The chanting called to the rising moon, to the full orb above, to the dying silver light as it slips beneath the horizon.
It called to the burning brightness as the sun rises, to the reds and oranges of the dawn sky, to the clear blue in the midday heat, and to the fading light of dusk.
It called to the waning of Luna's face, to the darkness of the new moon, to the shining crescent as it waxes once more, swelling to its milk-white fullness.
It called to the fire of the falling leaves, to the frozen snow during the long nights of winter, to the new growths emerging from the thawing earth, and to the sweltering summer.
It called to the past, when once she was strong, to the present, where few still remember her, to the future, where she will come again.
But if she hears, she has shown no sign.
Thick mist shrouded the temple, a low round building thirty feet across, built from ancient stones slick with the damp in the air. The chanting penetrated the gloom, spilling into the surrounding jungle, carried on the still air.
Inside three chanters knelt, two women, one man. Three to remember the Lady, to watch her temple, to keep in eternal readiness for her return. Once there were more, before men came from the east, bringing death to many, and to those who lived a new god. Now only these three remained, holding the vigil as had so many others over the years.
From the walls extended a stone floor, six foot of solid rock. Opposite the entrance, it reached further inwards, almost touching the centre. Upon this stood her statue, her naked upper body extending above the worshippers, her face looking down on them as they called to her. From her waist, her tail curled away to three times encircle the building, great coils forming the walls, only a small gap opening between them to form the entrance.
More statues stood upon the stone ring, men and beasts of all shapes and sizes. Some barely a few inches tall, others almost touching the roof, fearsome predators or great grazing animals. All twisted together, locked in combat, ruby stones bright as blood against the sleek black flanks. Yet also they were joined together in mating, massive genitalia of rock shining in the candlelight, quartz crystals catching the flame, looking liquid where they came together as one.
Inside the ring, flickering light revealed the seething movement of the floor, the slithering of her children, hundreds of serpents, each cast in her image. They crawled over the beasts, over the fighters and the lovers, and they embraced her stone body. They climbed the naked bodies of her worshippers, entwining them in their chanting. They filled the temple's centre, a seemingly infinite pit of reptilian bodies.
In the ever-moving surface upon which they knelt, the chanters felt something stirring, great ripples starting from deep below, but moving closer, sliding up through the depths. Stories passed down from the years told tales of the greater serpents living below, but none living had seen such things. Yet there was no doubt that it could not be anything other.
At last it erupted, sliding from the pit to encircle the Lady's statue, the head of the snake laying on the shoulder of the statue, then flowing down her back, entwining its body with her own stone coils until they reached the ground. From there it lay on the rock, its full length removed from the pit, bigger than any snake able to call this earth its own, but still its coils no match in thickness or in length for the stone body of the Lady which encircled them all.
"SHE COMES."
The voice came from the snake, but also it came from everywhere in the temple, echoing from the walls, seeming to draw its power from the strength of the chant, millions of voices over thousands of years, joined together for a single moment, joined for just two words.
Immediately the words became audible within the chant, but with no change from the chanters, as if the words had always been there, buried beneath the surface.
"SHE COMES."
The great serpent, having delivered his message, slid back into the pit, effortlessly gliding through the smaller snakes which occupied the surface. His tail slid around and between the chanters, but they paid it no heed, their eyes fixed only on the statue of the Lady.
Within minutes the first new people entered the temple, sliding between the great statue's coils, their clothes cast off outside. In the masses poured, joining the chant, packing the temple. First they filled the snake pit, the serpents' bodies rising up around them. Then they filled the outer circle, the stone ring upon which the beasts held their orgy of sex and violence.
"SHE COMES."
When the temple could hold no more, silently the stone coils closed together, sealing the worshippers from the outside. None noticed, all attention given only to the statue.
"SHE COMES."
One by one the flickering candles darkened, their flames consumed by an unknown force, until the temple was plunged into darkness. Though there was no light to see by, still the chanters looked towards the Lady.
"SHE COMES."
A great cracking echoed around the temple, swiftly followed by the roars of a hundred creatures freed from their rock prisons. Soon they were joined by the screams of those unlucky enough to be near to the former statues, those caught in the fury and the fervor as the orgy burst into life.
"SHE COMES."
Another crack, coming from the walls of the building, from the great coils that encircled them. Those standing at the edge felt the falling of the rock skin, and underneath the scales, rippling from the muscles beneath them as they tried to free themselves of their solid covering.
"SHE COMES."
Eagerly, even in their blindness, the worshippers tore at the stone coat, revealing the coils beneath the walls, revealing the fair skin and perfect beauty of her torso, of her arms and her head, glowing faintly with a unearthly light.
"SHE COMES."
Freed from their mineral prison, her coils began to contract, slowly crushing those inside. At their touch, the chanters started to couple with each other, rapidly degenerating into a sexual frenzy, joining that of the beasts intermingled with them.
"SHE COMES."
Her eyes opened, rock dust falling from their lids. She drew a man from the crowd and swallowed him whole, her touch enough to send him into orgasmic rapture, his sperm spilling from his erect penis hot within her throat.
"SHE COMES."
She took a woman from her back, crawling over her coils, and held her in her mouth, tasting her own juices mingled with those of a hundred others on her body, then swallowed.
"SHE COMES."
Ever tighter she squeezed, away from the walls, dropping into the pit of snakes. Many of her chanters were already dead within the coils, crushed by her strength, and from below them the serpents rose up once again, devouring living and dead alike.
"SHE COMES."
Less lived now to sing her chant, but still they did with every breath. From the ever decreasing group she feasted on the banquet within her coils, swallowing man, woman or beast.
"SHE COMES."
Still she squeezed, until finally the chant died, the last man crushed under her full strength before he too became a part of her meal.
In the silence Syn relaxed her coils, sinking slightly into the pit, where still the snakes slithered beneath her. Now that she had returned, there would be much for her to do. The chanters had held her memory for so many years, had kept her path home from the void into which she had been cast, but too many lived on this earth still who did not know her, who did not fear her, and who did not love her.
Once again Syn had entered the world; once again she would teach the world the pleasures of entering into sin.