Story Reader / Floating Record / ER16 Of Solitude and Stillness

In the beginning, people believed that this bizarre calamity, which rippled through the entire transatlantic region, would scar the historical record forever, a wound on the Golden Age at its height.

That is where every memory is kept. That is where all the hurt and all the feeling come from. It is the old web Helentine left behind in her past.

That's Port Podesta. A city perched on decline and mourning.

You don't trust me. You're just putting your faith in mediocrity...

Rising above death's grip... Such nostalgic words.

If I truly remember nothing, how am I supposed to become someone I used to be?

Is this the Golden Age you wanted?

Let me give you the most direct, no-nonsense answer I can!

All my pieces are on the board, Lithos. It's your move now.

How do we best repay those who gave everything?

The ringing of a homecoming long overdue echoes across all of Port Podesta.

The scalpel bit deep, parting flesh. From the wound spilled not blood but shimmering, iridescent light.

Port Podesta, laden with Red Tide, advances toward the land. A calamity prayed into being by countless voices.

Look. Reality's too harsh for most people. But you slap "Golden Age" on the cover, and they'll line up to buy it.

So tell me... have you been happy? With your life so far?

Let's send this damn dream... to hell!

"If only miracles really existed..."

Years severed by death, stretched by regret, and forcibly stitched together by obsession now collide at last.

The brief, illusory dream of the Golden Age is drawing to a hasty close.

"And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind."