Olga Romanoff

the Terror, given to the Children of Deliverance dwelling in the land of Aeria, in the twenty-fift

e spirit within me that bids me tell of the things that I have seen, in order that the story of them shall not die, nor be disgui

hand. No man among you shall take away from that which I have written, nor yet add anything to it; and every fifth year, at the Festival of Deliverance, which is held on the Anniversary of Victory,[1

nown as the Terror. The kings of the earth and their servants trembled before my invisible presence, for my arm was long and my hand was heavy; yet no man kne

. Millions of men, who had no quarrel with their neighbours, stood waiting for the word of their rulers to blast t

ew as a bird does, of its own strength and motion. He joined the Brotherhood of Freedom, then known among men as the Terrorists, of whom I,

d bring the day of deliverance nearer, caused all the nations of the Anglo-Saxon race to join hands, from the West unto the East, in a league of c

lesser Powers, and assisted by a great fleet of war-balloons that could fly, though slowly, wherever they were directed, swept like a destroying pestilence fr

rland from her enemies, and they rose in their wrath, millions strong, and fell upon them by land and sea, and would have destroyed them utterly, as I had bidden

nt and his princes and the leaders of his armies. These we took prisoners and sent, with their wives and their childre

ctory I spared not those who had not known how to spare. Now they are dead, and their graves are name

that were left upon the sea, that men might no more fight with each other. War, that had been called honourable since the world began, we made a crime of blood-guiltiness,

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n the world outside Aeria shall learn to navigate the air as you do, you shall go forth to battle with them and destroy them utterly, for we have made it known th

before it is purged from the world for ever. We have given peace on earth, and to you, our children, we bequ

we used. Since the sun set upon Armageddon, and the right to make war was taken from the rulers of the nations, we h

back to the use of her sons, and their wealth has already multiplied a hundredfold on every hand. Kings have ruled with wisdom and justice, and sena

eir neighbours, that the rich might be richer, and the strong stronger, in the pitiless battle for wealth and power. They have become peaceful and honest with each other, because

hat the transgressor of our laws can find in it a refuge from our vengeance. We stand between the few strong and cunning who would oppress,

estiny. You shall rule the world as we have ruled it for a hundred years from now. If in that time men shall not have learnt the ways of wisdom and justice, you may be sure that they will never learn them, and deserve onl

et them, and those that would wilfully turn aside from it you shall destroy without

en of those from whom we took it,-because they wielded it for oppression, and not for mercy. At that time you shall make it known throughout the

that gather[6] over the sunset of my earthly life, I see a sign in heaven as of a flaming sword, whose h

eir pride. And if they, knowing the good, shall elect to do evil, it shall be with them as of old the Prophet said of the men of Babylon the Gr

e shall come the messenger of Fate, and his shape shall be that of a flaming fire, and his breath

ister-worlds shall see him pass with fear and trembling, wondering which of them he shall smite, but if he be not restrained or turned

cease. Earth shall languish and mourn for her children that are no more,

hen, you shall await it with fortitude, knowing that this life is but a single link in the chain of existence which stretches through infinity; and that, if you shall be found worth

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coming time, and pray that the peace which the men of the generation now passing away have won through str