She had to do this alone. The last act as a queen with no kingdom.

She opened a portal right next to her and disappeared within it to reach the room she knew her feet would not carry her to. Her toes again purred with throbbing pain. The aging spear was not on the table but on the floor where it had been left. She bent down and grabbed it. It was a heavy curse in her hands. The last thing her parents had used to leave her.

The thing that had forced her to grow and change in many ways.

She welcomed the portal that helped her leave the room she never wanted to return to.

Then she was there. On the black sheet of ice on the other side of the mountain. It felt the same. Cold, lonely, isolated, but different this time. This time something was calling to her. Something under the ice, begging her to be set free.

She opened a portal. One right on top of the ice. She knew the other side of the portal lay underneath, suspended in the cold water. Two small openings to this world. A mirror with only the ice separating in between. She held the spear in her hand, closing her fist around it tight before shoving it into the portal so it would be on both sides of the ice. It vibrated in her hands, sending a quake throughout her body as she held it there. The portal tried to close and suck the spear in to take it away, but she wouldn't let go. She held on strong and hard, watching the hole shrink until it hugged the wooden rod. The ice around it started to crack, a billion small fissures forming along the ice with splintering sounds as it slowly began to break. She looked around her at the splitting web that stretched to the mountains as far as her eyes could see. There was a loud creak as the ice pulled away, and she fell into its icy depths.

With no air to fill her lungs, she first took in a strong inhale of frigid water and then tried to exhale it before it filled her completely. The cold wrapped around her, making her muscles tense, unable to move fluidly as the water tugged her further down. Something stirred near her. Opening her eyes, she saw little white bits of smoky tendrils floating in the dark waters, reaching for the top of the surface along with her. She tried to swim with them, but something refused to let her go. Something begged for her to go down. She realized she was still holding onto the spear. She let it go and watched it float away.

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Lungs burning and panic starting to set in, Airya worked not to thrash but kick and use her arms to swim with the tendrils of bubbly smoke. Her head was beginning to feel light. Her vision turning white. She worked harder. She focused not on the surface but on the white that wrapped their curvy slithers around her and started to pull her with them. There were faces in the white smoke. One of mom, one of dad, all her people. All of them swaying in the dark.

She needed to let them go. She needed to set them free. Solocs and Yellow Eyes alike. They all needed to go to a better place. One they could live together in peace.

She broke the surface and sucked in as much of the warm air her body could take in. Her arms were tired. She forgot to work them briefly, so she fell under again. She kicked her way to the top once more. Then she looked up and saw them. Two giant Strigiformes flew out of the water above her in a beautiful white mist before dispersing into the sky, becoming one with Ausrine's atmosphere.

She reached. Reached out above her in desperation to see her people. To see more than what she thought she had seen. Desperate for them to be close.

A portal opened above her, and she reached for it, begging it to take her to them.

She fell to the ground in a wet heap next to the pit where her family lay. Her dress was now coiled together, dragging behind her as she crawled to the edge and looked down into it. Her family was still there, but something was different. Their faces were changing and their bodies seemed to be moving, receding into themselves. They were aging.

She watched in horror and fascination as each face slowly wrinkled up and disintegrated, turning into dust floating in the wind. She watched as, one by one, her peoples' bodies joined their souls in the atmosphere where she knew they had been set free.

Obsviden was on the other side of the pit, watching, amused. He gave her a respectful thin nod holding back a smile. Then with a small wave, he was gone. She hoped to never see him again.

When they were all gone, she stayed there, staring into the pit that was now bare and empty. Empty like she was afraid her heart would always be.

Hethei appeared and landed beside her.

"We did it, Hethei. We found the people and creatures of Ausrine, and we set them free."