Eijlam in the Realm of Ilmatar
Eijlam finds himself, in chapter 14: Amulet, inside the realm of Ilmatar with Fionna. He immediately knows her physically being there is wrong. He is still just a novice healer at this point and what he knows of Ilmatar is only from his use of his fathers threshold/light to heal or, as Eijlam had called himself, an usher, demeaning his own abilities and himself. All memory of his having turned into on of the Lords in Book One was erased when he was sent back to the mortal realm, leaving him with gaping feelings of inadequacy.
This scene starts out with Fionna melting out of Eijlam’s desperate grasp. He suffers the pain of separation in what the elves call, true death. Because the elven afterlife consists of elven spirits cycling from resting, then back to renewed bodies. This makes the Edhellim immortal in a sense. Being completely gone as in true death is a horrifying and baffling concept. To live so long and never be with loved ones is incomprehensible to an edhil mind. Eijlam suffers from his heart bonded because, it is said, “When one dies, the other shall follow.” In that moment Eijlam feels Fionna die followed by his own slow heart tearing death. The kingdom of Ilmatar goes silent, and then comes chaos…
“Eijlam watched as the Lords of Ilmatar argued about the meaning of dissonance, their voices pounding through his senses like thunder. Just as suddenly as he arrived he was flung to the middle of a field where multitudes clashed in bloody battle. The High King of Ilmatar was carried away and set upon his Throne of Light only to utterly rot into a blackened heap. Eijlam’s eyes went dark as the caustic slime torturously drooled over his face and swallowed him whole. ” Excerpt from TOE: Book Two
Here one might wonder, is Eijlam the Throne of Light itself, being suffocated by chaotic darkness? Is he the king? The themes of Eijlam’s Lordliness is one of truth, justice and light.
“Jelled air closed in tight as shrill screams hurled around inside his skull like molten fire. His unborn daughter’s desperation filled her cries, and her crystalline prison shook. Eijlam wanted to stop her pain, but it was his own mouth that was shrieking wide behind unforgiving glass. Swirling down his throat like water it all drained away and disappeared. Exhausted, Eijlam swung along hundreds of thousands of such disorienting scenes that blurred together unintelligibly until he thought he might die if it did not stop … ” Excerpt from TOE: Book Two
Poor Eijlam what is happening to him. Let me leave you with this thought; Ilmatar is not solid places and persons except in the mind of its creator. And, what does the last line in the chapter say? Chilling isn’t it.
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