[start] [Spoken Intro | mild recognition | aged, refined male voice, dry conversational delivery | sparse low strings] Ah. There you are. I see you've been keeping yourself busy. How long has it been now? Four centuries? Five? Good heavens. You really have made a production of this. [Spoken Development | faint amusement | precise, unhurried, conversational | low repeating cello figure] The rituals. The sacrifices. All those lives spent prolonging one rather unremarkable existence. And what have you accomplished? A few buildings? An empire, perhaps? Give it another thousand years. There'll be nothing left to suggest you were ever here. [Spoken Confrontation | condescending | slight vocal dryness, effortless authority | faint dissonance develops] You thought you had escaped me. No. You escaped an afternoon. You see, that's the difficulty with creatures like you. You measure eternity in years because you've never had anything else to measure. Five hundred years. Five thousand. Do you imagine either number means anything to me? [Spoken Realization | quiet contempt | sharper diction, no increase in volume | low strings tighten] And the people you sacrificed... Did you think their years would somehow become yours? How very childish. You haven't become immortal. You've simply spent a remarkably long time being afraid. [Spoken Resolution | bored finality | natural connected phrasing | underscore gradually recedes] Now, I believe you've had quite enough. No more rituals. No more bargains. And please, spare me another explanation of how terribly important you are. [Spoken Ending | dismissive | quiet aged voice, faint impatience | music withdraws] I've heard it all before. Come along. [End | short low cello resolution] [end]
