The lives of the Outer Dwellers had become almost normal again. Bitterness was their bread and rivalry their wine. - Mervyn Peake

Withdrawn and ruinous it broods in umbra: the immemorial masonry: the towers, the tracks. Is all corroding? No. Through an avenue of spires a zephyr floats; a bird whistles; a freshet bears away from a choked river.

The ritual which his body had had to perform for fifty years had been no preparation for the unexpected.

I saw all of a sudden
No sign of any ship.