The lack of days in space was beginning to bother Cassie. The light fluctuated somewhat throughout the day, as a pale imitation, but it never became so dull as to become an impediment. Funnily enough, sometimes Cassie found herself wanting to be impeded. At the least, she figured they should heed their biological clocks and take the night off, but despite delays, the whole group was couched in the inner ship, preparing to undock.

"We're on this, then," Cassie said. "You're aware it's well into the evening at this point, aren't you?"

"We slept in," argued Tabai. "and it would appear, on what I've heard from Dusty and Alexa's observations, that the seraph signal will only be in the daylight on this planet for approximately a day longer, before that side of the planet slips into night for a few months. Given the temperature, I'd trust we'd all prefer to take our venture at present."

Cassie argued, "I agree, but Dusty hasn't made half the repairs I wanted-- I mean, we needed--"

"You're allowed to admit you just enjoy torturing me," Dusty said, snidely.

"Well, I don't!" Cassie stomped her hoof.

"And you haven't had any difficulties on my behalf, had you, Cassiopeia?" drawled Dusty. "See, if there was some kind of hardship you'd experienced, I'd be moved if not overly apologetic, but as it appears you're just sniping at me--"

"The refrigerator is broken!" Cassie yelled.

"One. One refrigerator is broken," Dusty said. "I'll make sure to fix that while you are all out saving the world, or ruining it for our explicit gain. However that works out for you."

"I'll be leading, again, since the situation clearly demands it," Alexa said.

"Wait," Tabai snarled. "Thus far, Benn and Cassie have borne the bulk of the burden on these missions, even when their contributions have been criminally underplayed. I reckon we could manage a mission entirely on our own merits."

Dusty and Alexa exchanged a glance. "That's stupid," Alexa said, "But I'll leave you to it. Dusty. You're on them."

"But the fridge," Dusty said.

Alexa's eyes narrowed. She stepped away from the sacred pedestal at the wheel which she had practically made hers. "I want you to see how poorly this goes without me."

Dusty took the helm. Alexa walked past the other Sentients with an electric glare and entered the elevator. The resounding silence after her disappearance was so thick that it felt like someone had forcefully silenced everyone in the room. To speak would to be to bite through a gag.

"Can you pilot?" asked Cassie.

"Well enough. I know the ship, at least." Dusty ran a paw over the smooth, buttonless part of the dashboard. It was a vain gesture, given he'd be flying, as Alexa did, almost entirely by telekinesis.

"I-I- d-don't like risking our lives on 'well enough'," Pechi interjected.

"Woah, woah, you're not risking your lives. At most, you'll be risking your stomach," Dusty said. "If you're thrilled about risking your neck, though, I have good news about the mission you're on."
"We get the gesture," Tabai said, "I'll hop in the pod."

Pechi and Cassie, who exchanged a look Cassie hoped was meaningful, followed Tabai into the pods. The three of them managed to buckle up, although Cassie required some help from Pechi, and sat, dormant, waiting for the world to turn.
Dusty, unlike Alexa, was slow and calculating with every action, taking a full three beats to undock while mumbling numbers under his breath all the while. Cassie was in just the right position to see him at his work, and she noticed him messing with the map, squinting at it, muttering, "That can't be right," and then tapping it again.

At one point, Alexa's voice crackled over the comms. "Taking a while, aren't we?"

"Can't all be naturals," Dusty began, "In this area of achievement, of course." The ship's engines flared to life, and as the undocking completed, the ship dipped downwards. With half of Alexa's confidence and half her speed, Dusty angled them into a dive. Cassie pressed herself further into the pod, which pressed back against her face, as if it, too, were grabbing her to protect itself from the horrors of mediocre driving. The engines hissed and whined as they broke the atmosphere, and it was not long after that Dusty could be heard swearing, violently, at the controls.

"What's troubling you?" Tabai asked.

"We're at least a good legion off course," Dusty complained.

