Sage of the Eldark: This is a very special work, some of my best writing, a story with a wild metaphysical twist. This is the original story that introduced The Nystol cycle in the text from 1988, but was not completed until 2021, when I finally understood the meaning of the enigmatic paragraphs. It has been included with The Fall of Nystol compilation. Because of its high subject matter and distinct flavor, it deserved its own volume, which I have placed here. The story takes place in the Third Age: Epinanaus, a philosopher of Rumilian lineage, rejected by the Imperial court in Regulum and now desert-dwelling, seeks only solitude and simple resignation to Being itself, waiting to be absorbed into "The One". Then one night, while he is meditating, an unexpected traveler knocks on the door of his humble hermitage. The haggard stranger, Hepthe, an ex-slave, turns out to be a believer in the old "superstitious" Ammouric religion, which professes that God became a man, something outright absurd to this philosopher. Even given that, the stranger turns out to be nevertheless entertaining, but a quite impetuous political misfit as well, who insists that he must stay for a while...for something has been following him, something not of God...