@$††~^.... ....^~††$@
$††~^..... .....^~††$
@$††~^.... ....^~††$@
@@$††~^... ...^~††$@@
@@@$††~^.. ..^~††$@@@
#@@@$††~^. ...†... .^~††$@@@#
@@@$††~^.. NAFTAKIN, THE BLIND ..^~††$@@@
@@$††~^... ...†... ...^~††$@@
@$††~^.... ....^~††$@
$††~^..... A STUDENT AT THE CHARCOAL GUILD... HIS .....^~††$
@$††~^.... EYES SEWN SHUT FROM BIRTH... THE MOST ....^~††$@
@@$††~^... SUCCESSFUL STUDENT ...^~††$@@
@@@$††~^.. ..^~††$@@@
#@@@$††~^. BUT ONE DAY HE FELL DOWN INTO A CRYSTAL .^~††$@@@#
@@@$††~^.. CAVERN. IT WAS DEEP IN THE MOUNTAIN, A ..^~††$@@@
@@$††~^... GREAT HALL WITH ONLY A SINGLE TINY ...^~††$@@
@$††~^.... INLET FOR BOTH LIGHT AND FALLING ....^~††$@
$††~^..... STUDENTS... .....^~††$
@$††~^.... ....^~††$@
@@$††~^... IN THE FALL, THE QUARTZ SLICED OFF THE ...^~††$@@
@@@$††~^.. THREADS IN HIS EYES, OPENING THEM FOR ..^~††$@@@
#@@@$††~^. THE FIRST TIME. BEFORE HIM, THE .^~††$@@@#
@@@$††~^.. CRYSTALS MIRRORED AND REFRACTED THE ONE ..^~††$@@@
@@$††~^... LIGHT SMIDGE INTO A WHOLE NIGHT SKY, ...^~††$@@
@$††~^.... AND HE WAS STRUCK DOWN WITH AWE ....^~††$@
$††~^..... .....^~††$
@$††~^.... BUT ALSO WITH SHAME, BECAUSE HIS EYES ....^~††$@
@@$††~^... HAD SEEN. HURRIEDLY, HE USED THREAD ...^~††$@@
@@@$††~^.. FROM HIS ROBE TO SEW THEM BACK ..^~††$@@@
#@@@$††~^. TOGETHER, AND WHEN HELP CAME HE DID NOT .^~††$@@@#
@@@$††~^.. TELL OF HIS TRANSGRESSION. ..^~††$@@@
@@$††~^... ...^~††$@@
@$††~^.... FOR YEARS HE STUDIED AT THE GUILD. HE ....^~††$@
$††~^..... BECAME A MASTER, AND THEN A PILGRIM. .....^~††$
@$††~^.... YET THE IMAGE FROM THE CAVE NEVER LEFT ....^~††$@
@@$††~^... HIM. ...^~††$@@
@@@$††~^.. ..^~††$@@@
#@@@$††~^. AT THE END OF HIS LIFE, WHEN AT THE .^~††$@@@#
@@@$††~^.. EDGE OF THE WORLD HE OPENED HIS EYES ..^~††$@@@
@@$††~^... FOR A SECOND TIME, STARS HAD HATCHED IN ...^~††$@@
@$††~^.... THEM... ....^~††$@
$††~^..... .....^~††$
@$††~^.... ....^~††$@
@@$††~^... ...^~††$@@
@@@$††~^.. ..^~††$@@@
#@@@$††~^. .^~††$@@@#