{Derelicts struin across the blasted plains.}

  {The need is like a hunger.}

  {Even the most devote are tempted.}

  {Signs painted over forgotten portals.}

  {The crone sharpens her dagger.}

  {Blind lunatics mock the greed of false holy men.}

  {The need is like the gaze of a priestess, painful and thrilling, a curse and a blessing.}

  {In the old, half-dead cities I found victims.}

  {They asked me what our ancestors would think if they could see us now.}

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  {In the spaceport I found remnants of the old enforcers. We traded. They tried to convert me. I left before the sun came up.}

  {Debris blow around in the weak light.}

  {I was told that they hunted us until we learned how to hunt them.}

  {Flames lick a sickly sky.}

  {Cries of rage in the night.}

  {Graveyards everywhere, all defiled.}

  {Cannibals under the bridge. I picked them off one by one.}

  {Under the light of the smallest moon, I fed the need.}

  {They are like festering jesters, destroying everything in the name of falsehoods.}

  {Sleep comes slow and ends in terror.}

  {Deserters from some useless war linger beside the ancient lake. Lost and hunted but not so helpless that I would risk it.}

  {Genocide hymns were sung. These moments were like pinpricks of joy in the lives of the singers.}

  {In some places the light seems to only go so far. The rain drops race past in the dimness.}

  {Mad preachers demand that which I can’t give.}

  {I trudged through the wilderness, In search of something to live for. I only found desolation.}

  {The maiden waits in darkness and prays for fire.}