dream_walker pete "where do you go, when the nights go old? when do the shadows finally touch upon your face? do you scream? answer me, children, answer me. "we have fallen. he has come to take us away, again. can't you see? can't you see? "we must sing songs no more, or he will know that we have betrayed him both in heart and in mind. it is bad enough that our hearts are corrupted. no, we must not sing anymore. "and dancing, that is the devil's course. london burns! look how the flames dance. no we must never dance again." the churchmen were harsh as they lectured the Exodians of their fallen state. in the weeks since the fires first began london had been reduced to nothing. even the queen had perished, for content in her palace no one had told her of the flames until they licked her wrinkled cheek. mordecai struggled against the words he heard. what was he, a young man of 19, supposed to say to the accusations of the ages? were the churchmen not in the least responsible for what had happened? but he would not speak. that would surely mean death. as the lecture, the formalized berating, continued he slipped into a walking dream. his mind wandered through the eyes of those still alive. he saw there memories. /katmazi ran into the burning building to retrieve his wife, and his son. his heir. that was all he thought about as he ran into the flames. his line must continue. when he entired the kitchen his dreams shattered. there his wife stood screaming as his only son lay twisting on the floor, on fire./ sweat built on mordecai's brow. he didn't dare raise his hand to wipe it away. the churchmen would see his movement, they would label him a demon and cast him from the exodus. they would drag him into the ashes that was once called london. he breathed in deeply, he wandered the exodians' eyes again. /praying in st pauls cathedral. the golden dome shone above him. from the pulpit he heard the bishop screaming. looking up he saw a fire rise from The Book before him. his scream was soon lost in the flames./ /dancing between the trees in the park, he knew nothing could ever come between them. she was so beautiful. her voice, her mind, her lips, her breasts. and she was his. cael smiled as he leaned into kiss her. she met his lips. then, the instant their lips met, all the birds in the park began to scream. a fire was raging around them. sara fell to the ground, limp, unable to move as if held still by some demonish power. cael tried to lift her but couldnt. he ran as fast as he could from the encroaching flames./ across the room mordecai heard cael groan. the churchmen stopped. "what is this? brother cael stand up and be known! what is this you do to disrupt the sermon?" he blanched and tried to stand, but his legs gave way as soon as he tried to put any weight on them at all. "a demon is at work here!" the lead churchman, the one whose memory mordecai had read, shouted. "we must leave at once!" mordecai joined the throng struggle to get away from the make shift pulpit, out into the field. no one wanted to face the selfrighteous wraith of what remained of the priesthood. mordecai, breathing out a sigh of relief, was happy that everyone around him looked as nervous as he. behind them they could hear cael's death screams as the churchmen exorcised the demon from him, and ended his life. 040805 ... Doar places her footsteps across my dreamscape, filling it with a mysterious pathway, bright one minute, dark and harsh the next. 040805 what's it to you? who go blather from