It was the changing of the age—the great fulfillment of the ancient vow the woman wrote down in her scroll. And as the rain streamed down his face, Anthem also praised Earthmaker that his Beloved had come back. He stood and shouted out above the crowd: “Earthmaker rides the Wind. The Singer has returned …”

Silence roared. Sound ripped through density. Communication coursed again through human isolation. And Anthem spoke—no longer gibberish—but words and sentences, and all his words were understood.

“How is it,” cried the crowd, “that we now hear with understanding and the gift of words is given?”

When Anthem raised his hand and called the wild excitement to a calm, the wind made way for words. His Wind Song then began.

“The Eagle has returned. The shattered sky

Has fallen back. And Terra’s victory

Is sure. The Singer whom we caused to die

Has come to slay time with infinity.

The Father-Spirit and his Troubadour

Have brought the Great Invader and his Age

Of Gold. For they were old when nature tore

Away the vacuum at its heart. Love raged.

And then the trebled Spirit mystery

Was one. Yet love begun in open space

Would swell in joy till one was three—

His factor of infinity in grace.

And never shall his Terra understand

This cosmic riddle born ahead of men;

How Spirit can become a sinewed hand

And then a cosmic Spirit once again.

Never was it one but always three.

Never was it three but always one.

Claiming boldly it would always be—

Yet crying out it never had begun.

Let men embrace the rain. Come, Wind, blow free

And stir the warm sweet breeze! Dream, dreamless men!

Our empty youth come filled with prophecy.

Our grunts now Spirit-washed are words again.

The Great Invader breathes upon you as a man

Of Holy Fire, from that far land where all

Horizons meet. He knocks with wounded hands

Upon the soul. And penetrates the wall

Of your resistance to Earthmaker’s love.

The Spirit of the Singer comes to sing

An inner melody. To fill above

Our brim of joy his own abundant being.

Weep, Terra! For yours is the ugly crime

That killed the Song and struck Earthmaker dumb.

You stabbed eternal life with dismal time

And murdered him who was and is to come.

O men of Terra! Ours is the shame,

Of standing heavy-footed on his name.

Beside the star-blazed dais there he stands.

We clawed the face of love then broke his hands.

Cry out! O men, cry out! The blood we spilt

Has left us refugees from love. And sin

Has left us in a wilderness of guilt.

Trust in the joy that swims Invader’s Wind.”

And then the rain drew back, and eerie light converged upon the rain-soaked streets. A column of brightness gathered itself from the gleam of cobblestones and fled in a fiery instant into the sky.

And at the top a mystic beam of majesty tumbled down in music. A chord then turned to thunder that shook the earth. Earthmaker so blazed in radiance that men cried out in fear and love at once.