"Thought you could fly," Tabai said, darkly.

Dusty's expression grew mutinous. "That's because I can fly. There's foul play going on here. Magical foul play," he explained. "Why is everything immune to our powers?" whispered Dusty.

"Magic's hard to use in the v-v-vicinity of the seraph," Pechi said, stepping out into the cabin. Cassie dizzily removed herself from the receding airbags of the pod, joining Tabai and Pechi there. "W-well?" demanded Pechi.

Dusty looked at the ship. Outside them, across the extensive open ceiling and even floor, was an endless expanse of white space. "Someone needs to stay here and take care of this baby. I have local comms, anyways, so I'll actually be of more use, here." Dusty leaned back against the cockpit. Alexa hardly ever used the seat, but Dusty, Dusty was going to make it work. Cassie could see it in his unbearably snide expression. Even then, there was something else that pulled at his jowls. "I've got things to work on."
"Forget arguing with him, let's just go," said Cassie, jerking her head towards the airlock, which opened, revealing appropriate clothing for the group. The suits this time were far more bulky, looking less like trash bags and more like a vaguely Sentient-shaped mass of blubber.

It was going to be colder than sin out there.

"Tabai, can you help me get this on?" asked Cassie.

Tabai jolted up, startled, and looked like she had no idea what Cassie was implying.

"Telekinesis?"
"My precision is poor," Tabai suggested, even though her massive horns suggested the opposite.

Cassie sighed, leaning down to grab the suit with her teeth, when it flew up around her and began to zip up of its own accord. A small comm bead placed itself in her ear, nestling itself in like a bird settling for a nap in the deep of winter. Cassie looked back towards Dusty, on his seat. She wanted to feel something akin to gratitude, but she was more mildly pleased she wouldn't have to deal with the process manually. The suit itself felt like she had doubled her body weight. It still came with the 'gills' of the last planet, for air purification, but this time, they were thicker, and the soft hum indicated a kind of internal heating.

"It's warm," Pechi said. She looked ridiculous, as the suit sagged off her sides, and her tail was waving under the thick covering.

"Not for long," buzzed Dusty, in Cassie's ear.

The back door shut and the outside began to glisten before them, like a treasure trove of diamonds. They were so immersed in white, bathed in its solemn yet nonetheless stunning glory, that all of them almost forgot to move, at first. It was dazzling in a way different from the other worlds, but more strikingly, when Cassie put her hoof into the snow, the found it so deep she could hardly move, and even through the suit, she could sense the chill gripping her. It was piercing in a way normal cold wasn't, feeling more like a variety of limbs (talons, paws, hands, claws, what have you) trying to drag her under the ice, to sleep with them.

"Can you hear that?" whispered Pechi. She was up to her own stomach, shivering just as Cassie was, but her ears were perked to catch something in the distance.

Cassie's ear twitched as a dim pinging sung through her comm. "I can hear this little beep, but I guarantee it's not what you're talking about."

"I tried to give an audio indication of where the seraph was," Dusty offered. "If you'd prefer, I could give you directions the whole way there. Little to the left. Right. Riiiight again... there you go." There was a coughing noise over the comms, a garbled laugh that about fit how Cassie took the joke. "Well, if you don't want navigation, you won't hear too much from me, but feel free to disturb my work if you're in mortal peril. Otherwise, I'm going to go do my thing. As you already know, I'm frightfully busy."

"I don't suppose you bought the fridge down with you," said Cassie grimly.

"I can comm up to Alexa and tell her to fix it, but she'd kill me," Dusty offered.

"Cease making small talk over the comms. We have a mission to make, and there's the issue of the climes at present... the longer we stay out here, the more cumbersome this is going to become," hissed Tabai.

Cassie said, "I'll keep in touch."

The lack of a response indicated some kind of agreement, or perhaps Dusty was just... forget Dusty, anyways. Cassie looked over the white fields and found herself feeling dreadfully alone. "There's magic around here somewhere," she said.

