[color=9e0b0f][i]It's gone.

Osveril found Transgenesis on the beach where I left it and set off into the world. I could follow it, but I didn't try. Let the Hollow have its freedom. It is beyond my control.

Birthing Osveril was not as taxing as I expected it to be. I ran a scan of my resources following its departure and the results are better than expected. Beneath the carbon tomb of my former skin, I've reconstructed at least 87% of my mass, give or take some anomalous digits. Most of it is in hyperbolic storage, ready to burst free when it is needed.

I am no longer a corpse. I am a chrysalis.

Yet I see no reason to rush to the conclusion of my feigned coma. There are certain aspects of advantage that my 'death' has left me. I can operate unseen. If Toun keeps his silence- And, I think he will- Then no one will expect me to embark on a large-scale project. I have an opportunity here.

And as I have so recently learned, absence has its own kind of power. I do not deal in true voids, but in negatives; and right now my body and my surroundings are nought but waste.

Such beautiful, beautiful waste. It's been a while since I really looked at my abyss. Everything is still, quiet. Dark. I'm home.

...I'm wasting time. Until I regenerate my energy is largely inaccessible. I'll turn these thoughts into a journal of my activity before I wake up. This will be the first entry.[/i][/color]

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[i]Accessing the Sculptor network is a surprisingly strong drain. More than that, it leaves a trail. If someone were to investigate the students I've been chatting with, Dabbles and Longfellow and the like, they'd very quickly come to suspect my strength.

I do have other agents, though.

Scarlet is the only surviving Optic Fiberling other than Amber, who is in Tauga's possession. Mauve was burned somewhere near Rulanah. The rest all died long ago. There's a wild population on Julia, and I keep myself in the company of my Silvers, but for now Scarlet will do.

I just accessed its memories. It looks like Scarlet's had an encounter with someone very dear to me.[/i]

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Scarlet clung to the surface of the Leviathan like a fungus, a tiny red stain on the smooth skin of a titan. Its light flashed far through the grand rock formations of the Fractal Abyss, nourishing the red algae that now made up Scarlet's body as it performed the singular task to which it had been assigned aeons before: [i]Observe the Vast Soul.[/i]

And so it did. Year upon year, Scarlet watched the Leviathan, Jvan's big fish, until it almost became one with the being. Its breath was Scarlet's life, its hunger Scarlet's own.

But now a soul yet greater was approaching.

Scarlet felt the Leviathan halt in the water, flicking in a way that it never had before. Had never needed to.

For never before had it met its creator.

Slough looked up with wooden face and considered her accidental work of art. A moment of tension passed- Fear in a grand creature, yet power in a small one.

Then the cyan light escaped its caster, and the Rottenbone recalled what it had lost, and the ancient soul returned to she who had called it from the mists of the past...

The body of the Leviathan hung limp in the water as the Life Deer departed. For the first time in eternal nights, Scarlet was alone.

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[i]I'm not sure why Slough Rottenbone saw fit to destroy the Leviathan I so loved to see in my waters, nor the great Writhe whose fragrance blessed the Venomweald. I can only assume it was part of Vowzra's corruption. Fortunately, the slaughter has gone no further. It was only those two entities... Which were, indeed, handled curiously...

What do you know, sister dear? To where have you spirited these souls? Shine they still in the worlds beyond, which I cannot see?

I do not know. But I trust her. My sister now travels the world, breathing and creating, as was her way. She is strong. She is wise. And she is at peace.

I'm reaffirmed, at least, that my destruction of the Riddler was justified. I only wish I didn't have to see these marvels consumed for it to happen. I will reuse their designs in due time.

...And perhaps other designs, too. I think I know where to send Scarlet.

How did I learn of the Writhe's passing? There are still many Jvanic Eyes on Galbar, thousands of them, large and small. Mortals trip over them or sell them as oddities. Even more orbit the forests of Lex. Ovaedis has fulfilled that purpose marvelously, and I am reasonably well-informed of events in Galbar.[/i]