A demon recounts his adventures from youthful flights among cosmic wonders to a reluctant encounter on a doomed, desolate planet. In his travels through the void, he has witnessed alien marvels—from celestial bodies circling distant suns to unearthly landscapes carved by ancient oceans. His narrative leads him to a barren world marked by vast, rust-colored cliffs and labyrinthine valleys that once harbored mighty seas. Deep within a sunless abyss of this planet, he discovers a final, fading pool of green water—the remnant of a vanished ocean. From that pool, a siren emerges, lamenting the inevitable demise of her world and the loss of an age steeped in maritime splendor. Bound to the waters of her dying realm, she mourns not only for herself but for the legendary eras of sailors, ships, and mystical encounters that have become mere echoes of a bygone time. Though the demon offers to carry her to a realm of reborn seas and renewed life, she refuses, resigned to her fate as the sea recedes and her existence draws to a close. The tale weaves themes of cosmic decay and the irreversible loss of once-glorious worlds. The demon’s detailed reminiscence of otherworldly journeys and decadent experiences contrasts sharply with the tragic fate of the siren, whose beauty and sorrow symbolize the ruin of forgotten civilizations. In confessing his own lingering grief over her irreversible doom—an anguish only momentarily abated by fleeting pleasures on a distant, vibrant world—the demon presents a meditation on impermanence, the inevitability of change, and the profound sorrow inherent in the decline of beauty and history.
By Clark Ashton Smith · First published 1930 · Genre: Weird Fiction, Cosmic Horror, Dark Fantasy