"There's magic everywhere," Tabai said. "In all worlds, in all weaves, all walks. There is not a universe that has not been in some way marked and afflicted."

Pechi stalked through the snow. The winds overhead howled, though not with the ferocity of their forebears on the second world, but instead bringing even bitterer coldness that killed the few nerves inside of Cassie's rack of antlers. The trio pushed on through the snow, which was watery despite the temperature. The air above them smelled a bit like salt.

"Keep your head above it," warned Cassie. "There's a good chance this stuff is corrosive. It's certainly not normal snow."
"A-a-a-a-at the alert, c-c-captain," Pechi said. The Canira, whose face was hidden from view by her suit, was already shaking.

Cassie wanted to put her on her back, but she herself was sinking on account of her small hooves, which pierced the snow with each step. She would raise a hoof for it to be shocked with the warmth of the open air, removed from the frigid cold, only to plunge it back in. Each step became a special kind of torture, and the other two were looking no better for wear.

"We could turn around," Cassie said. "There's some food in the inner ship. We could get warm."

"Don't tempt me," Tabai warned, cutting through the sludge. "Don't tempt yourself."

Cassie pressed on, bitterly. The chill only worsened as the seraph record dinged in her head, and Cassie felt the snow becoming easier to move aside than to raise above. It was almost like-- "A lake. We're walking right into a lake."

Something else was dinging. Cassie could hear it from a ways off, as if her organs were making a great clamor in her chest. She could feel everything failing, even under the oppressive heat of the suit. The pain of the cold was unbearable. She began turning tail, pressing back through, and saw, in the distance, a rock of some sorts.

"Do you see that?" whispered Cassie.

"I hear it," Tabai said.

"Me, too," Pechi agreed.

"Where are you going?" asked Dusty. "Seraph's that way."

"Tell Dusty we can't get there by telekinesis, won't you, please? Just so he stops asking. Furthermore, inform him we are approaching a large rock of some variety, and we will continue to update him on our encounter as time progresses," Tabai said.

"Telekinesis not working, approaching large rock. Will keep you posted," Cassie relayed.

"I got that much. Wait, rock?" asked Dusty.
Cassie picked up the pace as she approached the rock, which seemed to be perched on mercifully solid ground as well. Just getting out of the wet was relief enough, though her limbs were all violently stinging, but as she pulled up to the rock she realized it was covered in fur, and her companions were right-- it was loud. Terribly loud. Wonderfully loud. She pressed her head against it, feeling not the bitter embrace of stone but the warmth of fur, and listened to what sounded like a soft, lonesome wail echoing out from the structure, beckoning. The sound, too, seemed to emanate physical heat. Nothing had ever felt so good.

Then the rock moved. Pechi, Cassie, and Tabai were thrown from its side as it turned to face them, staring down and billowing massive nostrils.

ARE YOU IN NEED, asked an infrasonic voice.

"Yes! Very much so!" Cassie waved her tail.

Tabai stepped in front of her, curtly looking to Cassie as if to express, wordlessly, that she should pipe down. "We are travellers from a far-off world known as Omnia," Tabai told the massive beast, whose head was so thickly covered that it still resembled a fuzzy rock. "We are seeking a seraph, but it might be better to say we are looking for a light. There is a signal in the pond, yonder, where the ice gives out, that we are hoping to approach, but the cold is so violent that we find ourselves impeded. Could we ask for your assistance in the completion of this task?"

AH, BACK AGAIN. YOU ARE MUCH NICER THAN THE LAST GROUP THAT CAME THIS WAY. A violent torrent of wind blew overhead. I THINK YOU SHOULD GET ATOP MY BACK. THE FUR IS DEEP AND YOU CAN NESTLE IN THERE. I SEE THAT YOU ARE THE ONES WHO FLINCH WITH COLD.

