The journey seems longer than it has any right to be. Though the disease is centered in her lungs, debilitating, rotting, it spreads pain signals through the rest of her mortal body. Pressing her shambling corpse forward, each halting step is agony. But Ktulu asked her to make this journey, and so Lakota will. Whatever her beloved asks of her in Lakota's last days, the Poisoner cannot deny her. If it would soothe her soulmate's heart, Lakota would walk until the disease stripped her life from her body. She would walk till the ends of the very earth for Ktulu. Even if it hurt, constantly, for her to do so. 

Aodaun is there at her side, his own exhaustion the only sign that his life is being drawn upon with their bond. She is grateful that he feels no pain, it is the only positive thing she can find in the awareness that he will die alongside her. But Aodaun does not blame her, he couldn't. This wasn't something she'd asked for, or a consequence of a foolish action. It was simply the natural progression of fate, and even if it had been Lakota's fault, he would follow her anywhere. She had saved him from death in the ice cavern in which she'd found him. Without her he wouldn't have had life in the first place. He would follow her into the great beyond without a single regret. 

The warmth emanating from the lava is comforting for Lakota's tired bones. She wanders aimlessly towards the Earth God's glowing, dilapidated shrine. Her history with him, Ktulu's history with him, was fraught with tension. But he was the giver of life, and perhaps he could help heal her in that manner. 

Standing is an exhausting task, but Lakota will face the Earth God on her feet or she will not face him at all. Even dying, she has her pride. Even if the only reason she remains standing is through her will and her companion's physical presence. Closes her tired eyes, violet blinking away behind dark lids, and she prays. 

As they stand there together, Lakota trying to keep her wits and strength about her, Ktulu's soft profession of love is almost enough to bring tears back to her violet eyes. Instead she turns her bare forehead against her beloved's warm neck, inhaling her scent like a drowning woman would gasp for air. She will remember her in any way she can, if these are to be her last moments. "I love you too. So much, Ktulu. You changed my life for the better." And though she normally would have never spoken the words so freely, without embarrassment or stumbling or a joke pinned at the end to make her feel less vulnerable or sappy, Lakota will not face potential death without having spoken them. She has regretted too many things in her forsaken life. This will not be one of them.

Lakota first notes the change in their surroundings by the warm droplet that slides down her cheek, and her tired eyes open as a soft, rumbling voice speaks. Her lungs breathe a little easier as the rain showers softly down upon them, the pain receding to dull aches, and she can stand more firmly on her own without need of Ktulu and Aodaun at her sides. Crinkled dark brow smooths out, and her heart aches with quiet gratitude for the relief. It was easy to forget how much living simply hurt until he took it away. And as she opens her eyes to find him standing before them, a rare configuration of her tired, sincere smile comes upon her inky lips. "Thank you," she whispers, though she is sure he will hear her. He is kind, to offer this respite, when she has given him nothing so far. Perhaps in another life, where Lakota was not so damaged, so bitter from life and fate, she would have followed him. A patron of earth and all things that grew the poisons and herbs she knew so well, with kindness in his heart and power in his might. She would have loved him, the pious girl she once had been before the world had ruined her. But she could only offer him her thanks, now. And pray that maybe, the might of him would be able to save her and her family.

"There is a sickness in me that the healers cannot touch," she explained softly, not wanting to upset Ktulu. The Poisoner had had months of coming to terms with her illness, Ktulu did not. "I do not think I have long left in this body. If you have the power, I ask you to take it from me somehow so I may stay with my family. If you do not..." her voice choked, for even she could not imagine the frightening expanse of death without trepidation. "I ask that you leave a piece of me to be remembered with Ktulu and my son, somehow. That you let Aodaun and I pass here in peace, so that he will not experience my pain, and will stay with me as we journey on." Because she could not bear to ask him to rip apart her soul to let Aodaun free. Even if it made her selfish, she couldn't deny Aodaun's gentle affirmation that he wanted the same thing too. 

Ktulu's vehemence is a comfort, now that Lakota knows these are her last few hours. Perhaps her heart is in the wrong place, or her love too strong and blinding, but Lakota appreciates it all the same. She won't be leaving this world alone and sick, as the Poisoner had feared with each night Ktulu did not return home. She will die without pain, with her beloved at her side, knowing her memory would go on in the form of a new life. A daughter that would make the world a better place than Lakota had ever managed to make it. "It can't be changed, beloved," she says instead. What-ifs and what-I'd-gives had no place here, where even a God could not slow the ending of her life force. It's soft in tone, but there is iron beneath each word. Lakota didn't want her last conversation with Ktulu to be one of maybes and passionate futility. Her life had been filled with enough suffering. All she asked for now was peace. 

And then Ktulu, looking as if she'd eaten every sour herb in Helovia's biome, at last consents. It's more than Lakota could have imagine or hoped for. It wasn't something planned, this transference of life. In the end, though, it was all Lakota could have asked for. Maybe, just maybe, the child would be enough to keep Ktulu moving forward. Maybe it would benefit them both somehow. Lakota didn't want Ktulu's self-destruction. She didn't want mourning or grief. In her passing, the Poisoner prayed there would only be rebirth and renewal, a flourishing of new happiness and new beginnings. The continuance of her memory, somehow. And Ktulu had vowed to secure that. 

The God speaks once more, and she turns her violet gaze to her lover. 

"It's your choice," she murmurs. "But I'd rather our child learn early on how much I love them. That I would give my last spark to them, and that I didn't leave them willingly. Will you tell them about me? The good and the bad?" Her voice remains at a whisper, and yet the tears slip quietly across her cheeks even as she smiles. There's no pain here but the one in her heart, and she prays that on the other side, she will be able to watch their child grow. Knowing these are her last moments she turns more fully to Ktulu, touching her gently with her muzzle as if to imprint Lakota's touch upon her skin. 

"You are the most amazing soul I've ever encountered. You are my everything. I would not have known happiness if you had not come into my life. I love you. I love you. I love you, Ktulu." If only she had the time to say it a thousand, a million more times. But she kept murmuring it to the cadence of her tears. Her passing would be marked by her love. If there was only one thing Ktulu took away from this moment where her life force died away, Lakota wanted it to be the profession of her love. "You will be an amazing mother." 

At last she turns to the God of the Earth, and then looks to her side where Aodaun gazes steadily up at her. I'm ready, Lakota. She drops her muzzle to the softness of his head, breathing in a scent so close to her own she can scarcely tell the difference anymore. Green and purple eyes look up at the God of the Earth in tandem, their intertwined souls finally at rest. 

"I'm ready," she whispered, waiting for his magic to take hold, for his will to bend her spirit and shepherd the two of them into the realm of reunion of peace. Let her eyes shut and finally let go.