As a child, I was always fascinated with the afterlife. I had made a point of visiting all of the haunted castles of my native land. Especially one. It was tall and gothic, filled with wondrous secret passageways. An elderly scholar had lived there. Oh, the stories he told me! Adventurous, terrifying, funny, inspiring, romantic...

I came to really love that man. But he was old, and so from the beginning I knew our time together was short. He told me of his expectations of the afterlife, including how he once heard that when you die, your life flashes before your eyes.

Now, as ferrier of souls to the afterlife, I am well aware that that is not true. You do not see your entire life flash before your eyes; there simply wouldn't be enough time. You instead see what you loved most in this world, what you would miss the most. Maccus had told me that when he died, he saw all the good times he had with his sister flash through his memory. I began to wonder, what would I see?

Or would I see anything at all? Over the past centuries I have transformed into some...creature. The precise outcome of my heart being stabbed was unknown to me and my crew. I would die, yes, but how? Would it be quickly, swiftly? Or slow and painful? I have become accustomed to death these past years, as one must, but nonetheless I feared my death. I feared not seeing her as I died. For I want to see her, she who stole my heart and who so slowly broke it.

Though I had crippled myself in the process of forgetting her, turning my body into this monstrous thing, she was still my true love. She was my shining star in the night sky. Though we've had our ups and downs, our betrayals, our disappointments, I would still want my last visions to be of her.

And it looked like I was getting my wish.

Tender memories, painful memories, flashed through my brain. Except the pain in my heart was both figurative and literal. And it hurt so much, too much; I would do anything to make it stop! I feel my deformed body weaken and my eyesight go blurry. But she remains clear, her memory searing. I know that we will remain together forever, though she is now free and I am now dying. She loves me too much to let me go, and I her. For she is my beautiful, my enchanting

"Calypso..."