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After what felt like an eternity but was really just a handful ofwell above the cove

And then I saw it The intricate sigil that we’d been chasing and tracing, carved from my cove The wreath was part of the top of the walls, with the soft sand upon which I’d lain, loved, and grievedup the wreath’s center I’d always known the cove’s walls were very thick, but because they were also very, very tall, I’d never seen theht about it now, the mere existence of my cove didn’t make any sense It was more like a rock fence than a normal cove I realized we’d all been duped, and I didn’t know if it was Nell’s glaics that must have formed the cove, or a combination of both that had made as really a completely unnatural structure seem normal

"Ready?" Blondie yelled in my ear, the volume carried off by all the empty space around us

I nodded

And with that she swept ers or her wings, whichever was easiest But just as before, nothing happened At least nothing where Blondie was looking, which was beneath us

I couldn’t help but laugh as I saw the real culprit It’s always been about you, hasn’t it? I thought

"Do it again!" I shouted Before she could protest and say that it was a waste of time, I continued "And this ti at the Old Sow

This time, as she flew her pattern, we both kept our eyes on the Atlantic And we both saw it--piglets lit up like underwater flares in a pattern that could only be one thing

The last glyph

When Blondie stopped flying, they stayed lit for about ten seconds, and then they went out

"Fuck," she said "It’s a double lock Yeah, there are four glyphs, but the third unlocks the presence of the fourth Godda to be okay?" I shouted, re "You’ll have to lyph!"

"I’ll fly, keeping thethat I was the obvious choice for this mission

And then she dropped me, clothes and all, intoto see the pattern of lit-up piglets fro them, at ocean level At that moment, I knehat it felt like to be that apocryphal squirrel in the Christ rando branches that will kill you if you get too close

Even on the outer edge of the Sohere I was treading water, I could feel her power I’d been told that the whirlpool had been teerated Norlets, but even at this outer edge I had to keepsucked up into one like a dust bunny by a Hoover

And I’ as a piglet placed alarly close to the Sow herself blazed atpulled apart by my favorite water feature, I had no idea where to start Unfortunately, however, I also knew that Blondie’s flying a repeated pattern above the Cove would attract attention Either she was unglauys, or she was gla the attention of anything reical in a fifteen-mile radius