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Bo-Bae was irate.
There she was in her hard-earned and luxurious Pyongyang apartment, sleeping snugly as the covers protected her from the harsh winter outside. But now...
Now Bo-Bae had no idea where the hell she was. There was water nearby, and pebbles bruised her naked feet as she made her way through the landscape, utterly at a loss.
What happened?
"It must have been Dong-Hyun. That cockeyed bastard is still mad about that business with his brother. His freaking fault, I say, blabbing about his travels so much."
Bo-Bae was without regrets. If the idiot had no subtlety whatsoever, someone was bound to find out. If it wasn't her, then-
Her train of thought, however, was interrupted as Bo-Bae tripped, a loose rock causing her to tumble from the river banks and cold water to embrace her body.
"Oh, damn it!" The woman spit half a river, which had tried to assail her lungs.
"That's it! I know the fucker watches forbidden movies. They'll send him to camp. That's for sure!"
And, even as the cold seeped through her body, making it shiver, Bo-Bae allowed a crooked smile to grace her lips.
No one got the better of her. No one!
...
Bo-Bae moved to stand, but her slender fingers found more than earth and loose rock at the bottom. Something smooth clicked against her nails, and, even though the woman wasn't in a tranquil mood, her academic curiosity peaked its head, getting the better of her, and Bo-Bae stood up, still holding chunks of material in her hand.
It was... strange.
As she looked at the slight golden glint amidst the grains, her concerns and discomforts seemed to ebb away, and Bo-Bae had no idea why.
Such a simple little thing, yet… so beautiful.
Bo-Bae didn't know where those feelings even came from.
Yes, gold was valuable, and yes, her younger self would have killed for something like this, back in the nineties. But, frankly, someone of her age, expertise, and favor with Party was above sneaking out to barter gold on the black market. And yet...
She had no intention to sell. Something deep and primal within Bo-Bae told her to keep it, to treasure it, and to use it for her own.
It was a good thing nobody was around. Bo-Bae would, most likely, have killed the unfortunate wretches, just to keep her treasure safe.
...
And, as Bo-Bae walked through the wilderness, so grew her dismay.
This river... It was wide enough to rival Taedong, which... didn't make any sense!
There were no rivers of its likeness in the whole of the nation, and yet, Taedong had been left with no untouched vegetation. Here, everywhere she looked, there was lush green and clear water.
The People's Republic was desperate for farmland. Were this place inside Korea, it would have been put to use decades ago, which meant...
No! Bo-Bae would not go there, at least not yet, even if anxiety threatened to close her throat like a merciless hand.
At a time like this, her little treasure served as a nice balm to soothe her worries, a delightful haze reaching for her temples with whispers and sweet nothings.
It should have scared her, how fast that thing was soaring through the ranks in her heart, how much it would break her if it were to leave her possession.
And, even as hunger came, and Bo-Bae was forced to sate it with a raw, slimy fish, she didn't care in the slightest. Somehow, it was worth it, the woman decided.
For, in her hand, lay a treasure.
...
"Screw those fuckers! Who even needs them?!" An ember of hate burned in the stomach of Bo-Bae, as she stomped the muddy grounds with tired feet. At last, after Kim knew how many days, she'd found a settlement. Although, the experience was... interesting to say the least.
First of all, they spoke some language she'd never heard before, although it sounded mildly European. But, most importantly, the village looked far too rudimentary, full of people who wore exotic, medieval-looking clothing.
None of that, however, was the source of her hatred, although it had ample reason to be (she was in a weird-ass foreign country with no way home, for Kim's sake).
No, what irked her gut were those locals, who clearly had no idea who they were messing with. The mongrels took one good look at her, the woman with a strange and ruined attire, heard her speak in a foreign tongue, and just tossed her out of their gates.
The gall!
And that was something else, what kind of village needed a large wooden fence all around it?
(Unless, of course, the place was a camp, although it did not appear so.)
But Bo-Bae would not dwell in the madness, so as to not become mad herself.
The ring in her hands called to her. 'Place me in thy finger and thy woes shall end', it appeared to sing. And so she did.
Bo-Bae slipped the golden band and vanished to the world.
...
Never had Bo-Bae seen such beauty. At first, the world seemed to fade all around her, as reality was dimmed and distorted by shadow. All of it made Bo-Bae dismayed, a sort of dizziness about her, as if she was seeing things that human senses were not meant to grasp.
She got used to it, however, and the woman's mind was, eventually, opened to an entirely new reality.
...
But first, one needs to understand what the Ring is.
