– 5 –

Once upon a time there was a storm that saw itself, and in that seeing became nithrid.

It became a thing of the divine fire. It lashed itself about with itself and exalted itself with its own savage glory. It knew the dreams and fears that storms awaken and it aspired to them — became the god we see in storms.

It saw that it was frightening and it grew more fearsome.

It saw the substance of its rage and it grew more fierce.

It wound and unwound itself, spread itself over the world devouring storms, and laughed at the workings of svart-elves and humankind; it dreamed to smash all the works of civilization, to leave it burning and in ruins, and to drive the observing masses back to cower and whimper in the caves.

In this it failed.

Hans caught it; bound it in human flesh; lined the cage of its bones with knives; and lid it in its nithrid-hole, deep beneath the Earth.

Hans sealed it, kept it, protected us;

But Hans is dead.

It skirls the Earth now like a centipede of lightning; one limb of it cuts through Edmund’s old dormitory and it doesn’t even slow down. It just sears a line through the building and leaves the remnants to lean to either side.

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