=== A Dirge ===

Dedicated to the House of Ty Beirdd, for their righteous defence of
their reflexes, against the lewd attentions of a mirthful young jester.

A young jester once wandered aimlessly, her feet exploring the tracks of
the south
A desert's dunes, the caverns of Mhuns, a river's meandering mouth.
The mountains soaring she slowly climbed, her breath icy chill in the
air
When a piercing cry, splitting the sky, screamed a terrible story of
err.

Her eyes wide with wonder, she followed the call, through a dimlit
cavern of ice
Her voice sharply caught, as she learned what was wrought, a sorrowful
tale of vice.
From steepled spires the bells tolled out, lamenting, a mournful dirge
For a gristly death, the sad final breath, from this world an innocent
purged.

She raced to the tavern, heeding the cry, her ears pounding a dull
frantic roar
Murder was made, a cruel debt was paid, by the hands of the singers of
yore.
Slumped on the frozen flagstones, a body lay coldly still in the hall
Once a soul so bright, mistress of delight, now felled in a final numb
fall.

What was her crime, the young jester cried, words torn from her heart
with a wrench
A slaying so rank, life now a void blank, her demands no laugh can e'er
quench.
With greyfaced visage, the singers stared down at their prey, a grim
light dry in their eyes
She dared to jest, and we shunned the test, it weakened our proud artful
guise.

The truth emerged then, and the jester's soul shook, her world dimming
bleak and black...

For...a snap had been done, accusations had hung, like pennants unfurled
for war
And as the dust cleared, it was as feared, fair Humor would breathe life
no more.

Penned by my hand on the 6th of Ero, in the year 405 AF.