Netherness

Riley's sardony preserves the duplicity, the netherness, the not-me of the narcissistic identification.

It was as if the vines and roots of those withered giants would imminently wrap themselves around the old fraternity and drag it into the dark netherness that secret old, places have always held.

The memory of the swirling netherness sent a chill down her spine. She shook her head. “But—” The waterfire had been both more and less than she had expected.