The Wrong Sky

(set: $who to "Ratking") Who are you? <tw-link class='cyclingLink' data-cycling-texts='["Ratking", "M. Dollarteeth", "Rook"]' onclick='clickCyclingLink(this, "$who");'>$who</tw-link> [[Proceed|Proceed]]

The steward of the [[unwanted,|unwanted]] collecting detritus in your cheeks until sharp memories are smooth.

Your days spent in barley & wine, consuming the softest parts of a [[goat’s throat.|goat]]

There are rocks in your feet. You have given them [[names|names]] that they have rejected.

You fill your misery sieve with the slow pain of imperfection. & now, [[this place.|place]] (set: $item to "sieve")

Strands of a marionette, (link:"coated with creosote & creep.")[hologrammed in fingerprint & flora.] This amalgam of filth & [[story|story]] amassed in the last water of the last wave.

You are before two monuments. A [[scroll, unfurled,|Palimpsest]] written by a thousand hands in a thousand languages. A [[tower, made of glass & bone,|Panopticon]] reaching upward.

All the time spent looking in the [[forest|forest]] for the dark places.

You run your hands over the Palimpsest, feel [[something move|parchment]] on the parchment.

You approach the Panopticon & touch it with [[your best hands.|tower]]

The names whisper in your own voice. Each body has a twin, (link: "you hear yourself say.")[[[whose twin|twin]] are you?]

There is a strength abandoning the body--crowflight & acorns scattered in the clearing. You smoke a [[cicatrix|cicatrix]] into the oldest tree.

Raise the bridge, raise the [[empire.|empire]]

A bloodless [[dream of yourself,|dream of yourself]] a lost song in the rendering factory.

You wake, leaving the opalance of your purple mansion, head toward the new colors. (live: 2.0s)[What are you taking with you?] (live: 3.0s)[your [[memory lighter|lighter]]] (live: 4.0s)[a [[misery sieve|sieve]]]

You flick open your memory lighter, setting fire to the mansion & old colors. & now, [[this place.|place]] (set: $item to "lighter")

You wake, leave your wracking nest, head toward the new colors. (live: 2.0s)[What are you taking with you?] (live: 3.0s)[All this [[oil|oil]]] (live: 4.0s)[A [[clump of hair|hair]]]

The moon's blood, all scavanged & saved. & swallowed down. & now, [[this place.|place]] (set: $item to "oil")

(either: "Death, fear & a fox", "Clocks, pain & a crow", "Books, children, & cockroaches", "Crimes, attics, & a violin") melt together & hum. You take this hair & swallow it again. & now, [[this place.|place]] (set: $item to "hair")

You wake, search for the parts of yourself cast off the night before, see the new colors in your eyes. (live: 2.0s)[What are you taking with you?] (live: 3.0s)[your [[voice, twinned|twinned voice]] & gurgling] (live: 4.0s)[your [[silence|silence]]]

A sigil & etched flag. Call it a symbol viced in the dark. (link:"Call it.")[Hear it call back.] & now, [[this place.|place]] (set: $item to "voice")

Failed utterance & gesture, becalmed & bottled, marching. & now, [[this place.|place]] (set: $item to "silence")

Your fingers find flowers caught in the bone, [[bees foment & rise,|bees]] configure themselves as a tower—it has your face, your teeth punched out & wreathed around its neck like a garland. At your feet, [[a river.|river]] In the air, a [[fist of elements.|fist]]

You have never trusted anything that came through the water bone dry. (if: $item is "sieve")[Do you [[rinse|rinse]] your sieve in these waters? Each pebble in the stream pulsates, pushes a black song through the tower’s heart & [[into yours.|heart]]] (else:)[Each pebble in the stream pulsates, pushes a black song through the tower’s heart & [[into yours.|heart]]]

A thousand centipedes crawl up your legs, find a trail down your throat, make a [[nest.|nest]] The words become shapes, the void, [[then words again.|new map]]

You become the new face of a new disease. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]

They are legion. You hear their song. (if: $item is "voice")[Do you sing to them in your [[twinned voice?|bee song]] Or do you close your mouth to their [[humming?|hum]]] (else:) [Do you [[sing it, too?|rictus]] Or do you close your mouth to their [[humming?|hum]]]

