The cure

Isla take your medicine She had heard enough. She had read enough. She'd slept on it, and slept again, and walked the Sanctuary for hours in the snow before finally making her decision. The Shrine she knew existed because Remi had been there. The gods she knew existed because Samuel had mentioned how he had become an Ascended. The only thing Isla was lacking was the motivation. And in a weird twist of fate spent in the manor of one Archebold Cobb, she found that too. The feel of his fangs in her neck filled her with as much disgust as it did anticipation. Death is the only cure, he had said. Or something like that - she found that evening difficult to remember at best. But his words had stuck in her like a needle, and they were dripping poison in her veins even now as she tip-toed through the passageways that led to the underground chamber. The corridor filled with water she was wary of, but seemingly without reason - nothing stirred as she ran through on bare feet. It was dark outside the underground, she'd made sure of that, but it had been snowing when she entered and it would be when she left, no doubt. Water pooled around her as she stepped into the room veined with light, to the obsidian statue with clasped hands. Isla fell to a halt and shivered. "I..." She took a shaking breath, then forced her voice to steady. "My name is Isla Lockwood," she said. "I would... I would like to Ascend, please."