Lucia tumbled through the Immaterium, waves of laughter buffeting her as she drifted aimlessly through the turbulent sea. She had exhausted all her hope, all her fear and her sorrow. Only rage still burned. Rage at herself, for failing to escape when she had had the chance. Rage at this daemon that continued to torment her, had forced her to experience the hardest decision of her life.

"What are you waiting for?!" Lucia screamed at those hateful eyes, still watching her. She was so tired of seeing them, so tired of everything. "End this!"

The laughter subsided. The voices spoke as one, booming baritones mingling with whispered sopranos, reverberating down in the very depths of Lucia's soul.

"You are insignificant, a servant to my will. You will end when I choose. No sooner. No later."

Not long ago, Lucia would have had a million new questions racing through her mind, would have felt challenged by the grand puzzle of it all. That Lucia was dead. What was the point of another puzzle this close to the end? What was the point of anything? But the rage wouldn't leave it there. The ragedemandedanswers.

"Is that why you consumed Erebus? Because it was the 'time you chose'? Or was it because it dared to stand against you? Dared to fight?"

The laughter rumbled again.

"Foolish child. Have you not yet realized? Erebus was but a fiction.Myfiction. I have been with you from the very beginning. I spoke to you on Mercator. I watched as you tore through the storms. Too long have I awaited a soul worthy of my attention."

Lucia's eyes widened. She had been skeptical of Erebus from the start. But so much of its plan had made sense, so much had gone right, that she had given herself over to the lie. "If it was always you, then why did you help me?"

"Help you? By sending you on that fool's errand? Your evolution was palpable, invigorating. But none of this was meant tohelpyou. There is no strength to be gained from reliving the past. There is no escape."

Lucia frowned, shaking her head slowly. "But… but you took me to find Dovator! To tell him—"

"To close the loop on your story. To seal your fate." The voices paused, letting the full weight of their words be felt. "Perhaps now you are beginning to understand. I am infinite, born of the boundless ambition of mortals. I am compelled by my very nature to seek knowledge. I have torn through the veil times innumerable, delivering whole civilizations to prosperity. To ruin. Each time, I have been driven back by shortsighted, mediocre men. Each time, I thirsted for something new. You…You were something new. Something interesting. I would not have been sated consuming you right away. No…But a game! A game makes it all the more satisfying."

Another pause, the voices savouring the moment of crushing revelation. "So we played my game. I had intended it to last a while longer. But you are far too clever. You were beginning to see. And now, our time together has ended."

The mouths opened, yawning caverns descending upon her from all sides. Lucia closed her eyes, let resignation smother the rage. The end had come at last.

Kraken's face swam up from the darkness, and then Dovator's and Weiss' and Sara's too. There was so much more life she could live, so much more she could give to these people.No. I can't die like this. I won't.The rage returned, burning brighter and hotter than before, an unchecked inferno reigniting Lucia's soul.

Dovator's words came to her: 'Climb. Feel your way back.' In a moment of clarity, she knew what he had meant, what she needed to do. She prayed it wasn't too late.

Lucia let go, her physical form dissolving, her soul becoming one with the Immaterium, flowing through it. She was everywhere and nowhere, a bucket of water emptied into an infinite sea. She felt herself slipping around the daemon, entangling with it, and then coming away again. Warp energies swirled, the terrifying tempest reasserting itself. Around and around, faster and faster, it pulled at her, a maelstrom sucking her down into the abyss.

In the midst of all the nothingness, Lucia felt something solid, a lonely rock in the vast ocean. She wrapped around it, sheltering from the storm, gathering as much of herself to it as possible. With all her strength, she climbed.

The remnants of her soul caught on something. She struggled, trying desperately to break free, to bring all of herself to that safe harbour.

Lucia pulled as hard as she could, her soul stretching, twisting, fraying.

Something gave.

Kraken had just finished telling Lucia about his most recent mission. He had embellished a few things, but figured the artistic liberty made for a better story. And if Lucia was in there somewhere, if she could hear him, then maybe a good story would help keep her spirits up.

He moved around her bed slowly, the same routine he followed every night he was on the ship: disconnecting the muscle stimulators, flexing her joints, checking her IV and ventilator. Satisfied, he tucked her in before dimming the lights and finally sinking into the nearby chair.

It had been almost a month since Lucia had been in this state, a month since she had made the courageous sacrifice that had saved his life. And as grateful as he was, seeing her this way often made him wish she hadn't.

But at least hecouldsee her, spend time with her. Time was running out on that. If she was gone any longer, they'd need to put her in the tank, or she'd never properly recover physically. If she came back at all.

Kraken closed his eyes and leaned back, a heavy sigh escaping his lips; it had been a long day. He kicked his feet up on the desk, making himself comfortable. With one last look over at Lucia's body, he tried to get some sleep.

He had just begun to doze when a sharp inhale dragged him back. Kraken listened: a gentle cough, the soft rustling of bedsheets. He was on his feet, laspistol drawn, mentally preparing himself for the worst.

Lucia was sitting up in her bed, watching him. "Kraken?" she croaked.

Kraken rushed to her side, pulling her into a tight embrace. After a long moment, Lucia reciprocated, wrapping her arms around him and pressing herself into him, like a child in desperate need of comfort. At last, he pulled away gently, just enough that he could see her face, look into her eyes. "Holy shit… you made it! Are you okay?"

Lucia laughed. It wasn't quite that same beautiful, musical laugh he had longed to hear again. This one was a few semitones darker than he remembered.

"No," she said. "I'm not."