The End of days had come, and the End of days had gone. They had left their impression on Terra's shores, and nothing more remained for the life that once flourished on its lands and in its seas. Profound Silence was all that remained to dominate Terra's lands.

Aegir, unceremoniously, fell to ruin and was overrun by terrors. Millions dying in their homes and in the streets to chitin, fang, and claw. For every Terror slain, did another rise to take its place from fallen comrades and from familiar corpses. Eventually, breaking the morale of the home guard and then did the defenses of Aegir's many cities fall. Many died by their own blade, by overdose, or by simply letting the coming waves consume them. Their screams would never make it to the shores of Terra. No one would be listening, even if they had. The Glory of Aegir, would fall to Silence, and Red.

The Operators of Rhodes Island had fallen one by one, and then all at once to the Sea Terrors as they unceasingly pushed further inland, until eventually, even the great city of Lungmen fell, and then shortly after, did the remaining cities of Yan, of the remnants of Kazdel, the cities of Columbia, Siracusa, Iberia, Laterano and even of Ursus to the north — fall. Rhodes Island was one of the last landships, if not the final, to fall to the waves of Terrors that plagued the continent. The worst deaths among those survivors who held out until the very end, wasn't being lost in the tide of Terrors that would swarm stragglers and dismantle barricades. It was the slow death of Infection. Not of Originium, of Catastrophe or Calamity. But that of the Sea. The increased decay of cells and the lack of natural blood regeneration. Impairment of sensory functions, the inability to hold one's weapon, panic attacks and increasingly violent post-traumatic stress episodes. The slow decay of the brain. And then finally the development of cancer-like cells that would eventually lead to full-body seizures of the person infected, before eventually, simply, brain-stem death. Within hours, the afflicted's corpse would not begin to decompose by traditional means. Instead, cellular growth and a foreign hematopoiesis would occur, a sickly blue spreading through the veins of the corpse, before eventually spreading to the now-dead brain stem. Eventually rapturing the body and causing it to act as a new vector of infection, or more accurately, assimilation, as a new Terror was born, even from those whose skin was never touched by the seaborn. Simply breathing in the cells emitted by the Terror's pierced flesh was enough to infect someone. It was by this mechanism did even Rhodes Island's strongest fall to ruin. And the landship proper would wander the remnants of the land on autopilot, until its primary reactor would eventually run low on fuel, and the propulsion plant would cease function due to improper maintenance, and biological contamination. It would end up in a territory with no name and be lost to History. Rhodes Island's death would be as unceremonious and quiet as that of Aegir's own.

Rhodes Island may have died. But there were rumors, in the final days where such things could still make their way around, that a few of the senior and elite operators of Rhodes Island had escaped in the final days of inhabitation of Rhodes Island, and were taking refuge where they could — away from others, away from the cities, away from the sea, away from life. To either die alone, in hopes that their bodies wouldn't be reconstituted again for use by the terrors, or to just live out the remainder of their days not fighting. Those few rumors from and about Rhodes Island, detailed in sometimes gruesome length, the final days, including — one of the more popular rumors turned stories, of a low-level operator for Rhodes Island, making his way from the landship, escaping through an air-vent that wasn't clogged by seaborn flesh, and dropping several meters to the ground below, where he broke his arm, and then made his way, seventeen days without supplies, to the nearest settlement, where he was treated, but eventually died due to a non-seaborn infection from the fracture in his arm. No one really knew who survived, or who didn't. But after the circulation of rumors stopped because there just weren't enough people left in the world to circulate them, no one really knew, or particularly cared to know who survived and who didn't.

Because eventually all survivors would succumb to the same fate, and no one wanted to think about that.

