The instant Sirius left the safety of his vessel, the radiant glow of the Keywork surrounded him, alive with faint, fractured murmurs that crackled like static across an endless sea. As he watched, those flickers stretched and converged, forming silhouettes that resembled people, countless and shifting. He turned to All Mother for insight, and her responses—though varied—pointed to a single truth: these were the remnants of the departed. From among them, one figure broke forward with sudden intent, pressing through the mass and seizing hold of Sirius, flooding him with a life that was not his own.