You earthlings have children. . .     .

You tell them tales. . 

Tales are something that never happened.        In your opinion. . .    .

It was. .          Only you’ve distorted everything. .

The Tradition is what happened before and what we told children. . .       Earlier. . .

Now we have no children.  .      We don’t give birth anymore. .         You’re the only ones with children left.

Not everything was told.      Maybe it was wrong. . .

The Slave

They dragged him in beaten and threw him in the jail across from mine. .

He didn’t get up from the floor until the next day and saw me right away. I’ve been standing at the bars all this time, looking at him. .      He’s never seen me before. .

He is a slave.    And I am one of the Emperor’s wives. .     Ex-wife. .

He probably knew who I was right away. .       By clothing. . .     And not only. .           Even beaten, but I’m still beautiful . . .       probably. . .

That’s what I wanted to think. . .      In fact, the whole face is smashed, teeth are knocked out and one eye is leaked out. . .     The nostrils, the lips are all broken. .        I looked like that – with one eye. . .       And I thought. .     About him. .       Why is he. . .

Me, of course. .     I hate the emperor. . .         What’s he for. . .    .

You don’t get out of jail alive. .          It is just the execution-sacrifice doesn’t happen right away. .     It happens only on days defined by Law. .       Then these have fun. . .       And the execution is the main entertainment of the feast of sacrifice. .

He stood up. . . He grabbed the bars and stayed there, staring at me. . .

I was reading his mind, it’s easy. . .

He knew it was a holiday in three days. .          That he was chosen out of all for some special sacrifice. Therefore, he was beaten so as not to break the bones unintentionally. .      And so that all the organs were intact. It’s necessary. Otherwise the sacrifice will be ruined. . 

He realized that I will be on this day as well. . .

He closed his mind and I couldn’t read the thought anymore. .

I think he knew something. . .     He closed that thought so quickly when I touched it. . .         He turned away from me. .        Then he took off all his clothes and climbed into the pit.           A pit is a place where piss and shit. . .      Everything flows out of the pit into the drains. The drains converge into one large pit then. . .      So I was told.   If they throw you in there, you won’t be able to get out. .      These even have the execution of throwing into drains. .    To drown you in the shit of a big pit. . .     Not immediately, of course. . .     .      This is a simple execution. When they don’t even want to watch you die. They just drop you and forget it. .

Real executions are complicated.   They torture you and enjoy your torment. .       But the Pits are still the most feared. .       I read the thoughts of the surroundings, and they are – just not in the Pit. .

I thought he lost his mind when he went in there himself. . .       I thought he might have been afraid of being tortured at the sacrifice. . .            What a fool, I thought. . .    .

I didn’t like him at first sight. . .     His face. . .       and the way he looked at me. . .     A fool.

What kind of nonsense did he come up with, to climb naked, so as not to get stuck. . .   To slip like shit through the entire drain right into the common pit. . .       But why. . .      After all, even heroes are afraid of the Pit most of all.

I was still standing at the bars when I felt something behind me. . .           He came out of my pit. . .     naked and covered in shit. .       It was a disgusting and pitiful sight. .      I thought that nothing could be worse in life. . .       That I would be raped by a mad slave. . .      covered in shit. . .        and. . .

I cringed in disgust. . .        And he was standing against the wall next to the pit. . 

He stood there looking at me. . .       Then he told me to stand on his back, then on his shoulders, so that I could reach the window.     He will lift me up with his hands as high as he can and I will be able to get out. On the wall, outside the tower, there is a ledge around the entire House. .          The prisons for those who will be sacrificed are on the upper level.     Only the Temple is higher. .         The guards are on duty at the levels below and I will be able to climb higher to enter the Temple. . .         There is no one there, and I can use a separate internal passage to get to any of the lower levels.              No one goes there but This One. .     The Priest J.

He thinks that there should be exits from the House that don’t have security. . .       So he was telling me, and I understood every thought now. . .          saw all these passages where I had never been, saw me running over the black stones to the hills in the distance. . .      I saw and realize that I was saved. . .         And he stayed. . .            What they would do to him for this was terrible even to think about. .

This would be no ordinary sacrifice. .

He stood there and didn’t move. Then he got down on all fours under the window so that I could get on his back more easily.    He just stood there on all fours, covered in shit, waiting for me to come over.     He didn’t think anything else. . .      It was only – “Run, run. . .         “.

I don’t know why, but I suddenly thought that I would like to have a child with him. . .      And that he’s the. . .           the best. . .              and     . . 

I didn’t go through the window. . .      I didn’t want to run away at all. .         I thought I wanted to die with him. .          That he should not be in the shit when it happens. . .     .

I was wiping him off with my shirt when the guards came running. .        We were dragged out of the prison and dragged on hooks down a long passage. . .            To the lower torture chamber. . .

He had known all along what was going to happen.     And he never thought he did it for nothing. .

He thought that I. . .      , that. . .       .

I remember when These started with him. . .        Then there is just blackness. .

I don’t think there’s anything left of him. . .         These tried very hard. . 

I woke up from the pain when they started to treat me.       Then again I don’t remember. 

All I know is that the sacrifice didn’t work out on that summer solstice holiday. .        The correct one. .          By Law. .            And the J Cycle was broken.

In another life, I became Radiance and burned Them all. . 

I had no one to feel sorry for. .       He’s gone.

He was not a slave. .     A slave won’t do that. .          I knew their thoughts. .        I knew the thoughts of everyone in the house of Death.                      Only I didn’t find his thoughts. .        Neither before nor after. .

Now a new Big Cycle will begin.          But I don’t care about that anymore.