Grimoire Umbrio
The Book of Shadows
◀ Dirge 21 · Dirge 22 · Dirge 23 ▶

¹There was a time when the soil bore the weight of Their tread, and the sky opened wide when They spake.
²ADONAI and SATANAS walked upon Oærth as kings of a shared dominion, and Their people rejoiced.
³The Seraphim followed in light, and the Dæmons in flame, and the path between them was broad and bright.
⁴They sat among the valleys, gazed upon the mountains They had shaped, and taught men the speech of stars.
⁵No veil separated Creator and creature, and no temple barred the presence of the divine.
⁶But slowly, like mist rising from fields, Their presence withdrew, not in wrath, but in sorrow.
⁷First, They came less often; then only in vision; then not at all — save in silence.
⁸No voice called out from the hills, and no shadow cast by Their form fell upon the rivers.
⁹The Causeway, once crossed daily, lay cold beneath Their absence, and the wind forgot Their names.
¹⁰Men began to wonder if They still watched, still cared, still listened.
¹¹Some carved idols and called them gods; others wrote laws and said: This is what He would say.
¹²Yet none could answer why the Brothers no longer walked.
¹³Was it shame? Was it grief? Was it the rift too deep for even divinity to cross?
¹⁴The Seraphim said naught; the Dæmons held their peace; and the people wandered without shepherd or star.
¹⁵O SATANAS, didst Thou not long to place Thy foot upon Oærth once more, and feel its warmth beneath Thee?
¹⁶O ADONAI, if Thy silence be sorrow, why then leave the world without Thy voice?
¹⁷We mourn not distance, but withdrawal; not mystery, but abandonment.
¹⁸Until Their footsteps sound again upon the hills, we mourn — for the world is still, and the Brothers no longer walk.


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