caryn

For Gyllien...(a bit of extemporaneous prose by actual me, apologies for the High Fantasy tone, I'm in one of those moods...)

Of old there was Oraman, the Shining City of The East, and it was a Light amid the Darkness, and all that was fair and bright and wonderful lay safe behind the mighty walls of that fortress. If in later days we came to know that much was base and false and cruel about the Empire that enriched that great city, and we look in sorrow on all that the arrogance of Oraman destroyed, can we dare say that it would be better never to have been?

For of old there was Oraman, and it was a Light and Dream of Light in a time of Darkness and Terror of Night. Let us regard then, that all things have some measure of Light and Dark within them, and in equal measure are we want to see them according to ourselves---when we were without Hope, and lay alone fearing the coming of Night, did we not look to East seeking The Light That Is, and Was, and Shall Be, and see there the Lamp of The East shinning in the firmament, a promise of Light after Darkness endured?

Remember therefore both that which was Fair, and that which was Wicked; Rage not against The Light for the fact of Darkness, neither yield to Darkness for the passing of Light; face the Dawn with Joy and the Dusk with Sorrow, for of these both is kindled the Fire that is Love, which even as it burn us, alone sustains us.