CHAPTER 1
A deep voice leers: from the darkness;
"I am...what once was Mondaeus..."
"Much has been diminished...It is true...but what is, is what will become; You were a fool...to come here! But I must...aid you...It has been promised..."
Your body itches; there is no other living thing here...except that fly!
"That is true...the truth...saddens me; but what once was, is no more..."
"Where are you?"
"It has come to this...Mondaeus...living, half-dead, like that wretch..."
A roach speaks; "I am...now much diminished...only the living...the only living earths, here...are these roaches, flies, rats...and some of his wretches...the poor yehmen..."
"How will a roach, a fly, and a rat aid me?! I must-"
"The sword...Sleipnir! I know...it has not been lost! Look...inside the bosom of the dead woman! A prophecy! Locus...the fool...in his foolishness...he was perhaps right! Sleipnir has not fallen to the hands of the Devil!"
It is true...
The sword gleams; a flash of light like the Gods touch! Pure, white flame!
"Go...into the old...petrified forests...what once was... The Great Forest Odun-Ra...Upon Greater Oggum..."
"You will need whatever powers...remain here....in this land...The spirit...tormented...of Ra...Greatest of trees...that drinks from the southernmost tip...of least of three rivers, triangle..Raasantii...Then the spirit Ra will tell you...how to mount up the river..."
"The river...?"
"An impossiblity...has been revealed...Go!"