Over the years, the Darkwood grew resentful of Sadie leading its spirits away, releasing them to peace. She often had to toil in circles to find a path through the thickets.

As Sadie's hair turned white with age, and her limbs ached with the cold of her final winter, she returned to the Darkwood for a final time.

Seated by a rockpool in the dusky glow of frilled mushrooms, Sadie opened her jar. One by one, she ate the golden petals, fringed with lethal blue, until her body and spirits alike were saturated in their poison. In their grief. In their magic.

Sadie leaned against a mossy root, smiling as she fell asleep and breath left her body.

The spirits that emerged were brilliant gold and trimmed in vibrant blue. As Sadie’s ghost coalesced, she listened to the chorus from deep beneath the earth, compelling her home. She felt the vise grip of the Darkwood's sorrow preventing her from answering its call.

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Sadie continued to walk with the Darkwood's trapped spirits, patiently herding them to the edge of a threshold she could no longer cross, lest she herself fall away.

The ferrifae scattered before her presence, no longer a threat as she cradled the magic of a mourning flower.

Piece by smallest piece, she fed her own essence to those hesitant lost creatures, coaxing them to take their final steps beyond the Darkwood's grasp through the will of her shepherd's spirits.

And so Sadie continued, season after season, year after year, until centuries lost their meaning and her spirits were carved away, shared with the spirits of prey she chose to protect.

As the gold and blue trimmings of her spirits were plucked from her, like so many petals from a flower, Sadie approached the boundary for the last time.

With the last piece of her spirits, Sadie willed her own fragile soul across the threshold, to the freedom of release, and surrendered gladly to the eternal chorus beneath the earth.

~ The End ~