But at the end of it all, only Laurentina remained. She was sure she had, through some twist of fate, some strange happening in the universe that kept her alive, when no one else could manage to survive. Her weapon had served her well, until its many rotating teeth and blades went dull from nigh-constant use, then resulting in just using whatever she could find to defend herself — before eventually using her own hands and teeth to tear her enemies apart. An inelegant, almost depressing way of dealing with her enemies and the Seaborn at large, but it was one that kept her alive when all else had failed her. She had lost her hat, and most of her tassels at some juncture where she had been surrounded by sea-terrors, and only managed to barely escape. She did not morn those tassels or the hat, but on the especially sunny days on the Iberian plains, she did miss them somewhat.

She had wandered the lands outside Iberia for weeks, before she eventually turned outland, and cut through the territory of Iberia, dodging the wasteland cities, and settlements that she was not entirely sure weren't crawling with Terrors. She knew what she was looking for, and it made sense to her that she would find her Red now, as she turned towards the sea, and started heading back towards where it all began, so long ago. She figured it would take just a few days to reach the village of Sal Viento. But her winding path that took her around signs of Sea Terrors and any indication of other life, added at least an extra day before she even began to catch wind of the Sea-smell on the northerly breeze that always seemed to wash up from the coast.

Laurentina had no map, no idea where she was, in particular, but rather relied on instinct and a calling from deep within her heart to guide her in the direction that she needed to go. And in the case that she ends up being completely far away from where she means to go? She can always follow the coast until she reaches her destination that way. She kept quiet during her journey, on account of occasionally hearing the distant screams of what could never be discerned as either human or as those of roaming sea terrors, looking for the last vestiges of humanity to hunt. She was determined to not be one of those found by the sea terrors on their hunt. She moved on, making sure to never be out of tree lines or the cover of tall grasses, if she could help it. Sometimes she would smell the scent of the nethersea brand and have to quickly back-track to find a safer route, one where there wasn't the smell of the Sea Terrors, threatening to overgrow all natural life. She was of a mind to not be devoured by something so trivial. She'd survived this long, she could survive worse.

On the fourth day in what was ostensibly former Iberian territory, Laurentina got her first smell of it. Of the Sea. Not of the scents of the Seaborn, but rather the scents of salt on the wind, and the coolness of the breeze as it washed over the tall-grass plains she was traversing. She didn't mind the smell, it meant she was closer to her destination, and to the familiarity of the Sea, of home. But she also knew, that without a doubt, every step towards the Sea brought her closer towards the Red that had terrorized Terra into Silence. Which meant that she couldn't stop. She couldn't rest. So, she didn't. She kept moving until her body threatened to give out from exhaustion, and then went a little further. Until the sixth day.

On the sixth evening of her journey through Iberia, she finally reached a familiar part of the coastline. One that she recognized from the horizon in her memory of Sal Viento. She was close. She did decide to rest that evening, instead of venturing into the town under utter darkness. There was no reason to impair herself when the Sea Terrors were just as likely to be about and find her, even in the dark. Their sense of smell, and sense of where living things are, is better than her own. So better to wait until daylight the next day to move into the village to try and find the Red that she was looking for. That night, as she lay in a field, keeping an ear out for the sound of approaching Terrors, she could hear it. The melody that she had heard faintly those few nights before Skadi's disappearance. The melody of the Sea, of Many. Of Ishar-mla.

She knew, then, that she was close.

Laurentina didn't sleep well that night. The melody was too haunting, too encompassing in her mind to truly rest well. At least she knew that She was near. There was a cold kind of comfort, a strange familiarity in that.

She was up before dawn, making her path towards the village outskirts in time for first light, and for that light to start pouring over the horizon and illuminating the village's streets and paths. It was quiet. Abandoned. Silent.

She walked in silence, between shattered stores and ruined homes. There were no bodies, no corpses or remains of battle or struggles. Just simply overgrown buildings and the remnants of lives seemingly stopped in their tracks. She knew that Sal Viento had been a quiet village, one that kept to itself until it was eventually washed over by the Church of the Deep, but this felt especially eerie to her. Like life had simply ceased in its tracks. But there was nothing that she could do about that now, instead moving through the village, ever closer to where the call in her heart was leading her. Life had stopped in its tracks everywhere, why should she waste sorrow on those who had it happen to them a little earlier than most?

