The Failure of Time
From The Spinner’s Writ
Time trundled unmeasured.
The sun declared the morning.
The moon marked the night.
Summer wandered into autumn.
Autumn collapsed into winter.
Winter trudged into spring.
Spring ambled into summer.
And so lives were lived.
Food was sown and harvested and stored.
Time trundled unmeasured
in a reliable pattern
that the People depended upon.
Certain people, scattered around the land,
felt the need to record their doings,
felt the need to put their lives
into records to be
reviewed and remembered.
As their children were born,
so their lives were recorded from the start.
As generations of records came into being,
history came to life, the past was tangible
and seasons were marked.
Time still trundled,
but now it was measured.
Years were counted by small groups,
not correlated with other groups,
a standard system would not
be formed for many years.
The Children of the gods took notice.
They cared not for history.
What was the past,
other than old toys
broken and buried?
They did not consider that
one plaything might mourn
other playthings that
ceased to function.
The Children did not consider
that orderly lives
allowed the People
to grow and develop.
The Children did not consider
that their playthings were alive,
aware and evolving.
The Children met
on the Only Mountain
and together decided
to change the world
to see how
the People would react.
Without warning,
day followed day,
followed by day.
The sun did not set.
It dangled from the sky
at noon unending
or so it seemed.
Who knows how long that day lasted?
Not even the Children knew.
The People were exhausted.
Sleep was hard to find.
Teetering on the brink of madness,
the People cried out for aid.
They had not failed
in their Mandate,
so why were they punished?
The Children heard their prayers
and blessed the People with night.
The sun faded from the sky.
But the moon never arrived.
Nor did the stars.
A blank, murky nothing yawned above
the heads of the People.
They finally rested,
but awoke to find that
all light was gone.
Pitiful fires were kindled
and the utter blackness
squeezed in on them.
Robbers and monsters
seized the darkness
to terrify and exploit
the good People.
After uncounted time had passed
and the Children grew weary
of endless yammering prayers for aid,
the sun was returned to the sky.
Not one hour passed before
it was again swallowed by night.
The monsters attacked again,
but were revealed by sudden sunlight
and they fled in terror and confusion.
The People lost all will
to survive and care for themselves.
They were troubled by
hallucinations and depression.
Sanity seeped away
as the Children laughed at
the hideous plight of the People.