Stoke the fire, keep it hot.

The beast sank into the water along with the Maw, but unlike the ship, the sea posed no threat to him. In fact, he found the bitter chill quite refreshing. And was that the sound of tens of souls being released from their mortal coil? How delightful! But before he could take them into his embrace, he had to take care of a little problem. Mainly, the little thorn in his side.

He plucked her from his frill, and examined the struggling woman. She was still under his spell, but instincts were hard to overcome. It would only be a matter of time before she passed into the oblivion of hypoxia. But she would never reach that blessed peace.

The King bit down on her limp body-

The Lady awoke in a tiny and dark room, dressed in ragged clothing. A man’s voice, harsh and guttural, yelled from outside. Keep the room cold, or else! She channeled her powers to chill the room, but an unknown force seemed determined to heat the room. And so, the man continued to scream as Vanessa continued her Sisyphean effort…

Mortem had… destroyed the Maw. He’d sunk it, Edwin realized. It hadn’t seemed to fully register in him, his mind still hissing to get to the furnace, he needed to shovel coal, keep it hot the lady got angry if he didn’t work - but no. There was no furnace, no Maw to keep warm. And it seemed, no Lady to stress over. He hadn’t seen her since Mortem had attacked.

Not that he was worried. Not really, anyway - not past ingrained nerves and learned behaviors.

“It almost feels like a dream.” He said to himself. “Terrified I’m going to wake up back down there, in the depths of the Maw. Hell, I might actively let myself think that if only to wake up surprised every morning.” Some of the others were drifting away. Breaking off into groups of people they were familiar with and making their way towards the nearby town - who no doubt were as terrified and confused as everyone else.

In a moment of what could be called clarity, Edwin found himself hoping Vanessa suffered. Hoping Mortem had made it slow - so many people that no longer remembered anything, that clung to little more than their names and the certainty that the Maw was not where they had been born. Edwin supposed he was lucky that he remembered anything at all. Fuzzy faces and half-recalled names were more than most people from the Maw had.

This was not going fast enough for his liking. Time to heat things up!

Mortem unhinged his jaw and breathed caustic, green fire into the bowels of the ship. The black smoke was blasted aside as the sound of screaming metal echoed into the night. 

Unless it had some surprise in store, the Maw had no chance under this assault. 

And that did it. The ship seemed to break apart - simultaneously melting and caving in on itself as Mortem assaulted it. Between Mortem’s size, the flooding, and the caustic fire, the ship indeed stood no chance. The black smoke remained for a few moments; aggressively biting at whatever parts of Mortem it touched - until the ship broke apart, at which point it seemed to almost die, briefly clinging to him before fading away.

Where she was trapped, Vanessa cried out - whether in anger or in pain, who knew. Possibly both, given how long she’d been ‘in control’ of the place. Who knows how that had affected her, changed her.