An Abbysal Abscond

[Okor]

The Leprous Legionnaire shouldered the bulk of bit battle-cannon, a strange silence reigning where there was once the static shrieks of a digital demon. He breathed deeply, filling recently regrown lungs with his acidic atmosphere of choice, the organs cancer-ridden despite existing for little more than an hour.

Worms still writhed within his throat, silken threads repairing the trauma of his decapacitation. He had survived. This was a welcome change from the chaos of the previous Abyss, the betrayal and bloodshed that had ended with the Triumvirate of Titans lying slain upon the blood-stained sands of the arena.

But he was no longer the newborn Prime he once was, still slick behind the ears with the Omnillium-infused waters of his entrance into this accursed reality. In the sunless sepulchres beneath the Earth, he had taken the skulls of Gods. Within the shadow of Death Mountain, he drew the blood of a Draconic Deity.

He was Okor Gods-Damned Paleblood.

He stood taller, his twisted spine unfurling as it raised him above the blank landscape. Hatred and rage coiled around his blackened hearts, choking the life from him as his gangrenous God breathed violent vigour back into his corpse, a cycle of death and rebirth perpetuated by his own plagued psyche.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

He gazed out over the featureless plane of existence that greeted fresh Primes, its emptiness already healed of the scars of battle. How many lives had been offered up to the Smiling God in this Nexus of power?

He could still feel the phantom sensation of warm blood upon his gauntlets, the hearts of heroes laid bare and torn from their torsos, all in the name of justice.

He had contributed his fair share to the tally, the infernal ledger of life marking every soul slated for their inevitable demise. It was the way of things: You were born, and in time, you died. What happened between was in nobody’s hands but your own.

But someone had been unfortunate enough to have been twice-cursed at their inception. Torn from Nurgle’s welcoming embrace, they were shaped from the Aether by some careless prime, and sent to roam the world with firearm and flame, denied the terrible truths of the realm, and led to their demise.

Fiara would repeat the cycle, without aid. Reborn without the hard-won knowledge of the Abyss by an uncaring Demiurge, and thrown back out into reality to die once more.

He shifted his massive pauldrons as he attempted to sight any other figure open the Nexus, his dual hearts beating sluggishly. Blood still stained his fangs, the vital fluids of a thousand abominations sating the intrinsic lust for death bred into his very being. The stolen life lay heavy in his gut, slowly being digested by both acidic innards and the host of parasites infesting his carcass.

The maddening tides of the Empyrean had flowed, and now they were at their ebb. Twisted talons of warpstuff slid out from his mind, leaving the ragged remnants of his psyche to struggle until the siren lure of slaughter called to him once more.

The grim business of death had been finalized, leaving the unfamiliar task of life in its place.

He sighed, diseased breath passing through an Orthodontist’s worst nightmare. He had to find the prime that forged Fiara, and break the cycle of ignorance and death that threatened to consume their existence.

Corroded ceramite impacted against the nothingness of the Nexus as be began his journey, each stride carrying him towards a yet-unknown destination. Where the hell are the heroes when you need them?

[Amaterasu]

Later, Amaterasu would have called the ensuing events a series of coincidences. A coincidence that Okor emerged from Dante's Abyss at the exact same time as she was riding through the white plains to meet up with Kushi, who was just speaking with Yuki and sharing what little knowledge she had of the Omniverse with the freshly arrived Prime. A coincidence that Kushi's hut was located on the same side of the fountain that Okor was returning at, and a coincidence that Amaterasu was approaching that hut in such a way that Okor had a clear line of sight towards her. And the reverse was equally true.

Amaterasu was coming close to the fountain when she took note of the towering Plague Marine that was seemingly orientating itself - there was no way of telling what gender it had, if it had ever had one - before starting to walk. She would have dodged its way as her route to Kushi's hut was crossing with it, but she didn't see the point. There were few that may hold a grudge against her in this world, after all, at least as far as she could tell...

Then a breeze in the air sent a waft of Okor's natural perfume her way and her eyes widened. She remembered that smell! The Graveyard, Hero Teucer, the temple... it all came back to her. She had seen that creature before... her mind dug up the memories that she had sorted away as trivial and reminded her how, indeed, this armored hulk had been in the same room as her back then. That must mean that it was a Prime. She doubted that many, if any, had survived the events of the graveyard. She shuddered at the memories... skies ablaze with a meteorite descending upon them, a cage of lightning, a wizard of unimaginable power... back there she had died and never seen Somerled or Trunks ever since. Nor any of the others. This one was the first she came across. If it was a Prime it must have respawned, like she had.

