XXI.
Away from temple spires, bell’s phantom chime,
To highlands I was led, and to a peak,
Craggy the rock and arduous the climb,
And thick the fog, all but blind in the bleak,
Well nigh lost heart, we rose above the streak.
World aloft! Set ablaze in fiery hues,
A warm and quiet glow; we did not speak.
The sea of mist below, a truth to lose,
The life I knew before, I could no longer choose.
XXII.
In the hills still stood a folly tower,
An ale raised! ‘To us two no ones nowhere!’
A locket Vincent drew out, 'My flower.'
Her smile playful, and flaxen was her hair,
'Bosom red o’ robin, Gillian fair!
She waits! A maid to win, a flame to find,
Home, Marcel, tell me whom awaits you there?'
She who still haunts the fringes of my mind.
The cloth of night then sprawled and under stars I pined.
XXIII.
With woe, Furthercroft again, our descent
Led through this hopeless land, this barren waste,
Decay throughout, crumbled graves in torment,
The drear unending, bright visions erased,
Where were the moon and stars? My sun’s embrace?
While ventures grand I’d read, here no such tale.
Though time seemed stuck, my days would pass with haste.
From briny tombs, trounced memories prevail,
Of a man before the fog, the motley and ale.
XXIV.
How long we’d travelled, was it days or years?
Here thoughts long shunned were resolved to remind,
To dwell on is and was brought only tears,
Would not the mist so numb a troubled mind?
There I lowered down and withdrew behind,
Awash therein amnesia’s soothing dew,
'Let me forget- nothing more, leave me blind!'
From out the gloom came Vincent into view,
'Come Marcel, the stars, nor I are finished with you.'
XXV.
In firm solitude, ever have I stayed,
Company is sour yet this I can stand,
Two souls akin, for so distinct in trade,
That I should find him in this lonely land!
The valley of rock, far from Vesperand
Carried through rugged crags and wafting brume,
Beating drums and chants approached, Here, a band?
'A Tradition, the Mist March, I assume.
Hiding out here, they thought they could escape the fume.'
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XXVI.
The grey procession passed with ringing chimes,
Hooded faces weeping, howling a dirge,
Defeated eyes, yet still they sung the rhymes:
‘And dark pervades without a flame to purge,
Caduceus it’s ward, so reigns the scourge,
So will thy machines shepherd wayward herds?
When kept below, only astrayed emerge!’
The purpose they’d forgotten, not the words,
And clung to spells of yore, as the trapped rat to curds.
XXVII.
And onwards wading through the flood and dread,
A coiled wilderness, our steps would unfold.
This fierce companion, would march on ahead,
Valour I called it, like knight’s tales of old.
He spoke of their deeds as his to uphold.
But a qualm on his brow, oft in a daze
Our course and quest near lapsed until retold.
Near came the end of our long journey’s ways,
At land’s end, where stood the flame long since elder days.
XXVIII.
A sullen tempest stood upon the cliff,
With battlements still manned by waning shades,
Observing our entrance but holding stiff.
Into the keep of a thousand crusades,
Where lingered the cries of perished brigades.
Afraid of black descent, I held the stairs,
That tumbled endless in spiralled cascades,
But followed Vincent down to ancient lairs,
As the embers in his torch gave their final flares.
XXIX.
Our steps did break a silence long before,
The labyrinth quaked at our intruding.
'Alack, and light without! I am no more!'
'Peace, friend,' for our charge was soon concluding.
My voice he knew, though mind was eluding.
Spindly tapping pursued, creatures in room,
From gnawed crevice high, in darkness brooding,
Forwards I urged him, down into the womb,
Daring not comprehend the horrors of this tomb.
XXX.
The tunnel came to and the scurry ceased,
Ahead a white speck, void yet to swallow,
Was it so? Or had my wits too released?
'A flicker there?' he said. 'I will follow.'
A roar! Primal, from darkest depths hollow,
My skull shaken, breath limbo and ears clasped,
Forebears’ fear chilled through my blood to wallow.
Terror taken, away I hurried fast,
'Fly Vincent! The quest is over! All hope is cast!'