#a big huge thanks to manda @weeekly101 for beta reading this one

[jorvikpov]

Something terrible is about to happen.

All around you is endless, magenta void, scattered with dozens upon dozens of floating stone islands that move slowly and unpredictably around the nothingness. The island you’re on feels rather like a sailboat being tossed back and forth by the roaring waves of the universe, and your nausea is not helped by Pandoria’s sickeningly sweet, almost cotton candy-like scent that only seems to intensify with every fragmented vision or flash of bright pink before your mind’s eye. Despite it all, something here grounds you: a fragment of the thing buried deep in your soul that never stops pulling you in yet another direction is tethered to this place, much like another is bound to your horse and yet another to the runestone clearing in Valedale, and an undercurrent of power flows through the air and into your being in a way not entirely unlike how your horse strengthens you.

A flash of pink, and she is no longer there. The vision shifts, and you are facing the Lightning Rider; horror, shock and grief are forever etched into her face in equal measure, all weighed out by the guilt welling up in her eyes and spilling over. She will never forget. She will never stop blaming herself. She will never stop grieving.

In the distance there is a gentle, grounding sound, almost like music, and you find yourself back in reality; here, she is still in front of you, long green robes swaying in an intangible breeze and hair spilling over her shoulders as she turns and reaches out for the Lightning Rider, and it is not yet too late. You do not know that without you all will be lost, for you have not yet heard the fate of she who came before you; all you know is that something terrible is about to happen and that you cannot lose her. Behind her, the doomsday prophet reaches out for his cane and moves to stand on shaking legs, and your body acts before your mind has time to make a conscious decision. You stand between them, and with a low, growling chuckle he rises to his feet, raises a broken arm and reaches it towards you, lets his eyes pierce into yours.

Something terrible is about to happen.

In the back of your mind, a distant cry loud enough to bypass the veil between dimensions: I cannot lose you.

Elizabeth moves too fast for you to comprehend. She stands between you and him and remains there, and you watch as if you were the one frozen in place as she crystallises and shatters and unfolds into time and space, and finally as the impact of the explosion topples him over the edge of the island. The sound of the blast echoes through time and space until everything is quiet, and for a long time—be it minutes, hours, or days—all you can hear is the ringing in your ears.

Time works differently here, or perhaps it does not work at all. There is no sunrise and no sunset, only pink as far as the eye can see, and the very air seems to be shifting around you. For longer than you know how to keep track of, you remain where you were left, staring into the abyss and grappling with your mind in desperate attempts to take in what you have witnessed. This, you will find time and time again, is impossible.

When you eventually tear your eyes from the great nothing and slowly turn around to face Alex, her tears have long since run dry. She sits perfectly still on the cold, hard ground, her trembling legs folded beneath her and her face blank with shock as she stares down at the small shard of pink crystal cradled in her hands.

From somewhere in the distance, or perhaps from across time and space, a soft, quiet melody that reminds you of home rings out through the great nothing, and though it doesn’t pull you towards it by force, you know it is where you must go. For a moment, you cast aside your horror, your shock, and your grief, and you begin the long path home.

#I'm sorry guys it had to happen #sso #star stable #star stable online #ssoblr #jorvikpov #a big huge thanks to manda @weeekly101 for beta reading this one