Once more her hand twitched but she had by now gotten used to the fact that the Kusanagi no Tsurugi was not across her back currently. But she was not as defenseless as she had been in the Graveyard... though she doubted that this being, whom she presumed to be a Plaguelord, was any worse off than her. It seemed... well, tired though. Slightly so. And it had noticed her, no doubt. She could just ignore it though, as much as she hated to leave an Akuma to roam after she'd encountered it. On the other hand, it was unlikely that she was known around here. She may have been Amaterasu, the great kami who shines in Heaven, in Japan. Here she was Amaterasu, an immortal somewhat powerful Prime among many. And she doubted that she'd made an impression on the Plaguelord, with all the other much more eye-catching heroes that had been present to aid Hero Teucer. So, Amaterasu took a decision. She slowed her horse and waved her raised hand as a friendly greeting, as she had seen people do in Coruscant. Only once they came within about a dozen meters of one another did she speak.

"Konnichiwa, Tabi", she greeted it and bowed from the top of her horse. Normally she would wait for the other to introduce themselves but she was worried that it may ignore her; it wasn't usual for two strangers to speak to one another on the road after all. Thus, she spoke more. "Please forgive my intrusion, but... I believe I have seen you in the land of Hero Teucer, unless I am confusing you for someone else? I was... present myself." She hoped that the mention of Hero Teucer would draw the other's attention sufficiently to stop it for a bit. If so, she would dismount as the other may take offense in her speaking down to it from the saddle.

Translations:
Akuma = Demon/Devil
Kami = God/Goddess
Konnichiwa = Good day
Tabi = Traveler

[Okor]

Despite the newcomer’s mount, the Plague Marine was nearly level with her, his vermillion viewer staring into her fair features. Lupine ears rose from her ivory hair, the faded follicles cascading across slight shoulders. Strange instruments of devotion hung from her belt, somewhat akin to the more standard suite of skulls donned by most of the Gods’ Chosen warriors.

He extended a gauntlet as her horse whinnied and began to pull away, making its discomfort known as it struggled to escape the approaching abomination. In a voice most akin to sewage-soaked Gravel, he spoke to the Goddess before him. ”I am Okor Paleblood, son of the Fourteenth Legion, and the Dean of… Security,” he spat, attempting to withhold the caustic fluids seeping through his esophagus.

His armour dripped with corruption, a thin film of rancid rot barely visible upon its corroded surface as it hung in the air, the vermin clinging to it wriggling in sync with the parasites swimming through his vitreous humours. Pustules burst open his tarnished breastplate, the ancient armour scarred by ancient battles despite existing for such a short period of time. The idea of Okor’s armour being without damage, being freed from the wounds it wore with such pride, was entirely inconceivable. The nerve-bound warplate was as much a part of him as his reinforced skeletal structure, and to see it shine and glimmer while he wallowed in the glories of gangrene and rot was unthinkable.

Steel-wrapped fingers gently twitched in the air, malformed neurons misfiring as he awaited the newcomer to return the gesture, his own corruption a stark contrast to the perfection vision of purity before him.

”I prefer not to recall that… Farce. T’was nothing more than one of Omni’s japes. But I have named myself thrice to you, and thrice have I bound myself. Before we go any further, I ask of you your own name, traveller.”

[Amaterasu]

Amaterasu really could not blame the horse for its unease. Truth be told she was glad that it hadn't tossed her off and run away, actually. She put her hand on its neck and whispered calming words into its ear until she got it to ease sufficiently that it would listen. She was glad that having been a wolf - and still having some part of that in her, even now, even here - had given her to speak, even if only rudimentarily, to other animals, as that allowed her to tell the mount to head onward and wait for her at a safe distance. The horse happily obliged and trotted off in a wide arc so as not to get near what it acknowledged as a predator. "Pardon my mare, Tabi. I'm here for you now." As if to underline her statement her ears turned to face their open sides towards Okor, even though Amaterasu could not resist the natural instinct of constantly turning and switching them to check for noises. She just kept them aimed at the other one as best as she could.

