Hemispheres ----------- Somewhere at the blasted bottom In the sand of what was once a sea Lies the city of eternal sorrow It is of the blackest stone And the blood-stained streets Of the city of the damned Are known as Aramyrr Grave of a thousand dreams And within the city Where no sane man may tread Lies a key A half of what was once whole A Hemisphere of the mind of God Shattered piece of all the brightest Asperations of a universe gone astray It is whispered In the sighing of the wind That one may come A mortal refugee from that city Where no mortal may tread And restore that Which was torn asunder A savior to rediscover That which has been lost Book One Memories In the Begining 1 He stood looking at the figure in the doorway He knew it couldn t be her it simply couldn t be He hadn t seen her in years She had gone He didn t know her name anymore he didn t know his own name but he knew she couldn t be real as surely as he knew he couldn t fly She smiled at him her eyes flashing in the dim light The figure extended a hand and beckoned him to follow as she turned and stepped through the marble archway behind her Something in the act of her turning her back and walking away made him forget himself He charged after her and dove through the gate not realizing until it was too late that he couldn t see anything beyond He felt as though he were falling and wondered distractedly how long he had before he would feel his bones shatter against the bottom of the pit Eternities seemed to pass as he fell and he contemplated the idea of a truly bottomless shaft Just as the idea was begining to seem frighteningly plausible he found himself standing once more on solid ground He stood in the center of a blood-stained cobblestone street Bodies lay strewn about him almost completely filling the road Men women and children lay together where they had fallen apparently killed in the act of slaughtering one another The stench of decay choked him the foul air closing about his lungs like an iron fist He closed his eyes willing himself to breathe and when he opened them the bodies were gone vanished like mist before a morning sun The air smelled dank and rotten but it was nothing compared to the unbearable stench that had assailed him moments before He looked about him noticing the strange quality of the light which seemed tinged purple The air was teeming with shadows even more than could be accounted for by the obsidian spires which surrounded him The structures looked as though they had been ravaged by fire and the upper stories of many had collapsed clogging the streets with rubble Even so they towered to almost unimaginable heights making him dizzy as he looked up to see the sliver of purple sky visible overhead As he surveyed his surroundings a strange feeling of aloneness crept over him He felt that the world he knew was eternities away and that he stood in a place where no mortal foot had trodden for eons A wind rose out of nowhere swirling dust up from the rubble in dancing little clouds As he watched the dust swirled together rising and congealing into the form of a woman The figure drifted slowly towards him He wanted to run from the wraith-like apparition but discovered that he was unable his feet seemingly rooted to the ground Then it was too late and the figure was upon him around him in him The dust of the dead filled his eyes his nose his mouth choking and blinding him As the dust assaulted his body a thousand voices screamed to life in his mind Cries of rage hate despair and regret all mingled together into a single wailing voice tearing apart his mind The voice rose into a screaming cacophony filling his head with white hot agony He felt something snap The voice slowly faded and he knew he was a part of it now one of the dead A quiet voice the voice of the woman in the gate spoke calmy saying El nazir aranon eryx contani and faded into nothing He woke in his bed trembling and drenched with sweat He sat up and groped about on his nightstand fumbling a cigarette out of the pack He placed it in his mouth and quickly lit it drawing smoke deeply into his lungs David Rayneir pondered the final words of his dream They were ancient words in a tongue long forgotten by most He hadn t heard them in years His grandfather had taught them to him and they meant Reality is as we perceive it to be David shivered snuffed out his cigarette in the ashtray and wrenched open a bottle that stood next to it A small white pill fell into his hand and was quickly dry-swallowed The pill should knock him out before his memory went into gear He hadn t dreamed about Christy in months and hoped to God that he wasn t going to start again To Be Continued Next Month L8R GRENDEL RANCiD 94