Wysper in the Dark

Scintillating wyspers float throughout the Misty Minds. "Where does the darkness go? How far to its home?" they ask the Devil Fish as they drift through the Miasma of Dreams. "No one knows where the darkness goes, or how far it is to its home; it comes and goes, comes and goes," respond the Devil Fish snapping at the heels of the wyspers. Effervescent bubbles that pop and fizzle tickle the noses of the Devil Fish who sneeze and lose their prey.

Meanwhile on earth the villagers pray, pray for their safe return from the land of Nod. For to dream is to leave the realm of men and enter the lands of Cain--who does not know where the darkness goes--and lay their souls before him. They pray to their gods, "Our father who art in heaven, in earth, in water, in sky, watch over us, your faithful and faithless, so that we may return at dawn from the Land of Nod and escape the clutches of Cain. Amen."

Pandora sits, content in her house, and watches the ballet play out on her music box. The music speaks, the winds carries a song, and the warmth of the fire surrounds her. As she sits she smiles. The tiny dancers amuse her. Her mind drifts back beyond the day of reckoning, back to when she was a girl and the world young. Back when love meant love and secrets didn't create wyspers, but where spoken aloud as truths. Farther still to when men loved women and women men and cat and dog were brothers. Beyond, even, to the golden palaces of sinless youth and bountiful beauty.

"No one knows where the Darkness goes, or why it goes when the Light comes to play. All we knows is that darkness goes and leaves not but shadows in its wake. And the Light does lament that it lost a friend but takes heart in the newness of day. For once its retired and day has expired the Darkness returns to prey."