While he spoke she used the time given to her to examine him - if he referred to himself as the son of this "Fourteenth Legion" individual, and on that note western people had even weirder names than what she'd thought - a little more thoroughly. No doubt was he held on his feet by some power that transcended normal life. She was no medical expert but just from a simple look she made out twenty sicknesses ravaging his... well, she wanted to say body, but it looked to be metal armor. On the other hand, that same armor was undoubtedly part of his body, the way it behaved was as if it was skin or a carapace. She wondered why he wore it. Plaguelords were more like spirits floating on the wind, not toughened warriors.

As Okor then brought up the ill memories Amaterasu made an almost casual motion and grabbed her hair where it blackened with ink, and drew something in the air besides herself. "Kaze", she whispered so as not to interrupt him, and conjured up a very mild form of her Galestorm technique along with a 風 symbol in the air that quickly vanished again. While the ability was normally meant to blow even mighty opponents back in this case it summoned only a light breeze from behind Amaterasu that blew away the pathogens in the air back at their origin. The consumption of power was so minimal that she could uphold it during their speech without a problem. This put her slightly more at ease.


While his next words may not have been meant to be scolding Amaterasu bit her lip and bowed, much deeper than before and looking at the ground, her palms placed against each other before her chest. Exposing oneself to an attack freely would probably be picked up as a foolish gesture by a warrior but it was a sincere apology from the kami. "I am very sorry not to have stated my name before, Paleblood-san - I pushed it back in favor of grabbing your attention so we may speak. I am..." There, she hesitated for the tenth of a second, the Plague Marine may not even notice it. Arturia's recommendation came back to her, but she dismissed it as fast as it had come up - the Holy Grail war was too unlikely to be taking place at this point. Nobody else had made a mention of it, there were no masters, no attackers... so there was no point in hiding her name, especially not before someone who seemed to have introduced themselves with their real name as well. "... Amaterasu Omikami." This moment of hesitation Okor would likely notice as it lasted for a second or so. He had, as he'd said, named himself thrice to her. His name and two titles, right? She decided to follow suit and picked out two titles that most matched his introduction. "Firstborn of Izanagi, and Kami of the Sun." Another bow. "Once again I apologize for the intrusion. It's just that I died before the conclusion of the battle and I know not what the fate of Hero Teucer was, nor of the other participants. I remembered you as we crossed paths, it brought some memories back." An unspoken question was weaved in there. If he decided to leave it unanswered she would just not dig any further and leave him be.

[Okor]

A contemptuous sneer spread beneath the sullied steel of his helmet, a single eye narrowing as he glared at the demigod. ”Amaterasu.” He stepped closer, corroded ceramite coming ever-nearer. ”Did you know that Fiara prayed to, before she.. Fell?” He snarled, the fetid stench of his form washing over Amaterasu, her magicks unable to fully resist the unnatural rot that permeated his being.

Incandescent anger replaced polite tranquility that had formerly been present, masking the hint of fear that emanated from her divine heart, a sublime aroma he had purused across the galaxy. Her lupine ears flattened themselves against her alabaster hair, her follicles arranging themselves in a combative manner, her murderous art preparing to lay waste to the impertinent interstellar warrior.

“What did you do to her?” Snarled the celestial being, her divine wrath but a moment away from being unleashed upon Okor, his scarred and pitted armour perfectly conveying the utter dearth of fear within his gene-sculpted carcass.

A chuckle broke from his corrupted corpse, in spite of the calligraphic catastrophe about to be unleashed upon him. ”Do you think me a monster, oh… Goddess?” Contempt dripped from his voice as he intoned her divine title, unwilling to honour her with the same accolade bestowed upon his unholy patron. ”Simply because I kill, and kill, and kill again?”

He stepped back slightly, forcing his claws to release themselves from the fists they had formed, the primal urge to rip and tear slowly receding to the back of his mind, never entirely banished from his tortured psyche. With a shudder, he spoke, attempting to adopt a neutral tone, a concept almost entirely foreign to his manipulated and warped mind.

