Illusion (ist)
Once upon a time there lived in an Illusionist.
Within the Family, they called him il sognatore. But in the Triad it was zuo meng zhe, among the yakuza masutā no yumemiru hito, in the drug lords' starry, smoky nights el soñador de mil mundos. His name was whispered across continents in a thousand different tongues.
But in Chicago and London, they simply called Mammon the Illusionist—or when they were feeling especially sentimental with sex and sleepiness, maybe the Dreamer.
Everyone knew Mammon was the best at what he did. No one else, they stated, could recreate that particular sweet smell of lightning before it struck. No one else could make the sun shine through the leaves the glowing gold-edge way it does in midsummer. The clench of the thighs of women was never as firm in reality, their lipstick never that particular glowing shade of red.
When you tasted Mammon's death, it was more real than actual dying, they murmured into the drug-hazed air of the cities.
He was one of the best of all the illusionists, they sighed.
Such a pity.
(illusione)