The lanterns were dim that same night. The halls empty. Everyone was asleep.
Everyone except her. Aira's mother, Lysa.
She walked through the narrow corridor with shaky steps. Her hands trembled as she clutched the small pendant around her neck, the only thing her husband left before he vanished. For years, she avoided questions, avoided thinking about what really happened to him.
But tonight...
after her breakdown...
after screaming at her daughter...
after seeing horror in Aira's eyes...
Her heart felt like a collapsing star.
She stopped in front of the Pope's door. The wood looked older than everything else on the ship. She placed her hand on the cold handle.
Then she froze.
There was a sound.
A strange... buzzzing? A voice? She had never heard anything like it. It wasn't the Pope's voice. It wasn't human. It kept repeating something in a flat, emotionless tone.
She pressed her ear to the door.
"The Devils will be wiped out in three days.
Three days until cleansing fire.
Three days until the stars fall.
I repeat -this is the Maritime Command.
Sector purification in three days.
The Devils will be wiped out in three days..."
Lysa stumbled back, hand covering her mouth.
Devils? Wiped out?
In three days?
What did that even mean?
Before she could process it, another sound cut through the static.
A wet, broken sob.
Pope Vanx was crying.
Hard. Violently. The kind of crying that comes from a soul collapsing.
She heard something fall ...maybe a chair... then his heavy footsteps pacing back and forth.
"No... no... it can't be..." he whispered, voice cracking. "Not yet. Not now. The tenth... the tenth never happened. No one left. No one triggered the prophecy!"
He slammed his fists onto something ...maybe the altar. The echo rang down the hallway.
"Why would they rain down the stars now?" he screamed. "WHY? Why are they coming if no one tried to leave the ship?!"
Lysa's heart stopped.
The Pope's voice collapsed into a panicked mutter.
Unless...
"...unless someone left," he whispered. "Unless someone already left and I didn't know."
He gasped, choking on his own breath.
"Oh gods... oh gods... I don't want to die... I don't want to die..."
Lysa's blood ran cold.
This was not a holy man speaking. This...
Was a terrified man.
A chair crashed again.
"I did everything right!" Vanx sobbed. "I heard and relayed the voices of the ancestors for years. I-I worshipped them. Why are they going to kill us... kill me. WHY?!"
Lysa couldn't listen anymore.
Her entire world shattered in a instant.
The ancestors are killing them all in three days.
Lysa's legs nearly collapsed beneath her.
She turned and ran.
Her footsteps echoed through the empty corridor, panicked, desperate. She didn't even care if someone saw her. She bolted down the staircase, clinging to the rail so she wouldn't fall.
She stumbled towards the ship's storage area, where emergency canoes were kept. There used to be plenty but starvation, storms, voyagers and accidents destroyed all but two.
Her mind barely worked now.
If I stay, I will die in three days.
If I leave, maybe I will live.
Maybe I will find something.
Anything!
Maybe the islands aren't death.
Maybe... just maybe I might live.
She grabbed the rope holding the canoe in place.
Her hands shook violently she almost dropped it. Then she froze.
Her breath came out in a broken whisper.
"...I just need to escape..."
Her tears fell hot and fast.
"...I just need... to survive..." her grip tightened.
Her tears dripped onto the wooden edge.
But then.
A thought.
Aira.
The word hit her like a physical blow.
Aira, alone. Aira, scared.
Aira, crying in some corner of the ship because of what she said.
Aira, who did nothing wrong.Aira, who didn't deserve to die in flames from the sky.
Lysa froze.
Her breath broke in her throat.
"I can't," she whispered. "My daughter?... I can't abandon Aira."
She pulled herself out of the canoe.
Her legs shook violently, she could barely stand.
She wiped her face roughly, then forced herself to move.
She ran again back up the stairs toward Aira's room.
Her heart pounded against her ribs.
Then, halfway up the hall…
She heard voices.
Aira and Cid.
Lysa peeked around the corner.
Aira curled on the deck edge, crying quietly. Cid sitting beside her, shoulders touching, whispering to her.
"l'll keep you safe," he said softly. "I won't leave you."
Lysa's breath caught in her throat. Something inside her shattered, a mixture of envy, aching love and shame.
She stepped forward.
"Aira."
Her voice came out. Harsh.
Aira flinched and looked back, wiping her face.
"M–mother?"
Lysa grabbed her wrist.
"We're leaving. Now."
Cid stood. "Leaving? What-?"
"We don't have time!" Lysa snapped, panic cracking her voice. "We are all going to die if we stay!"
She pulled Aira down the deck, dragging her toward the stairs.
Cid followed then without losing his way. He knew the ship better than anyone even though he was blind.
But then.
Aira dug her heels into the floor.
"No!"
Lysa spun around, shocked.
Aira's eyes were wide, teary but firm.
"I'm not going without Cid."
Lysa stared at her.
That stubbornness… That fire… It was so much like her father it hurt.
For a long, breathless moment, Lysa said nothing.
Then finally.
"…Fine," she whispered.
She grabbed Cid's arm.
Together, they ran back toward the storage bay…