Your teeth, a rictus of bees. You become the new chorus in the new anthem. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]

[[Begin.|verdant world]]

All is just with this righteous & verdant world. (live: 3.5s)[ & then it isn't.] (live: 4.5s)[You dreamt of a child, bottled and flayed.](live: 6.5s) [You dreamt of two shadows, trailing over a landscape made of blood & cinder.](live:8.5s) [You dreamt of a being made entirely of eyes eating the stars, the ones you know by heart.] (live:10.5s)[Your world is awash in new colors. You feel a tug inside yourself to bathe in these colors.] (live:12.5s)[You cannot.] (live:14.0s)[[[But you must.|who]]]

This is a new song for a new heart. You are a new kind of surgeon. Are you an expert in [[scalpel?|night estuary]] Or [[suture?|museum of sleep]]

The sextant that haunts your eyes leads you to the Ailment Field. You see the shadows of two fugitives fleeing under the criminal light. (if: $who is "Rook")[You see a trail of cast off bones leading to a called-down cloud. [[Add|add]] your own bones to the collection.](if: $who is "Ratking")[You see a trail of cast off bones leading to a called-down cloud. [[Swallow|swallow bones]] all that you find.] There is a bronze pit in the middle of the field. Someone has thrown a body into it. (if: $item is "lighter")[[[Burn|burn body]] with your memory lighter] [[Fish it out.|fish]] [[Leave|leave]] it be.

You follow the knife-blade you hear speaking to your heart. It leads you to the Night Estuary. In the collected waters, you see a thing made of eyes, each unblinking. (if: $item is "silence")[Channel your silence & [[speak.|speak golem]]] (if: $item is "lighter")[[[Use your memory lighter|use lighter]] to illuminate what is hidden.](if: $who is "Ratking")[[[Regurgitate the eyes|regurgitate]] you have swallowed & place them in the waters.] Do you [[stare back|stare]] at the being? Do you [[swim|swim]] in the waters?

You come across the ruins of the Filth Temple, a broken alter, a facade of grief. Something flayed and bottled. (if: $who is "M. Dollarteeth")[[[Taste|taste]] what remains.] (if: $who is "Ratking")[[[Smell the leftover skin|smell]] & blood.] (if: $who is "Rook")[[[Commune|commune]] at the alter.]

The moon dies over a meadow. Your map has led you here. In the corner of your eye, you see (link: "a future you'll never be able to explain.")[(either: "a dress made of laughing gas.", "a city in an envelope.", "the coronation of a bathwater witch.", "a racetrack mutilation.", "a muzzled crown.")] There are rabbits sleeping under a tangle of brown bushes. (if: $who is "M. Dollarteeth")[You haven't eaten since you left your mansion. [[Dine|dine]] on the rabbits.](if: $item is "hair")[Some of the rabbits' fur is stuck on the brambles. Do you take it, [[mix it|mix]] with your own?](if: $item is "oil")[[[Drench|drench]] the meadow in oil.] Do you [[rest here?|rest]] Or [[keep moving?|filth temple]]

(if: $who is "Ratking")[It is right to be cold, to be wet & shivering. You think of all the rocks in your tinderbox, all the sticks in your tea coffins. Your wracked nest. You swim toward the colors, pull a throbbing jar from deep within yourself. You bottle what you can, (link: "swallow it back down.") [close your eyes, find yourself again. The moon is new & bright as anything. It lights the way back. There are many endings, but this one is yours.]](if: $who is "Rook")[You are not alone. (link: "Feel the stare & hold it close.")[You take your last clear breath. Focus on what letting go means. What use is dread to the bodiless? What use is threat to the ghost? You spend your life in these new colors, giving each a name. There are many endings, but this one is yours.]](if: $who is "M. Dollarteeth")[When you last looked at your fingers, they were brackish & purple. Hungry. (link: "The lights in this place go out, one by one.")[You drink deep. Deeper still. You feel the new colors swarm, panic, & die. All is right in this, the best of all possible worlds. There are many endings, but this one is yours.]]

