Three, unnamed

Meaning

The Second Response says that three fall into the king's fountain and bring darkness upon the world until moonlight returns. It does not supply a noun naming the three. The English appropriately keeps “Three” rather than filling the gap with elements, principles, persons, or substances. Their narrative action is clear, but their identity is not. This is an important limit on interpretation: a familiar alchemical triad elsewhere in the collection is not by itself evidence that it supplies this sentence's missing designation.