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

How many have longed to see the lake of dreams, how many have searched for it! Many, many years ago, I too yearned to be its discoverer. Following the entwining strands of many myths, I managed to gain entrance to the other world. I wandered its deadly silences and dark depths, searching for the lake of dreams - to no avail, but no matter: I was intoxicated by the taste of freedom! Great epochs passed before my indifferent eyes, eternity slipped away like so much rubbish in the wind. The insects no longer sang for me, the birds no longer consumed the insects that no longer sang for me. I soon found I had become ensnared in a world of shadows, living shadows that were by infinitesimal degrees stripping me of my consciousness and stretching it across time. In this frozen place of no dimension I came to the certainty that I had not only found the lake of dreams but was a captive of its awful depths! How I yearned now for the other world, the world of men! - a world I could no longer remember and yet which seemed so vivid and tangible that I could feel its presence just above the rippling surface of the lake of dreams where I lay festering and wretched. I cannot say how long I was a prisoner there - time had no meaning in that place - but I can say this: somehow my despair brought me back to the totality of myself and set me free. In that moment, if it can be called such a thing, I awoke. The place in which I found myself was a bleak and malevolent bog, cold and soaking, yet how I rejoiced in my newfound freedom! The stench of the bog gases could not have seemed more perfumed and gentle in my nostrils! Looking around in the murky twilight, I saw that I was on the bank of a small lake with unnaturally clear water. Beneath the reflections of dull, eroded mountains, incomprehensible shapes seemed to coalesce and then disintegrate, re-forming into ever more elaborate patterns. The lake of dreams! I became filled with an unspeakable knowledge - how could the truth be so simple, so heartbreakingly beautiful! It was as if I had been given the trumpet of creation! I immediately resolved to share this great gift, to tell my fellow men what had been revealed to me. One night, after several days of wandering, I found myself in a city on the edge of the marshes. The inhabitants were men like myself and spoke my language. Yet even as I attempted to speak to them, it was as if the very devil were controlling my tongue; even the most simple statement emerged as a distortion, a monstrosity. Could it be possible that I had forgotten what had been revealed to me? As the endless evening wore on, my anguish mounted until I knew only a numb aching loss; a loss I saw infinitely reflected in the furtive faces of every inhabitant of the city on the edge of the marshes. -home-