She entered the village cathedral, the symbol of the church still proudly letting light through its windowpanes and giving gentle light to a scene that was not as eerily serene as what she'd seen outside. Shattered pews; chunks of stone taken out of the pillars of the cathedral's structure. The signs of a battle having played out inside this space at some point in the distant past. Had this been Skadi's doing, all so long ago while Laurentina had been asleep in that bubble of air beneath her feet? Or was this Iberia's Penal Battalion, dueling with the last remnants of the Church of the Deep's acolytes in this village? She didn't have an answer, nor could she glean one from the details that she could find in the remains of this cathedral. So instead, in the waxing light, she used memory to search for the staircase, leading to the karst below. Where the call in her heart was leading her towards, and she knew that she could find Her.

She made her way down those stone steps, one by one, feeling along the wall for support as she did. Her core slightly trembled as she descended. Waiting for something to jump out at her from the dark in front of her or the dark behind her as she made her way down those silent, dark steps. She could barely see in front of her but managed to find a little bit of light to guide her as she descended anyways.

Laurentina descended in silence, only the occasional sound of a distant dripping making its way to her ears, and the sound of her footsteps against each etched-out step of the staircase leading to the karst. It had been so long since she had ascended these stairs, it was strange to be descending them once more. Part of her had always wondered if she would ever have come back to Sal Viento, back to this place. Now she had her answer as she descended the hidden stairs of the cathedral above.

Eventually, she reached a cave-in. The path was nearly completely blocked by rocks, and only had a little opening near the top where she could crane her neck to get a glimpse through. More stairs. That was a good thing, at least. It meant that the area beyond wasn't completely caved in. It meant that there was still a karst further along. She did her best to move the rocks, wishing that she had some sort of lever to help her move the heavier ones. Until she eventually had enough of a space to crawl through. It would be a tight squeeze.

She clambered up what rocks remained; and then exhaled all she could from her chest to fit her shoulders, then her ribs through. Her hips and legs promptly followed the rest of her when she tumbled, rather ungraciously out of the hole that she had made, and down several stairs until she came to a stop. Along her tumble, she thought she felt something crack in her ribs, and did her best to ignore the pain, but the searing-hot waves of pain that shot through her chest with every breath forced her to pay attention. She cradled her side, doing her best to level her breathing, and will the pain to pass through her. As she felt around her side, she found the spot that had broken. One of the ribs on her right side, near the bottom. It didn't feel like it completely fractured, but she had certainly slammed it into one of the rocks on her tumble through the opening; and now it was sending waves of pain throughout her body.

She sat on the stairs for a few minutes, listening to the dripping of rocks further down the stairs, and her own labored breathing as each swell and fall of her chest made waves of pains soar through her body. There was a distant melody, one that reminded her of Ishar-mla's melody, but different - but she couldn't decide if it was her mind playing the tune, or if someone else was singing it. Until she eventually became accustomed to the pain, part of her wished that she knew any healing arts at all. But instead, forced herself through the pain. It wasn't her first time experiencing pain like this, but it was the most recent in memory, and even if she'd experienced worse in the past, that didn't mean that in this moment it hurt any less.

Standing up after those few moments of rest had passed, Laurentina clutched at her side with one hand, and steadied herself with the other as she descended the ever-steepening stairs. Hoping that there was nothing hidden in the low light that she would catch with her foot, and send her sprawling down even more of the stairs, injuring herself even further.

Eventually, as she descended, an almost imperceptible change happened. The walls of the staircase started to lighten up. Laurentina almost didn't believe that it was happening at first, shaking her head as she descended yet another dozen or so stairs, until she could deny the truth no longer. The walls were starting to shimmer in blue. She must be getting close to the karst. She continued down the stairs, each breath and each step sending a shock of pain through her body, but all she did was all she could do — grit her teeth and bear with it. All the while, the melody that she had heard after tumbling down through that hole in the cave-in grew louder. She was becoming increasingly sure she knew what or who was the source but didn't want to admit it to herself. It wasn't a pleasant thought to have, and she wanted to hold out hope that maybe, just maybe, She was still alive.