”I… Did not kill Fiara. We marched into the Abyss together, and only I… emerged.” He stared into her godly gaze, undisguised disgust evident in his attentions, a match to the caustic tone of his voice, his words as sharp as his blades, his savage sword still hanging from his hip. ”We walked into a dread demiurge’s dream, and stood toe-to-toe with… Nightmares. I saw engines of war broken to pieces, and she was little more than a child.” He rapped corrupted claws against the carapace of his chest as he leaned forward, his single eye widening in anger and indignation. ”I had to tell her what a damned Prime was, beneath the earth, as everyone she knew burned around her,” he spat, jabbing a jaundiced finger towards the Vixen Goddess. ”And you allowed a child to walk into that damned realm, with less knowledge than a blind fool in the Black Library.”

The anger that seemingly sustained him subsided, pestilential pauldrons sagging as a world-wearied eye looked back into her wolven features.

”She prayed to you, before she… Fell.”

“I thought you’d best know that.”

[Amaterasu]

The questions about Hero Teucer and the Graveyard were quickly forgotten when the disease-ridden hulk brought Fiara's name up. Amaterasu presumed the worst on the spot, and though she did not unhook her Prayer Beads from her waist she had placed her hands in a stance that would allow her to draw them at a moment's notice, if what Okor said did not please her. The breeze she had conjured blew harder for a moment then vanished entirely, and she glared up at the black holes where she could only presume the Plague Marine's eyes to be as she awaited his response. Never mind the whole "prayer" thing, from what she'd seen her powers here were laughable compared to what to they had been in Nippon, she could not hope to hear the prayers of someone who was that far away.

Godde-? oh right, that was what western people referred to a kami as. Had Okor not stepped back and eased the tension in his body she may have sent one of the jewels through his helmet right then and there. Only her curiosity and his appearant lack of intention to harm her as well were keeping her at bay, at the time, at least until Okor proceeded with his explanations.

"The Abyss, you say?!" She reached into a pocket of her dress and produced a slightly battered mobile dataverse device, which she held out to Okor upside-down, unaware of her error. "I've seen her on there, for brief moments at a time. You think I LET her go there?! You think I even KNEW she was going there until it was too late?!" She stuffed the item back into the folds of her dress. "I went searching for entry points, for portals but everything was gone when I arrived! Whatever this place is, it's no place for Fiara, let alone- wait." Something clicked in her mind. She gazed at Okor with narrowed eyes, though the hulk stood unmoved and unimpressed at the calmed, but still ever present flames in the Sun Goddess's eyes. "She fell, you said? That you didn't kill her? You mean that she... was killed?"

When he did not reply, Amaterasu's eyes widened. "Oh no. No no no no no!" She pulled the device back up and mashed the touchscreen with her hand, completely forgetting about that the Plague Marine was still right before her. She pulled up the website of Dante's Abyss and clumsily swiped to scroll until she found the death list, which in turn she pulled up with more touchscreen-mashing. And even though the phoenician alphabet was still a tough read for her, she knew what the letters "Fiara" looked like and rapidly made the name out among numerous others. When she looked back up at Okor, big tears had formed in the corners of her eyes.


"I'll bring her back... I mean, I can do that in this place, right?" She knew that much by now, she understood the relationship between Primes and Secondaries. But she only knew Fiara from before her time in the Omniverse! How could she restore her with her memories, even leaving out those of Dante's Abyss, if she didn't know of what had happened to her? Her mind raced and she just spat out the first thing she could think of. "Did she leave anything behind? Written notes or something?"

[Okor]

Okor’s harrowed head shook from side to side, sullied ceramite scraping against itself with every motion, flakes of rust falling from his titanic form. Infected lids slowly slid over his infested iris, smearing tears of pus and blood across the aqueous humours. Claws clenched into fists, twitching and trembling as he silently cursed himself for his weakened will. Any alliance with mortals ended the same, whether in reality or this demented purgatory: They slipped away into the stygian sepulchral realms of the dead, while Nurgle’s blessed Grandchildren endured the trials of the millenia.

Why would tragedy be any different in this demented dream?

At last, he found the strength to speak, the faceless facade of the blood-drenched Legionnaire momentarily fading, a glimmer of the exhausted ancient beneath the sanguine-stained warplate showing through. ”No such… luck. For far too long, we believed ourselves to be nigh-invincible.”  It was the truth. Cannibals, mutants, and roaming revenants had all fallen before them, a seemingly inexhaustible source of ammunition and righteous anger propelling them through horde after horde.

But perhaps, there was something he had salvaged from the shattered storm of battle, a morbid memento torn from the pulverized remains of the phoenix.