"Well, I'd imagine that your species has some incredible c-c-cold resistance," Pechi said, attempting to scrabble up the side of their new companion. The suits made it practically impossible to climb anything, and it was not as if the compact brick of a beast could bend down.

YOU WILL WANT TO CLIMB MY HEAD. IT SHOULD BE SIGNIFICANTLY EASIER.

The three of them got atop the beast's head, still with some difficulty (especially on Cassie's part, even though she was more than tall enough to get up there. Once again, hooves were useless). The beast raised its head all the way up the height of its body and deposited them, shivering, onto the furry nest upon its back. The fur was ragged, and there was some sort of small mechanical device lodged within the fur, as well as what looked like crumbs scattered throughout. Other adventurers had been here and clearly been lacking in etiquette. Cassie found herself nudging little bits of bread out with her hooves while Pechi and Tabai practically melted under the fur.

"I'm colder than either of you and I still have the best manners," Cassie griped, still picking at its back. Her legs were basically frozen poles at this point, and she had to maneuver her whole body to get at the crumbs. She managed to kick the little device out, too, the blow cushioned by her suit, but she still regretted it. "Shoot!"

YOU ARE IN DISCOMFORT, the beast said.

"Not in the slightest. My companion is merely restless on account of a certain tendency of hers towards order, even when it interferes with her personal welfare. It's a strange fixation but I hope she's not causing you any trouble--"

I FEEL NOTHING, AND AM NOT TROUBLED.

Pechi glanced nervously up from beneath a ream of fur, which she had at this point knotted herself into. Tabai, waving her and Cassie back down with a swift swish of her tail, asked only, "Y-y-yes?"

Tabai interjected, "We have a place we'd like to go. Do you think you could take us straight forwards, for about... well, I wager you wouldn't know a legion, but we could direct."

THERE IS ONLY ONE DESTINATION IN THIS AREA, AND I WILL TAKE YOU THERE.

"Do we t-t-trust that?" whispered Pechi.

Tabai said grimly, "More than the arms of death."

"We found a ride," Cassie said, more to Dusty than anything else.

Dusty's voice hummed and buzzed out into silence.

"And we're probably going to lose communications as we close in," Cassie informed her companions. "Should we... still..."

They both gave her an austere nod.

"Lead the way," said Tabai.

As the creature strode forth into a waltz, with a grace only given to celestial beings, it said in its low sonic roar to the group, YOU ARE WARM?

"Warmer," Tabai said. "We're not suited for this."

The creature rumbled, I AM SORRY FOR YOU LITTLE CREATURES, WITH YOUR SORRY SHAKING BODIES AND YOUR PAIN. THE BRIGHT ONE HAS GIVEN ME A LIGHT, AND A LONG LIFE, AND AN ECHO TO CAST DOWN HILLS SO THAT MY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES KNOW I AM APPROACHING. HE HAS GIVEN ME MEANS TO SPEAK, AND HE HAS SPOKEN TO ME WITH LIGHT, AS HE KNOWS ME, AND HE CARES FOR ME. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SUFFERING YOUR KIND CAN PERMIT THEMSELVES, WITHOUT SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER THEM AND TAKE THIS "PAIN" FROM YOUR BODIES BEFORE IT CAN TROUBLE YOU SILENT.

"We have a god," Tabai said, looking up at the misty white sky.

WHERE ARE THEY?

Tabai said, "In the heart of a former child. Our god speaks out from her soul, and watches out of her eyes."

I CAN SENSE THE DOUBT IN YOUR HEART.

Pechi bolted up, looking askew at Tabai. Tabai only lowered her gaze, settling herself as not to confirm suspicions. "T-T-Tabai, you c-c-can't possibly be a n-nonbeliever, c-can you?" asked Pechi.

Tabai stared at the parting ice beneath them.

