The night was dark; unlit and unsafe. The night was always dark - and the streets had not known day for a great many years. Few men walked the streets then, save for their sustenance and their little vices. The rats never spoke, and they did not run fast, and thus provided for both the unscrupulous and unfed. I walked, truly, to find truth, and preserve it, I walked alone, amongst the cretins and vagabonds, wishing for day and cursing the night with the barest lantern, always with but a drop of oil left, always about to fade into the darkness and join it.
Down the cobbled roads, a lone figure in an inverness coat slipped by the dim illumination of a shop window - I raised my hand and call out "Hark! Who walks the street at such an unholy time?"
Silence. I raised my hooded lantern to shine light on a dreary-eyed and gaunt figure. "Hold, goodman, hold. 'tis only me, Yoite. I walk these long hours to find a truth."
"Verily?" I said, ever suspicious of those who walked the night streets alone. "And what truth is that, pray?"
He grinned at me, wide gaps in his teeth, and laughed. "What truth indeed? Should you know, I should not. What truth is there worth finding but the truth that one creates?" I saw madness in his eyes, and I heard madness from his mouth. What possessed me to continue I know not - perhaps I was mad too, for a time.
"Lies, then. Untruths, things of a foul sort made to fool all but the fools who tell them."
The madman laughed again, and said "Ah, but is there something more true than the truths of oneself? If so, I know it not
And I saw he was not mad, in truth, he saw life as clear as the day that once was - and he saw truth. I felt the blood run from my face as I searched around me - and saw things as they truly were - as I saw them, and as I believed them to be, different from all others. And I lowered my lantern, and placed it upon the curb. "Sit goodman." I said "We have much to discuss."
And as we did, I caught a glimpse of his vision; the world again in daylight, bright and filled with innocents, life going on, day by day, with meaning. And he saw my truth, as he stared into the eye of the lantern, through the veil and into a darker land. And we so spoke of truth and worlds and people, great and small.
Many came afterwords, drawn to the dim light of our lanterns, Nationstatelandsville, NEI, Norstal and Nightkill among them, and all spoke of different truths and different worlds from my own. And with this, the light grew.
I fear that day will never return to my streets, but I take greater comfort in the light we have made, in the truths we have made. I take comfort in the sunny plains of others, and in my own sun-beggared city, and I take comfort in the light of our lanterns, quietly burning ever brighter on the street corner.