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...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He will. The precise angle of the locket will spare her from seeing the larger part of the violence, but the sounds will still be unmistakable.

At least it isn't long before the gills stop flapping.]

They're giving up. They saw the end coming, and we couldn't save them.

[ She watches so he won't be alone, but it is terribly painful. This is just one of the many upon the shore. Hundreds will follow, unrestricted to those in the sea. This world is dying.

They have failed.

When the gils stop moving, she breathes again, like she was drowning with the creature. With Cole. ]

We didn't have enough time.

[ What was a year atop thousands, tens of thousands more? They never had a chance. Even the Inquisition couldn't stop Corypheus in three years. ]

I'm so sorry.

[ Is she saying it to him or the creature that now lies dead? She doesn't know. ]

[Video; Unseelie]

video;

video;