Mother Mors, watching the small black-and-white-striped prayer winging its way across the deeps of night, reached out her hand and gathered it in to her whirling bosom1, full of the milk of eternal kindness and soft with the vibrant2 softness of darkness itself, and read it there with the inner eyes of her heart.
That prayer contained some startling and incomplete information, and the mention of the passing of her enemy Diana whom she had tried to entrap3 herself for so long, brought Mors abruptly4 out of her sleep and sent her swiftly arrowing down upon the little valley where the golden pole now lit the whole sky.
The mystery and awesome5 power and majestic6 primal7 vitality8 of her silhouetted9 against and merged10 with the golden glory of the primal pole as the vast body of Mors merged and condensed and settled and came into human form there within the great banquet hall of Eos' palace on the disk.
Now as the body of the great Goddess of the night came into solidity before Eos, her laughter rang out, rich and ringing and with low, dark under-tones. Eos looked up from the great stack of ancient alchemic formulae where she sought the solution to the incredible quandary11 of too many lovers. For too-much-of-a-good-thing she could not find any reference in the books, for they were all designed to give only information on how to get rid of too-much-of-a-bad-thing.
Rosy12 to the tips of her fingers with embarrassment13, Eos rose to her feet, her glory dimmed by the majesty14 of Mors' dark beauty, her height dwarfed16 by the tall, mysterious strength of Mors' indestructible figure, a figure such as must have caused the ancient artists deepest despair to depict17 in the least of its intense and vital and overwhelmingly sublime18 symmetry.
Mors' laughter made Eos blush till rosy was not the word for her.
"My dear Eos, can this be you? I would hardly have expected it of you, who have always been to me the personification of so many virtues19...."
"Oh, Mother Mors, I am glad to see you, in spite of this state of affairs—you can help me. You must know what has happened?"
"I can guess, but you had better explain from the beginning. Only a woman could know what to do here, it seems." Mors glanced around at the thousand and some virile20 males.
"You know the Pole is responsible for bringing them here, and one by one Diana turned them into stone as soon as my lonely heart turned to them for affection."
"It's a good story, but no one but me will ever believe it."
Eos only looked pitifully at Mors, and Mors took her to her dark, soft heart, and the vast strength of her poured into the vibrant soul of Eos, mingled21 there with that golden energy that made her what she was.
"Whatever I do is going to break their hearts—you know what this place does to men. I cannot love them all, but I do, and I cannot send them away empty-handed. You know what it means to them! It is really all that cruel Diana's fault!
"For ridding me of her I owe you a debt, and though you are but a child to my ages of life, I will help you avoid ruining the lives of all these fine men whom you have loved. Suppose I take them away with me, all but one, and give them back their own time and place before they found their way here—give them the will to want that life before they knew you, would that comfort you?"
"Only one?" murmured Eos, then blushed as she looked out over the thousand-and-odd faces that stared at her accusingly.
"Only one, and you must choose him carefully from among them all."
"That will take some thought," said Eos, her face full of indecision. "I loved each of them dearly."
Mors' face grew a little stern at that, and quickly Eos went on:
"I'll attend to it directly, Mother Mors."
"I have a little errand to attend to over at Feronia's, I will be back in a few beats of Druga's stricken heart. You could at least have kept your body hidden from him, out of respect for Feronia! I have not much patience with your dilemma22. After all, there are other places to live, you know."
"But not for me, Mors. It follows me about!"
Mors' face grew even sterner, and Eos added:
"Of course I know that is because of the peculiar23 nature of the metal of which the disk is constructed, but after all you know it has been my home for so very long, I couldn't be expected to give up my home, could I?"
Mors only lifted one great dark eyebrow24 and lifted suddenly into dark whirling force and disappeared.
Eos, her face tear-streaked, went slowly down the endless line of men, examining each one carefully and cudgeling her memory to decide which one she had loved the very most. It was so difficult.
Mors, meanwhile, drifted into being over the sleeping Druga and the praying Feronia, still on her knees, her face upraised and very sweet with the dark-winged eyes closed, the long line of her throat sheer beauty in the dim light.
