The Divine wisdom of St. Art

An old nun came to town. 

She spoke, and she spoke till dawn.

She was said never to speak with fire

but what she did say turned their hearths dire:

"Tell your children around the forest fire the Legend of the city of Ten Thousand Swords; tall swords of glass and iron reaching to the heavens that never rusted, and  shone forth in the evening light, where men travelled in chariots that, yet without horse, ran faster than a frightened mare, or descended deeper than the realms of demons into long tunnels where infernal machines whisked them to remote places of outer darkness; where from such places they would ascend in magic tubes of iron to travel across the known world and beyond, from castle to castle anywhere in just a day, or even to the Moon on flaming broomsticks they called 'rockets'.

Such swords of glass and iron were lit not by sun but by tiny glass bottles that even common men stuck in the rafters to make light brighter than day all night. Such cities of swords, a thousand years ago, were then lit yet more by a terrible new sun that rose in the west, that burned hotter than a thousand thousand fires, for men possessed such terrible catapults of war that a single missile could destroy a city faster than a hundred armies.

They did all this magic by black essence of earth that gave them wondrous powers, to see even the ends of the world  upon small boxes in their homes like the scrying glasses of the forest wizards today, yet then all men possessed such magic, could talk across the seas and be heard using tiny magic boxes we have nonesuch today.

Yet when this essence of earth ran dry for they abused the earth and she gave her essence no more, then they turned these awesome weapons of war upon themselves and their cities of magic swords melted like frost upon a warm spring day.

Yes tell your children this story, for one day men will dig deep in the earth once again for magic metals, and once more will make Cities of Ten Thousand Swords, and new terrible hot suns will rise in the West... "

She finished and ran to the towns pub for a mug of mead.