The Cavern at the Top of the World

Here, with my shapeshifter friend Fiachra son of Rórdán and Deirbhile's assistance, I tell the story of what we know about the Sacred Cavern. Fiachra hopes to one day see it; I know I never will. Yet I think every heart half-longs to see the Creator's Handwriting, so here I retell the stories Fiachra has heard from those who have been.
Past flatlands of solid ice, over peaks that soar into the skies, nearer to the North Pole than anything else in the world, an aignaoi can find the wide, yawning entrance to a cave, shaped like the mouth of a dragon, with icicles and stalactites forming its teeth. Inside is a great dome, with passages spidering off deep into the mountain. Here, they say the aignaoithe huddled after the War of the Night, waiting to die, waiting for a miracle from the Creator to save them.
The narrowest of these passages is too small for an aignaoi. Only a human body can slip inside.
For miles it seems to go, they say, never able to spread your arms, lit only by the glow of your fist. Sometimes the ceiling drops and you must crawl. Other times it seems to stretch miles above. And before you even realize it, you're overheating and about to stumble into a bubbling furnace of lava.
Even a shapeshifter must be fast. The breath between human form and dragon form can prove deadly. With a snap of wings, you must dodge between stalactite and stalagmite, between lava pool and low ceiling. This is why shapeshifters who come here for the first time are led by their elders. Still, sometimes shapeshifters are lost. Fiachra can't give me an exact number; I suspect the shapeshifters themselves don't know it. It may be in the Library of Stone with all the other records of shapeshifters.
Finally, you pass through the old volcano. And in a cool, dry cave at the heart of the mountain range, you can see the Creator's Handwriting, His own words and the words of the Eight. You can read the Sacred Writings of the Cavern, or, more realistically, painstakingly copy it down so that it can be translated back at the surface.

Written by Cordelia Colbreak Evenbrook

Alternative Name(s)

Sacred Cavern

Type

Cave System

Location under

Tír n'Oighear

Owning Organization

Council of Elders

Related Myths

• The Creator's Handwriting

The Writings

Sacred Writings of the Cavern

Who can go?

Shapeshifters approved by the Council of Elders.
In theory, a Paragon possessing a hoverplane equipped for extreme cold and the ability to manipulate lava (and thus walk over it) could likely make it. However, it has never been attempted.