The lighthouse you've seen looms above you. You enter, see a train of dessicated husks surrounding a stained black lantern. (if: $who is "Ratking")[[[Eat|eat husks]] the husks.[[Add|add husk]] your own husk to the pile.] (if: $who is "Rook")[[[Stare|stare lantern]] at the black latern] (if: $who is "M. Dollarteeth")[[[Take|take lantern]] the lantern. [[Leave|leave lantern]] the lantern.]

Your stitches move your feet forward, toward the Museum of Sleep. The newest exhibit features a false face in a false body. Spiders crawl through a skeleton’s jaw & spread the escape plague. (if: $item is "voice")[Use your twinned voice to [[wake the assembled?|wake]]](if: $who is "Ratking")[You are the steward of the unwanted. You [[swallow|swallow]] this, too.](if: $who is "M. Dollarteeth")[You've been here before. You can [[taste the scent|scent]] of this place.] There is a [[dead fire,|fire]] ash & slag. There is the [[sound of rain.|rain]]

You can't read what is written. You just know it to be true. This is a new kind of map. You are a new kind of cartographer. Are you an expert in [[compass?|meadow]] Or [[sextant?|ailment field]]

The words become shapes, the void, [[then words again.|new map]]

The world seizes, ribbons your lungs, throws you on your knees. You are scared, close your eyes. (if: $item is "silence")[Use your [[silence.|use silence]]](else:)[A child's voice punches through your trembling, implores you to take out your heart, place it on the stone before you, listen to its [[song.|heart]]]

You close your mouth. Open your eyes, turn your attention back to bone & glass. At your feet, [[a river.|river]] In the air, a [[fist of elements.|fist]]

Something is hiving within. (if: $item is "lighter")[Do you let you memory lighter [[speak?|speak]]] [Do you [[caress the tremors?|touch]] Or do you turn your eyes back to the [[shifting words?|shifting words]]]

You set the Palimpsest alight. The flames licks their way around your feet, then your legs, then everything else. You become a new fire in the new night. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]

You sing with the bees. The melody is enchanting. You [[follow the song.|new colors 1]] (set: $journey to "bees")

(link: "(+)") (if: $who is "Ratking")[(goto: "Ratking")] (elseif: $who is "M. Dollarteeth")[(goto: "Dollarteeth")] (else:)[(goto: "Rook")]

You rinse your sieve. Somewhere, a small thing is crying. [[Return to the black song|heart]]

You listen for the start of wind, for the song of blood, the song of atom. (link: "You listen further.") [You are in a garden, green as anything. There is a child made of stone. Their hands haunt evening, haunt water, haunt all of this. You take those hands in yours. It is enough. You open your eyes. There is a [[small scroll|new map]] wround around your fingers.]

You take the rabbits' fur, swallow it down, feel it mix with the hair you've brought to this place. Something is hiving within. What does the swarm feel like? [[Antlers & grease.|antlers]] The [[death of the last speaker|speaker]] of a language.

The coast of language is filled with murmur & gurgle. You use your twinned voice to wake whatever is resting here. You hear the stones cough & roll. You see a cloud form around you feet. Rising. Rising still. (link: "Then, they are upon you.") [Every lost ship finds its way to a kind of shore eventually. You become the new sail for the new navigator. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

All this time spent gathering, spent collecting, spent in the forgotten places looking for the start of the dark. You swallow it all down, add to your collection. A skull gets caught in your maw. What is its name? [[Winston the Auspex|Winston]] [[Haintcarver|Haintcarver]]

Your nose fills with (link: "the scent of this place.")[old stone & fallow earth. Electric jewel curling around the neck of cruelty. You open your mouth, (link: "feel the smell trickle in.")[(either: "feel the broken alias of this world roil over your blackguard tongue.", "feel the corollary of the hollowed mast attach to your gums.", "feel the clouds & their shipwreck fill the spaces between your teeth.", "feel an infinite algorithm repeat itself on your lips.")] [[Chew.|chew]] [[Spit.|spit]]]

As you approach, the fire instantly reignites. The light is bright & beckoning. (if: $item is "oil")[[[Douse|douse]] the flames with oil] (if: $who is "Rook")[[[Pry out|pry]] one of your teeth and throw it into the flames] You see an outline of a temple in the blaze. [[Lay your body|filth temple]] down in the coals.

