Yatro: Finally, you are on your way here ~ Present

“Why doesn’t he wake up?”

Ases once more, as he did every few hours now, put his head to Herm’s chest, desperate to make sure his heart was still beating. When he confirmed it, again, he sat again, unsure of what to do.

It had been an entire day since the fall of Medio. Where once there was a city there was only a dry pile of mud in the middle of the road that led up the mountain. There were hundreds of people camping outside, some of them being the ones that managed to escape the choreomania and run through the hole in the wall, but most of them were the refugees who were refused entry in Medio when it still existed.

People had reunited, fights were breaking out, dozens of people were grieving, looking for people where the city once were. The search was fruitless, not only were there no survivors between the people who remained inside, but all that remained had been taken by the landslide the previous night.

When Ases finally saw Raz again, he almost collapsed right there where he stood. The relief, the happiness, the weight that abandoned his shoulders, all struck at the same time. The two of them simply hugged, too tired to do anything else in the moment.

The feeling that permeated over every single person in that zone was that the world had lost all meaning. Afar, the waters could be seen, everpresent, a constant threat reminding them of the little time they have left. On their feet, the ruins of one of the few small bastions of safety they had left, and over them, the reminder that nothing would ever be the same again.

Twenty four hours had passed now, but the sun and the moon remained stationary, bathing the remainders of the world in an eternal sunset. The situation would have been aggravating after a while, after all, it should have been night by then, but that only brought two other discoveries with it.

First, not a single person had any trace of sleepiness, some of them could not sleep even if they tried. The second discovery was that, for the very few that managed to fall asleep, nothing could wake them up again.

In that scenario, ripped out of the pages of an inspired picture of hell, the Goddess of Death rose again. To say that she was mobile would have been an overstatement, but with enormous effort, she was capable of sleepwalking. She tried to request help of the people around, but needless to say, everyone was absolutely terrified of her.

After half an hour of an egregiously long walk, she finally managed to reach the place where Ases and Raz were looking over Herm, pointlessly waiting for him to wake up.

She had her eyes closed, but she didn’t need her sight to understand what was going on. Unfortunately, the conversation they needed to have could not wait.

“Ases, we need to talk.” She said, still far from the group, as she slowly got near them.

“This is not the time, Mors” He said, curtly, without letting Herm out of his view for a second.

“I wish I could help you with this, but we both know what is going on with your brother.” Mors replied back, determined to break him out of his stupor.

“Don’t you ever dare to say it!” Screamed Ases, rising up, looking at Mors as if he was about to bash her head in.

Raz, without a word, rose to her feet and hugged him, putting herself on the way so he could not give a step towards Mors.

“Well then, if you don’t want to, I won’t say it then. But we can’t stay here, and we can’t wait for him to wake up. You know it.”

Ases was still boiling with anger, not an outlet on sight for him to let it go. Without much more option, he took a deep breath, and simply sat back down.

Mors reached them, sitting on the side of Raz. The two women joined together, whispering, making sure Ases could not hear them.

“Mors, I need you to be sincere with me, will he ever wake up?” Asked Raz, with as neutral of a voice as she could use.

“No. Death and sleep are now one and the same. I'm afraid to say there’s nothing I can do for him.”

She did want to do something. To free his soul so he could finally die in peace, but she knew that Ases would never allow her to do so, he would not even consider the idea in the first place.

Raz simply nodded, trying not to look at Mors. In her chest, her own gordian knot had formed, a new lump of grief she would have to carry, just like all the others she had had to carry all her life.

Time was of the essence, but again, Mors had no option but to let them try to organize their thoughts for a moment. Silence befalls them, until eventually, finally, Ases spoke again.

“What now, Mors?” He asked, putting his head on his fists, a sense of defeat still washing over him.

Preparing herself for the fight she knew would break out again, she responded.

“We need to move. There is nothing left here for us. We should move to Yatro, which is probably the safest place we could go. Besides, I know that’s where your home is, in the first place.”

“That’s not my home.”

“Ases!” Screamed Raz in response.

"It's not, Raz. It was Herm's, and even if he allowed to stay there, as things are now..." He said, uncapable of expressing what was going on in his head.

“Regardless, it is the best choice we have. And I would say, we need a lot of help, and they are the only ones willing to provide it nowadays.” Said Mors, guessing what the problem was, but dismissing it anyways. After all, they didn't have much choice.

“I know. That’s all you had to say? You are right, that’s where we were going in the first place. We will leave now, if you are in such a rush.”

“And I ask you to bring me with you, of course.” Mors said, finally reaching the point she was going for since the start.

Both Ases and Raz turned around and looked at her. Partly surprised, but they also realized that it was something they should have seen coming from the start.

“Fine. Anything else you need from us?”

“And of course, we also have to bring everyone else with us.”

This time, neither said anything. They only looked at her with consternation, as if she had become completely crazy now.

“Mors, if I remember right, you were the one who told me, with these exact words: ‘These days, the only people you can save is yourself. Your family maybe, if you are lucky, but playing a hero will only bring you pain.’ That was what you said, wasn’t it?”

“Mors, I know what you mean, but to bring all these people with us… I don’t think that’s feasible.” Continued Raz, who did consider the idea previously, but concluded that it was not possible.

“And I still believe that’s precisely it. But as foolish as it may sound, I think we should do it anyway.”

“Really? How so?”

“Because in this last week half of the people that remained alive were wiped out of the earth. And as more people sleep, our numbers are dwindling increasingly fast. I think that… and I wish I was wrong… that there are less than ten thousand human lives remaining in the world.”

For the third, and now final time, the three of them were shocked into silence. Ases and Raz looked forward to where Herm was sleeping, trying to visualize the magnitude of the revelation… but they could not. They simply could not grasp the true scope of it all.

“And how would I, if I were to, lead all these people to Yatro? Why would they even listen to me?” Asked Ases, pausedly.

“Fortunately, I think that will be the easiest part of it all. Some of them saw your fight against the telchines, and they are already telling everyone else about how you caved the priest face in. It would not be a stretch to say that right now you are kind of a hero for them.” Replied Mors.

“A hero, of course, is always like that, isn’t it? I did tell you, clearly, that I want to be no hero, Mors.”

“I remember, and I know. I even agree with you, on some level, but we don’t have that many options left. At the very least, I want you to try. I’m not asking you to bring everyone to a promised land or anything like that. By stating where you are going, and allowing them to follow you will be enough.”

Ases thought it for a moment, and as reluctant as he was to the idea, he could not find it in himself to refuse when his task was that simple.

“Fine, I’ll do so.”

“Are you sure?” Asked Raz, trying to give him an option to refuse if he wanted to.

Knowing him as she did, she wasn’t sure that shouldering such a burden was a good idea.

“No, I’m not sure. But there is a small part of myself that won’t forgive me if I don’t try it, and with so little time left, I think we should try to leave without any regrets.”

Carrying his brother on his back, using the mantle he used to get Raz out of the city, with Mors on his arms, and with his pregnant wife at his side, the three of them moved back towards the refugee camp on the side of the ruins. They were going to leave in a couple of hours, on their way to the last safe haven they had left.