Cassie looked back at the pair, then walked to the front, close to the head, and looked at the journey before them. Wherever Dusty might have found the seraph horn, this time (or perhaps the seraph, but Cassie despised the sound of that on principle), it seemed to be of ambiguous location at current. Cassie asked, "You said 'little creatures', and you seemed to have a fair grasp on what pain is, even if you don't experience it. Do we come here often?"

NO. IT HAS HAPPENED THREE TIMES WITHIN MY LIFE. NOT ONE HAS BEEN UNABLE TO FEEL SUCH A SENSATION, AND COMPLAINED OF IT LIBERALLY WHILE THEY WERE HERE.

"And wh-what happened to them?" asked Pechi.

THERE ARE BODIES UNDER THE ICE. THE COLD WILL CARE FOR THEM NOW, AS IT CARES FOR ALL THINGS IN THIS WORLD.

Cassie felt herself shiver.

The four of them seemed to be passing another creature such as their nameless companion, now, bobbing up and down in the water. It was skewed slightly to the side, and the water around it had an unhealthy murk to it, a tinge on the clean blues and whites that scoured the rest of the planet.

"Is it--" Pechi asked, leaning forwards. "What happened there?"

THEY LIE DOWN AND PASS. IT IS SIMPLY SOMETHING THAT OCCURS ON THE RARE OCCASION. WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO UNDERSTAND IT, BUT WE HAVE NOT FOUND A CAUSE. The beast paused. YOU DO, TOO. YOU ALWAYS DO.

"You don't think it would have something to do with tremendous cold, or lack of food, do you?" asked Cassie. Tabai shot her a look. Apparently that was the wrong move, but from Cassie's humble perspective, it was nigh impossible to tell what the 'right move' was.

WE EAT WHEN WE ARE REMINDED.

"Reminded?" whispered Cassie.

"And what could you consume on a landscape this barren?" asked Tabai.

SOMETIMES BODIES. SOMETIMES THE GHOSTS IN THE WATER.

"Reminded?" Cassie asked, again, to silence from all but the howling winds. Their grim caravan trudged on through the musk. Like the other two worlds, the landscape was barren, to the point where nothing moved or spoke save for them. The beast's paws, which appeared to be short and flippered, trod the water, moving vast chunks of ice to the side, and bits of fur lay, clinging to the ice. Their host gave no indication of pain, but there, too, was that murk in the water. Cassie kicked Tabai's side and gestured down.

Tabai said, "Are you experiencing any inconvenience by ferrying us to this far shore?"

I AM CONFUSED, BUT THIS IS NOT AN INCONVENIENCE. YOU HAVE ALSO GIVEN ME THE LUXURY OF CONVERSATION. IT IS THE ONLY MATERIAL OR IMMATERIAL THING I ASK FOR. The beast paused. WE ARE THERE. YOU ARE ALL AWAKE?

"W-w-well, I almost d-d-dozed, but..." Pechi said, curling her tail. "D-d-do all y-y-your guests f-f-fall asleep? Seems a bit rude."
THE LAST GROUP OF ADVENTURERS SLEEPS ON THE SHORES.

Icy water curled and declined from the small shores of an island, the murk stirred by the sudden intrusions of their presence. There were bleached bones up on the shore, the remnants of them long since given over to the tides, and empty eye sockets peered out of skulls and into the stars. The bodies were foreign, but they were huddled as if they had been resting.

Pechi dismounted. She stepped carefully around the bones and up onto the shore, and Cassie slid down to join her, tucking her hooves in even though she knew her host could feel no discomfort even from their unfortunate prodding. Tabai brought up the lead, falling down onto her paws by the bones. "Stars," she muttered. "Oh, stars."

Pechi turned to Cassie. "Tell Dusty we're here."

Cassie's earpiece still flickered with a soft static hum, like the whine of logs in a fireplace. She shook her head. "He can't hear us."

