CHAPTER 8A Midnight Conversation
As the hours came and went in their steady pace, as the days were born and died beneath the sun and the clear evening sky, the Prince felt his madness retreat a little. Still it weighed on him heavily. He understood what he had done, what had happened. The horror of the situation remained. He was like one dazed with a wound, before the real pain begins. His future disintegration was clearer to him than any prophecy ever could be, a thing inevitable, yet to be resisted with grace and valor for all the ending would be the same. Perhaps he could gain a little time. He could not hope for more than that.
Therefore he occupied himself with tasks. It was safe to go out now. After many months, air was pure. The poison was gone from the land, as if the white powde