You move deeper into the Museum, searching for the sound of rain, coming upon a fountain spewing liquid into the air. The water that falls should be rain, but isn’t. Ink stains spill out over the broken cobbles. (if: $item is "hair")[[[Soak|soak]] your clump of hair in this ink] (if: $item is "sieve")[[[Rinse|ink sieve]] your misery sieve in the ink] You see the shape of a temple take form in the dark fluid gathering around your feet. [[Lay your body|filth temple]] down in this black void.

You douse the fire with oil, feel the fire rise up, then all around you. (link: "There is nothing now but roar & flame.")[You become the new embers for the new pyre. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

You throw your last tooth into the flames. The fire roars up. In it, you see a being made entirely of eyes. It beckons you closer. [[Embrace it.|new colors 1]] (set: $journey to "embrace")

You bring up the hair you've swallowed, soak it in this ink. The hair takes on all that this place can offer it, (link: "turns itself inside out.")[makes itself new. (link: "It grows & grows until it swallows you whole.")[You become the new bezoar for the new ailment.] There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

You take out your sieve, plunge in deep into the ink. Something swims up & grabs your arms, drags you into the deepening pool. (link: "A voice.")[There is no sadness here. There is nothing here but form & hollow. You let go of your sieve. (link: "You let go of your body. You don't need to carry anything anymore.") [You become the new shape in the new void. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]]

You bring up all the oil you've stored in your collection. It smells like (link: "something you can't place.")[(either: "a breakwater chime.", "a malignant thought.", "a tongue's funeral.", "the sun & its laments.", "nothing.", "the last hard word.", "debased filligree.", "a clock that won't stop running.") It coats the ground in waves, pouring out of you. Soon, there isn't a meadow. (link: "There isn't a you, either.")[You become the new landscape for the new contagion.] There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

This place. is sludge & hunger. You are proof of this. You eat all that you can find. (link: "You stay here, forever, eating.") [All is right with this, the most beautiful of worlds. You become the new cadaver for the new century. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

The rabbits aren't rabbits at all. You know this. (link: "You've always known this.")[You become a new meal for the new hunger. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

Woe to the beast. Woe to the hunter. You pull the body out of the pit. (if: $item is "voice")[[[Sing|sing body]] over the body] You see a delapitated lighthouse. [[Head toward the coast|lighthouse]]

You leave the body to its silent grief. You see a delapitated lighthouse. [[Head toward the coast|lighthouse]]

You take the remaining bones you have left & add them to what is assembled. You wait. The sky turns dark, (link: "then something else.")[The smell of mud & blood & fire suffocates your lungs. Take a [[deep breath.|breathe]]]

You add the bones to the collection tumbling inside you. Your eyes go blank, roll back inside your skull. You see (link: "something that the future won't believe.")[(either: "wild roses & an ocean of steam.", "a creek on fire.", "a machine eating itself.", "a sawblade goodbye.", "cresote & creep.", "a broken clock in the abbey.", "the endless coalfield.", "a hundred books, lashed to the mast.", "rabbits & a cleaver.", "every lie told to a child.") You see all this. (link: "You can not stop seeing this.") [You become the new eyes for the new mausoleum.] There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

Call it a symbol viced in the dark. A sigil & etched flag. (link: "A proclamation.")[In every face, there is fear. The body burns bright, turning from red, to blue, to something else. Something you are seeing for the [[first time with these eyes.|new colors 1]]] (set: $journey to "burn")

You open your mouth, breathe out, catch your breath in a jar you have for this purpose. (link: "You open the jar, offer it to the being made of eyes.") [The being made of eyes is silent. Each eye has its mysteries. Each eye blinks exactly once. [[Blink back.|new colors 1]]] (set: $journey to "blink")

You stare directly at the being. In its eyes, you see (link: "something you can't explain.")[(either: "pervasive tendrils, reaching out.", "threat & rigid austerity.", "animal hides & copper ink.", "a black chandelier.", "the invention of gravity.", "a clockwork surgery.", "a hospital on fire.", "whalebone & homunculi.", "silk teeth tearing into a rabbit's foot", "nothing.") You stare deeper. The water in your eyes [[builds up & bleeds.|new colors 1]]] (set: $journey to "bleed")

You swim in the waters. You see something like a lighthouse etch its way out of a rugged coastline. Stay [[here.|here]] [[Swim|lighthouse]] toward it.

