| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: the Marquise. "I know why you have left your lair. I will pay you
twice over. Hold your peace."
She took a bag of gold from the ebony cabinet, and threw it
contemptuously at the old woman's feet. The chink of the gold was
potent enough to excite a smile on the Georgian's impassive face.
"I come at the right moment for you, my sister," said Henri. "The law
will ask of you----"
"Nothing," replied the Marquise. "One person alone might ask for a
reckoning for the death of this girl. Cristemio is dead."
"And the mother," said Henri, pointing to the old woman. "Will you not
always be in her power?"
 The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: an inspection with both torches suggested that it had been formed
by the artificial destruction of several walls between adjacent
honeycombings. The walls were rough, and the high, vaulted roof
was thick with stalactites; but the solid rock floor had been
smoothed off, and was free from all debris, detritus, or even
dust to a positively abnormal extent. Except for the avenue through
which we had come, this was true of the floors of all the great
galleries opening off from it; and the singularity of the condition
was such as to set us vainly puzzling. The curious new fetor which
had supplemented the nameless scent was excessively pungent here;
so much so that it destroyed all trace of the other. Something
 At the Mountains of Madness |