Máhtu?
Are you there?
Sonetto: ...
Ms. Radio: What-What are you suggesting, Timekeeper?
Vertin: ...
Ms. Stranger: panting weakly
Ms. Stranger: She's right. It's the only way to open the gate.
...
Máhtu, what are they talking about?
Ms. Stranger: We have no choice. Listen.
Ms. Stranger: You have to offer me to the gate.
Sonetto: What? No, Ms. Stranger! We—
Ms. Stranger: You have to get through. You have to find Ms. Urd and stop the ritual. cough
Ms. Stranger: My mission is to get you into the sanctuary by any means necessary.
Vertin: No, I won't allow it.
Vertin: No more sacrifices.
Ms. Stranger: ...
Ms. Stranger: Have you heard of the lungfish?
Vertin: What?
Ms. Stranger: It's an amphibious fish found in Africa. Its gills are so shrunken that it developed a second respiratory system—lungs.
Ms. Stranger: It's an obligate air-breather, despite being a fish.
Ms. Stranger: It's not a land-dwelling creature, but if it's kept from the air for too long, it'll drown in its own watery habitat.
Vertin: A creature that doesn't belong to land or water ...
Ms. Stranger: Exactly. The Foundation is no home to me, and I just used the last of my moths to create that storm. I'm useless to them. If I go back there, I'd drown, just like the lungfish.
Ms. Stranger: Let me open the gate. Spare me from drowning like the lungfish. Let me fulfill my role.
Vertin: ...
Vertin: It's a big world, Ms. Stranger. There will always be a place for you.
Vertin: We'll find another way to enter the sanctuary.
Vertin: Ms. Radio, could you get Mr. Ulrich on the line? Perhaps he has another lead.
Máhtu, do you hear them? What are they planning?
What should we do? Should we join them?
Máhtu?
I don't ... What's wrong? Why are you so quiet?
Sing to me, speak to me like you used to, hum another verse of the Mother Spirit for me. Why don't you guide me?
It's because ... You were never there for me in the first place, were you?
Sonetto: ...?
Sonetto: Ms. Amundsen? How are you feeling?
Sonetto: Are you able to get up? Here, take these narwhal ivory candies. They might help calm your nerves.
Sonetto: Ms. Amundsen? Where are you going? Nautika?
Máhtu, do you know where Friele went?
Oh, she's gone to see the Mother Spirit, hasn't she?
...
But, that woman, she said that there is no "Mother Spirit."
Then, where is Friele now?
You forgot your pendant, Friele.
*sigh* How could you leave it behind? It's so important.
It's—
Friele: It's ambergris, Uncle Rolf!
Nautika: Be careful, Friele! Gently! Look, there's something trapped inside.
A scalpel slides delicately over the ambergris, revealing a small stone that draws in the faces of an old man and a child.
Beneath the glow of the work light, the newly exposed milky pink stone shimmers with liquid radiance.
Grandfather: The reflection, the color ... What an interesting structure. This isn't like any rock sample we've studied before. How extraordinary.
Grandfather: It's not crystallized magma, nor any sediment I'm familiar with.
Grandfather: I believe this is a gift from Her, Nautika.
Grandfather: The great gift of the Mother Spirit.
The girl's fingers close around the pendant.
Nautika: Grandpa said that it's a gift from the Mother Spirit, Friele.
Nautika: I bet Antarctica is filled with all kinds of secrets about this little stone.
Expedition Team Members: "The harvest's bounty mankind's blessing be. We children, blind, from mazes must be free."
Nautika: I'll find the stratum Grandpa never found.
Team Member I: Entering the ice zone. Grab your telescopes, explorers.
Nautika: I'll explore the eras Grandpa never explored.
Team Member I: The sextant was right. As long as we stick to this direction ...
Nautika: I'll reveal the secrets Grandpa never revealed.
Team Member IV: Here. It's a Neptune bar—my favorite. It'll keep you warm a little longer.
...
I've never shown you this little piece of rock, have I, Máhtu?
Koht, Aase, Friele, and I ... We studied it over and over. We know it like we know the back of our hands.
When-When you came to me, I thought that maybe I would finally understand this rock and the Blank Era behind it.
You gave me hope. You gave me purpose. And you gave me the courage to face every obstacle.
You were there every step of the way, whispering in my ear, like a friend, like you were the voice of the Mother Spirit Herself guiding me to where I needed to be.
...
But now, now we must part ways.
This expedition has been like nothing I've ever done before. It's tested me and you to our limits.
So, I understand. You have every right to go your own way.
Okay, time for a proper goodbye.
