Infinity and all at once falls roaring over an Edge, whence Time has long
ago recalled his hours to fight in his war with the gods; and falls unlit
by the flash of nights and days, with his flood unmeasured by miles, into
the deeps of nothing.

Now as the centuries went by and the one way by which a man could climb
Poltarnees became worn with feet, more and more men surmounted it, not to
return. And still they knew not in the Inner Lands upon what mystery
Poltarnees looked. For on a still day and windless, while men walked
happily about their beautiful streets or tended flocks in the country,
suddenly the west wind would bestir himself and come in from the Sea. And
he would come cloaked and grey and mournful and carry to someone the
hungry cry of the Sea calling out for bones of men. And he that heard it
would move restlessly for some hours, and at last would rise suddenly,
irresistibly up, setting his face to Poltarnees, and would say, as is the
custom of those lands when men part briefly, "Till a man's heart
remembereth," which means "Farewell for a while"; but those that loved
him, seeing his eyes on Poltarnees, would answer sadly, "Till the gods
forget," which means "Farewell."

Now the king of Arizim had a daughter who played with the wild wood
flowers, and with the fountains in her father's court, and with the little
blue heaven-birds that came to her doorway in the winter to shelter from
the snow. And she was more beautiful than the wild wood flowers, or than
all the fountains in her father's court, or than the blue heaven-birds in
their full winter plumage when they shelter from the snow. The old wise
kings of Mondath and of Toldees saw her once as she went lightly down the
little paths of her garden, and turning their gaze into the mists of
thought, pondered the destiny of their Inner Lands. And they watched her
closely by the stately flowers, and standing alone in the sunlight, and