eachdraidh | [Video; Unseelie]

((WARNING: animal suffering.))

[The locket's view opens on a small beach, too small for the creature that's washed itself ashore. It lies with its body twisted and turning across the gravel and the nearby withering tree roots: a great sea snake. On first glance, it may appear dead — but the gills behind its head are still twitching. It struggles to breathe.

The view shudders, as if the hand holding the locket at chest height is shaking. Cole has been murmuring since the locket opened.]

—ee, see. I can't see. It's so bright, so still — no more glimmering, glinting, only white and dry, waiting for death to take me, gasping for water. I can't — I can't breathe...

[Cole gasps for breath himself, regains his bearings. For a moment. He takes a step closer. The locket is left open and continues to show the creature as he moves toward it, but now it swings lightly, forgotten. From out of view, the sound of a dagger being drawn.]

Can't return to the deep. Left in the air and the heat and the heaviness to drown. It will take such a long time...

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So this is all over the continent then. [Waver breathes out, trying to process the sheer scale of coastline that's impacted.] Fuck.

Their world is dying. Draining. They can all feel it.

[He kneels on the rocks next to the beast, close enough for the flapping of its gills to be heard, along with a shallow wheezing of air. The serpent lets out a weak, gurgling hiss. At its full strength, it would have been able to snap Cole in two in an instant. Now it can barely wave its tail.]

They don't know why. They just know it's the end.

They've good enough instinct if not full understanding.

[And it means that people are going to start to move inward from the coast, to try and escape the bigger creatures. Potentially closer to where the fights will be.]

Are any of them capable of surviving in fresh water, or else in the larger salt water bays? I'm asking opinion, or if--

[Waver pauses, realizing he isn't sure how his conversation partner is so knowledgeable.]

However you're able to understand them might tell you that too.

[There's a pause at that. It takes a small measure of effort to extend his consciousness as far along the shore as it will go.]

Swim against the current, chase the fresh and clean, leave the eggs. Some could be moved. Smaller ones. There isn't much time for them.

[Waver nods curtly. That's good to know.]

I see. Possible, but not for everyone, and not for any deep sea dwellers.

[It's not a good thing for the ecosystem to start dying like this. It means that even if the Unseelie win, this is all that'll ever be. That sets Waver very ill at ease.]

Thank you.

[Waver isn't the only one with those concerns.]

Every day, less and less to preserve.

[The knife sinks into a gill before drawing across the serpent's throat.]

The gods will be next.

[That isn't the sound Waver wanted to hear over any communication device, and the silence that comes on his end is out of respect for the serpent. Better to not suffer any more, but all the same.]

The gods have died in this cycle before, apparently.

[At least the deed is done. The relief is enough to break Cole's reverie and allow him to truly hear what was just said. That is something he hadn't heard before.

When he speaks again, his voice is steadier, clearer.]

...who is this?

[The change in voice is something Waver would usually leap on, but he's willing to guess that he just heard channeling of thoughts, hence the shift.]

El-Melloi II. Unseelie. I live down south, away from Caer Scima and Unseelie territory.

[There's a note of cautious skepticism in Cole's tone as he continues. It's still difficult, communicating through these things, being unable to hear the intent behind the words.]

But not away from danger.

What happened to the gods before?

Not at all. It's only a different sort.

[Waver's used to obfuscating intent, so to have no face and distance is to his purposes.]

They died. Then this world was born anew, and they fought again. All according to the matrons at the Tower of the Oracle, mind, but I've no reason to doubt it. Not when the Seelie love cycles so dearly.

Birth, to battle, to death, and back again. What if the cycle stops?

Then everything dies according to the principle of entropy. It'd take more longer, and then nothing would grow back.

[Cole has the unique ability to sense the enormity of the destruction on the horizon — it also means he's been acting against it in blind defense, without thinking of the potential long-term consequences.

But this is also the first he's heard of such an outcome, so he's still skeptical. How can everything die?]

That doesn't make sense. Things die so that others can grow.

Welcome to one of the many contradictions of this entire place.

[Waver says it with a very, very tired chuckle. It's a terrible attempt at the joke, and his good humour as long since run out.]

Should the Unseelie win, this world and all the universes that remain will fall victim to entropy - slow, gradual decline as things end and collapse on themselves. Like a candle burning down to it's wick and then extinguishing itself.

And nothing will replace it?

...how can they know, if it's never happened?

And nothing will replace it.

[That question does give Waver pause as he replays the conversation back in his mind.]

The matrons spoke of the Void bringing renewal at the time, and then of cycles. Specifically, that because we are in a cycle, and then--

[Ah. Yes, he has the words now.]

Nothing is lost in the cycle because nothing is outside of it, not really. The cycle's about infinite possibility, and that's what's in the Void. I don't agree, but the logic is there.

But they don't know.

[Just because something makes sense doesn't mean it's right. Even if Cole hasn't been here as long as some, he knows what he can observe with his own senses.]

I can't hear past the edges. Empty, but no vessel, silence, but no sound, dark with no light. The Void sounds like Nothing itself.

It's very much nothing itself. At least the space between the stars provides them the energy they need.

We have to stop it.

[But his tone has an edge of hopelessness. He doesn't know how, he's never known, and time is running out.]

We do. But through what, more death?

If the Void comes, everything dies.

True enough. But everything dies a prolonged death if it's held at arm's length forever.

[Can't let it come. Can't hold it off. The only other option is destruction. Cole had hoped there might be another way, but if those who've been here longer haven't figured it out already...]

I understand.

Things die so that others can grow. [And live on.]

That's the general thing. But then the Void doesn't exactly seem like a natural, organic thing, I must admit.

[Video; Unseelie]

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