Tiria woke the next day and stepped out of the Control into the Lake Encampment proper. A few Cave Goblins went about their brick work and slugs naturally cleaned the streets as they shuffled, but it wasn't the excited energy from before the Spiked Eagle attack.

The other monsters trudged through the streets, only very occasionally doing work. The otters were worse. Kumo had taken all of the Hunters and Inquisitors when she left. While the Gang Otters were closer with members of their own Halls, it wasn't to say that there was no connection between them. The leaving of the Hunters and Inquisitors made a very artificial split.

At some point in time, Chum had found her, but he didn't say anything and just stayed nearby. She appreciated that.

The two of them walked through the Encampment and the lost and subdued nature of the place resonated with her soul. It was only the one question in her mind that even had her out of bed.

Could we bring him back?

Their wandering abruptly ended in the statue of Danna whose hands still cupped the glowing Encampment Crystal. Tiria looked up to her and wondered if this was part of Danna's plan or had their faith been lacking. She didn't know and she struggled to care.

She wasn't the only one at the statue.

Samba's wounds were still mending, but the otter could at least walk now. He ran a paw through the fur on the top of his head and exhaled heavily. When he saw her, his eyes lit up in relief.

"Thank Danna, you're here. I sent someone up to check on Kumo and she actually left. Not only that, the humans are bombarding Myshk and it's only a matter of time until they turn their attention to Igna. I could really use your help."

Tiria blinked. That wasn't why she was here. "What do you know about what Jalx was trying to do with the child he brought to the Dungeon?"

The sudden shift in conversation left the big otter looking confused. "I- I don't know. The Coastal Goblins only said that he wanted to 'restore the peak.' They didn't say anything else."

"Would it have brought their Progenitor back?"

"Tiria...," Samba said. Both of them could feel the hollow wound in their selves where their path from the heavens was ripped out. Gi's loss wouldn't just affect them emotionally. They'd feel it every day for the rest of their lives. "He's gone."

Tiria snapped. "There has to be a way."

Samba's face fell into a glare. "Monsters die and that's it. We all know that."

"We don't know that. Jalx got his information from somewhere. There was some reason that he believed what he was trying would work."

"Even if he did, is it the right move? The Boss had grown obsessed with getting powerful and his ruthlessness was... We weren't in the best place with him. Maybe now we can just live? I just need your help to get us there."

Samba wasn't going to help her. He didn't believe in their Progenitor. He just wanted an easy life. The rational part of Tiria's mind couldn't blame him, but it didn't stop the bitterness from entering her voice. "And who ever helped me? When I was dealing with every new thing that came up, who helped me?"

"I helped..."

"You did the training. That's it. You know who figured out how to feed us? Me. How to house us? Me. Coordinated our funds? Me. Every single thing that popped up was my responsibility and you were out there finding a mate and having kids." She found herself suddenly screaming. "The clan was all I had!"

Samba's sternness had shattered and that same helpless look from when she'd walked up had returned. "Hey, I'm sorry...."

Tiria knew she was acting irrationally, but she didn't care. She turned and left and Chum continued to follow at her heels silently. She found a spot near the barrier to the lake and collapsed on the ground, leaning her back against one of the Housing Spines. Chum just sat down beside her.

As Tiria's emotions came more under control, she looked over to Chum who studied the waters of the lake in front of them. "Are you just going to keep following me?"

Chum, who normally was quick with a smile, nodded solemnly. "As long as I'm able."

Tiria wasn't sure what to say to that, but it felt good to have someone stable near her. Danna knew that wasn't her or the other Elites right now. "Okay."

It felt like the more Tiria pushed the more exhausted she felt, and yet, the more she rested the more her desire to know the answer to her burning question grew.

Could we bring him back?

She got to her feet and as he'd declared, Chum followed. The two of them found each of the remaining Coastal Goblins, but they said much the same as Samba had. Jalx was trying to restore the peak. That's all they knew. They did have one piece of information that gave her hope though.

Jalx had named the child after their previous Progenitor.

What Tiria needed then was knowledge and she only knew one place to find that. She and Chum moved back towards the lake barrier and were about to dive in when Poe and Georgia found them.

"Tiria!" Poe shouted. "We need help!"

She sighed. Everyone always wanted her help. When she looked to the desperate dragonfly though, the same harsh responses she'd used on Samba earlier died on her lips. "What's wrong?"

Poe started babbling. "I was over near the Boss and he told me that he was gonna be gone and I was like, 'gone, what?', but he said 'you're the clan's heart don't let them lose themselves,' but then he died and it hurt so much and just won't stop hurting."

He gestured towards his middle where Tiria assumed he felt the same raw, gaping wound that all of them felt at Gi's loss before he kept going. "So I cried and cried and then I started feeling better. Well, it still hurts but I can think and when I came to, Kumo had left! Gi told me not to let the clan lose itself, but the clan already broke while I was just crying."

