Delere Auctorem Rerum Ut Universum Infinitum Noscas

In my infancy I walked the forest paths

My footprints trod the virgin snow

As I was mauled by unending blizzards

Blind and alone

With knees and elbows

Nails, teeth and viscera

I made my way

Beset by storms

Through screaming chasms I ventured

Into the winding caves I chased warmth

The atrium opened before me

Revealing a palace of ice and stone

Of fire, flesh and timber

Alien yet familiar

Halls sprawling off to endlessness

Lined with talismans and amulets

I struggle to walk their length

But I must

After each failed step I summoned another

All at once I was well

The cold not longer beat at my chest

My back writing upward

I stood tall and strong

And with each golden trinket and ornament

I marched faster onwards

Clawing at my feet

They came

Tearing through splintered oaken floors

I fell for eternity

Dragged by sinewy fingers

The skin of my face

Torn off by the stone walls of the pit

As I descended

Screams reverberated in the deep

The earth crumbled under my fall

Dust revealed my destination

This place

Where men are conjured by cheap incantations

Where all questions are answered

And all journeys are at an end

The walls of this foul crevasse

Stained with the blood of climbers

Pulled apart by those who speak hollow words

And tell of the nothingness beyond this place