Twilight of the Wolves Read Free

forest and built towns and cities and created the histories of civilisations. All humanity caught within the pages of the endless rows of books growing larger every day and accelerating with the beginning of the war. Deathwalkers returned to pour the lives of the newdead into the stacks of books.
    The image bent and distorted by the meniscus of that whichcontained the monastery, two Angels flew overhead, swirling in figure-eights, uniting and separating, then disappearing into the blushing sky. He drew their movements in the dirt and compared them to the notes he took of dragonflies and bees and the way they flew in springtime, in autumn, in summer. The flight paths of birds beyond the barrier that housed all his life, the way the Ravens took to the air, and now Angels all carried in the notebook he kept pressed against his heart.
    Who are you?
    His spine fissured, cracking through the pink of his lungs, This one is no one, his voice hoarse and high-pitched.
    She smiled and his skin paled and burned in her supernova presence, Where do you come from?
    Nowhere and nothing.
    The Ravens tell Me you enjoy watching the living.
    He fidgeted then bowed low, touching his face to the marble, eyes clenched.
    Rise, no one. There is no shame in loving the living. It is for this reason that you lead them away and bring them to eternity where they may share in the Light and the unity of Life.
    He raised his head slow, Yes, Mother.
    Do you love them?
    He nodded, blinded by her radiance, the heat filling him, transforming his solitude into a bond eternal between Her and him.
    She touched his cheek and the world sloshed round him, thrown into disequilibrium, the balance of his center lost, tumbling full of Her ecstatic Light.
    What day is it, no one?
    This one died this day.
    And what is tomorrow?
    This one is born tomorrow, he raised his eyes to her solar gaze.
    Happy birthday, no one. You are My hands and mouth. You have died so that you may live and die forever.
    This one is Your daughter and will die forever.
    The Ravens increased in number and The One Who Lives appeared more often outside Her cloister. Her Light blinded them and ceased work until the Ravens demanded them to continue with gentle words echoing in their skulls.
    She stood over the gate and watched the war with a dimensionless gaze. He watched Her watching the world whenever no one watched him, whenever he was alone, and he sketched the glare of her Light. An itch grew inside him from deep in his bowels and rising through to his chest turning it heavy and light, at once, alternating, or empty, incomplete.
    He sat on the shrine’s peak staring at the fragmented moon change color from white to orange and on into red. The colors refracted and blurred from the gloss encapsulating them. Raising a finger, he traced a profile in the hollow of the moon over and over, smiling.
    Who are you, Her voice flushed through him.
    This one is no one.
    What do you desire?
    His voice caught in his throat, Nothing. This one desires nothing. His pulse quickened, the blood rushing through him, the hollow inside filling with Her echo, the echo of eternity.
    You must never lie to Me, no one.
    He lowered his face and clenched his eyes shut, keeping the tears within, swallowing them.
    She touched his face and his knees gave but She caught him, It’s okay, no one. Nothing lasts forever. Not even Me. Soon I will be another and then another after that and a thousand thousand others. I am only Her doll. I live but I am not real. She is thereality. She is the Dream. I am but a shadow.
    Mother, his voice a whimper, his body light, floating, the atoms separating, drifting apart.
    Do you know what today is?
    Today was the day this one died.
    She smiled and let go of him and he fell into the Raven’s hands who set him standing again. She said, And tomorrow you are born again. Tomorrow you embrace Death and will enter the world once more.
    He swallowed, his limbs tingling with swollen electricity.
    Happy