Epilogue

The calves gave excited squeals as the song drew to an end. The three orca calves started to breach and splash about, as the song-master watched, his aged adult eyes smiling, as the young ones splashed about in the mid afternoon light. The song of Sage always brought happiness to the calves, but there was more a reason why he sung the song today…

"Song-master Kree, song-master Kree," one of the calves barked, his song demanding more. "Can we hear the song again? We want to hear the song again…"

With a laugh, Kree smiled down with his eyes at the calf. "Not today Susa, for you have already heard it once today. When the sun rises tomorrow, ask of me then, but for today I wish to be alone mostly… The song-master has duties that must be fulfilled today with certain pod members…"

The calves gave several disappointed moans as they learnt of this, but Kree was older than they and had to deal to his duties before them. Turning on his flukes, Kree left the young ones in their small cluster pod by the nearby cliffs to move towards the edge of the inlet and to the journey before he…

"Not so fast Kree," a female song called out, as an adult female countered his escape from the pod. The female watched with her eyes, all four of them. "You seriously didn't think you could escape without me not following you…"

Barking a laugh, the song-master Kree sung back, his song twittering amusement, "No… I guess not Sage, perhaps I should just stop trying…"

Casting her eyes about, Sage turned back to Kree, glancing at he, "I still don't understand why you do not explain the last verse of the song to the young… They should understand it all… About me, about you and about Ecco…"

Kree's eyes glowered as he blew at the surface, the flecks of water landing upon the long scar from blowhole to dorsal, as the other flecks landed upon his twisted dorsal. "I died that day and was reborn. Uton's song ends in Atlantis, and the song of Kree begins there. I became Kree, the song-master of Marble Gate, whilst Uton died as the last of White River… White River is completely dead, for I bear no young and…"

"You hide your feelings as you always have…" Sage giggled, her song twittering at the orca Kree, who was once Uton. "I don't hide mine…" she slowly brushed her flank against his as she rounded upon Uton, her eyes gazing wistfully to the song-master. "I do fancy you, and you are not of this pod… Perhaps White River can have a small future between us…"

The orca that was once Uton considered this comment, his eyes staring flatly. For many moons since both she and he had matured, he had noticed her flirting, but had mostly cast it aside. In a way, Kree felt wrong to bring another to the world. Another of White River ancestry…

But then, his heart ached for companionship…

"Perhaps…" Kree murmured, his song deep in thought. "We will sing of this later Sage, but for now we have business to attend to, do you not remember?"

"You play so hard to get… Indeed, I remember…" Sage answered, her song suddenly turning away from the flirty tones. "It is a shame my mother cannot accompany us, but she is ill. We must uphold the wishes of Wind and Gale and carry their final songs to the others… Let us go…"

And side by side, both Kree and Sage exited the bay, leaving the pod of Marble Gate to the light of the sun and the gentle seas, whilst they travelled their journey to honour the forgotten.

- - -

Deep within the abyss, the Asterite continued its eternal rotation. Glittering spheres of power and light slowly humming through the paradox of creation. The greatest wonder of the world, its existence unsure and impossible to determine…

"I was born under the light of the dying sun to a mother with a glorious song. I was named Gol for…" a ghostly phantom of the song-master of White River sung, the Asterite replaying and learning from the mistakes of the past.

In the corner of the chamber lay a skeleton, long forgotten and lost to the world above. The bones of the ancient song-master Gol, who in body and spirit remained part of the Asterite, remained motionless, a reminder to the Asterite of everything that had transpired before.

Thoughts wondered through the mind of the creature of paradox. Wonderings of the past that had transpired few years before. Mistakes had been made and the Asterite aimed to learn from them.

For after all, a new age was beginning…

The Seer of past had failed to learn the true enemy within the conflict. His own emotions. Nartec played them against Sage and now, for the orca allowed his emotions to rule, he began to transpire into the Dark Angel. The lust of destruction and death fuelled by the emotion for revenge brought round the self-destruction of the Seer Sage as he craved his powers for personal use.
The Seer had matured too fast. The reason all Seer's were calves. Being matured, Sage's emotions drove him towards insanity with all the loss and ultimately, his own demise...