He could still taste the grey matter lodged between his fangs, the stolen thoughts within the mouth-watering morsel beckoning to him, the memories begging to be released and regurgitated, to be reborn.

His rotting tongue worried it free, pilfered perceptions pulsing through his nervous system as they reached the decaying architecture of his mind, a fragment of Fiara’s psyche being recreated for a mercifully short time within the hellscape within his head.

Terror. Anger. Pain. Pride. Despair.

And the worst of all sins in this world of hurt:

Hope.

”But I remember. Gods spare my blasted soul, I… remember.” A rattling breath through his rusted helmet, a tortured intake of tainted oxygen.

”She feared me. I was a plague-ridden revenant from her nightmares, a damned demon brought forth to spread Chaos.”

“And instead, I enforced Order. I built a… sanctuary of sanity in a sea of madness, and I kept it afloat. When the ravenous reavers came for our flesh, I rallied the survivors. When the earth itself fell to our ferocity and claimed what little life remained in that camp, I turned our tormentors into… Torches, to light our path through the darkness..” He coughed and hacked, as if the disintegrated dead had rested within his lungs, seeking some form of petty vengeance from beyond the grave.

”But that all matters little now.” His gauntlets reached up, pressing themselves against the corroded carapace of his helmet, prying it off of his horned head with a hiss, the toxic atmosphere he immersed himself in flowing over his gorget, a murderous miasma only one as blessed as himself could breathe. Worms writhed within his eye as it blinked in the harsh, sourceless sun of the Nexus, the gangrenous flesh that clung tightly to his fossilized bones shifting as his parasites feasted upon him.

”She died. I… Survived. In the end, all people will remember is one more failure. One more soul I let slip into the stygian abyss.” His tusks dripped with tainted ichor, staining his scarred breastplate as he struggled to find the words. The ruined remnants of his nostrils flared as he breathed in the unfamiliar fresh air.

”All I can do, Goddess, is bring death. If you were a divinity half as worthy of the prayers Fiara proffered to you in the darkness, then you can make this right. The Phoenix set herself aflame in the long night. It is time you had her… Rise from the ashes.”

[Amaterasu]

As the rotting titan was speaking Amaterasu sunk to her knees, bent over and buried her face in her hands as big tears dripped from her closed eyes and her ears laid back against her head. She could hear him still, speaking down at her, telling her things she wanted not to hear. She wanted to yell, to tell him to shut up and to leave her alone, but she was unable to muster the strength to do so. All she could do was to listen while her tears soaked the white ground of the Nexus. She wept for Fiara, for the death of a girl who had done no wrongs in her life besides searching for her, for Amaterasu, in the wrong place, and for the torture she had gone through prior to her death. But over time her tears dried and were replaced by determination. By a certainty. Fiara wasn't truly gone, she could still bring her back... and she could ensure that this never happened to her again.

Finally, just as Okor was finishing his monologue, Amaterasu sniffled twice, then wiped her face with her sleeve and slowly got to her feet again. Her eyes were red and the tears had left a shimmer in the corners of her eyes, but she had collected herself. "You are... mistaken. It matters a lot - to me. Fiara... feared you for a reason, the same which I mistook you as a Plaguelord for. You may really be something else but in our world the outside is usually a reflection of the inside, and Fiara never learned any different." She raised a hand to her forehead while her other one wrapped around her waist just beneath her chest, as if hugging herself for comfort. She closed her eyes, thinking of the right words.

"You have aided Fiara. I've only caught glimpses through this... Data device, but I have seen. You have fought for her, and even if ultimately she died in the end it is not solely the outcome that counts, but the intention and the actions. I will make sure to remember, and to teach this to Fiara when I bring her back. Neither of us will remember you as a failure. We will both remember you as the one who did his best to preserve her from her unfortunate fate. Even if ultimately you did not succeed you delayed it... and that is the important part." She sat back down with her legs crossed and looked up at the hulk that was now towering her even more than he had already been when she'd been standing up. As she brought out a large reserve of Omnilium a few completely white plants appeared on the ground around her and swayed back and forth as if touched by wind that wasn't there. "If... if you wish to stay to meet her again, provided that I succeed, you are welcome to wait. If you leave for your own business before that please accept my heartfelt thanks. I hope that I can repay you some day with more than a few kind words."

