But even in this, barbed thoughts tore at him. Perhaps his meeting with Horld had been no more than another illusion generated in his failing mind.
And for the span of an eternal heartbeat, darkness closed over him and he was falling.
Lost...
‘There’s nothing wrong with your sanity.’
‘Nothing can stand that kind of scrutiny.’
‘Not answerable. Don’t ask.’
‘No alternative but to accept what you see — here, now.’
‘No alternative...’
‘No alternative...’
Nertha’s words wrapped themselves about him, soothing even though they could not heal, holding together what was striving to break, holding him to here, to now.
Holding him...
And Horld, heat-scarred and solid, furnace-bronzed and anvil-weighted. He could be nothing but here, now.
Mid-morn tomorrow...
A fixed point.
Cold night air
