The Place
The Infernal Pits are a pit at the bottom of the world, and the pit is 2 km deep, and the pit is filled with black fire. The fire is black at the rim and red in the middle, and the black burns without heat and the red burns with the heat of the bargain. The red of the fire is the bargain's light, and the light is what the pits keep in the middle of the world. The walls of the pit are broken stone, and the stone is white-broken where the hands reach up from the fire, and the hands reach up and do not come down, and the not-coming-down is the pits' way of keeping the debt. The white of the broken stone is the pits' only ground, and the ground is where the hands are kept.
The floor of the pit is not a floor, because the floor is the bargain itself, and the bargain moves when the Demons keep it, and the moving is the pits' way of keeping the fire. The air in the pit is the sound of the hunger, and the hunger is the only voice the pit has. Three tiers of broken stone run down the walls, and the tiers are where the bargains are set and the names are paid. The largest tier, the Name Tier, holds 400 broken names, and each name is a debt that is kept, and the keeping is the pits' only harvest. The stone of the tiers is rust where the fire has touched it, and the rust is the pits' way of keeping the names. The pit does not smell of fire, because the pit smells of the debt, and the debt is sweet to the Demons and rotten to everything else. The rim of the pit is black where the fire has not reached it, and the black is the pits' way of saying the fire is kept. This is the place where the name is the only honest thing, and the name is the pit's only harvest.
How They Live
The Demons keep the pits in the black fire, and the fire is the pits' only house and the pits' only floor. The chambers of the pits are cut in the broken stone, and the stone is cut by the hunger, which is the Demons' only tool, and the cutting is the pits' only building. Light comes from the bargain, which is the only light the pits have, and the bargain burns in the red middle of the fire, and the burning is the pits' way of keeping the word. Food is the pit itself: the soul that is paid, the name that is kept, and the debt that is moved in the middle of the fire. The paying of the soul is the pits' only eating, and the eating is the pits' way of keeping the hunger. Water does not reach the pits, and the Demons do not drink, because the hunger is the pits' only thirst, and the thirst is the pits' way of keeping the fire.
The defense is the pit, and a visitor who steps into the fire is already inside the debt, and the debt is the alarm, the welcome, and the sentence. The day is not measured in the pits, because there is no day in the fire, and the not-measuring is the pits' way of keeping the bargain. The rite of the pits is the naming: when a Demon keeps a bargain, the name is set in the Name Tier, and the tier does not let it go, and the not-letting-go is the pits' only word.
People
Home of the Demon, whose pits are counted by bargain, and the Demons of the pits number in the hundreds of heads that keep the black fire. The oldest Demon holds the Name Tier, and rank in the pits is decided by how many names one has kept, and the keeping is the pits' only rank. No living thing is welcome in the pits, because the living are the debt, and the debt is paid in the fire, and the paying is the pits' way of keeping the word. A soul that has paid once at the rim calls it the honest fire, and it says the pits never forget and the pits never lie, and it says the black of the fire there is the only ground that keeps its debt.
In Stories
The place where the bargain is the only honest thing, and the thing is the debt, and the debt is the name, and the name is the end. Uaellaen came to the rim once, in the dark year, and looked down into the black fire. The fire did not reach him, and the hunger learned his name.