(Parable Outerlude)

Gaze north and beyond
These such meadows used to roll
Like waves on the shore

The land you see was one upended and revised by older races
Emotions and appearances had twisted several times over in those days
The world's eyes would roll like marbles across those meadows
Toward one certain wayfarer

This wayfarer would rarely speak
Pacing back and forth full of doubt
Among the copious corridors and parapets of the castle of their mental prison

The many cords in their mind were decaying and fraying
Begging for the holy mare to mend them back

The rolling eyes of others bellowed out
Speak! Speak, for those above are listening
Yet, the wayfarer's perception would not budge

Heave! Heave, for those lungs shall stay strong and rigid
Yet the wayfarer's throat remained sealed
Air dared not escape

Leap! Leap, for the moat shall break your fall
And yet still, their calls failed to obfuscate the wayfarer's warped perspective
No matter how much others may pry and beg for answers
The tortured wayfarer refused to expound themself and open up to their pleas

The others grew weary, bellowing impatiently with each new day
Attempts were made to peel back the wayfarer's veil of deception
But even that cloak escaped their hands
Nearly impossible to grasp
It would slip through their fingers like it didn't exist
Like climbing an invisible mountain

What's more, the wayfarer's body appeared empty to the others
Nothing to peel back, therefore nothing to reveal
Like the wayfarer was the very essence of nothing
No matter how they tried to make sense of the wayfarer's illness
Every answer led to more questions

It may be difficult to explain
But this essence of nothing spread like a wild virus
The illness growing and extending past the wayfarer

The corridors and parapets filled with this virus
Covering the walls and floors in every direction
The eyes of others became clouded
The illness obfuscating their once-clear vision
Just like their patient
Cataracts infested, like a terrible blight over an island
The walls turned red like blood cells and crumbled to the ground

And their blonde hair turned red and faded away among the wretched land
The castle sunk into its own moat
Like a faraway mountain disintegrating and offering its fire to the sky
Liquid stone, liquid sealant, liquid ash
Liquid eyes, liquid hair, liquid nothing

The liquid wayfarer oozed like slime and waded through the meadow
With seldom grip
The clouded eyes could no longer see
The liquid wayfarer still drifted across the meadow
Like smeared blue paint over redwood

The meadows shrunk under the blue, liquid wayfarer
Heaven began to bleed
The sky dripped with death in the form of an auburn sap
The wayfarer's virus spread across the atmosphere
Without a leader to take it across the sky

The land fell with regret
And bled itself to sleep
The lonely wayfarer waited too long