Eventually, the blue light became bright enough that she could see more than a few steps in front of her, and further still did the staircase walls give way to the ceiling of the karst. Stalactites from the ceiling, dripping water ever so often to the floor below. She could not, through the pain and the light fog present throughout the vast chamber, see the bottom. So she made her way to the bottom of the stairs anyways, doing her best to not waver or fall down the rest of the stairs, or into the indeterminate fog below.

She almost tripped on something as she descended these final stairs. A familiar weapon's case, propped between rocks set on the stairs in such a way as to act as an anchor of sorts… But for what, Laurentina couldn't see, as the rope dangled softly into the fog below. There was no indication of what lay in the fog beneath her feet. But she descended anyways into that fog bank, unsure of what exactly she expected to find. Red, for certain, but beyond that? Did she still hold hope, that all this time, Skadi could still be alive? She didn't want to find the answer to that question. She'd rather keep that question locked away in her heart forever. Yet, here she was, descending, nonetheless.

The fog bank was thick, having formed from the humidity of the karst, and the eventual cooling of it due to the differing temperatures of the water currents surrounding it. She wasn't entirely sure, and didn't waste too much thought on what formed the fog in the karst, rather than just focusing on not falling off of the stairs, which were slick with condensed water. She made it to the bottom without further injury, swaying lightly on her feet as she set foot on the rocky basin of the karst. Waiting instead for some sign of life, of movement in the fog, of Her, something to indicate that there was something or someone alive down here. That she hadn't injured herself being called to this accursed place for nothing to actually be here.

She stood in silence, listening to only her breathing, the sound of the dripping stalactites, the swinging tension of the rope from before, and the soft hum that continued at the same volume no matter which way she turned her head. She wasn't entirely sure which direction it was coming from, and instead seemed to come from all directions at once.

"I'm here, you know?" She eventually spoke, after a minute or two had passed. To no one in particular, but to whoever would be down there with her. She knew there was someone, she could sense them, but their presence was not familiar, nor was it dangerous or threatening to her. It just was the same as she was. Existing in this space.

No one responded to her.

She started to walk around the staircase, as it descended in a spiral from the ceiling. Taking careful, measured steps. She couldn't see very far in front of her, and the sound of the rope only got louder as she crossed to the other side of the staircase. It was then, as she about rounded that corner to the other side of the stairs, did she see white and Red.

White like skin, Red like blood. White like familiarity and Red like love. Suspended from the staircase by the rope pulled taut and suspending the body of Skadi a few feet in the air, her neck at an unsurvivable angle, and a pile of kicked away rocks beneath her feet.

Laurentina's heart broke into an indescribable number of pieces, upon laying eyes on the face of her lover, of her Skadi.

Hanging unceremoniously from a make-shift anchor and hand-tied noose.

She dropped to her knees, and wept.

All the while, the fog bank lessened, the air becoming warmer with the changing of air currents and the beating of the sun rays upon the ocean's surface above. The melody hummed became louder without the impediment of the fog in its way.

Laurentina didn't hear it over the sounds of her mourning.

Skadi had died when her neck had snapped, five-hundred and twenty-three seconds after hanging herself. She had died herself, not as someone else, not as Him. In no way, in no delusion of thought, did Laurentina think that this was something that had happened to her Skadi, instead knowing that this was something that She had chosen. To come here to die. To die under her own decision, under her own conditions, and not under the influence of anyone or anything else. To keep what last vestiges of her dignity intact, if even if meant that she had to run away from Laurentina, away from all that she knew and cared for. Laurentina knows this, accepts this, and cannot deny the reality of what's in front of her, and can't help but love Skadi even in spite of having ran away from her. She accepts this, the undeniable truth.

