AQUARIUS

Water Bearer

When she sings the song she already knows that it's too late for him.

The feeling of using her pendant in conjunction with the forgotten god's lullaby is like that of tapping into a dragon vein through her birthright. There is a rushing, buzzing feeling in her blood that thrums throughout her entire body, like pins and needles, along with the sensation of just knowing. Knowing what she would never be able to vocalize with words like a song or a poem, but feel, like an instinct. Like breathing, or blinking, it is just natural to know.

In this case, knowing that it is too late for Takumi – or rather, his body, for his soul has departed his shell already – to be saved by anything she can do.

But she does not give up on him like she did before, when she turned her back on the beautiful country that became her heart's home to enter the dark Nohr once more, to face scars of memories from hard times she wanted to leave behind forever all so she could have a place to belong, to be with someone who could understand what her situation was like.

In a way his blood is on her hands – had she not left, he wouldn't have been driven into this sorrowful state, possessed by a vengeful shade that manipulates his body like a puppet. Had she stayed, she could have sung for him earlier, sat next to him and offer an ear willing to listen to his burdens and inner fears, ease his stressed shoulders of the world's weight that he carried.

But no - she made her choice. And he was her consequence.

Azura sings, feeling the life in her drain out of her body like water spilling from an upturned bottle. Her fingers and toes grow numb, and the feeling only spreads before pain replaces them, but the words come out from her mouth enveloped in the melody her mother taught her. At her bosom the pendant glows continuously with her life force.

It's not enough – a bottle of water could never sate the parched ground of a desert's dead land – but it does not stop her.