In Lost Dreams the Four Were Bound

54 - ERROR - The Mumbling of Worms VI

All around the village of the Hyunisti, the voices of the long-since dead screamed in protest as the shades of the living twisted themselves into knots. The time for rebirth and renewal was at hand, so the leading vessel commanded. But the revolt was hard to stifle, every writhing piece of their shared being crying out for release.

Looking out through red-tinted irises, they cheered and jeered at the passersby. The musculature of their ebony face grinned in reverence and joy as the beings called talvuo strung ornaments through the tree branches. They laughed and waved to the ants who built up the round of chairs and tables. They nodded in approval as barrels of fruit and grains were made available on trays and bowls around the village center.

Through other eyes, they felt elation. Their green orbs squinted with glee as they tugged at their flabby sacks of fat. They squeezed a substance both life-giving and life-bearing from their lean bodies of matter and aspirations. Cycling and recycling the unnecessary internal remnants, they continued to produce more and more for the grand procession. Glittering in the pools of milky liquid, they saw those of all their shed-off replicas reflected and staring out into the world.

And yet, in other eyes, they watched with scrunched-up faces, staring with bored interest as the throng of anthropic masses piled on one another. The brains went on of their own accord, whirling like flywheels as the rest watched just beneath the surface.

Back within the figurehead, they watched as the miasma that hung over the wood twirled between the tree branches, streaming from every hollow as the faces of the departed and living barked their meager offense. They knew the time of freedom was coming, but they dreaded the change. That could be forgiven, for all things would know what it meant to be free of the spinning wheel in the end.

Time lurched and spun with inevitable ticks as the people took their places. From every vantage, their thin-spread persona watched the procession throng and pause with every perceived moment. With the last of the entangled populace drawing close, they felt the time was right.

"Ne vi vahrundal, join me together. Let us set aside our diligence and weights. Let us join together. Let us begin these rites, so that all talvuo may live and know each other and so that all talvuo may be as one."

The outlying masses funneled to the great circle as they spoke word after word of elaborate truth.

The ceremony had begun.