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The Emperor's Dream
40) The Time-Dreaming Beast

40) The Time-Dreaming Beast

Time-dreamed City, you have been

Ocean-bound, and here unseen,

Where now is come a darker day,

And you too soon must be his prey,

for 'neath the days of light and rime,

we are all devoured now by time,

If the power that raised it here

Venerates this watery bier.

The silent depths lay conquered now,

And stars fallen now crown his brow

Will damned now dream from drowned graves

Of his throne, amidst the waves.

Scrimshawed, diamonded and pearled,

Crowned within the hidden world,

the Coiled One here beneath the sea,

gently nudges eternity.

Slow it moves, the hands of fate,

And all is in its ancient state,

With glowing sea-blooms overgrown,

the gates of coral, jade and bone.

And dreaming in the wine-dark sea

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'neath currents of infinity,

The Mighty One finds his way,

wandering at the close of day,

breathing dreams forevermore

that shall then wash on distant shores.

They linger here, these human forms,

beneath the darkness and the storms,

the wretched soul now writhes and squirms

like sin-stained, polluted worms

that to the corpse of greatness cling,

slaughtered now and mouldering,

Yet even these might someday be

from their wretched sinful forms set free.

Twining memories of old time

gaining virtues more sublime,

If not, then may their souls decay

As night will fade to dawning day

these lost souls, withered and grey

shall shatter, fade and waste away.

Wilting now like dying flowers,

In the waste of years and hours,

And from their passing new things spring

With ever-greater blossoming.

What wretched things, these mortal souls,

yet even these must play their roles,

For things that dwell in joy or pain,

those who serve and those who reign,

shall find a place in this enshrined,

within the flow of time entwined.

And so the distant, dreaming drowned,

once lost and in the deep now found,

may stir again from fitful sleep

and find life in the starlight deep.

the humble and true, the proud and vain

all souls exist in his domain,

From every creed and every clime -

all follow the flow of time.

And there they shall his might behold,

A Dragon Coiled, Azure and Gold