====== IV. Elegy of Beauty and Ugliness ====== ---- ==== 4-1 ==== In the past when strife swallowed the earth,\\ And schemes disrupted the hearts of friends, The maiden who was yet a weaver was wrapped in a cocoon most grand.\\ Untouched by the storms sweeping through the land. She spent her youth in a palace of romance,\\ Surrounded by treasures,\\ With even maids beautiful beyond belief. Often bathing in the praise and admiration\\ Of wealthy nobles. Till warfare set the threads aflame,\\ And the devoutly praying priest was slaughtered before the altar.\\ The family adored by all perished before their courtyards,\\ And the blood of her maidservants dyed her golden mantle red. The golden threads covering her eyes snapped,\\ And the concealed truth finally appeared firsthand—\\ //"Before a strong wind, a weak nobility cannot stand."// ---- ==== 4-2 ==== In the long, endless war,\\ The Goldweaver family was shattered by the sword,\\ And the legacy of romance became a tragedy. She had a broken mansion\\ And an empty house. The nobles who once loved her,\\ None now willing to help her.\\ All the romance, talent, peerage, and beauty,\\ What use are they in a disaster? As she closed her eyes in melancholy,\\ The maidservant pushed a broken loom to hear earnestly. //"Miss, would you like to pick up the shuttle again and weave for me?"// The young miss wanted to laugh,\\ But could only respond in shock—\\ For the maid's face was now covered in scars,\\ As she fought to protect her mistress' safety. //"Though I can no longer see,//\\ //I still want to don the garments you weave."// {{ :readable:saga:weaver.of.gold:aglaea4-2.png?200|Image of the back of the elegant woman sitting on a chair, another woman stands before her holding what looks like a bolt of fabric.}} And yet, when she heard this,\\ The desire to weave overcame her fears. Therefore, in the broken shadows of a house,\\ The loom of romance moved once more. ---- ==== 4-3 ==== The garments were exchanged for copious gold,\\ Buying back her renown of old. Yet beside this mistress most noble,\\ There was always a blind maid in tow,\\ Dressed in luxuries unfitting. As the weaver attended banquets,\\ The praises of her youth returned.\\ //"That majestic lady must be Mnestia in the flesh."// But harsh words also joined—\\ //"The mistress' beauty is quite reduced by a maidservant so unsightly."// The maidservant apologized in embarrassment, lowering her head:\\ //"My mistress, I have brought you shame."// {{ :readable:saga:weaver.of.gold:aglaea4-3.png?200|Image of the elegant woman and her maid, standing in front of an adoring audience. The maid is wearing one of the elegant woman's creations.}} Yet her mistress brought her to the middle of the ball,\\ Having her garbed in the latest dress, as the model. She now knew that praises and ridicule were both untrue,\\ And that romance cared not for beauty of the face.\\ The golden thread of gods exists only within. ---- ==== 4-4 ==== She is no longer that helpless girl.\\ She already carries the god's authority and walks the hero's route.\\ But she still cannot hold back the calamity of strife. The unsightly maidservant blocked the dagger aimed at the mistress' soul,\\ And blood once again dyed red something she wove. That was the last time in her life,\\ The maid's face, she clearly beheld. When sewing the death shroud,\\ She could not control how her fingers shook,\\ Often pricked by the needle sharp and acute. Thus that pristine white cloth,\\ Wept with tears of blood and gloom. And when the day of the funeral came,\\ She saw the commoners' endless graves, And the nobles dressed in silk,\\ Frolicking in the groves. And sadness overwhelmed her, in droves. ---- ==== 4-5 ==== Is this the destiny unleashed,\\ For their act of chasing gods' "Coreflames"? She kneels before the divine statues\\ And prays to Mnestia of Romance,\\ To look at these garments soaked in blood from the flames of war. //"Why are those that appear so fair//\\ //In fact ugly in truth?"// //"Why do faces unsightly//\\ //Contain souls cut from noble cloth?"// //"Why can the blind see the light?//\\ //And why do those with eyes only see night?"// The dying god remains silent. //"If you no longer have the power to see,//\\ //Then with my destiny..."// she grasps the burning Coreflame. //"I'll exchange for eyes that can see everything."// Warm liquid flows,\\ From her eyes that now see all. In that instance,\\ she is sure that she saw,\\ The manifestation of "beauty".