When the Lady of Golden Woods saw herself wearing it in the Mirror, the figure she saw was both wiser and more beautiful, with the power to sway the hearts and minds of men and elves.
Bilbo Baggins, in a world that could have been, lived longer and with more vitality, as if a fire had been stoked within him.
The Ring enhances. Everything that already is becomes better and greater, as if somehow fueled, until it rages like the very fires of Mount Doom.
The Ring corrupts and, even as it gives, it takes away, for it is the fruit of a poisonous tree, twisting all it touches with evil intent.
Bo-Bae was not fair like Galadriel, nor had she Bilbo Baggins' vivacious fire. But she did have something that both lacked, and that was knowledge of the physical world, knowledge that, within Arda, was hidden, even from the Valar.
The sight of her new self brimmed with those hidden truths, and Bo-Bae could now perceive the world in ways unlike any other creature hitherto.
Such was the spiritual potency of an Ainur's ring of power.
...
Light was a funny thing, the woman thought.
Bo-Bae lived with it for the entirety of her life, and yet, so little was truly unraveled before her. Not until this very moment had she understood it fully. The white was beguiling, she realized in wonderment, an illusion of imperfect sight. The world had no choice but to fool mortals, so as to not overwhelm the limited minds of humans.
It would break them, otherwise, she decided.
So why wasn't Bo-Bae breaking?
Just at the tip of her nose, danced ultraviolet and infrared, tantalizing, even as the frequencies meshed together and came undone, one and yet so different from the whole, the spectrum of photons.
(And how she knew those were the intellectually known colors. Well, that was entirely beyond her. Bo-Bae simply knew, with the same assurance as she knew her own name.)
Strings attached bodies one to another, pulling, pushing, and spinning, countless forces, from gravity to magnetic fields, all working together, as they bound the world into a soundless symphony. She was...
Ecstatic.
...
Time passed and not for a moment did Bo-Bae consider taking off the Ring, to diminish once more into her mortal coil of impoverished reality.
Bo-Bae communed with the world, lusting over it with wishes of possession.
The gold sang of Supreme Leader Bo-Bae, and she dared to listen.
Why not? Her powers were now just as god-like as the Kim's.
The other day, in fact, her eyes fixed on a small pond, the water, appearing as a wonder onto itself. There was water above and water below, on the ground and within the air, the differences, subtle but clear-cut through her eyes. It was deceiving, she knew, like many things before her Awakening. Water was water, no matter the form, and Bo-Bae could feel the forces loosening around the molecules as they soared free towards new heights.
Her perception closed on the object of fascination much like a computer screen. The interface, however, was reality itself. She was aware of it, and a thread of will stretched with her awareness.
Again, like many things, this should have startled her, but, as Bo-Bae was discovering, the bewilderment bar had soared high within her.
And so, it was that, still in a daze, Bo-Bae realized that hydrogen bonds loosened at an accelerated pace, until the reaction became complete. Bo-Bae had vaporized a small pond within moments.
...
Meanwhile, in Dol Guldur, a dark wind stirred with malice.
'There is change, I can feel it in the air.'
Yes, the Ring was found, some foolish creature had already been ensnared. It called for its master.
And so, though not in raiment of flesh, the Necromancer smiled coldly.
...
Many times had the sun traveled across the skies. So many cycles that the Woman could count no longer.
The Woman, in fact, couldn't even remember her name.
Nevertheless, her lips curled upwardly in the mockery of a smile, with the weight of bottomless ambition.
Yes. The savages of this land would rue the day they mocked and cast her out, as would the fickle deity who brought her here.
With zeal, day and night, the Woman grew her mastery, and now, she reaped the rewards.
For today... the atom was split.
...
Sauron rejoiced.
The heart attached to the Ring beat with the song of men, and, as men are wont to do, the Creature was careless. For months, it had worn the Ring without restraint. Sauron could already feel it, fading into the Unseen.
He smiled. Not even Isildur was so reckless.
The beacon and its calling was unmistakable. Even now, his Lord of Angmar went forth from Minas Morgul to regain the lost treasure.
The Dark Lord looked into the West, hunger in his gaze. Soon, it would be his, and soon the missing part of his feär would be restored.
He was, for the moment, content.
...
Not for the first time, the Woman marveled at her Treasure, and Its immaculate golden surface. The Ring was part of her, communed in soul, as if It had always been.
Her substance had long ago hollowed to make room for It, the Treasure was integral to her existence. But no matter, the Ring would feed her emptiness.