The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-lytton — Read

In the midst of those hours set apart for sleep and constituting the / night of the Vril-ya, I was awakened from the disturbed slumber into / which I had not long fallen, by a hand on my shoulder. I started and / beheld Zee standing beside me. "Hush," she said in a whisper; "let no / one hear us. Dost thou think that I have ceased to watch over thy safety / because I could not win thy love? I have seen Taee. He has not prevailed / with his father, who had meanwhile conferred with the three sages who, / in doubtful matters, he takes into council, and by their advice he has / ordained thee to perish when the world re-awakens to life. I will save / thee. Rise and dress."

Zee pointed to a table by the couch on which I saw the clothes I had / worn on quitting the upper world, and which I had exchanged subsequently / for the more picturesque garments of the Vril-ya. The young Gy then / moved towards the casement and stepped into the balcony, while hastily / and wonderingly I donned my own habiliments. When I joined her on the / balcony, her face was pale and rigid. Taking me by the hand, she said / softly, "See how brightly the art of the Vril-ya has lighted up the / world in which they dwell. To-morrow the world will be dark to me. " She / drew me back into the room without waiting for my answer, thence into / the corridor, from which we descended into the hall. We passed into the / deserted streets and along the broad upward road which wound beneath the / rocks. Here, where there is neither day nor night, the Silent Hours / are unutterably solemn -- the vast space illumined by mortal skill is / so wholly without the sight and stir of mortal life. Soft as were / our footsteps, their sounds vexed the ear, as out of harmony with the / universal repose. I was aware in my own mind, though Zee said it not, / that she had decided to assist my return to the upper world, and that / we were bound towards the place from which I had descended. Her silence / infected me and commanded mine. And now we approached the chasm. It had / been re-opened; not presenting, indeed, the same aspect as when I had / emerged from it, but through that closed wall of rock before which I / had last stood with Taee, a new clift had been riven, and along its / blackened sides still glimmered sparks and smouldered embers. My / upward gaze could not, however, penetrate more than a few feet into the / darkness of the hollow void, and I stood dismayed, and wondering how / that grim ascent was to be made.