That her Skadi, is dead.

The humming grows louder, now that the fog has gone and the karst has opened wide, like the gaping maw of a beast, waiting to swallow Laurentina and her sorrow whole.

In her grief, Laurentina does not hear the footsteps behind her. She does not see the White in the corner of her vision through tear-filled eyes.

Her body shakes, and she cannot break her eyes away from the face of her Skadi. She does not want to. In this moment, she would be content to die. But death does not come. There is nothing here to kill her.

"Why do you cry?" A strangely familiar voice asks.

Laurentina's sob catches in her throat. She blinks away tears, her chest oddly still, and her grief suddenly tucked away at the sound of the voice. A feeling instead replaces grief — something akin to that of a cornered predator. She knows what should be there, and what is actually there in the corner of her vision doesn't coincide. There should be no way for another living being to be down here, so far separated from the world above, and with the last living thing to be down here now hanging from a noose in front of her. Which then, would stand that the thing in the corner of her vision isn't alive. Not in a way that Laurentina knows things to be alive. Which means that to her, it is a threat. But with no weapon to defend herself with, and her brain still wracked with emotions at the sight of her dead Skadi, there's nothing for her to do. She falls away from the thing, and stares at it, jaw clenched.

"Why are you crying?" The voice asks again, and now, with eyes clear, Laurentina can see the thing before her, can resolve it in her vision for what it is.

Clad in White, a crown made of chitin atop her head, and holding a staff of effervescent gold and browns of origins that no part of Laurentina's brain would've been able to place, if she had the time. The thing in front of her is Skadi. Looking at her with a glance that can only best be described as empty. Her eyes seem all the more Red in the light of karst, and even more hauntingly, are empty.

Laurentina sniffles as she backs away from the thing, her core now trembling with emotions at the sight of her Skadi, alive. There's something terrible in the feeling she gets from the sight of her beloved, looking down at her with hollow eyes, and skin that looks almost too pale to be true.

Something massive moves in the shadows, something that Laurentina's brain registers, but her conscious is too focused on the Skadi in front of her that it can't comprehend the existence of anything else in this place.

"H-How are you—" She eventually manages to stammer out, staring at the hollow eyes of the specter in front of her.

"We have always been a part of Her." The Thing explains. The shadows shift again. "We… Took control after she…" The Thing stammers over words, as if trying to find the right ones in a human tongue.

"You're Ishar-mla."

The Thing smiles.

"It's good you recognize us, Laurentina…"

She spits at it. The blob landing short of Ishar-mla's feet.

"We have been waiting for you a long time." The smile never waivers. "We knew our song would reach you. You who is still one of Us."

"I came looking for her." She points at Skadi. "Not you, you sick freak!"

Ishar-mla looks at the space where Laurentina points as if there is nothing there, before turning back to her, still on the ground. "It is no matter, you can still be with her."

"Like hell!" She hisses at Him. "You took her from me! If it weren't for you, she wouldn't have—"

"We saved her. You can still be with her." The thing smiles with its hollow eyes, and it sends a shiver down Laurentina's spine. The shadows shift once again.

"Wh-What?" Laurentina stammers out in a half-shout.

There's a crunching sound that comes from Ishar-mla's neck, and something changes about Ishar-mla, the glint of the eyes, and a turning of the lips — and in that familiar yet foreign voice, comes a name — Laurentina's own name. Said in such a way, with such solace behind each phoneme, that for the slightest of moments, Laurentina's mind can't comprehend that the thing in front of her isn't Skadi. Some part of her twists, horrifically at this. Hearing her own name come from Her mouth again.

"No…" Laurentina denies it, yet part of her brain wants it to be true. That somehow, despite the truth that's right in front of her— that still her Skadi is alive.