Thank you, Máhtu, my little ear worm. Thank you for coming to me in this beautiful, terrifying place.
Goodbye now!
...
Even if you were never real ...
Just like the Mother Spirit.
Ms. Radio: Ms. Amundsen? Ms. Amundsen!
Ms. Radio: What do we do? She's not responding. It's like she's in some kind of trance.
Sonetto: I already gave her all of our candies. Maybe a calming spell will snap her out of it.
Nautika: soft groan What ... What's everybody doing here?
Vertin: Nautika! Thank goodness.
Vertin: You were caught in a trance. You weren't responding at all.
Nautika: ...
Nautika: What's happened?
Sonetto: The gate's closed. We're trying to figure out how to get past it without ... resorting to that.
Vertin: Ms. Radio is currently trying to reach Mr. Ulrich so we can come up with a plan of action.
Nautika: ...
Nautika's vision sharpens as clarity returns to her.
Her sight finds focus on the closed gate as thoughts trickle back to her mind.
Nautika: Lava tubes. Every volcano has them. They're pathways made by flowing lava that lead to the heart of the volcano.
Nautika: If we find one, we might be able to get to the sanctuary through it.
Ms. Stranger: Not very likely.
No longer able to support herself, Ms. Stranger slumps against the face of the gate.
Ms. Stranger: The entire volcano is under Manus Vindictae's control, and Animus has eyes on every possible route. Trust me. There's no way of getting in without her noticing.
Ms. Stranger: Not even cough a squirrel could slip past her.
With a flick of her fan, she lets her vision rest on the gate once more.
Vertin: ...
Vertin: Let's get moving up the mountain. We may still find a lava tube that they overlooked, or at least we'll have a better signal to get in contact with Mr. Ulrich.
Sonetto nods and steps forward, lifting the weakened woman to her feet.
Vertin: Nautika, time to go.
Nautika gives a nod and fastens the pendant around her neck.
With a heavy thud, her backpack drops to the ground. After a short and purposeful rummaging, she produces a safety helmet and a pair of goggles.
A geological hammer and steel-pointed chisel now weigh in her grip too.
Nautika: Alright. Let's do this.
She lifts her eyes and takes a step forward, then another, and another.
The others follow, heading out of the plaza.
Then she stops, casting one last look at her companions.
Nautika raises her hand. Her hammer shakes with pride.
Then, she kisses the pendant around her neck.
Just as abruptly, she turns back. Her snow boots grind into the snow, carving a deep footprint in the opposite direction.
Nautika: Vertin, Sonetto, Ms. Radio! Goodbye!
She dashes away.
Straight toward the sanctuary gate.
Her sprinting strides grow faster and faster,
as she discovers a soaring power in her, one ready to erupt into action.
Ms. Radio: Ms. Amundsen! Where are you going?
Her friends swivel, moving to catch her.
Yet no one could hope to outrun this determined explorer.
Nautika: I'm sorry. I lied. The lava tubes don't always lead to the heart of the volcano.
Nautika: But you'll find a way in. You will, because you must.
Nautika: And I, also, must find my own path, in my own way.
She's one step from the gate.
Vertin: NAUTIKA!
Nautika: My friends, my teammates.
Nautika: I'm going away.
Nautika: But you keep moving, okay? Don't wait for me.
Sonetto: No! Nautika! Come back!
The pendant swings forward with her movement, cutting a decisive arc through the air.
She leaps up, fixing her eyes ahead.
Nautika: What's inside this ambergris, Grandpa?
Nautika: A new area for research? A message from the Mother Spirit? Or just an ordinary mix of minerals?
Nautika: The mountains and plains beneath the snow and ice ... They're so very large and old. We're just so tiny and young compared to them, you know?
Nautika: I think some secrets will always stay that way—secrets. No matter how much we explore.
Nautika lowers her eyes.
She smiles in the frozen light.
Nautika: But still, if I get closer, look harder ...
Nautika: Maybe I'll see just a little bit more.
She lifts her eyes again.
A deep and utter silence pulses in the air before her.
Nautika: Grandpa, I see it now.
Nautika: It was the unknown that I was chasing, not answers.
Nautika: It was the beautiful, glorious unknown.
Nautika: ...!!!
Nautika: ...
One heartbeat.
The world stands renewed.
None among them even manages to catch the hem of her garment as it lifts in the wind.
Vertin: Don't!
Silence returns, as if sound itself has drained away into a hidden funnel.
No wind. The lava lies still. The sun holds its place in the polar sky.
Vertin: ...
The gate.
Sonetto: ...
Opens.