She touched the closed eyes softly with her potent25 fingertips, and Feronia opened them with a new understanding gifted into their structure. Then she softly entered Feronia's body and together they peered down into the body and the thought of the sleeping man, and with her dark fingertips vibrant with the energies of dark space, Mors went over each little nerve and passage in the brain where the energies of the disk and the Pole and the sight of the intense glory of Eros' body had burned out Feronia's years of love.
Everywhere she touched, a new awareness26 grew, centered and vitalized by the presence of Mors within the body of Feronia, so that nowhere was there any evidence of the loss of love, but only the beautiful memories of Feronia alive again within his mind, and wherever desire lived in him Mors touched her fingers, and planted a seed that would grow with good treatment into vital love. As she worked, Feronia wept shamelessly with thankfulness, and for every tiny node of love that Mors planted in Druga, one sprouted27 likewise in Feronia, and some of them were for Druga and some were natural gratitude28 to Mors for this work of replacement29. The sleeping Druga stirred and his arms came about Feronia's hips30 where she stood by the bed. Mors sent her strange energies through the two lovers, marrying them there with the potent blessing31 that is actual magnetic mingling32 of being—and Feronia knew that only by abuse could she lose this man again!
"You are a good girl, Feronia, and you have a good man. I will visit you again, if that Dark Master wills it."
A chill went through the chamber33 at the mention of The Name, and Mors went out with the strange ecstatic sweep of entity34, and Feronia knew what was meant by God-head.
Eos waited for a long time before Mors came again to her, for the God-head required certain things of Mors for this night's work.
As she at last reappeared to Eos, Eos did not note the terrific emotions of love-ecstasy upon her face, the record of her touching35 with the One upon the mention of him, and began to complain.
"How can I give them up, Mors?"
But Mors only looked at her with absent, flaming eyes, intent upon some far thing, and for the first time Eos noted36 the vast and subtle change in her, as if she had touched some vast fountain of beneficence somewhere in the while she had been gone. Her cheeks were flushed, her breast rising and falling. Mors was like a woman in love, or a Goddess touched by the love of Jove, and Eos' eyes fell before her sublimely37, and only stood waiting for Mors to do what she must.
So Mors absently gathered up all the thousand-and-some men, tucking them into her bosom one by one, and whirled into the night with all but one.
As the Goddess Mors disappeared, a sudden suspicion struck Eos, and she whirled to look upon the man that was left behind.
She burst into tears.
The Red Dwarf15 reached out and patted her golden head. Then he stepped to the controls and sent the disk winging swiftly away.
"Where are you going?" asked Eos, lifting her head in surprise, and looking indignantly through her tears.
"To the opposite Pole of Energy, my sweet one," said the Red Dwarf. "Be patient a little while, and you will yet be supremely38 happy. Mother Mors is very wise...."
And Eos was very happy. You see, I do know, for I was there. If it were not so, how could you be sure what I tell you is true? For it is true....
The wise will understand what I have written.
The End
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收听单词发音
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1
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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2
vibrant
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| adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的 | |
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3
entrap
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| v.以网或陷阱捕捉，使陷入圈套 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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5
awesome
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| adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的 | |
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6
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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7
primal
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| adj.原始的；最重要的 | |
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8
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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9
silhouetted
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| 显出轮廓的，显示影像的 | |
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10
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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11
quandary
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| n.困惑，进迟两难之境 | |
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12
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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14
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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15
dwarf
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| n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小 | |
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16
dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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17
depict
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| vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述 | |
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18
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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19
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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20
virile
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| adj.男性的；有男性生殖力的；有男子气概的；强有力的 | |
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21
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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22
dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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23
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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24
eyebrow
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| n.眉毛，眉 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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26
awareness
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| n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智 | |
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27
sprouted
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| v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
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28
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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29
replacement
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| n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品 | |
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30
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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31
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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32
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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33
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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34
entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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35
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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36
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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37
sublimely
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| 高尚地，卓越地 | |
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38
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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