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Updated: June 18, 2025
My name is Theos, I come from far beyond the seas, and am a stranger in Al-Kyris, therefore if I have erred in aught, I must be blamed for ignorance, not malice!" As he spoke Sah-luma regarded him intently, Theos met his gaze frankly and unflinchingly.
Thus they sang in the soft, strange vowel-language of Al-Kyris, and tripped along with that innocent, unthinking gayety usual to such young creatures, up to the centre aisle toward the Sanctuary.
Nevertheless, continue thy entertaining discourse, Sir Graybeard! . . . and if thou must needs address thyself to any one soul in particular, why let it be me, for though, thanks to mine own excellent good sense, I have no faith in angels nor crosses, nor everlasting life, nor any of the strange riddles wherewith thou seekest to perplex and bewilder the brains of the ignorant, still am I Laureate of the realm, and ready to hold argument with thee, yea! until such time as these dumfounded soldiers and citizens of Al-Kyris shall remember their duty sufficiently to seize and take thee captive in the King's great name!"
Now, the VISION was ended, . . Edris, the REALITY, had fled, . . and the World was before him, . . the World, with all the unsatisfying things it grudgingly offers, . . the World in which Al-Kyris had been a "City Magnificent" in the centuries gone, and in which he, too, had played his part before, and had won fame, to be forgotten as soon as dead!
Weep, weep for the doom of Al-Kyris!" and now his wild voice sank by degrees into a piteous plaintiveness "Weep! for never again on earth shall be found a fairer dwelling- place for the lovers of joy! ... never again shall be builded a grander city for the glory and wealth of a people! Al-Kyris! Al- Kyris!
The more he perplexed his mind with such questions, the deeper grew the darkness of the inexplicable dilemma, to which a fresh obscurity was now added in his suddenly distinct and distressful remembrance of the "Pass of Dariel." Where was this place, he wondered wearily? When had he seen it? whom had he met there? and how had he come to Al-Kyris from thence?
For if the City of Al-Kyris, with all its vivid wonders, its distinct experiences, its brilliant pageantry, had been indeed a DREAM, then sorely it was possible he might be dreaming still! ... Nevertheless he was able to gather up the fragments of lost recollection consecutively enough to realize, by gentle degrees, his actual identity and position in the world, . . he was Theos Alwyn, . . a man of the nineteenth century after Christ.
"Rescue! ... rescue!" he cried, ... "O thou blessed among men! thou dost wear the Sign of Eternal Safety! ... the Sign of the Way, the Truth, and the Life! ... 'without the Way, there is no going, without the Truth there is no knowing, without the Life there is no living'! Now do I know thee for a saint in Al-Kyris, for thou dost openly avow thyself a follower of the Divine Faith that fools despise, and selfish souls repudiate, . . ah, I do beseech thee, thou good and holy man, absolve me of my sin of Unbelief!
Zephoranim! ..." and his voice shrilled with terrific emphasis through the vaulted chamber ... "The days of recompense are come upon thee, swift and terrible as the desert-wind! ... The doom of Al-Kyris is spoken, and who shall avert its fulfilment!
What would be the result? ... "When the High Priestess Is the King's mistress Then fall Al- Kyris!" These foolish doggerel lines! ... why did they suggest themselves? ... they meant nothing. The question did not concern Al-Kyris at all, let the city stand or fall as it list, who cared, so long as Sah-luma escaped injury!
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