You cannot stop the inevitable

"Oh, so you know who left this here?" Nebulous asked, scrutinizing the hat.

"Of course..." Ravel murmured before he paused to think about something. "You're new here, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I came in from the Swiss sanctuary a week ago. Why?"

"You don't know who Skulduggery Pleasant is..." Ravel said it as a statement of fact, not a question. "Yet you should have at least heard of him, even in... Switzerland, was it?"

"I recognize the name, I suppose. Do you know why or how he would have left this?"

"Knowing Skulduggery, it was probably because he thought it was a good idea."

Skulduggery

Skulduggery stared down over the cliff edge at the ice below him, his tie flapped in the wind and he made no move to correct it. He glared at the nothingness that spanned a million miles in front of him, knowing that below the seeming void was the portal to some thing far beyond what he could imagine. And if he couldn't fathom such a thing, he was sure no person could. Well, perhaps there were some, but they weren't exactly people.

"She's not dead..." he repeated for what seemed like the hundred millionth time.

Time seemed to pass slower here, as if the void was sucking in time itself.

Skulduggery thought about that possibility and tilted his head to the right slightly.

And then, Skulduggery jumped.

He dove head first towards the still sea, and, as he reached it, he fell through it and the ice made no noise, indifferent. Skulduggery would have scowled if he were possible of such facial movements, but as it was, he could only grin.

Valkyrie

"Are you ever going to answer me?" she asked, her voice coarse and croaky. "Are you ever going to let me leave...?"

Despair was slowly making it's claim on her thoughts, laying waste to all the happiness and joy in her mind.

"I wish I could, but she would never let me. She would take over as soon as I moved a muscle to do so," the voice was kinder, less malicious, filled with regret.

"You could try," Valkyrie gasped out.

The room was silent again, and Valkyrie cried out wordlessly in hopelessness. How long had she been in here? She'd slept eight long sleeps, but did that count for any thing?

Did nothing count for any thing now?