P.S.Clinen

“For this month alone the Moon would gaze down on Earth with accompaniment, in this time when the Minor Moon would rise into view from the vermillion dusk to spin a web for itself next to its full-bellied parent. Hereon Major and Minor would embrace in silence with the affection of friends reunited after a long journey, and light up the evenings with a brilliant luminance made possible by the rays refracted off the Rings of Mars. For the people of Verdigris, it was an annual celebration of the cosmos, as well as an admonition to understand a knowledge that had been lost to them; for there were none left alive who knew of that age of darkness – when the night was lit by one lantern – or of the calamitous event that led to its downfall. There were things known and things extirpated, eaten away like a page in a dusty book, and even the most learned of Verdigris’ citizens saw their world in the light of an incomplete jigsaw puzzle rather than breaking any new trodden ground….”

“The Continent of Verdigris may not have had any notable qualities in terms of its perimeter shores – on the maps it was little more than a shapeless blob surrounded by ocean. Yet from shore to shore, north to south, east to west it was brimming with the beauty of nature, the advancements of civilisation and the warmth of life, of connection. There was no other vibrant, or frankly inhabitable place in the world. At the intersection of the four compass points (or one should say, roughly off-centre, for nature is more beautiful without symmetry), its tallest mountain towered above a range of snow-capped peaks. Cardinal Mons, named originally for its central position on the maps, and later for the social status it would imbue, stood tall; sometimes proudly, sometimes ominously, yet soothingly omnipresent. The peak was like an anchor to all who lived on the Continent, immoveable and always there. It snowed year-round near the summit, yet the mountain had a warmth to it, as though it was as alive as the creatures that wandered its slopes, exuding a certain paternal authority over its sovereign lands….”