The apparition of Gol vanished and the glowing sphere of green faded to green, no longer glowing. Then, a sphere of red lit up, and another orca ghost appeared within the chamber, glowing star markings upon the chin. "I was born under the light of a full moon, in the frozen waters of the north… My mother, Keeki, named me there, as Sage…"

- - -

Arriving near the reef that rested outside the sunken city as the moon arrived within the sky, the tranquillity of the night setting within the waters, Sage and Kree arrived. Kree watched over the reef, remembering he being carried over it by two long since gone orca that he once knew.

Sage and Elli. Two friends whose sweet songs together no longer graced the seas…

The passage of stone into the city lay before them, but out of honour for the dead within, none would enter the city to view the bones of the past, even though they were probably covered and buried with the sands of time now, creating the perfect resting place for the hero.

The past was to be left within peace. None where to enter the city. A new code in the law of the Marble Gate, honouring the friend, ally and hero that Sage had proved to them to be…

Kree's mind flashed back to days in the pod, guilt dragging down his heart. How he tormented them, and accused them and…

"You remember him don't you?" Sage asked Kree, her song remorseful.

Kree nodded. Every time he came here he could see his pod-mate Sage, hear his song and feel his presence within the city. Kree prayed that within the end… the beginning, Sage had been welcomed and had found those that had been lost to them all; the pod of White River. He prayed that Elli and Sage were forever together, as they had wished to be long before.

With no words between them, both orcas began calling out with their song to any nearby to answer their cries as they hoped for at least one certain individual to have come and commemorate the day they remembered, when the waters began to cool, when Sage passed from them.

Indeed, an answer came and moving towards them, through the swarming of fishes were two dolphins, one adult male and a young female calf that mimicked his motions.

"Kree and Sage!" the dolphin called out, his song loud and joyous at their reunion. "It has been some time since we last sung together. How fares the Marble Gate?"

"Marble Gate fairs fine Ecco," Sage nodded her head, dipping it and splaying her fins in respect to their friend. She cast her eyes upon the calf, "We see you too gather with us on the day that my namesake gave his life long ago for our own. Both Wind and Gale would have come as well, but both have passed to the end… the beginning to tell Sage him-self in the past year, and my mother Foxin is too ill to travel far, so I bring her tidings with me." Sage paused to blow as the young dolphin ventured from her father's side to explore the two cousins. "I do see your mate has given birth to a healthy young…" Sage paused her song as the calf swam around, exploring the two larger orcas. Her eyes fell upon something on the small calf that startled her, shaking memories of song that she'd been sung before.

Casting her eyes to Kree, she cast a worried gaze, as did the song-master, seeing the exact same oddity about the calf that Sage noticed. His eyes flooded with fear, wonder and disbelief, as he turned to her, asking, "It cannot be…"

With a twisted frown, Ecco murmured, "I notice you two, too have seen her markings…"

"Indeed," Kree added, his song slightly shaken by what he saw in the calf. A sense of quiet wonderings fell over the trilogy of friends, as the calf rounded about, exploring these larger beings with ample interest and curiosity.

And with every pump of her flukes of movement, the star markings upon them shimmered…

- - -

Deep with the darkness she waited.

Buried cavernously by the sands of time.

Defeated she had been, unable to take the pain of the song.

To protect itself, the larvae had forced herself into the rock-like cacoon.

Too soon she had, so the metamorphosis would take several years than a few weeks.

But those few years were drawing to a close…

Soon she would hatch, soon she would start to lay, and soon…

Soon, the Vortex kind would reign supreme once again…

Soon… So very soon, she would be an adult Queen…

- - -

"What have you named her?" Sage asked Ecco, as the little calf darted about, laughing and singing her own little songs. The star markings worried Sage and Kree, but they knew that only time would tell what those markings meant upon the new heir of the Seer.

But no matter what, they would be there to guide her.

"My mate wanted to name him after my friend… my big brother," Ecco sniggered slightly, staring blissfully at the reef and its swarming fishes, as the memories came flooding back to him. He saw a young dolphin waiting, as an orca dove through the fish, bringing back morsels to feed the smaller dolphin.

Ecco turned his head to face Kree and Sage, a look in his eyes that burned brightly and powerfully. "I refused. I wished to honour my friend in another way, for his name already belongs to you fair Sage. I had a better name… A name that my brother Sage sung of before that I wanted to name her…" Ecco smiled as he looked to his two orca friends, a bond between them all, held by a friend who passed from them all years and years ago.

Sage the hero had learnt the past, confronted the present and helped determine a better future for all with his countless sacrifices.

"And so after his song I named my calf…"

"Hope."

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