The final note of his song vapourised into a cloud of smoke from his lips. Tamer hung his head, and the world fell silent.

Some life had returned to him. Despite their solemn gaze, an energising gold had returned to his eyes. Winter was relieved to see the moon work its magic and breathe some life back into him; it's silver light drafted his bronze hair, furthering his warm, royal palette that made him stand out like a flame in the desolate night.

In the midst of the lake, he looked so small. A howl was such a lonely sound when it was not met by another, and yet here she was, separated from him by a wall of freezing water. He was consumed by murky darkness up to his waist, wading deeper by his own free will as he drifted further from her.

Winter's fingers curled through her hair. Had this really been worthwhile? Had it been worthwhile to escape, condemn her entire village to a death sentence, all because of a fleeting, primal urge to survive? The moment of sacrifice, the will to live; in that moment, consumed by fear, she hated those people so much that she demanded she should live. But now, seeing the hell she was about to put Tamer through, the reality of the situation began to kick in: This might be their lives now. These hard feelings that came at the current time, what they might be tormented by forever until they died.

She noticed his claws were still reared, even if it was his own back his arms were huddled around, even if it was his own skin they were puncturing. It reminded her of his previous words:

"I don't want to kill, but if anyone puts your life in danger, then I'd make the decision to do so again in a heartbeat."

It wasn't just the lives of those strangers that hung in the noose. It was Tamer's humanity. The person she knew was going to destroy himself if he was forced to kill again, no matter how hell-bent he was on doing it to save her life.

If she couldn't do something, it wasn't a question of if, but instead, when he would lose his mind.

She couldn't just sit in the sidelines. She had to figure out some way to help him fight, or at the very least support him enough. But among these monsters, an ordinary human was like an ant.

All she would be was a hindrance. But...

I have to save. I have to... live so he can too.

Her legs stumbled, a strange pain igniting within her temples. She found her vision going temporarily black. She wasn't really sure where she was going. She would stay close by of course but her legs were just... moving, as if of their own free will.

The roses on her flower crown began to glow.

Stay near the lake, if we wander out we might get into danger.

"Yes," she drawled in a voice unlike her own.

Maybe a little circle around the lake, but still within Tamer's eyesight to keep close. She needed to move her legs as fast as the thoughts in her mind.

As if propelled by a bigger force, she wandered aimlessly like a stranger was inhabiting her body.

It wasn't long until she saw it, the destiny that had seemingly called to her of it's own free will:

A lonely rose blooming in a bed of snow.

Her stomach dropped. Fear, in the form of wretched cold nausea, chilled her entire bloodstream. She covered her mouth, trying to smother the sickness that was threatening to spill out. Had this happened so soon because she'd escaped? Was another girl going to be sacrificed, and potentially her entire village, in her wake?

The death toll was only getting higher like a god himself was punishing her for her sins.

The initial panic meant the most obvious solution didn't immediately come to mind. It was disgusting to think something so beautiful like a rose brought with it only murder. A layer of cold iridescence coated it, but its stem was curling and weak. She could tell that it wasn't going to last much longer.

She needed to destroy it. Protect any girl unlucky enough to be born on the same day that this rose bloomed from future sacrifice. This one simple action was all she could do for now, but it was an important one.

If I pluck this... then it's okay, right? Then more people, and myself, will survive. In the end, I did the right thing by escaping if I can save many more, right? Steadily, her heart began to ease, but not by enough. There's no way the King could know the rose existed without seeing it...right?

The breath she took was almost hysterical. She needed this one delusion, otherwise, she feared she might give up and break Tamer's heart. She didn't know what he'd do without her. Out of all the lives to be potentially exchanged, his was the one that hurt her the most.

It was like her hand reached out to the rose of its own accord.

She had to live. For his sake. Live so he could too, even if the life wasn't worth living.

She didn't even feel the thorns pierce her skin, causing a small amount of blood to pour. When her fingers grazed the petals, heat, in the form of some magical silver light, engulfed her vision. Sparkling, it ate away at the current sight before her and painted a new sea of darkness.

That word echoed relentlessly in her mind. She realised then it had never left, instead drumming over into mere background noise like the beating of her own heart.

Live.

Something primal was burning. The urge to survive, despite her heart not being in it, was so strong it was like her soul had already died while her body remained anchored to the Earth. Something with an animistic urge, no, need to survive took the reins in her own weakness.

In reality, she stumbled to her hands and knees, fingers curling rigidly to claw through the earth.

But in her mind, the rose painted a vision so vivid, it was less like a simple dream and more like a memory.

There was only a single object coated in a pure white sheet. It stuck out so angelically in the dark that it appeared to emit an almost ethereal glow, looking so tempting looking to touch within the darkness. She stepped towards it with a strange anticipation in her heart. She pulled the sheet, sending it billowing like a pair of wings into the void.

Beneath it was a mirror. She checked her reflection. She realised she wasn't even Winter. She was a woman with a crown of beautiful white roses upon her head. Her hair appeared be literally a gradient of all the colours of the night sky, sparkling like all the stars scattered across it.

Her hand had grown so pale, it was like a corpse as touched the surface of the glass.

It shattered instantly.

Quick as a striking viper, she screamed as a mass of sickly, writhing hands dragged her into the mirror.

Her screams were endless as she plunged into a never ending darkness, heat, like flames, scorching her body.

The vision ended.

Winter gave a disjointed pant, those screams still lingering in her mind even back in her own reality.

She'd been scratching so that her hands tore literal claw marks through the earth. Her body was moving. But her eyes were still drowned in that sea of dark, her vision gone. As she attempted to sit up, the lower end of her spine began to bend slowly backwards. Her arm raised before immediately falling limp again. They were such a tremendous weight, she was like some puppet on strings flailing endlessly.

Like it weighed a tonne, she found her hand raising towards the moonlight. Her head rolled backwards as if broken, exposing her neck to the moon like a limp howl.

As she found the moonlight, streaming through her fingers, suddenly, she felt release, like this body were something weightless, floating euphorically.

She sighed, smiling. Limbs now feeling airy, she tore the entire white rose from the snow.

Her jaw fell slack as she dangled it in front of her lips.

Her mouth opened.

She wasn't self aware. Even if she was, what drove this urge she could not say.

She began stuffing rose petals down her throat, tearing them manically apart with her teeth like they were flesh.

The rose flashed memories within her mind, but there was nothing comprehensible. The moon, the sun, the earth; the same woman curled in the moon, a woman with earth coloured hair, then finally, a blond man with his back to her, absolutely corroded in sunlight.

In her final vision there was nothing but that same sea of darkness, expect this time, she heard the voice of an unidentified man, distorted as if behind a pane of glass.

"You know how it is. Once you've entered the Underworld, you can't return. The dead cannot be allowed to enter the world of the living. This applies to everyone, be it man, beast..."

Winter's irises vanished as her mouth hung open like a limp corpse, erupting with a florescent, ghostly light like a pair of glaring headlights.

"Or even God."

Then, a woman's voice called with the wind. The layered howl weaved in her ears until a weak whisper could be heard riding it.

"Winter, would you please come find me?"

"Yes," she whispered, face still as a statue.