The Dance of the Vault (or, the Eternal Night)

By: Agrias Posted on: September 29, 2012

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Into a wild sunset, our story should start,

Into a calm dusk, is this ballad's fair heart.

All over Gaear Street, in Hashan we stood,

Marveling this machine made of metal and wood.

Tavarius bent low, in his richly made clothes,

He raised up his hands, and silence arose.

"My friends," he explained, his eyes on the crowd,

"We come here today with a funeral shroud."

"Many and more, were the nights we would dream,

We would gaze to the heavens, and celestial stream.

Those days are done, those chapters are writ,

I bring you the power your stations befit."

"Lay down your notions and expect to be awed,

Realize now, your understandings are flawed,

Gaze to the heavens, look to the stars,

Grasp hold of the future that is most certainly ours!"

With a sleight of his hand, he pulled off cover,

To display the Disc of the Nocturne, and smile like no other.

With a dazzling show, he proved himself clever,

And fiddled with knobs and buttons and levers.

With a jubilant cry, he threw down a switch,

And the strange machination reached quite a loud pitch,

The arms of the orrery spun all around,

And the Disc of the Nocturne rose off of the ground.

It spun and it twirled as it danced in air,

It glowed ever brighter as we got lost in the glare.

In an instant it stopped, and a corona of light,

Bloomed out from the Disc, and launched up in the night.

Tarvarius beamed as the machine came to rest,

And swept out his arms to address all the guests.

"Our test is concluded, and with unerring flair,

I direct you to the foodstuffs, held back over there."

He gestured beyond, and the chatter resumed,

What happened just then, no soul could presume.

The bright flashing lights, the steel, stellar arms,

The food and the finery, and the host's deadly charms.

They mingled and chatted and the hours wore down,

Though come dawn break Tarvarius was loathe to be found.

The guests trickled out, and headed for home,

Giving one last glance to this heavenly dome.

It was noon in the city, said a witness that day,

And the darkness swept over and thrust light away.

The three largest planets caught everyone's eye,

And they passed to the sun, their movement then died.

They hung there, those planets, and came to a halt,

In a stunning addition to the Dance of the Vault.

There in the heavens, these darkened spheres hung,

Though terror filled people as they gazed to the sun.

Like a torrent of water released from a sluice;

Came the chaos and customs as all hell broke loose.

High in the mountains of Nicator the Great,

Hit a small beam of sunlight illumined of fate,

The three most magical minds of today,

Ikant, Alariel, and Hycanthus, gazed at the ray.

The priestess of Dreams, Isillinde by name,

Stood by Tavarius as the onlookers came.

She offered them reasons, and told of the lie,

That the societal echelons held of the sky.

Beyond her, the missing, Tavarius stood,

Arms reaching upwards as high as he could.

A shimmering veil surrounded all sides,

Two feet by six feet, and seven feet wide.

Isillinde grew doe-eyed while gazing at him,

Doting and hoping, her mouth, though, quite grim.

When recanted upon by the trio of Wizards,

She calmly stood up to the lover of Blizzards.

She likened to Hycanthus of humanity,

"A moment of darkness is a small price to pay for eternity."

Midnight.

The tritons of lore, lost in the depths,

Forsook their old home with their militant steps.

A fearsome beast prowled the streets in the night,

Preying on anyone caught in its sight.

Nightmares ran rampant, the land in a blight.

Of one special Nightmare, beset by beasts,

On whom large, white bats found an elegant feast,

A net made of stars so carefully set,

Fell onto the neck of the beast, black as jet.

It turned to a bridle, and glimmered and shone,

And with it was led to its ancestral home.

Where it vanished again, just to go it alone.

It repeated this cycle of catch and escape,

Until finally fatigue got the best of her shape.

The lamassu of Hashan surrounded her then,

The pealing cries of pain had created a din,

Yet when they stepped back, from the Nightmare's demise,

Stood a foal black as day with fiery eyes.

'twas then that Delphinus, his clothes ripped and torn,

Produced from a pocket a unicorn's horn.

He'd puzzled a riddle, and a study was found,

This bountiful prize in a desk, was it bound.

Bending out towards the foal, the horn in his hand,

It connected to horseflesh and started to stand.

Bathed in the silvery white of their kind,

The first living unicorn of anyone's mind.

It coalesced its lifeforce, so bright and so pure,

That the light became more for mortal eyes to endure.

In the study Delphinus read up on the ward,

And hence journeyed to Ugrach, who spoke with his sword.

The unicorn foal in tow close behind,

And it appeared that Lord Ugrach had since changed his mind.

He questioned them all to their business with him,

Delphinus then answered; his voice curt and prim.

Ugrach reclined his head in surprise,

And a moment of anger then flashed through his eyes.

He reached for his diadem, and pried out a gem,

He exchanged with a new one, created from them.

The unicorn foal stepped courageously fore,

As Ugrach took essence to keep it in store.

His rubies were powerful, each connected to one,

And it was this, he proclaimed, it might win the sun.

Back to Nicator, the mountains they trod,

The ringing of hoof-beats of a unicorn shod.

The most valiant of beasts, the unicorns were,

And focused a beam at the heart of cur.

The barrier strained and it wavered and thinned,

Suddenly shattering on the one still within.

Tarvarius screamed as the warding dispersed,

And his true form then blossomed; we all feared the worst.

As Delphinus had thought, it was Slith come again,

And the fighters and warriors were ruthlessly slain.

In a final black flap of unsightly disgust,

He threw back his wings, and skywards he thrust.

Slith has returned, and the sun shines above..

But there is nothing in the night to be afraid of.