still a gorgeous and inspiring view.

We were moving quickly, however, and it soon was out of sight, and I
again turned towards our destination with apprehensions of failure. They
seemed to place great faith in my presence, as the emissary of Onan, and
while I was, I was also Jehu, and I wasn't confident with my own
abilities. But it was upon those the situation mostly rested, it being
the resolve of the gods after the Homeric period to take a more removed
role in the lives of men. I wonder how many from my own times were
divine agents, for better or worse. Either way, my main concern then was
making the correct decisions, for I rightly believed that my involvement
would decide the matter, although not in the manner I had anticipated.
As I looked about myself to reconnoiter the feelings of my comrades I
was fruitless, for they all wore impermeable countenances, though that
was itself an indicator of their resolve.

Within an hour after the fall of darkness we reached the outskirts of
Nunami, or rather, its edge, for it was walled in with massive stone
walls and battlements, with a sturdy gate of twenty foot width being
placed at the northern, southern, eastern, and western ends. The trees
hung right over the walls, and as such we were able to take positions
from which we could descend into the city when the time to do so came.
Yet we were still rendered invisible by the thick foliage.

Night's zenith blew in slowly on the wind like the belabored breaths of
a dying man, and after a period of worry, it came: midnight, the
appointed hour. No sooner had the moon reached its utmost height,
shrouding the lands in a shadowless vortex, than a great blaze erupted
from the northern lands, and it rose almost instantly to its estimated
height of five miles. It was a terrible sight to behold, for any flame