The Veiled Crescent

A secret sect, in shadowed ways, did heed the darkness’ call.
The Order of the Veiled Crescent, in Florence’s haunted vale,
Convened in gloom, their hearts fervent, where mortal hopes did fail.

By moon’s wan light, in villa old, with walls of moldering stone,
They gathered, robed in sable fold, to chant in whispered tone.
Their sigils, carved in crypts below, where catacombs did wind,
Did summon shades from realms of woe, to bind the mortal mind.

No cross adorned their altar bare, no Christ their sins forgave,
Instead, a horned idol’s stare, from depths no soul could brave.
With chalice filled of crimson dew, from veins of sacrifice,
They sought the truths that ancients knew, at cost of soul’s high price.

O learned scribes, with quills of dread, what lore did ye unfold?
In tomes that bled, where angels tread, forbidden tales were told.
The stars, they spoke, in ciphered signs, of gods that predate time,
And promised power to untwine the chains of flesh’s rhyme.

Yet whispers grew, in Florence fair,
Of vanishings lost, by night’s cold air.
The village cursed the villa’s gate,
Where shadows danced in thrall’s estate.

One night, beneath a blood-red sky,
Their voices wailed, a frenzied cry,
The ground did quake, the crypts did gape,
And from its maw, no soul escaped.

The villa stands, a ruin cold,
Where ivy chokes the spire,
Its secrets locked in tales untold,
Consumed by spectral fire.

The Veiled Crescent, now but dust,
Their names no tongue recites,
Yet moans the wind, with mournful gust,
Of their unholy rites.

O fleeting quest, for knowledge dire,
What hast thou wrought in vain?
Thy spark did light a cursed pyre,
Where only griefs remain.

In catacombs, their echoes dwell,
A requiem for the damned,
And warn of paths that lead to hell,
By mortal hand unmanned.

Let silence cloak their broken vow,
Let shadows veil their shame,
No light shall pierce their darkness now,
Nor cleanse their tarnished name.

Beneath the cypress, cold and still,
Their doom forever lies,
In Italy, where night’s dark will
Entombs their final cries.