* * *
And Si'Wren died.
And these were all the years of her life, and she was but seventeen
when she died. I, Ibi, have made proper record of it and shall now seal
all away in a great stone jar, for a strange and unheard-of thing
happens even as I write these words. Water, falling from the sky for
almost a solid week! This miraculous thing have I beheld with mine own
rheumy and tired old eyes that thought they had seen all that there was
to see, and still it falls! The gods harken not unto the lamentations
and sacrifices of men. The rivers, the lakes, and the very sea itself,
all are tumultuous, swollen, and rising. Great fear has fallen upon all
flesh, upon every man, woman, and child, and upon every beast, and fowl
of the air, and lowly creeping thing alike. For the space of six days
and six nights has this cursed divine waterfall descended from the
heavens upon all the formerly dry land.
I go again to pray. Ye gods, why do ye not listen? Perhaps the great
Invisible God of Si'Wren, the Holy One Who is like water, will hearken
unto my prayers if the other gods will not, and surely tomorrow, on the
seventh day, He will rest.
* * *
The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful
men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away
from the evil to come.
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