Durasgard

Maelmorda, that sinfully handsome fellow in the dark black shirt and pants, was now leading Killian, the taller, ridiculously long and curly haired man he was, over to the ancient woodland camp fire to share his vision with him, and not only him but anyone who cared to come over and listen. He began just about the time magnificent Andros, beautiful Nuanwi and attractive Cassavant joined the party. What a lot of good looking people. Then there was Balor... "So yes, I had this vision this morning which disturbed me for various reasons... I think some of you will understand why when you hear it," he began.

"I had what I believe was a premonition late this morning. It was of... a butterfly, a bright yellow swallowtail , caught into a butterfly net then placed in a jar. Then the jar was hurled as if through air a great distance and speed only to land in a very unusual kind of seat where two snakes coiled around it. The snakes in the seat with the jar and desperately fluttering butterly were then suddenly jettisoned out into deep space inside of a glass sphere with a trail of flames behind it, like a meteor of glass. The snakes hence unwound from the jar. One of the snakes struck at the sphere's wall and opened a hole in it and the other snake opened the jar. The butterfly  was immediately sucked out into the great black expanse of space. The glass globe then grew distant and disappeared altogether as it sped away but that wasn't the end of it." He paused to drink more Cognac.

"The butterfly did not perish but grew and grew, greater then greater and more and more grotesque in form, darker and darker until it was black as the lonely empty space that had became its home... or its vast prison, but with these immense, beautiful, tiger-swallowtail wings. There was a sadness to the creatures black eyes, such a terrible, lonesome sadness. It flew on and on in the expanse but nothing or no one was it seen by or did it see. Then after what had to be eons... its wings began to blacken too."

Killian had been adding ingredients to a stew and tending the fire the entire time he was listening. Maelmorda didn't mind. Killian could interpret omens even better than Aodfin and himself and Maelmorda hoped he could confirm what he suspected. "The titan black butterfly then finally, after ages, came to a place. The very first place it had come across. Understand, that without the speed of light to cross the expanse between nowhere and someplace can take thousands or even millions of years. And she had no rockets or haste that she knew of, only wings. The place she had come to was a fish. A massive fish as big as a solar system. She had lost the loneliness ages ago... lost any semblance of feeling be it hope or despair, and hatred she had never felt. Not even for the snakes that had released her into the vacuum of space, no doubt assuming it would end her. It's foolish to imagine such a thing of an immortal. The one thing she did feel was HUNGER. Oh she drank what miniscule particles of light and space dust she could to sustain herself but for long ages never felt hunger satisfied,and now here in her path was another entity of deep space. An entity that was as a catfish to a lion. She gobbled it up. It and everything and everyone in it. For the fish you see was a great and vast home to millions of people. This butterfly that might have lived a happy life had been turned into the greatest of monsters. She had replaced the Abyssal Darkness, the eater of galaxies. And she knew then what it was to have hunger satisfied." He ate another of those delectable grapes as he ended his story. It did indeed seem as if some fantastical allegorical tale. But it had been a vision. There was some metaphor but it had grown more and more lucid as it had progressed.