It is held by some that they are the sources of night, and that
darkness pours from them at evening upon the world; while others hint
that knowledge of these might undo our civilization.
There watched him ceaselessly from the Under Pits those eyes whose
duty it is; from further within and deeper, the bats what dwell there
arose when they saw the surprise in the eyes; the sentinels on the
bulwarks beheld that stream of bats and lifted up their spears as it
were for war. Nevertheless when they perceived that that war for which
they watched was not now come upon them, they lowered their spears and
suffered him to enter, and he passed whirring through the earthward
gateway. Even so he came, as foretold, to the City of Never perched
upon Toldenarba, and saw late twilight on those pinnacles that know no
other light. All the domes were of copper, but the spires on their
summits were gold. Little steps of onyx ran all this way and that.
With cobbled agates were its streets a glory. Through small square
panes of rose-quartz the citizens looked from their houses. To them as
they looked abroad the World far-off seemed happy. Clad though that
city was in one robe always, in twilight, yet was its beauty worthy of
even so lovely a wonder: city and twilight were both peerless but for
each other.
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