Light faded in the Dwarril glade, but not from an absence of sun, no, this was the end of existence. The gold and brown leaves rustled overhead, unseen, but sound was the last sense to leave a body. Soon, so soon she would sink into to dark loam to become part of the earth again. As it was once, so shall it be again, only this was the last time for there was no more to learn.

The children of the lesser upstart god called on her to repent, knowing her end was at hand so with her last strength she had summoned up the Dwarril glade. Something she knew would horrify them if they had seen, but they had not, for she could still be one with nature and blend herself with the trees.

Repent; why should she, who had done no wrong think of repenting? Let them clamour about their own shortfallings to their upstart, in fear and trembling of an afterlife that seemed without merit to her. No, let the deep dark gather her to itself to end all thought and feeling until the end of times when the planet should crack asunder and all of the Alysh would fly free to wander the cosmos on clouds of fire and power until they once more found a virgin planet to seed with life.

Slowly, so slowly the black loam parted and she sank amid the earth smells and the skitterings of insects. The damp closed in around her like a wet embrace in a storm and all light vanished. Repent? Her final breath came out in a laugh. The last Alysh was freeeeeee…