as they played their game and moved the gods hither and thither about
the board, the dust arose, and shone in the light from the players'
eyes that gleamed behind the veils. Then said the gods: "See how We
stir the dust."

It chanced, or was ordained (who knoweth which?) that Ord, a prophet,
one night saw the gods as They strode knee deep among the stars. But as
he gave Them worship, he saw the hand of a player, enormous over Their
heads, stretched out to make his move. Then Ord, the prophet, knew. Had
he been silent it might have still been well with Ord, but Ord went
about the world crying out to all men, "There is a power over the
gods."

This the gods heard. Then said They, "Ord hath seen."

Terrible is the vengeance of the gods, and fierce were Their eyes when
They looked on the head of Ord and snatched out of his mind all
knowledge of Themselves. And that man's soul went wandering afield to
find for itself gods, for ever finding them not. Then out of Ord's
Dream of Life the gods plucked the moon and the stars, and in the
night-time he only saw black sky and saw the lights no more. Next the
gods took from him, for Their vengeance resteth not, the birds and
butterflies, flowers and leaves and insects and all small things, and
the prophet looked on the world that was strangely altered, yet knew
not of the anger of the gods. Then the gods sent away his familiar
hills, to be seen no more by him, and all the pleasant woodlands on
their summits and the further fields; and in a narrower world Ord
walked round and round, now seeing little, and his soul still wandered
searching for some gods and finding none.