A favorite riddle, (link: "ejecting through bone.")[what did you mother's face look like before she had a name? [[Chase|chase]] this memory. [[Turn|lighthouse]] your back on it & head for the lighthouse you see looming over all this.]

(link: "You get lost in the swirl.") [All the memories are caught in this web. You tug at it. You are tugging still. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

You stay here, in this eddying place. (link: "Your flesh becomes the night, becomes the shadows within the night.") [You become the new water. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

Your entire life has been for this moment. (link: "This offering to dead waters.") [The being matches your offering with its own. Black eyes, tinged with red. Fogged with gloom. [[Swallow|swallow eyes]] them all. [[Refuse|refuse]] the gift.]

You eat (link: "what you can find.")[(either: "tendon & bone.", "a broken knife.", "kindlng & the want of fire.", "twinned voices, shouting a curse.", "rank violence.", "a bloody dream of yourself.", "a faceless creature, crying.", "the sorrow brigade's testament.", "the rust pantheon's crown.") You eat your fill & your insides turn it over & over. It wants out. [[Pull|pull]] it back up. Keep in down, [[push|push]] it deeper.]

You lean over the alter, open up all your orifices. Smell the [[blood.|smell blood]] Smell the [[skin.|smell skin]]

Nothing unaffliated, unaligned. You've travelled here to make a choice. The voice in what is left of your bones tells you this. Upon which side of the alter will you lay what remains of your body? Follow the [[rust pantheon.|rust]] Follow the [[sorrow brigade.|sorrow]]

You stare at the black lantern. It stares back. Your hands begin to foam a yellow wax, form dire runes in your palm. [[Scrape the wax.|scrape wax]] [[Study the runes|study runes]]

You scrape the wax. It melts into a pool at your feet. It grows deep, engulfs (link: "your feet, your legs,")[[[the rest of you.|new colors]]]

You study the runes. They become a cruel kind of dust, a stale echo in a cough. Do you follow the [[dread rattle?|dread]] Or the [[carrion whistle?|whistle]]

You eat your fill, feel the worming in your gullet. Something is hiving within. You become the new husk for the new lantern. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]

You follow the rattle. You hear fragments, all the sharp parts on the periphery. Something comes home & cuts in. You become a new wound for the new desire. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]

You follow the whistle. Hear the rust driving through cavity, the fire pushing past fissure. You feel the fire, feel it move up (link: "your feet, your legs,")[the [[rest of you.|new colors]]]

This is not your body. It never was. You cast it off. Light pools around you, swallowing (link: "your feet, your legs,")[then the [[rest of you.|new colors]]]

The stains on the lantern vibrate & hum, glow inked through a chamber made in a throat, (link: "flesh made raw.")[briars come [[swimming|swim briar]] up, thread into your hands.]

There are no words for the lanternless. No words for the reprobate & ruined. You become a word for the new disaster. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]

[[Swim|new colors]] in them, too.

Something old & forgotten. Discarded words for discarded disasters. You get lost in the scent. It consumes (link: "your nose, your mouth")[the [[rest of you.|new colors]]]

Pain, boiled & preserved. A ghostlight etching, dying with the fog. (link: "A voice.")[What is written will be written again.] You become the new Palimpsest for the new Panopticon. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]

Your body lurches toward the rust pantheon. (link: "You lay it down.")[You hear every voice of every dead child, broken promise, and unburied torment. You hear this all at once. You get lost in the din. You become a new voice in the new echo. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

There is sadness here, yes. There is always that. But then there is something else, too. Something that takes root in the shell of your frame, rolling over (link: "your nose, your mouth,")[the [[rest of you.|new colors]]]

What you've devoured comes back out. It forms itself into a face very much like your own. It has your same eyes. You become the new monster in the new story. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]

You push what roils inside deeper & deeper. You push it beyond your body. Your body capsizes, turns in on itself like a dark thought, devouring (link: "your nose, your mouth",) [the [[rest|new colors]] of you.]

