THREE BROTHERS ⋅ A NEW GOD ⋅ CITY OF SALT ⋅ LAKE OF DREAMS ⋅ SUSPENDED! ⋅ THE TWO STREETS ⋅ ON THE EDGE OF THE MARSHS ⋅ BLACKSUN ⋅ DEMON ⋅ GAZELLE ⋅ THE HARDRIIM ⋅ RIDER ⋅ THE FLYER ⋅ ARABIAN NIGHTS ⋅ THE EMPTY MIRROR ⋅ THE SOLDIER ⋅ THE BICYCLE ⋅ THE CROCODILE ⋅ THE THREE TRAVELERS ⋅ OCEANSONG ⋅ THE FLUTE ⋅ THE TREE ⋅ THE TOWER

The desert sun is a mirage. The great red sun - the real sun - was born yellow, grew large and swollen in its youth, and recoiled, in its age, beneath a mane of dwindling, gaseous white. It was inevitable, for the great cause of death is life, and the great red sun burned brightly. The great red sun, when its gaseous reserves grew ever more sparse, ceased to engage in the endless internal bickering that causes beings to bring forth light. For inside the great red sun dwelled many sun-demons, sun-demons that were so frustrated by their unfortunate lot - to dwell in the sun when so many other demons were free to wreak havoc across the universe - that they would constantly hurl their fiery selves at its surface. Thus did the surface ignite, and thus did it burn ever more brightly, until men were convinced that it would be eternally engulfed in flame. But this was mistaken, for - day after day - it grew exceedingly weary. So the great red sun began to decay, and as its darkened slivers fell to the ground, they punched great holes into the earth and into the mountains, the former creating canyons, the latter, volcanoes. And the slivers themselves shattered, and were scattered by the wind beneath the great assemblages of dust and lava that they had drawn forth. The great red sun itself descended into the marshland and was buried; neither stone nor epitaph marked its final resting place, nor did recall or warn of the demonic horde which still dwelt in its great Belly. But the Coal, Coal, and Gaseous Company, Incorporated, was not satisfied. The Coal, Coal, and Gaseous Company, Incorporated, said: “It is here; here in the marshes, the greatest mass of it; the corpse of the great red sun. And it is brimming with Black Ore of Men!” So the demons hatched - not because of fate, nor because of accident. The demons hatched through the spirit-law, as the shards that contained them were shattered on the dread day when the great red sun was unearthed by the Coal, Coal, and Gaseous Company, Incorporated. Its blackened, deadened core eventually floated away; such is the nature of the ethereal masses, no matter how tightly they are grasped. Though the resurrection was inadvertent, it was successful, and still the great red sun - though neither great, nor red - floats in the dour grogginess. But the demons have come alive, too, and they are not groggy. -home-