would you come with me, into the depths?
farther and farther...
deeper and deeper...
the undercurrents carry with it the song of an old god, slumbering...
dreaming...
breathing...
and trapped, it calls—
resounding
resounding
resounding
and then, all at once, it quietens
A figure appears in the distance...
???
Are you... alive?
???
Then what are you doing here? If you don't leave soon, you really will become dead.
???
But you are not part of our duties. What are you doing here?
across the din, a melody plays,
and rings like an aged bell—
hollow and deep
like it's humming...
???
Ah... it's time go back to work.
Xixi (汐汐)
My name is Xixi, like the evening waves. You aren't supposed to be here, so it's dangerous to stay any longer. If it finds that you're here...
Xixi (汐汐)
Only the dead should be here. But you are not supposed to be here. Everyone who passes through these waters must pay a price, but you have not paid it. So how did you get here, I wonder...?
Xixi (汐汐)
A voice? But things aren't as easy as...[her words stop, her eyes flicker. then, quieter, she repeats]A voice...?
would you come with me, into the depths?
farther and farther...
deeper and deeper...
Xixi (汐汐)
You did not pay a price, because the one who led you here, was...
You
Xixi (汐汐)
The... Great One...? But I don't understand... why would it... to someone like you...
Xixi (汐汐)
You heard it on the way down, did you not? You must have. That sound, that song... Pulling you deeper...
Xixi (汐汐)
It's the Great One's cries, its fits of lucidity. It is... nothing more than a child, in the end. No older than even an infant. It doesn't know what it's doing.But the price to be here... is to not leave it.
Xixi (汐汐)
Still, you don't belong here. You have not been drowned by the ocean.The only one alive here is the Great One.
Xixi (汐汐)
A... bridge.
Xixi (汐汐)
Between this world and the next. My work here is to... to lead the ones swallowed by the ocean, or the Great One, towards the mouth.
would you come with me, into the depths?
Xixi (汐汐)
It's crying again...
You should leave now. I'll show you the way.
Xixi (汐汐)
Me? I can't leave this place. I am bound to the Great One.
And... as most things here, I am not alive either.
Xixi (汐汐)
Is it really so surprising? It's been so long since I've travelled, perhaps I've gotten used to being dead.But we should stop stalling. Follow me.
The waters look the same no matter where you go.
deep, dark, and foreboding.and always, in the distance, the sound of crying,
a feeling of longing,
and tears of parting.
A grip so tight around your heart you can't breathe.
Your vision going black.
Bubbles from your mouth. Air from your lungs.
Signs of life.
And then—
Xixi (汐汐)
Huh? What's—?!
I...
Alone...
How long...
Have I...
Have you...
Serving here... so faithfully...
Never... to go...
Yet... so lonely...
...
would you come with me, into the depths?
would you dream with me?
you have been here for so long
calling out for someone to keep you company
am i not
you?
Xixi (汐汐)
The only one alive here is...
the great one.
Xixi (汐汐)
I wouldn't... I wouldn't dare to...
Xixi (汐汐)
As one?
Wait, are you suggesting...
the surface.
Xixi (汐汐)
But I can't... I shouldn't abandon my duties as the keeper here. If we make for the surface, we will never be able to return. We'll be expelled. Exiled.
Xixi (汐汐)
And what about your body? Your real one.
It still sleeps.
Xixi (汐汐)
And if we were to become one, then...
Xixi (汐汐)
In the end, you really are just... a child, huh.
Xixi (汐汐)
So even Great Ones must dream...
Xixi (汐汐)
I wonder if the dead do, too.
Xixi (汐汐)
Having watched over you for so many centuries now, I know.
More than anyone.
Xixi (汐汐)
And having served here for so many centuries, I know.
Better than anyone.
Xixi (汐汐)
How beautiful these trenches are, how breathtaking... the mystical depths and the deep, the vast ocean floor... How magnificent! How stunning!
Xixi (汐汐)
And... how lonely.
Xixi (汐汐)
Let us see if the dead can also dream, then...
...
...
...
???
And what should we...
Call
Like the
sing with us, as one in trance
would you return, someday?