That part grows as the turning of the lips stays on Ishar-mla's face, and the hand that doesn't belong to Him reaches to cup Laurentina's face. She doesn't resist, letting the warm hand touch her skin, and almost leans into it, before she realizes what it is that is happening. She scampers backwards, tears renewed down her face as she does.

"You're not her!" She screams at Ishar-mla.

"But Laurentina I—" The thing says in a way that only Skadi could.

"You're not!"

The tears flow freely, and the shadows shift again, almost seeming to recoil backwards. Laurentina backs up to the wall of the karst, and when she can back no further, she pulls her legs to her chest, to make herself as small as possible. The more she thinks about it, the more the images of Skadi's body, hanging from the stairs, haunts her vision, the more the tilt of Ishar-mla's lips looks like Skadi's own and the way that she oh so desperately wishes to hear her own name come from those lips again. To feel the caress of Her hand against her cheek, her lips against her neck. To have these visions of her loved one's death erased from her mind. To have her pain taken away in this moment in a way that no living thing could ever possibly do. The things she's seen in the time since Skadi's disappearance, since the Silence that washed over Terra's shores and inland as it raced; were too much for her to bare. Horrors beyond her own reckoning, and beyond even what she had seen about the Stultifera Navis with its doomed crew and captain. The death of everyone she knew, including those that she thought nigh unkillable. Doctor Kal'tsit, Amiya, Gladiia, even the Doctor themselves. Her mind couldn't handle it.

She felt another part of herself twist revoltingly at these thoughts. At the thought of being freed from all this pain.

She put her head between her knees and sobbed.

Distantly, the shadows shift again. There is a meaty thud as Skadi's body is freed from its noose and falls to the ground below. Laurentina doesn't hear this sound, the sound of her own sobs and the racing of blood in her ears preventing her from hearing anything at all.

The shadows bring Him Skadi's weapon case. And then takes a seat on it after a moment of staring at it, unsure of what to make of it. Upon sitting on it, there is a sound from His lips. Something like a screech of metal against flesh, and the aberration of flesh against stone. A crude attempt at singing. One that makes Laurentina's own sobs become louder.

He tries again, this time getting closer and closer to making an actual song with an unfamiliar, stolen voice.

On, and on this goes. Every aberrant attempt at song brings it closer and closer to the song which it is trying so hard to come to.

Laurentina tries to drown out the sound, but cannot.

Eventually, Ishar-mla makes a sound like song, and seems pleased enough with it, continues onto the next note.

On, and on this goes.

A song that isn't familiar to Laurentina but is strangely comforting.

It erodes at her very being, taking away small chunks of what she knows and thinks she knows with each note.

It doesn't take long for her to realize that beneath the melody, is something else. A counter melody.

She starts to hum that counter.

The last piece of resistance falls away.

Ishar-mla picks up at that first inkling of acceptance.

The melody becomes stronger, and the draw to sing more and more.

Eventually, after what very well could be hours or days, Laurentina takes her head from between her legs, and with eyes slammed shut, continues to hum along. Not hearing the footsteps draw closer.

There is a presence beside her. Familiar yet singing in a foreign way. A melody she can't understand but can find the counter melody for all the same.

Eventually, a hand takes hers inside of it, and traces shapes along her palm, a presence so relaxing in its familiarity that she's all but sure that its Skadi, come to save her from this nightmare.

She follows the melody. Resting her head on the familiar shoulder, her hand being taken in the familiar hands of Skadi.

"I've missed you…" Laurentina sobs in between notes.

"I've missed you too." Skadi's voice replies from Ishar-mla's throat.

Through closed eyes, Laurentina does not see the gray wyrm emerge from the shadows, picking curiously at Skadi's body. It tilts its head at the out-stretched hand of the corpse. Before scooping up the body in its jaws and crunching down.

When Laurentina woke up, she could tell that she was no longer alone, meeting instead the Red eyes of Her.

Skadi smiles, and Ishar-mla leans in, the crown of chitin never moving from its place on His scalp.

Laurentina reaches up to cup Her face as He leans in and kisses her.