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Connects to: 06.03, 46.10 and 48.24
Somewhere in the arid landscape of the Southern Desert there is to be found the skeleton of an enormous bird, with a wingspan of five hundred feet or more. In the shadow of its ribcage, small flowers grow, similar to those in the footprints of the Tarrasque but dark blue instead of yellow. Inside its skull, which is cracked as if from a mighty blow, there dwells a man, shaggy-bearded and ancient, bearing a talisman which displays the twin faces of the Lion and the King. If questioned, he will claim to be the last keeper of the World’s Edge Lighthouse (46.10).
All around the bird skeleton there are drawn images in the sand, the same two over and over. The first, which the hermit refers to as ‘despair’, is an image of a hammer; the latter, which he calls ‘hope’, is that of an egg.
Hooks
- Is this the skeleton of Ziz, the third great beast to go alongside Old Leviathan (06.03) and the Tarrasque?
- If so, how will this affect the prophesized banquet that the lion priests are awaiting?
- What are the properties of the blue flowers?
- Is the hermit really Nikos Farver, last of the lighthouse keepers? How did he get all the way from the lighthouse to here?
- What is the significance of the hammer and the egg?
Connections
- The hermit distrusts the zealots in 07.33 and warns travellers of them.
