The Virgin and the Defiler

One city pursues another across the Great Plain of Tau Ceti IV. In Cegandar, "He-flees," silk pagodas sway atop wooden platforms, while the smooth sounds of flutes and tenor voices float on the warm breeze. Dreaming Cegandar sleepwalks the grasslands on wagons with wickerwork rails and clumsy metal pylons knee-jointed and shod in bronze.