CHAPTER 2
The piper sings a song that reminds you of the sanguine passage of time:
"Still, so still, is the time! But you will never waver, like the orchard, when the storm comes; your destiny will shake you and blow you down!"
"Let us listen...I understand a little of what he is saying...his half mad words make a bit of sense to me...You are saying there will be a 'great war' and we shall be tested? Then, if we lose, what will become of us?"
"Of you, giant? Nothing...you will live, like always...You understand that...The fools that shall fight, hoping to win, maybe, their understanding will fuel that very same fight."
"You speak of destiny as if it is written down, as if it cannot be changed; as if you are an outlooker, reading the passages of a book."
"Who are you, cur?"
"I am the piper, I am the sick yellow man, I am Olabach the blind sage, I am the sage of the swamp-wayward-east, the prophet of snakes, the tablet-reader of Missun, the flame-oracle, the reader of beads, the gambler of angels, the layabout ocarine, the azure man of Assyr, the hanged man, the noose and the hanger; But I am foremost the bearer of the Witch-eyes. I am your warden.
"A guardian angel?"