The Ocean was cold, it was the middle of winter in the country she decided to die in. It was a different cold to the cold empty hole in her heart. This cold was not cruel, it was like walking onto the ice caps on a warm summer day. A cold that felt right. Her eyes slipped shut, welcoming the cold.
Then that cold vanished in an instant. Everything vanished the moment she closed her eyes. The pain, the emptiness, the poison grabbing onto her magic and ripping apart her organs, and most certainly the nice cold.
No, one moment she was cold, the next she was warm.
Her first thought was that this is death, this is the hell that so many had said she was destined for. The muted crying she had heard certainly aided this thought.
Except, She quickly realized something was holding her. This warmth was not from the environment, but rather someone's body heat. While she certainly hadn't been held in a long time, she recognized the feeling of being held. Did someone drag her out of the water? Did Aksel break his promise to not interfere with her wish to die in the water?
No, that did not make sense. He knew that she was dead the moment she drank that bottle. He would never bother. Someone else must have brought her out. Not that she could fathom how when she was sure it was just Aksel and her for miles. She even checked with magic, she had to have been sure.
No one else was supposed to see her end.
But now, she was wrapped in something warm, someone's warmth. She felt something close to a memory of panic rise from deep within her. Though she knew logically even though they were bringing her out of the water she was doomed to die.
Expect- She felt no pain. The poison's effects were instant, they spread across her body so quickly that she barely had time to fall backwards before she lost the ability to move. So why was it gone? The poison had no cure. It killed far too quickly to even attempt one.
Someone would have been moronic to even try. Especially trying to save her.
She wanted to know who was stupid enough to do so. But when she tried to open her eyes, she couldn't. It felt like they were glued shut. She then tried to move her arms but she couldn't, actually nothing in her body was responding to her. It felt like she was completely bound, her limbs stuck to her sides, unable to break from their binds. Now she thought they weren't saving her for any good reason. She was foolish to think they were at all.
While she continued to struggle to open eyes- she had to see- the sound that was muted before finally came audible. It was a woman crying. Loudly crying. It didn't sound like pain but rather anguish.
"Stop crying Eileen! You got yourself into this situation!" A voice boomed so loudly that it made Lena flinch from the pain. That voice sounded like it came from above her, it must be the person that was holding her. Why were they still holding her? She needed to see them-
The crying got louder.
"For the love of the Wicked Mother! Eileen, get a hold of yourself and explain!" The voice boomed loud again. She wanted to know why Eileen was crying too, it sure wasn't for her. But she noted the odd swear, it wasn't one she had heard before. She had a lot of curses thrown at her in her life.
"I can't!" The voice screamed, sounding out of breath. It was also hoarse as it became clear that the voice must be Eileen, the crying woman. She still didn't understand why someone would be crying around here.
"What do you mean you can't? How could you not be able to explain you going into labor in the middle of the night!" If it was the middle of the night why are you screaming? Wait, what does the voice mean by labor? Why would she be having a baby anywhere near the water? Unless She wasn't near the water anymore.
That thought gave her a new strength to force her eyes open. It took a lot of effort but she managed to crack them open. She could finally match a close voice to a face, specifically the face that was way above her, but not looking at her. No, it was looking somewhere else. Likely to whoever Eileen is. The person had long black hair, gray skin, and a noticeable scowl on her face. She was clearly angry at Eileen, something her voice and words had told her before but she could see a level of worry on the woman's face. Like her anger was more born from fear than anything else. She tried to follow where those blue eyes were looking but she couldn't see where Eileen was. Her head still wouldn't move.
Above the woman was not the sky above the ocean, but rather a wooden roof. At least she assumed it was wooden. The room was pitch black making it incredibly difficult to see the specifics from so far away from her. That thought to a halt to her thoughts.
Her vision has been able to see up to miles away, even in the darkest nights of winter, ever since she was a child. Meaning the fact that she could not see the details on the roof, but could see the woman above her meant something was extremely wrong.
A pregnant woman giving birth, being held by a strange woman yelling, the roof above her instead of the sky, the fact she was being held-
Her death.
Her death wasn't stopped.
The gods are cruel. All she asked for was to finally meet her end, to meet her friends on the other side. Yet she has been denied.
The Mother Of Monsters has been reborn.
What a cruel joke.