Part 4

At first, it merely destroyed, annihilating whole towns in mere hours with its endless delèÜk Q2ŠŽuÈåÀ º¤}2üP’²¾:“$ wuge of inky arms, ripping through stone like flesh and through flesh like paper. Burning all it touched, setting the woBÓÔew÷¶ú šrld aflame. Putting an end to things.

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If it had stayed thus, armageÂúX±.‘0¤›rŸhiN6Õ% kè 5{Ѭ%«²ddon would have been an easy process. The world would have been ash before long aè÷TXWXßa V(Ÿ-ƒRÚnd we would have returned to our home in the cinders at last. But he is a cruel god and such mercy is bey)¹.a-Hê¤ ± —5ond the scope of his power. Eventually, the fires burnedU~lBQ£ÂúØ!{themselves to naught and silence ruled the world

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Then it was that his song came. Sickly and discordant, a tortuïî;¾þês \ÍÀµ¹Lµa»ÁDrous unmelody that seeped from the very stones themselves, ben> : xÂðÔLDding things and making them strange and alive. I vomited when I first heard the song, as did others, I have learned. But not axáwýóÝ÷[”ž˜¢ÜcÎkAw¸ Gll did. Not even most, actually. Almost all those still living did not he² “V¾‚n*bª' /O· ar the relentless ring of un in his voice. They heard a calling.

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The piper had found his rats.

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