"Crown of Madness"- Dark Heart, SaSan
Every day, he feels a spike of fruitless hope- finally a response- before he remembers that it’s merely the echo of his own mournful voice.
No one is listening. No one cares they’re gone. It may be that no one even remembers.
SaSan approaches him on the seashore- he should have expected her, her aura lapping comfortably against his like the waves beneath him. She seems more at home here than he could ever be.
“I worry for you.” Her voice touches his mind softly, requesting entry. For the first time, he denies her. “I hear the pain in your song from even far across the oceans. But there is beauty to be found in this world.” A pause. “Perhaps more than the one we left.”
“What would you have me do?” he retorts, corona flaring with white-hot anger. “Give up, as you have?”
She does not answer- merely studies him. “I see something new in you. Growing.”
He knows what she means to say. He can see it in his reflection in the silver waves, in the metal they’ve taught the Gelfling to wear on their bodies, in the great Crystal itself.
Darkness.
She reaches out to him once more, her aura warm and golden. Content. When he closes himself off again in disgust, she leaves him to his grief.