{Derelicts struin across the blasted plains.}

{The need is like a hunger.}

{Even the most devote are tempted.}

{Signs painted over forgotten portals.}

{The crone sharpens her dagger.}

{Blind lunatics mock the greed of false holy men.}

{The need is like the gaze of a priestess, painful and thrilling, a curse and a blessing.}

{In the old, half-dead cities I found victims.}

{They asked me what our ancestors would think if they could see us now.}

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{In the spaceport I found remnants of the old enforcers. We traded. They tried to convert me. I left before the sun came up.}

{Debris blow around in the weak light.}

{I was told that they hunted us until we learned how to hunt them.}

{Flames lick a sickly sky.}

{Cries of rage in the night.}

{Graveyards everywhere, all defiled.}

{Cannibals under the bridge. I picked them off one by one.}

{Under the light of the smallest moon, I fed the need.}

{They are like festering jesters, destroying everything in the name of falsehoods.}

{Sleep comes slow and ends in terror.}

{Deserters from some useless war linger beside the ancient lake. Lost and hunted but not so helpless that I would risk it.}

{Genocide hymns were sung. These moments were like pinpricks of joy in the lives of the singers.}

{In some places the light seems to only go so far. The rain drops race past in the dimness.}

{Mad preachers demand that which I can’t give.}

{I trudged through the wilderness, In search of something to live for. I only found desolation.}

{The maiden waits in darkness and prays for fire.}