In the middle of a gathered circle an old woman was speaking. Her arms were spread wide in supplication, her head was held high, bright eyes aimed ahead. Let it be known that her entire body was trembling with unidentifiable emotion as she assailed her peers.
“What distortion of the self. What debauchment of the goodness we say still remains. Yea, we have accomplished more than ever before – but we have never been so aimless.”
And so Eliora bowed her head and whispered her final words: “It is a cold sunset which falls upon the world tonight.”
And there was silence. It was short-lived and split by deep roars of laughter. From the circle emerged a man, and he towered over the woman, and his grotesque face was twisted with amazement.
And he spoke thus: “Ha! Have you not passed yet, detestable deifier? Your words are ripe with overstatement like your walls with false hope; your entire purpose no more than rotted fruit, spoiled flesh for me to sow across conquered lands.”
It was at this point that Rano brought out his whip and drove Eliora to her knees as he shouted: “Taste my scorn, you who threaten my ascendency through deceit and weakness! Go back to your buildings!”
Another man lunged through the ranks of the circle to pull back Rano.
“Oh, reproach yourselves – bitter you bicker like you have burning hate towards the other, despite marching hand-in-hand for millennia. If there is hate, it is by me and for me, passively providing support for your pale games.”
So it was that Rano and Eliora stared in scorn at Valo as he continued: “It will be a deep night indeed, lit by my fire and your ire. What say you, child?”
For the crowds had parted, and it was the case that a small girl sat cross-legged on the ground before the trio. She was known across the land as Sama, a revered speaker whose passions now arose.
“See the new world in front of us. See how it is full of wonder! Put aside your grievances, your petty fetters, and smile at those who threaten collapse, for the snow of our difference is nothing before the sun of our deference! This is the only way forward.”
Then the fiery ring in the sky fell below the dark horizon, and the child’s words were pondered.
