The Lithic Lament of the First Peak

Mythos

The plain was a mirror of glass and salt. Then the city of Oros fell, sliding into the deep. The Silence walked the shoreline, gathering the salt. (The text implies a physical gathering, like harvesting grain). He took the wailing of the mothers. He took the silence of the drowned. He pressed the grief into his palms, turning it to grey clay. (The transition from liquid grief to sediment is central to the third canto). His spine curved under the accumulation of salt. The clay hardened into basalt; the basalt into granite. The weight grew until his knees touched the flat earth. (The deity is described as 'unbending' until the final collapse). He fell once, a thunder that shook the horizon. His ribs became the ridges; his breath became the wind. The grief was no longer a flood, but a mountain. (The word for 'mountain' here is derived from the root for 'stillness'). Now the granite is cold and the peaks are white. But the stone holds the sorrow so the valley may bloom. The weight is fixed; the earth is finally anchored. (Translators note a recurring theme of stabilization through sacrifice).