Without awaiting Okor's reply she closed her eyes and placed her hands on her lap to enter a meditation pose. First to find her inner center, then to remember Fiara, and pour her self into the Omnilium. Of course, if Okor decided to answer she would still hear him, and the same went for if he left. Her ears were back up, ready to capture sounds. But a reply would have to wait... this was more than summoning a set of clothing, a few prayer beads or even a Fur-Selkie. She was summoning a person with a past, with memories and knowledge, with dreams and a future, with personality and character. If she made one error she wouldn't summon Fiara, but a flawed, incomplete copy of her. And she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if THAT happened... so she concentrated as best as she could and blurted out the outside more and more, instead filling her mind with the memories of little Fiara, from the big things such as her appearance and personality to the tiniest details like her quirks and foggy old memories. Every little piece was crucial, no matter how tiny and insignificant it seemed.

Over an hour passed, during which Okor apparently took off as Amaterasu saw him nowhere when a warm pair of arms wrapped around her waist and hugged her. She opened her eyes to see Fiara in the flesh, kneeling before her and hugging her. She smiled and returned the hug, with more tears in the corners of her eyes, though those were tears of joy.

"I'm feeling weird, Mother Amaterasu..." murmured Fiara when they finally parted. "I have memories that aren't mine, but they are about me. And where are we? Is this..."

"This is the Omniverse... and for your memories that's a long story, but let me explain it to you."

[Amaterasu]

After a fair amount of time of explaining everything she could to Fiara and even showing her the recordings of Dante's Abyss this year, Fiara was more or less in the picture. It was her, alright. But the Omniverse was a new place to her... she would need to start all over. Amaterasu continued her own tale and filled the Phoenix in on the Celestial Brush kami in the sky, the events that had succeeded her arrival, what she had learned of the Omniverse and where she was headed.

"... and that is why I will be aiding the dwarves. Since I am just about finished with the preparations all that is left for me to do is to meet up with Urist and Oki, then find some Cobalt and bring it back, I'm pretty confident in that they'll allow me into their halls soon."

"That's a lot to take in, but... yes, I understand, Mother Amaterasu. I'll need to look through what you have about Dante's Abyss and the Hero's Graveyard though, I think I could find a lot more details if I take my time."

"That is okay. Anyway, I want you to go another way... you should head to Coruscant, according to this mail I recieved there is a message waiting for me there. When you've recieved it you can join us in the fields. I'll leave a guide with a Fur-Selkie waiting for you, who can bring you to Dwarfholm for you to join up with Oki, Urist and myself. Oh, and here..." She produced a small sack full of coins of Omnilium. "Use this to buy yourself a "Communicator" in Coruscant. I also wrote a code on a piece of paper, once you got one of the devices type that code in and you'll be able to contact me."

"Got it. For some reason I already know vaguely how these things are used, so no problem."

"Good. Stay out of trouble until then, I couldn't bear losing you a second time", said Amaterasu and hugged Fiara tightly. They remained like that for a minute before separating. Amaterasu noted that Okor had left, not even his traces remained, so he must have been gone for a while now... well, no matter. She pointed in the direction of the Coruscant gate. "You must go that way... after you return here, find the Frozen Fields gate, it's the one over there, and meet up with the guide that will be waiting for you. If there's any troubles don't hesitate to contact me."

"I will. Good luck out there, Mother Amaterasu."

"And to you as well." She whistled between her teeth and the horse she had been riding through the Nexus came trotting towards them. "Here, use this horse to get around faster. I won't need any beyond the Frozen Fields gate." She watched as Fiara got in the saddle and rode off faster than any normal horse could carry her. She then turned away, muttering a prayer under her breath as she sat down and focused her efforts once again. She could summon a Fur-Selkie that would hopefully not die of a heat stroke before they got to and traversed the Frozen Fields gate... maybe give it a little less fur and something to lay down on, like a big surface with wheels.

Ten minutes later she climbed onto the massive animal and took the reins into her hand. The surface it laid on was at best makeshift, but it would do for the hour that it took to get them to the gate. The Fur-Selkie slid along the ground as if it was snow with the help of the support, and within the hour they were back at the gate. Without so much as slowing, Amaterasu led the Fur-Selkie through the reality warp and vanished back into the fields. It was time to get her work there finished.