100 Dream-Visions of Kallistis

The Hundred Dream-Visions of Kallistis ...

73. Talos sweeps aside his enemies.

Standing with my feet in Rumare's waters, I raised my eyes

And saw a tower that pierced the sky, a sky with stars that shone though it was day

I looked again, and the tower was a man, clad in white and gold

And he reached his hand to the east and gathered brazen armor

And he reached his hand to the west and swatted darting filigree birds.

From temples that were like grains of sand and palaces of dust

Kings came in supplication, and gods too

And he spoke from his wound, and they fell to their knees and became stones

He raised then a city of light and joy, which I did shake to see

A perfect mechanism of heaven, the pure work of our blessed monstrous forebears made good.

74. Talos purges the royalty of High Rock.

The tonsured princes bemoaned their fate

He whispered, and the wooden crowns flew from their heads

I heard the crashing of rocks and the tumbling of palaces

As the slayers of Grandfather Zero vanished beneath the angry mountains.

Tattered banners and the wails of seneschals gave color to the air

And slowly faded as new men, and new women, were called.

Warriors and merchants became queens and kings

As the world was remade utterly, yet remained the same.

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