"The Keeper of the Flame"

by Gary Myers

originally published The New Lovecraft Circle, Fedogan and Bremer, 1996

On the plain of Shand stands the Temple of Kish.  The high priest is a very old man.  People come to commune with the god Kish, but the priest never lets them.  One day a proud young man named Nod shows up and demands entrance.  After some considerable debate, the priest allows him in.  He vanishes in a glowing cloud of fog.

A typical Myers Smith-Lovecraft Dreamlands vignette.  But Myters writes well and his stories are always evocative.