Pechi seethed. "It's good to know that technology is just as limited as m-m-magic is by s-s-seraph intervention-- and he dares think he's infallible. Wh-what a pompous t-t-t-tool."

Cassie managed a soft smile. "You're lucky he can't hear you through this thing."

"I've exp-p-pressed this to his face," Pechi responded, grimly. "Let's go. The longer we're out here, the h-h-h-harder it is just to form sentences."

Cassie pressed on through the cold. There was a pinprick of light up ahead, pulsing with incredible energy. It was set on a slight elevation, behind rows of stairs that would have been awful on the broad, flippered feet of the inhabitants of this planet. It was no more fun if one had hooves, which tended to skid across such unforgiving surfaces, but Pechi was already up the stairs far before Cassie was. She lifted the seraph horn from its pedestal. It was impossible to grip with her teeth from within her suit, but it curled perfectly around Cassie's shoulder when she lifted it there with her paws. Cassie could feel the energy course through her, as if something warm and living was clinging to her side.

The wind picked up around the pair. Cassie heard a voice in her ears. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

"Dusty?" asked Cassie.

"Yes?" responded Dusty, through a now-live transmitter. "Paging, paging. You can hear this, right? You've been out of order for a little longer than I'd like, now, and if you don't mind hustling, I'd like to get back before dinner. Yeesh, is that really what we're down to? Day-long, simple missions, a little physical discomfort, and it's over? So much for this seraph."

Cassie's eyes glazed with pain from the blaring heat rising in her humb legs. "Easy for you to say when you're not out here."

"Did he call it easy!" Pechi interjected.

Cassie nodded.

"T-t-t-t-tell him-- tell him-- 'easy' is fixing a refrigerator," Pechi howled.

"Pechi thinks you're full of shit," Cassie said.

Dusty cackled over the comms. "Get back here," he told them.

Cassie nodded. She jerked her head towards Tabai, down on the shores, and the pair met her there. Tabai had brushed snow over all the bones, but the water was already lapping them back up again. The Canis was shivering violently, such that the movement could be seen even through the incredible heft of the suit. By her side, their host was breathing heavily. A deep, pained sound echoed from her throat, but... that could be cultural differences, couldn't it? It certainly couldn't be anything else, not when she couldn't... when there was no way that she could feel...

MY BODY IS FILLED WITH STARS, said their host. THIS IS NOT A GOOD PLACE. STRANGE, I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE, AND STRANGE, THAT YOU LIVED... STRANGE, STRANGE OCCURRENCE, ALL...

Tabai scampered back up, and the creature muttered with each successive step. Tabai muttered her sorries beneath her breath, leaving Cassie and Pechi to follow. The creature screeched when Cassie stepped up, such that the Fauna almost bucked.

WHAT?

"Nothing. We didn't say anything."

SOMETHING IS WRONG.

The voyage back began, unsteadily, but snow was beginning to fall overhead. Everyone aboard sat completely silent, as if just a step could throw them into the waters, and the creature moved forwards with the same grace as earlier, although now there was also an ominous sense of dread. The three passengers could hear every breath, the way it seemed to advance in desperation before receding again, like waves, and Tabai was still looking down at the waters like she believed they might swallow her.

Somewhere off in the distance was the ship, just out of sight. They hadn't gotten very far before they'd found her, especially given how small they were in comparison to the terrain, but Cassie was already getting tunnel vision. We're so close, she thought, craning her neck to look ahead. We'll be there soon, and everything will be perfectly fine. We just need to keep closing the gap, don't we? That's not so hard. Please, please hurry up...

"Are you alright?" asked Tabai. Only she could hear the answer.

Cassie found herself in need of something to chew. Pechi dragged her closer to her knot. The Canira, whose gaze was dull, said, "I can feel your heartbeat right now. It's like a butterfly's wings."

Cassie leaned back into her. They watched Tabai, who was holding her paws against the cold. The Canis's fur had to be bristled beneath that suit. The raised hackles and her stance both spelled incredible concern.

