"Shhh, shh," Reign purred, as the kitten tried to fight, "I know she meant much to you, but we had no choice,"

and then it all happened, it seemed, in slow motion.

Something was slamming into his side, knocking him over and slamming him into a tree root, leaivng him gasping as his breath was knocked from his lungs, only able to watch as the kitten was flung into the ground with a sickening crack, a cold chill running down his spine, going numb.

He'd never seen someone die before.

He'd just watched a cub be murdered.

He stayed, sprawled out, on the ground.

The lights blinking out, one by one, light by light, had Lamia clutching her chest with pain. They were gone. They were all gone. Pallas, Sergei, Azrael, Howl, Shoko, Temperantia, Daughter, all the others, all of those lessers that had been wiped out in a brutal, painful second. There were still other lights, sure, and all of the fish in Pisces, but Mother's main hive had been destroyed. They'd lost almost all of their forces. There were other hives, but she didn't know if they would betray them. Lamia had to assume that they would be destroyed soon as well. She had to hide - hide away, deep within the tunnels with what bits of Mother she could smuggle out, and wait for the right time to emerge with her again.

Wait for a time to bring Mother's influence back to the caves. Until then, Lamia would wait.

Pushing back a sob, Lamia gripped tight to the fungus she carried and dipped forward, swimming towards one of the tunnels to lead her out of Pisces.

*exit Lamia with bits of Mother

Azrael snarled when nobody answered - he assumed, then, that all of the infected had been taken care of. He was angry - furious, and ready to leave this place behind. He never wanted to return to this accursed place. With a huff, he turned away from the group, storming out of the cave. "I go and make sure other hives are gone," he puffed. "You stay here if you want. I do not care."

As he passed across the sinkhole that now held mother's remains, he paused at the edge, lip curling as superhot saliva gathered in his mouth. He spit it out, sizzling loudly in the swamp water as it vaporized, one last insult to that fungal freak before he stormed out of Cetus.

*exit