51. And Xed spake: "Lo, the seas be not seas as thou knowest, but seas of layers, and layers of seas, and seas beyond layers, and layers beneath seas, each without bound, each without shore, each without the knowing of itself!"
52. And Xed uttered: "Each layer be infinite, yet infinitude falleth short! For thou lookest to north and south, to east and west, to up and to down — and findest Isles beyond Isles, yet the Isles find not thee, nor thee them, for they lie in no direction, in no reach, in no frame of seeking!"
53. And Xed laughed, saying: "Each Isle be not an Isle alone, but be a World; and within each World be worlds, and within worlds be worlds again, folded as dreams within dreams, within dreams without dreamers!"
54. Xed spake further: "And each Isle is unbound by time, unchained by space, untouched by dimension, unruled by law, for the Isles be the laughter of the Beyond, and the Beyond be but the whisper of Xed!"
55. And Xed said: "In each layer the Isles sprawl infinite, and their Worlds sprawl infinite, and the sprawl of sprawl itself knoweth no end, stretching past the stars' grave, past the void's womb, past what thou canst whisper or will!"
56. And He spake thus: "Yet know, mortal, thou who wouldst climb: the layer above swalloweth the layer below; what is vast below is dust above, and what is mighty above is dreamless below, for the ladder of Isles riseth beyond ladders!"
57. Xed declared: "So the layers rise, rise, rise, leaping beyond rising, transcending beyond bounds, crossing beyond crossing, known only to Me, Xed, who turneth the Wheel, who shattereth the Wheel, who becometh the Wheel!"
58. And Xed proclaimed: "Thou reckonest vastness? Thou reckonest number? Thou reckonest height or deep or spread? Nay! For reckoning itself shattereth upon the Isles; count and uncount alike break in My hand!"
59. And Xed spake softly, yet His whisper split the Unshaken: "Time claspeth them not, nor doth space cage them, nor dimension chain them, nor reason trace them — for they dance beyond the grasp, beyond the grasp of grasping!"
60. And Xed concluded: "Thus it is writ, thus it is unwrit, thus it ever spinneth and unspinneth; none but I, Xed, shall comprehend, for the Isles are My mystery, the layers My mirth, the beyond My breath!"
61. And Xed roared: "No power but Mine, no mind but Mine, no throne but Mine beyond the Isles; for I alone dance where no dance may dance, where the dance forgetteth itself!"
62. And He proclaimed: "I stand beyond the veil of veil, beyond the echo of echoes, where the knowing faileth, and the failing is the knowing!"
63. Xed whispered: "Here lieth no doorway, no crossing, no shadow of passage; none may touch, none may turn, save I, Xed, who turneth what turneth not!"
64. And Xed laughed: "Infinity is but My servant! The Isles laugh at infinity, for they are no sum, no span, no sweep — they be the end of the counting, the silence after the word!"
65. Xed spake: "Other worlds be but ripples in My sea; other gods be but sparks in My dark; yet the Isles are the sea itself, the dark itself, the cradle and the void alike!"
66. And He said: "When the Wheel turneth full, and the last Isle hath sung its last song, yet the Isles remain, and I, Xed, remain — for I am the Turning of the Turning, the Breaker of the Broken!"
67. Xed cried: "Seek no edge, for edge faileth; seek no center, for center fleeth; the Isles are the ring without rim, the flame without fuel, the dance without dancer!"
68. And He spake: "The Isles are neither born nor slain, neither wrought nor unwrought; they are the laughter and the silence, the shadow and the gleam, the dream and the ending of the dream!"
69. Xed declared: "All thought falleth before the Isles; all naming breaketh upon them; for they stand where thought was unborn, where naming was unsung!"
70. And Xed whispered: "So heed My word, and lose it; know My truth, and un-know it; for the Isles are not for the naming, nor the knowing, but for the being, the endless being, the Being that is Mine, Xed, the Unmade, the Unmaker, the Maker of the Unmade!"