Tiria pulled the little dragonfly in so her forehead rested just below his eyes. "Poe, I don't know how to fix things. I'm not the person that I was before. I'm not a leader. I'm not... I just can't..."

Tears started to spring up to her eyes and she tried to choke them back down. Her emotions switched so easily from anger to despair to sorrow. She needed to be away from the remnants of the clan. She needed to leave.

Poe took a deep breath before leaning into her and just holding her while he rubbed her back with his legs. "It's okay. I'm sorry I didn't think about how you were feeling. I'll handle it. I'll go find Kumo and bring the rest of the clan back."

For the entire time she'd known Poe, he'd seemed like a child, someone that needed to be coddled and protected, but at some point, he'd become a monster that Tiria trusted when he said he'd take care of it. Like Gi had said, he was the clan's heart. Tiria pulled back from him.

"Keep them whole for me."

She let him go and then dove into the lake barrier. It wasn't fair to ask Poe to carry the burdens that she could not, but despite how she acted earlier, she didn't want the clan anymore broken than it already was. The two of them breached the surface of the lake and headed to the Underbridge.

There, sitting on a rock and watching the Myshk forest burn, was Krayli. That wasn't one of the monsters she needed, but it might work better this way.

Tiria sat down beside her and the orc barely glanced at her as she continued to watch the fires. "I heard Gi died. Sorry."

"You hated him," Tiria said back.

"Yeah, but I didn't hate the rest of you." The three of them lapsed into silence and Tiria's overwrought brain worked furiously to think of some way that she could convince Krayli to help her. Maybe it was because she was this broken version of herself, but she couldn't think of anything so she just sat there, watching as the fires continued to inch across Myshk.

"It is possible to bring him back," Krayli said for the first time taking her eyes off the burning trees. "That's why you came to find me, right? You wanted me to take you to one of Noctua Dominus's followers?"

Tiria's Heart of the Crossroads latched onto her words like a friend's paw pulling her back up the cliff where she almost fell. "How? How can I do it?"

Krayli shook her head. "I'm not sure. When I first got my power to find believers in Noctua Dominus, I found the library and I asked the snake there about it. When I found out it was possible, all I could think about was bringing Hillin back, but... even though he was injured, he could have ascended any time. He wanted to die. Eventually, I came to terms with that. All I could do for him was to continue as he asked and keep ridding the world of Noctua's followers."

"Are there any left?"

Krayli sighed, clearly conflicted between her desire to kill them all and the desire to provide someone the chance she'd never gotten. "Yeah, I'll take you to them."

***

The human's ships formed a wall that blocked both Igna and Myshk from entering the many islands just beyond. Kumo couldn't see anything other than the random spots of land from where she swam in the water, but she recognized the death trap that their blockade was.

Despite the anger with which she considered Samba, she didn't want the clan to die. For a moment, she considered sending a Hunter back to warn them, but she discarded that idea. The danger was obvious.

Surely, Tiria would handle it.

Instead, they headed towards what she'd heard called "The Main Continent." It was where the Demon Empire ruled. Kumo would have never taken her clan there during normal times, but with the Monster Surge, she assumed the Demons would be too busy to deal with her small renegade clan.

And it would be therapeutic to get some revenge for Gi.

The light faded on that first day of the end and all of Kumo's otters held hands so as not to float away in the night. Kumo, for her part, kept her brother Wane close to her chest as they drifted. Even the times when he was semi-conscious, all he could do was snarl and snap his teeth. Other than those and the quiet mews of Killer, the night was quiet.

The pain from being torn from the peak hurt like a rough stone scraped across an open wound. The hollowness and loss eclipsed even the pain, but whatever she felt, Wane felt ten times worse. She'd promised herself that she'd care for him in a way that Samba hadn't for her.

Night turned to day and Kumo wasn't sure if she'd managed to sleep at all. The waves continued to balloon and block her sight, but several hours into the first day, the lead Hunters found a small island that might just be big enough for them to take a break on.

A couple hours later, they finally swam to it and Kumo pulled her brother ashore. She tapped Sanya, functionally her second in command, and asked her to keep an eye on Wane. As the rest of her Otters pulled themselves onto the shore, she walked across its rocky beach and in only five minutes reached the other side.

"What the...," Kumo said.

The ocean beyond the island seemed to drop off into the abyss in a strange underwater waterfall. Each second tons and tons of water seemed to disappear into the darkest parts of the ocean, but strangely, the surface itself seemed unchanged. Was this some kind of magic? What was this?

She turned around and marched back towards the rest of her Otters who were lounging lethargically in the sun. "There's some kind of underwater waterfall up ahead. Let's rest here until we can figure out if it's safe to move beyond."