[PQ] Don't Fear the Reaper

I am my mother's child, I'll love you till my breathing stops
I'll love you till you call the cops on me

Once, Melita wouldn’t have had anything to do with gods. Once, she’d been witness to a false deity laying waste to her home, to her world, to her sovereignty, brandished into dust and doom and dirt, as if it’d been nothing when it’d truly been everything. Once, she’d been only a tiny child suddenly thrust and immersed into the darkness of the Rift, thrown into portals with her sister in her mother’s last sacrifice for her children. Times changed, efforts extended, curiosity unfolded, and she wondered if all celestial beings were the same. Her experiences with Ludo had altered the streamline of her bestial convictions; the shadows sometimes gentle, sometimes mighty, sometimes a parallel of everything in between – despite warnings, despite rumors, despite well-intentioned misgivings. And here she was, dedicating herself to building a shrine. Lifetimes and yesteryears ago, she wouldn’t have ever thought to have been here, laden with her bags of offering and any tools they required, staff in hand, quiver on her back, she and Fangorn a bright pair against the highlight of snow. Even with Kiada’s potential involvement, she was here, blistering and searing, an effervescent chord ringing again as the blight’s reign receded, as other pockets of reform began their unraveling over her figure, over her thoughts. So she inhaled, breathing in the deep chill, and advanced upon the fire, upon the Sage’s existence, striking into the layers of ice and rime, Fangorn bounding, content to have her mostly returned to him. “Hello,” her warmth prospered over the hollows of the Bone Bridge, with its eerie fog, with its poignant departures, someone who’d waltzed and walked over it before pestilence thrived, undaunted, unafraid, by its enigmatic contortions. “What do you need us to do?” She smiled and beamed, awaiting the inevitable, eager and fervent to press her efforts into something for Ludo, for all of them, before LongNight wound its destruction and heartache along their paths again. M e l i t a But in our darkest hours, I stumbled on a secret power I'll find a way to be without you, babe