Status Updates From From the Dust Returned

This was a reread!

"It was evening and dark, though the air was still warm, and sweet with pollen. The universe above us was huge and preposterous, a ceiling of stars pressed down over everything, the weight of it tangible and oppressive. The world and everything in it seemed poised, ready to explode into something else, held back by nothing but our own restraint, soon to be swept away."

“And a spider, heretofore unseen, crept from the blanketings, probed all the airs about, then ran to fasten on the small child’s hand as a nightmare papal ring to bless some future court, and all its shadow courtiers, and held so still it seemed but stone of ebony against pink flesh.”