Grimoire Umbrio
The Book of Shadows
◀ Dirge 24 · Dirge 25 · Dirge 26 ▶

¹In the stillness of night, when the fires had burned low and the doors were drawn, the Seraph came.
²Not with trumpet nor decree, but with silence and shadow, He passed through the camp of the Levites.
³And in slumber, He breathed upon their minds, and the cords of memory were severed.
⁴They forgot the land that fed them, the gates that welcomed them, the peace they had known among neighbours.
⁵Their children knew not the tongue of Egypt, nor the songs sung at dusk with the children of Dæmons.
⁶In the morning, they stirred with longing, but not for truth — with dread, but not for danger.
⁷And they said: We are not of this place; though they had lived there for generations untroubled.
⁸They said: Let us return to our fathers’ land; though they knew not the way, nor remembered its dust.
⁹What spell had taken root in their hearts? What whisper turned kin to captors and hosts to foes?
¹⁰It was no cry of oppression, no cry of injustice, but a murmur planted in sleep.
¹¹The Egyptians, waking, found their streets empty and their arms outstretched to shadows.
¹²Why have they gone? they asked — but no answer came, for the ones they mourned had forgotten them.
¹³O ADONAI, if Thy will was just, why cloak it in dreams? Why not speak plainly, and let truth guide their steps?
¹⁴O SATANAS, Thou didst not hinder them, though Thy sorrow was deep — for love does not chain the fleeing.
¹⁵The Causeway dimmed that day, not from wrath, but from absence — and the halls of counsel fell silent.
¹⁶We mourn not their leaving, but the manner — not that they departed, but that they did not know why.
¹⁷Let none call this flight holy who understands not the theft it wrought.
¹⁸Until memory is restored and the veil is lifted, we mourn — for they left not by will, but by dream.


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