The Key — Part II

An Allegory of Alchemy

In Part I, our captured lutist stood condemned before the Judge, bound in chains beneath the city’s black flags. Now the sentence bears him further, deeper into the city’s churning heart.

---

II. Nigredo (cont.)

Inching up on my feet on a cobblestone bridge
I looked to a gathering, swelling fast:

and on the opposite side of a moat—

my kin
The fosse between us—a yawning expanse—

was a rift cutting deep through the city’s keep


My escorts then urged me callously
as I staggered into a swallowing gloom,
awaiting me deep Underground

A clinking and clanging greeted my ears
I could not discern whence it came

Its screeching song was—wrong
Wafting itself to my ears,
it stoked the flame of my kindling fears

Rounding a corner, my heart beating fast,

feeling that I had been judged by my past, 

a scene opened up right before my eyes
of shadows, of toil, of chains, and of pains

---

Through a gate there shuffled stumbling, 
wispy shadows,

undead. 

empty.

The shadowy forms were toiling,
heaving lead hammers
too cumbersome for their build,
Instead of protesting the evil work,
I heard but 
stammers

as they heaved at black levers—
awful creaks, rust on rust
metal grinding metal

as they wrestled the cranks of metallic Stills:

machines so enormous and built
for a use so final, so bleak, so bold, 
Their infamy throughout the kingdom told

At the opposite end of the chamber:
red fog—rising up with an egg-rot reek,

Burnished boilers spilled down to an oil-slick floor,
off which torchlight reflected the muted forms
of grey spectres milling near by the dozen

Glancing back near the steel-barred door—
the blank beings thronged a great oven

The portcullis clicked up, and I saw:

A man, a woman, and child, in chains—
led to lie upon a table

One shadow, of many,
then oozed its hands
over frantic eyes,
as

black blood dripped down, dark liquor sips,
etherizing them as an idle smile
encroached upon their victim lips

A sinuous tube with a cup on its end
was brought to hover above

One shadow nearby raised a tendril—

the clanging and banging revived,

as my back tensed and jaw dropped, 
Cacophony curdled my stomach, a knot

Silver orbs were drawn out from their frames

Three rapt souls floated up in a row

Gently, softly, suicidally slow
into the tube they proceeded to go

Remaining there now on the table were spread
three dark shadows lying in their stead


I turned away, shuddered—horrified,
and looking up at my guides,

I found that two shadows were now at my side


...

---

The Key: Part III continues the saga.

---

---