Ankyra Sound drowner of hope

Then... maybe it is time you follow through.

Svalinn looked away from her, shamefaced and burning. She had not said it with any particular affect, but it was impossible for him not to feel overwhelmed by the tide of regret washing over him. He shuddered to think of failing again, like he had when Caiaphas herself had been grievously injured.

When he turned to her again, she was gone.

I'll be seeing you, Ma, he whispered to the void she had left beside him.

His gaze swiveled bitterly towards the rolling pitch clouds, which were now framed by silent flashes of purple lightning reflected in the flat, dark ocean. Such darkness loomed ahead that he hesitated to venture out of the grotto. Though this place, these shores, had been witness to countless unspeakable horrors, he still felt protected here and thought of it as a sacred place. A mausoleum for which he was caretaker.

The reluctance lasted only a second.

Trotting out into the eerie night, the soundless storm above began to still and the sky became clearer with each step forward, revealing a full and bright moon above him. The sea started to pulse and the waves returned, rolling stronger and faster until a cold shock of water lapped onto his paws...

***

Svalinn awoke in Sapphique with a slow start, his heart aching and his body made of stone. And still, he rose from his lonely bedding and made way for the sound in the pre-dawn light.