zomg I loved this. The way you meld all these voices and stories together, and the chilling mix of stories and sacrifice and the gods and the people and OH WOW.
I love the last lines especially: I am the slave digging sewers in the streets. I am the pleasure girl who warms her Tarkaan's sheets while longing for her native Galma. I am the young Prince Rabadash, pacing restlessly in his bed chamber, spoiled, unhappy, and petulant; I am the Great Vizier lying at the feet of the Tisroc (who shall not live forever; I have seen his fathers and forefathers perish, one by one) and secretly hoping for his master's demise. It takes the blood of many to build a mighty city -- not only the sacred one which wets my soil once a year, but that which pulsates through my streets in the shape of bodies. The barbarians fear me, for I am everything their homely dwellings are not; but the highborn love me, for my power is theirs and theirs is mine, and we recognise this in each other.
Stranger, I am the powerful head of the greatest country in the world, and I see you look at me in wonder -- but hesitate no longer; the gates are open, you are at your journey's end. Come inside me and let me swallow you. YES OMFG. LET ME SWALLOW YOU INDEED.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-10-20 08:14 pm (UTC)I love the last lines especially: I am the slave digging sewers in the streets. I am the pleasure girl who warms her Tarkaan's sheets while longing for her native Galma. I am the young Prince Rabadash, pacing restlessly in his bed chamber, spoiled, unhappy, and petulant; I am the Great Vizier lying at the feet of the Tisroc (who shall not live forever; I have seen his fathers and forefathers perish, one by one) and secretly hoping for his master's demise. It takes the blood of many to build a mighty city -- not only the sacred one which wets my soil once a year, but that which pulsates through my streets in the shape of bodies. The barbarians fear me, for I am everything their homely dwellings are not; but the highborn love me, for my power is theirs and theirs is mine, and we recognise this in each other.
Stranger, I am the powerful head of the greatest country in the world, and I see you look at me in wonder -- but hesitate no longer; the gates are open, you are at your journey's end. Come inside me and let me swallow you.
YES OMFG. LET ME SWALLOW YOU INDEED.