1st of Winter, 512
The bells before the storm were the worst of Onaona's long life.
She didn't know what was coming, but she could feel it looming in the air around them. The pressure of it sang through her body in a desperate cry to run, hide, flee. Horror was crawling up her throat and showed itself through her desperate, wailing song. She had never sensed fear from Laviku before, and the feeling drove her mad.
The sea creatures had left. Those that could had dived deep into the belly of the sea, those that couldn't had fled for the coves of the shore. Her brothers and sisters, Laviku's faithful Otani, had heard the call too. Most of them had sheltered at the bottom of the sea, huddled in the hollow cities the last apocalypse destroyed. Onaona wanted to join them. Needed to join them. But she couldn't. She stayed on the surface, her voice a screeching wail as she sang for all she was worth.
She had to save them. As many as she could. Any that would listen. The humans she loved so much would not survive this. The Svefra, Laviku's chosen people, would not survive this.
It was a strange sensation, being entirely alone on the open sea. Ona could feel not a speck of life around her as she crashed through the waves, looking desperately for any humans still afloat in their ships. In the distance she caught sight of a cluster of tall sails like the spindly trees of a canvas forest, and she swam for them. Shoalwind, she read on the side of their lead ship as she approached. She was already singing as she circled the first ship she could reach, communicating this maddening horror the only way she knew how; by singing of the fear she felt and the doom she knew was coming.
Those with Laviku's mark were the first to listen. They recognized the mass exodus of their tavans and the sea creatures, and some could even understand bits of song from the crazed Otani. Realizing something big was afoot, they followed their Lia and turned northwards as one. Ona heard them shouting at each other from one deck to another, telling each other to head for Kalista island, no matter what. If they were separated they would reconvene there.
Onaona seized onto one of their ships as they found the wind and began to pick up speed. She was a frighteningly fast swimmer, but even she couldn't keep up with a Svefra ship going at full tilt. She hauled herself up to the railing and held on as the wind whipped by her.
The small ship was a flurry of panicked activity. Nobody paid attention to her as they crawled across the deck and rigging, coaxing every last bit of speed from its pregnant sails. Those who weren't busy with the sailing were tying down valuables or corralling children.
But one boy, not quite a child by Svefra standards, was still on deck. Whether he escaped the corralling or was supposed to be there Ona couldn't tell. He had a darkly tanned face and a wild mop of hair. His eyes were a pale, icy blue. He was tall and gangly, but couldn't have been more than twelve. From somewhere she could hear the chirping of an otter. She held her arms out to the boy from where she was crouched, her face wild and scared.
"Blue, blue, baby blue. Come here. Do you sing? Sing for me. The sea loves you, never forget that", she cried, as if begging him to understand. "Come here. Tell me your name and I'll tell you how you are going to die."