Cassie was overwhelmed by a sudden wave of sadness, the ground rumbling beneath her and filling her with indiscernible emotion. She looked at Pechi, who was curled against the cold, and said softly, "I know you stole my Rose Buster plush."

"Why w-w-w-would you bring that up now?" asked Pechi, both her eyes widening.

The three of them fell into the water. Their host collapsed sideways, and Cassie found herself entangled in her fur, struggling to break the surface. They were stuck in a black sea of tentacles of fur, now physically grasping for her sides, and Cassie's heart went erratic. She kicked with all four of her skimpy legs and broke the surface, a tendril of fur still caught around a back leg.

Something cut the grip from underwater, freeing Cassie, but sense was evaporating as her body heat was drawn away from her, and as she looked around the dark waters, she could see no one. She found herself struggling in the water as the suit began to bloat, at least giving her better floatation, and despite the mass of the suit, she appeared to be buoyant. Cassie kicked violently until she had landed herself into heavier slush, and as it congealed around her, hope and desperation violently rose within her. She began to feel very hot and very cold, both sometimes at once, and her extremities were entirely gone. Her vision blackening, she managed to pull herself onto something that seemed like solid ground. A dark figure stood overhead, dragging her aboard.

In and out of consciousness, Cassie could sense a distant, low mourning noise: I AM SORRY.

Someone opened the door. Cassie felt like her own head had been opened and shut when she heard the noise, and the dinging of the airlock was not helping. She looked around, since her vision was beginning to clear past indistinct shapes. The entire floor was laid out with blankets and... well, something else, but Cassie couldn't tell what those sticks were. The coloration was oddly dark, and they seemed to extend from her sides. Was that some kind of strange life support?

"Can you move those?" asked Cassie.

Dusty and Pechi jolted. "Move what?" asked Dusty.

"The sticks," Cassie argued.

"You mean your legs?" asked Dusty.

Cassie looked out across what were apparently her limbs. She felt an absence at her shoulder, and the mission came back to her in pieces. "Are we-- are we dead? I mean, no, obviously--" her head hurt. Putting this together might be a problem for future Cassie. "Where's Tabai? And the host?"

Pechi looked outside. "Can you hear that, Cassie?"

I AM SORRY.

Cassie could not lift herself. "Oh," she said. "How long..."

"Hours. We had to get the seraph horn out from under the ice," Dusty said. "It wasn't that deep, where you fell, but then I had to personally go out and help with the retrieval. And then I had to lug that giant monster out of the water..."

Cassie asked, "She?"

"Name?" asked Dusty.

"No name. Just her," Cassie said. "Possibly an 'echo to cast down hills', but we wouldn't understand it."

Dusty looked outside. Grimly, he said, "She's dying."

Cassie perked her ears. She could not hear what Tabai was saying, outside, but when the creature responded, it was with a voice so loud that it shook her mind. I FEEL A SENSATION LIKE THE SUN. I CAN NOT REMEMBER KNOWING OR ENJOYING WARMTH BUT I THINK I MIGHT HAVE WANTED TO.

Pechi stood close to the horn, which Cassie could now at least see was on the table. Dusty continued gazing out the window, his breath fogging the mirror. There was a long silence, punctuated by the opening of an airlock, and at last, Tabai entered. She no longer shook with cold, but with raw fury, and her eyes were mutinous.

"Ready to leave?" Dusty suggested, kindly.

"They can't feel pain," Tabai said. "Or they couldn't. That doesn't mean that they couldn't hurt. This whole time, she was experiencing excruciating agony, enough to cause her body to give out, and we just let her do it."

"We couldn't h-have gotten there," argued Pechi.

"And you don't think that the seraph horn had something to do with her lack of sensory perception regarding severe discomfort? We exposed her to that. She probably died because of our direct intervention," Tabai said.

Are you sure you want to do that?

