1 We are alone here under the earth.
2 But this is not the only sin upon us.
3 The flame of the candle stands still in the air.
4 Nothing moves in this tunnel save our hand on the paper.
5 We stole the candle from the larder of the Home of the Street Sweepers.
6 Nothing matters save the work, our secret, our evil, our precious work.
7 The laws say that men may not write unless the Council of Vocations bid them so.
8 It is only the Old Ones who whisper about it in the evenings, in the Home of the Useless.
9 We shall be sentenced to ten years in the Palace of Corrective Detention if it be discovered.
10 Thus has it been ever since the Great Rebirth, and farther back than that no memory can reach.
11 It matters only that the light is precious and we should not waste it to write when we need it for that work which is our crime.
12 The laws say that none among men may be alone, ever and at any time, for this is the great transgression and the root of all evil.
13 There is green mould in the grooves of the letters and yellow streaks on the marble, which come from more years than men could count.
14 And these words are the truth, for they are written on the Palace of the World Council, and the World Council is the body of all truth.
15 But we must never speak of the times before the Great Rebirth, else we are sentenced to three years in the Palace of Corrective Detention.
16 What punishment awaits us if it be discovered we know not, for no such crime has come in the memory of men and there are no laws to provide for it.
17 And now there is nothing here save our one body, and it is strange to see only two legs stretched on the ground, and on the wall before us the shadow of our one head.
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