\tAnd upon a hill stood a moonlit guardian, bathed in eternal night. It was marble, of a certain hue, weathered and old. Where an arm had once reached into the sky there was nought but a broken stump, and the arm was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n
\tThe statue had lived here for oh these many years, and upon its brow was stamped words in a language long forgotten. Their edges had been eaten away by moss, but recent times had seen a cleaning of the statue, and in the twilight it glowed with a pale radiance.<\/p>\n
\tIts face was passing strange, for writ large was an expression most unusual, and those who came to see it could not say if it was fear, or ecstasy, or some other that formed a juncture between the two. Indeed, those who lived nearby spoke of it in hushed tones, for they thought that the appearance did change with the passing of the years.<\/p>\n
\tNow children played at the foot of the guardian, for the hill upon which is stood had become a park. Little boys imagined it a terrible monster, and came to hunt it with the full flowering of their imagination while their parents clustered about and talked of this and that.<\/p>\n
\tScholars came too, for they found the inscription on the statue most challenging. None had yet had the wit to discern what it meant, or even what language it came from, but still they tried, for curiosity ever ruled their minds.<\/p>\n
\tOne morning children came to hunt the guardian, and found that it was gone. They rushed to their parents who called the police, and then pondered how such a statue could disappear over night. With the police came the scholars, for a bronze plaque had been found.<\/p>\n
\tEngraven in the surface was a single sentence, in clearest English. \u201cIn Purgatory were you punished, but now I take you into my arms, to be forever free.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And upon a hill stood a moonlit guardian, bathed in eternal night. It was marble, of a certain hue, weathered and old. Where an arm had once reached into the sky there was nought but a broken stump, and the arm was nowhere to be found. The statue had lived here for oh these many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[36,4],"tags":[21,22],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pRIK4-6q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":517,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=517","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":0},"title":"A Desert of Fire and Glass","date":"June 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Over on Splintered Lands today, we have the continuation of my comedy story Thieves Abroad. And here below, I've posted an excerpt from a short story set in The Four Part Land. To place yourself on the map, the action here takes place more or less under the text Yn\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 8 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":703,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=703","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":1},"title":"Pillowed Comforts, Part #10","date":"April 23, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Glancing backwards, he saw that the line of his soldiers had stretched out to the right, the man on that edge of battle attempting to hedge his unprotected side away from the foes who assailed him, with those placed near him unconsciously following. It was a natural outcome of fighting,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":229,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=229","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":2},"title":"Writer’s Carnival: Lonely Wanderer","date":"August 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The second of my three entries into the Writer's Carnival. The third will appear tomorrow. I am the lonely wanderer, so distant and so strange. I am the lonely wanderer, but a passing phase. I live on the outskirts of society. I leave no memories, no sign to mark my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":724,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=724","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":3},"title":"The Journey North – Part 4","date":"June 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The three friends glanced at once another with bemused expressions, ones that changed as the shock of combat wore off from grim focus to delayed surprise, and thence to laughter. \u201cReally, Canere? You fired sparks at its butt?\u201d Ira, by now, was laughing, her whole body shaking, even as she\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":698,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=698","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":4},"title":"Pillowed Comforts, Part #7","date":"March 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cYou mean, attempt to draw the strike in? It\u2019s a valid tactic, but I don\u2019t think we have the kind of reserves that would let us achieve something like that. Unless you\u2019ve got another pile of troops hiding in that pouch of yours.\u201d There was a murmur from another corner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arhosa"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":544,"url":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/?p=544","url_meta":{"origin":398,"position":5},"title":"Rupert’s Revenge","date":"August 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This story was co-written by E. P. Marcellin\u00a0for a fun little contest we came up with, and I think she did a brilliant job of it. I'd be interested if anyone could tell where one of us stopped writing and the other picked up. Rupert was affronted. His neighbours had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flash Fiction"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefourpartland.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}