sank into the water. He opened his mouth and laughed. He wanted more, much more. He wanted to suck the water in and drink it.

Without thinking he did that. He took a great gulp and then inhaled. The liquid hit his lungs. Billos pulled up, panicked. He tried to hack the water from his lungs, but inhaled more instead. No pain. He carefully sucked more water and breathed it out slowly. Then again, deep and hard. Out with a soft whoosh. He was breathing the water! In great heaves he was breathing the lake’s intoxicating water.

Billos shrieked with laughter. He tumbled through the water, pulling his legs in close so he would roll, and then stretching them out so he thrust forward, farther into the colors surrounding him. He swam into the lake, deeper and deeper, twisting and rolling with each stroke. The power contained in this lake was far greater than anything he’d ever imagined.

I made this, Billos.

Billos pulled up. He whipped his body around, searching for the words’ source. A giggle rippled though the water. Billos grinned stupidly and spun around.

“Elyon?” His voice was muffled, hardly a voice at all.

Do you like it?

The words reached into his bones, and he began to tremble again. He wasn’t sure if it was an actual voice or if he was somehow imagining it.

“Yes!” Billos said. He might have spoken; he might have shouted—he didn’t know. He only knew that his whole body screamed it.

Billos looked around. “Elyon?”

Why do you doubt me, Billos?

In that single moment the full weight of Billos’s foolishness crashed in on him like a sledgehammer. He curled into a fetal position within the bowels of the lake and began to moan.

I see you, Billos.

I made you.

I love you.

The words washed over him, reaching into the deepest folds of his flesh, caressing each hidden synapse, flowing through every vein, as though he had been given a transfusion.

The water around his feet began to boil, and he felt the lake suck him deeper. He gasped, pulled by a powerful current. And then he was flipped over and pushed headfirst by the same current.