Sun Mote Copse If you could see what I see, you'd be blinded by the colours

Colt waited for the weariness to pass, but instead, it got steadily worse.  He tried to keep up appearances, but more and more, leaving bed seemed insurmountable as his body rebelled.  Something poisoned had taken hold, festering in the wounds, and he began to flag.  Summons came unanswered, hunts grew impossible, and it was all he could do to maintain short patrols.

He felt the icy hand of fear as he continued to maintain a lightness for his family, but doubtless they could sense as well as he something was wrong.  He waited, surely it would pass.  He was Colt fucking Blackthorn... yet not so immortal as he had always convinced himself.

When the fever struck him, burning through his veins and reserves like fire, he knew.  It was instinctual, and somehow, as it worsened, he managed to haul himself away.  He made it nearly to the lake, to a small copse, before his strength failed him and he collapsed.

Nell was there.  He knew it before he saw her, but of course, because his mind had placed her there.  The pain that struck him in that moment was overwhelming; Niamh.  He saw it reflected on the spectral features of Nell.  She'd held his heart once, but she didn't any longer, and leaving Niamh to go with her tore him to the bone.  And his kids....

Colt bared his fangs at her, fevered eyes desperate.  But she just lowered her head and shook it, once, and suddenly the fight left him.  She was a reminder, a ghost of what those he left would be losing, but also proof that life would move on.  He'd found love again after her, and surely his family would continue, even if he could not stay to see it.  He was so tired. 

The sorrow did not leave, but some of his fear did, and as he relaxed his breath stilled.  Colt had never expected his death to come quietly, but it did, as silently he stood and followed his old friend into the darkness.  The body behind lay empty and Colt Blackthorn departed on that last, and greatest, journey.