in the heart of the winter. lace.

L A C E

"Tell..." I gasp to anyone that will listen.

"Tell West..."

I look toward at the sky, falling upwards, and then I become it.

...

After a while, I wake.

The wind has gone. Everything has. There's no noise, not even sound from the waves. I rise, warm sand beneath my fingers, pushing myself up to a sitting position and cry out for help,

Hello?

Silence.

A soft whisper of wind glides past the skin of my arm and the fabric of my clothes ripple in its presence. It, too, makes no sound.

Hello?!

Nothing.

Squinting in the silence, I turn my head to assert my surroundings. There's no tributes, no weapons, not even a drop of blood on the ground - I don't understand. 

Titus?

I'm starting to get scared.

Kaiser?

The sky above the ocean glistens, I think I see a ghost. Someone giggles and I inhale, the sound striking my chest, hauling myself up and planting my bare feet firmly in the sand.

"Lace!"

My head snaps towards the ocean, like it had called out my name. Cautious, nerves now scattered in the form of tiny bumps on my forearm, I walk towards the ocean.

The air pushes me forward with every step and the sky glistens again, this time more clearly, a reflection of the ocean below it. It moves and ripples in the wind, a curtain covering something, curiosity gets the better of me and I press on forward.

A step too far, a blink of my eyes, the sky is the ocean and the ocean is the sky. I stand on a cloud staring at a wall of blue water stretching out as far as I can see. Sea-salt in the air, strands of my yellow hair whip around my head and something moves behind the transparent wall.

I hold my breath and push my hands through the water, fingers brushing against-

air?

My hand is snatched back by my own fear but the wind tells me to try again, sighs kissing my cheeks.

Again, slowly, I place my hand in the water and step forward into the unknown.

Silence, it calls my name.

And I find myself shrouded in light, in fresh air, in noise.

The wall I passed through crashes down behind me and sloshes around my feet, an ocean once more. I look up and gasp, stepping back -- there's a girl here, knee-deep in the water, long brown hair dancing in the wind and a smile on her face.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Lace."

...

She reminds me of myself.

She's tiny, and serious, but she's gentle, too, when she wants to be.  Her name is Aria and tells me there's others here, that I'll meet them soon. I don't talk - I just listen - she doesn't seem to mind that. I get the idea that once upon I time she just wanted to listen, too. 

A tiny bird hops toward me as we walk along the shoreline and Aria smiles at it. She raises her hand and it hops on her fingers, twiddling its tail and ruffling its feathers, before flying up to soar against the lightning-scarred sky littered with stars.

There's a star shining brighter than any of the others in the sky and she tells me that it's mine.

I learn that everyone brings something, but she's not sure what I've brought yet. I still haven't said anything. 

But when I look to the sky and that shining star nestled in its embrace, my heart opens. So do my lips. One word falls from my mouth, so sure of itself that I believe and trust in it too.

"Lief."

Petals fall from the sky the colour of snow, flowers sprouting along the outskirts of the forest - I feel them bloom, each and every one. Aria does too.

But it's not a word.

It's a name.

And I understand.

F I N .