This is not an unaccustomed feeling. You recognize its sharpness as your own. Not all knives are visible. Your collection has show you this. You swallow deeper & see the outline of a delapitated temple in the distance. [[Head toward it|filth temple]]

You hear the final words of a language turn to dust. You close your eyes, feel your collection turn to dust, then your body. (link: "You don't need it anymore.")[You don't [[need|new colors 1]] anything.] (set: $journey to "speaker")

(if: $journey is "bees")[Your song hums. You feel the new colors swarm around you, engulfing the air. (link: "It's okay--you don't need it anymore.")[There are many endings, but this one is yours.]](if: $journey is "speaker")[All is still, & then there is the shifting of the new colors. (link: "They whisper names to you.")[It is a new langauge. There are many endings, but this one is yours.]](if: $journey is "burn")[The new colors are in this fire. You know this. (link: "You've always known this.")[After the body is burned down, you commit your own body to the flames. There are many endings, but this one is yours.]](if: $journey is "embrace")[You wrap the being in your arms & it bleeds into you. You twinned voice is now its voice. (link: "Your silence is its silence.") [You see the new colors out of every one of its eyes. There are many endings, but this one is yours.]](if: $journey is "blink")[Each eye blinks & you blink back. Then your eyes are gone, replaced by endlessly swirling colors, new as a promise. (link: "There are no eyes, or noses, or mouths.")[Just void. & color. There are many endings, but this one is yours.]](if: $journey is "bleed")[Your eyes bleed clean through, vanishing under the gaze of the being. New colors come through the blood. (link: "You can taste them.") [More in the nose than the mouth. You breathe deep. You are breathing, still, when they come for you. There are many endings, but this one is yours.]]

You use your twinned voice to sing over this body, bleak & brown, a dismal harmony. You see runes take shape in its drenched flesh. [[Look closer.|study runes]]

You close your eyes, breathe. When you open them again, a being made entirely of eyes is before you, reaching out toward you. [[Embrace it.|new colors 1]] (set: $journey to "embrace")

You swallow all the eyes that are offered. You can feel them blinking inside you. [[Blink back.|new colors 1]] (set: $journey to "blink")

You touch each eye, whispering to each (link: "a secret.")[(either: "that every cloud has its color.", "that the night has no purchase here.", "that the butcher spends too much time chasing the clown.", "that every voice has a twin.", "that memory is a sieve.", "that your collection has no curator.", "that the rust pantheon have abandoned the sky.", "that the sorrow brigade is marching.") Then, you leave this place to its waters. In the distance, you see a [[delapitated temple.|filth temple]]]

You chew. (link: "Brightness crunches under your teeth.")[You open your mouth & light pours out, engulfing your body, the Museum, all of it. You become the new torch for the new hollow. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

You spit it all out. The smell stains the ground at your feet. The taste lingers in your mouth. An unwanted hymn. In the distance, you hear the sound of rain. [[Head toward it.|rain]]

The skull whispers its name to you. This is Winston, and he knows the future of many things. [[Listen to his visions.|Winston listen]] [[Crunch the skull.|crunch]]

You know this skull. It is the Haintcarver. Before you can react, the skull dissipates & you feel something (link: "take residence inside you") [pushing you & your collection into a timeless void. (link: "The eyes you have are not your own.")[You become the new disguise for the new subterfuge.] There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]

You take the skull out of your mouth, set it on a pedestal & (link: "listen.") [Winston tells you of the start of the dark. He tells you about trees & their holdings, how roots get down to the core & then melt away. He tells all he knows about the new colors. As he talks, the air around you becomes colder, but you don't seem to notice. (link: "Snow covers your hair, your shoulders, all of you.") [You become the new ice in the new winter. There are many endings, but this one is yours. [[Let me begin again.|The Wrong Sky]]]]

You know better than to listen to the predictions of dead things. You add the skull to your collection. In the distance, you smell an ashed fire. [[Head toward it.|fire]]