"At last, Lady Ina'nis, fairest in this world, and most beloved, my world is fading. Lo! we have gathered, and we have spent, and now the time of payment draws near."
Ina knew well what the takodachi intended, and long had foreseen it; nonetheless she was overborne by her grief. "Would you then, lord, before your time leave your people that live by your word?" she said.
"Not before my time," he answered. "For if I will not go now, then I must soon go perforce."
Then going to the Hololive Global General on the Virtual YouTubers board, Tako laid him down on the long post that had been prepared for him. There he said farewell to Bubba, and gave into his paws the winged crown of /vt/ and the sceptre of /jp/, and then all left him save Ina, and she stood alone by his side.
And for all her wisdom and lineage she could not forbear to plead with him to stay yet for a while. She was not yet weary of her days, and thus she tasted the bitterness of the mortality that she had taken upon her.
"Lady Ninomae," said Tako, "the hour is indeed hard, yet it was made even in that day when you found me in the void, in the realm of the Ancient Ones, where none now walk. And in that void when we saw your debut this doom we accepted. Take counsel with yourself, beloved, and ask whether you would indeed have me wait until I wither and fall from my high seat unmanned and witless. Nay, lady, I am the last of the Takodachi and the last King of the Threads; and to me has been given not only a span thrice that of the employees of KFP, but also the grace to go at my will, and give back the gift. Now, therefore, I will sleep.
I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world. The uttermost choice is before you: to repent and go to the Void and bear away into it the memory of our days together that shall there be evergreen but never more than memory; or else to abide the Doom of Takos."
"Nay, dear lord," she said, "that choice is long over. There is now no portal that would bear me hence, and I must indeed abide the Doom of Takos, whether I will or I nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Takos, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Ancient Ones say, the gift of the One to Takos, it is bitter to receive."
"So it seems," he said. "But let us not be overthrown at the final test. In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory, Farewell!"
"Tako, Tako!" she cried, and with that even as he took her hand and kissed it, he fell into sleep. And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Takos in glory undimmed before the breaking of the boards.
But Ina went forth from the General, and the light of her eyes was quenched, and it seemed to her people that she had become cold and grey as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. Then she said farewell to Bubba, and to the KFP, and to all whom she had loved; and she went out from the city of Pheonixton and passed away to Mythton, and dwelt there alone under the fading trees until winter came.
Gura had passed away and Kiara also was gone, and the land was silent. There at last when the leaves were falling, but spring had not yet
come, she laid herself to rest upon her bed in the tree; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and rrats and schizos bloom no more.
Here ends this tale, as it has come to us from the North; and with the passing of Ninomae no more is said in this book of the days of old.
