[center][colour=613c3c][i]'Soul, soul, where art thou?'
I'm in the place that you choose to forget
I'm in the dark that you hide in regret
I'm in the cold that showed to the earth.

'Mother, mother, help me now!'
The mother has left you to cry and to roam
The mother has sent you away from your home
The mother has spurned you and cursed you from birth.

'I'll run! I'll flee! I'll break my vow!'
The oath that you took is stronger than you
The oath that you chose is only what's true
The oath that you live is all that you're worth.

'My soul and my oath and my mother of life,
All have conspired to bring up the knife.'

'And thus I will go, since nothing remains.
Thus I will go on to finish my pains.'[/i][/colour]

[h3]Whisper.[/h3][/center]

Time had passed. There would be no more delay. Whisper had shared her poetry with the Realta of Lex, and thus eliminated her final reason to exist. They sang her a solemn song in her own tongue as she left.

[center][b]Somber times await the one
Who'd chase the earth and spurn the sun
Yet may the flow of yonder years
Bring thy song to future ears...[/b][/center]

Whisper heard her lessons of tune and voice sound clearly from the choir, assembled in sputtering rusty ranks on either side. She twisted Wit's End on her back and unfurled a fluttering feather in farewell. The Realta watched her go.

A final voice cried out from the throng. Its accent was native.

[colour=Lavender]"Wait!"[/colour]

Whisper opened an eye. It was colourless in the dark of her skin.

[colour=Lavender]"Grandma, wait!"[/colour]

It was Dust. She couldn't have been much older than Wander when she'd first made the swim to Lex.

[colour=Lavender]"I wanted to say goodbye."[/colour]

Just that.

[color=613c3c][i]"Dust..."[/i][/color]

Dust waited, patiently, for the words. Whisper had nothing to say. She prompted.

[colour=Lavender]"Will we even hear from you again?"[/colour]

Whisper turned to her. [color=613c3c][i]"Dust,"[/i][/color] she said. [color=613c3c][i]"Daughter of my daughter... Run."[/i][/color]

Dust startled. She listened.

[color=613c3c][i]"Flee this place. Fight everything you love, abandon all you trust. Spurn gods. Drink oceans. Ride winds. Beg before kings and pray beside beggars. Suffer, Dust. Leave your sisters behind. Whatever happens,"[/i][/color] she said, [color=613c3c][i]"cannot be worse than the end I will bring."[/i][/color]

Whisper turned and fled into the skyglow. Dust stalled in her shadow, then leapt to sprint after her.

[color=lavender]"Can I flow beside you? Please!"[/color]

She let her. When her daughter began to flag, Whisper leapt into the atmosphere and burned on her way down.