Of Those Spirits of the Dead

Mark you well: there is a place

beyond spirit, beyond life

which is Darkness.

Shadow, and there Shadows dwell.

An island, a fortress, a land of the Dead,

I have traveled there through

a pathway of doom

and I have witnessed the dread king

of the Stygian City as he sat at court.

I have seen the faceless hooded ones

traversing River Styx.

They swarm about us like flies on a

putrefying corpse, and

like us, feed on fear, ecstasy,

and anger.

Dead they are, but undead,

and they are closer to us

than we will ever know.

The Blood of my Brother

cries out to me as I sleep

as the Sun crosses the sky,

I hear my brother, second-

born Abel, screaming.

Mark well the spirits of

those who have died,

Know their strength is not your own,

Listen to their words: they

carry wisdom.

Listen not to their songs:

that way is oblivion.

Do not seek to bind them,

but free them if you can,

Such is the commandment

of Caine, who himself has been

imprisoned and freed.24