And they who had been of late so joyful, were now grown old with sorrow
in but an hour or two; for they feared that the fresh coming of the
Earth-Current had been but the final flicker and outburst before the
end. And, even in this short while of our speech, did it seem to me that
the voice of Naani grew further off from me; and I felt like to have
broken my heart with the trouble of this thing.
And through all that remained of that sleep-time, did I converse with
Naani, as might two lovers who shall presently part forever. And when
the cities awoke, the news went throughout them, and all our millions
were in sorrow and trouble.
And thus was it for, maybe, a little month; and in that time had the
voice of Naani grown so weak and far-off that even I that had the
Night-Hearing, could scarce make real its meaning. And every word was to
me a treasure and a touch upon my soul; and my grief and trouble before
this certain parting drove me that I could not eat, neither have rest;
and this did the Master Monstruwacan take upon him to chide and correct;
for that, if any were to help, how should it be done if I that had the
Night-Hearing, and heard even now that the recording Instruments were
dumb, came to ill-health.
And because of this, and such wisdom as was mine, I made to eat and
order my life that I might have my full powers. Yet was this beyond all
my strength; for, presently, I knew that the people of the Lesser
Pyramid were threatened by the monsters that beset them; and later I had
knowledge from faint, far words whispered in my brain, that there had
been a fight with an outside Force that had harmed many in their minds;
so that in madness they had opened the gate and had run from the Lesser
Pyramid, out into the darkness of the Lands about them; and there had
their physical bodies fallen to the monsters of those Lands; but of
their souls who may know?
And this, we set assuredly to the failure of the Earth-Current, which
had robbed them of all force and power; so that, in those few weeks all
life and joy of living had left them; and neither hunger nor thirst had
they, much, nor any great desire to live; but yet a new and mighty fear
of death. And this doth seem very strange.
And, as may be thought, all this made the Peoples of the Great Redoubt
think newly of the Earth-Current that issued from the "Crack" beneath
the Pyramid; and of their latter end; so that much was writ in the
Hour-Slips concerning this matter; yet in the main to assure us that we
ourselves might each be free from a disturbed heart; though some went
foolishly to the other event, and spoke of a speedy danger to us,
likewise; as is ever the way. But the truth of our own case lay, maybe,
somewhere between.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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