Cassie lay perfectly still.

"The seraph was messing with you," said Dusty. "Look. If we want to be home, we should get in the pods."

Tabai turned, looking towards the white expanse. "But I should-- I should cover--"

"It won't mean anything," Dusty said. "The water will just open her up again."

Tabai's eyes were cold as death. "It doesn't mean anything to you, does it? Nothing anyone does. Nothing anyone feels."

"I imagine our failure," Dusty said, "whenever I'm idle, not that it happens often. I imagine thousands if not millions of Sentient lives, snuffed out by the blazing hell of Obsidian intervention. I imagine the barrier hardening under the last sickly remains of its strength, and I imagine all of us waiting for decades under the shadow of death. Compared to that, my life is nothing. If I have to expand my definitions to include a few more lives? Well, that's a dangerous slope, so I'd need to anticipate each situation, but... this one's not on us. We need to go."

"So the ends justify the means?" snapped Tabai.

"She wanted to help. You're trying to slander me," Dusty said. "I didn't take the mission. I didn't agree to anything. Now, if you don't mind, could you get in the pods?"

Cassie felt like a dead fish.

"Right," Dusty said, helping her, with telekinesis, into her own pod. As the cushions expanded, Cassie felt them push against her neck, like teeth closing in around her. Her eyes narrowed and she wrested herself into a better position, but there was none. As they took off, she found herself looking down, bludgeoned by a pillow from above, as if someone wanted her to look down at the stone on the shore.

Cassie could not stop looking, even as they ascended into space. She found herself nearly unable to leave the pod when it opened, but despite Tabai's insistence that she get medical help, she managed to rush the upstairs hall. She passed a grim looking Alexa on the way there and stopped, like a prey animal confronted by a predator. That was the situation, wasn't it? Not for long. Right now. Of course. No. "Sorry, I should really," began Cassie.

"I take it it went well?" asked Alexa.

"Hasn't Dusty been talking to you over comms?" asked Cassie.

Alexa's gaze slid away. "Sure," she said. "He asked me why we sent you three. Mentioned I could have achieved the same alone."

"I don't think so," Cassie said.

Alexa nodded. "That's a claim."

"Please let me go," Cassie begged. "Look, I can't argue with you right now. I need to do something, and you're really, really, really just terrifying, and you're really, really, really in my way."

Alexa raised her head. "On your way to do what, Cassiopeia?"

"Whatever I want!" Cassie snapped. "Isn't that what we're doing up here?"

Alexa surveyed Cassie. "That is one way to put it, if you wanted to be especially forward. You do what you will. I'll do what I must."

"S-stop being so--" Cassie retaliated, but the Canis was already striding away, pulled down the deceptively straight hallway, then up it, as perspective shifted and the curve of the hall lead her out of sight. Cassie, in turn, looked out towards the kitchen, which she entered. The remaining ten refrigerators hummed with violent noise, and Cassie wanted to shove her limbs in the heater available in the center of the room. Barely restraining herself, she instead took out a portion of meat and gorged herself in the corner, stripping it down bit by bit.

It was so easy to forget who she was, just for a moment, and the reward for doing so was so great. She could almost pretend she was brave, or competent, or unfazed. She could be anything, but she wanted to be bright red and dangerous. She wanted not to feel like she knew what body she was opening up.

There was old conjecture on why even the prey species of Sentient, your Boanerges, Fauna, Lapnin, you name it, all had more forward facing eyes and some of the more canine trappings, including the teeth-- the Canis were named for the teeth. The teeth were, for some species, the only implement of manipulation, if you didn't have telekinesis or paws with a back grip, but even if you did, they were the most direct method of possessing. Of taking in. That was what Sentients did.

They took and took and took and ate and ate and ate and they came into space to consume something, to incorporate it into their celestial body. This crew were the teeth of a hungry universe.

Cassie filled herself up, trying to parse out if she was in pain or not.