Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was cruel to say, but Antarmur'ss had not thought about Ling since his disappointed parting. He had been focused on other things. His world was getting a bit more complicated. Which was a good thing. Antarmur'ss was finally feeling like a true god. He liked being busy. he liked having things to do, a constant agenda of unending tasks to distract him from the boredom of passing time.

From time to time he felt something. Through the stone he'd gifted to the curious boy. Just a faint feeling of course. He didn't pay it much mind other then to send a faint bit of his presence to it, just to see what was going on around Ling. Then he was off again, looking in on this or that person.

Today though Antarmur'ss sat upon his throne in the highest room of his fortress. His chin rested upon his fist and his eyes glowed faintly. He was watching someone wandering in his forest right now, picking pale fish from the ponds with their bare hands. A pockettu girl was currently trying to fit a curtain over a window in a house she has claimed in his city. A little boy was on his knees in his bedroom praying for the scary things to not eat his toes tonight. So adorable.

His mind briefly touched on Ling when he touched his stone again. He did notice the boy was doing something, he could see it more or less. Something with a stone...but he didn't settle his attention on the little antenna boy fully quiet yet.

Antarmur'ss attention flickered. Darting between the dark and lonely places where his shadows lingered. Fading in and out of the homes of those who had offered themselves up to him. However, when Ling would place his finished stone offering upon the floor, his attention would return. On his throne Antar tilted his head. It was a curious gift. He could see that Ling had attempted to craft a image of him. While it was not of the same quality that some of his other statues had been made...Antarmur'ss could see something more to the piece then just that.

How to respond though? Had Ling truly come to accept him? Acknowledge that Antar was the same thing that he seemed to seek out? The personification of those shadowy places? Or was this just a hopeful offering that would perhaps give him one more taste of what he'd been missing?

Carefully Antarmur'ss infused some of his presence into the darkness around Ling. He did not speak nor seek to touch the boy in any way. Instead Antar let his power reach out to the statue. he engulfed it, wrapping it in a cool shroud until it was utterly swallowed up. He moved it, displacing it through the shadows from the spot Ling had crafted it, and into one of his temple rooms. Once done, he continued to linger, his attention focused on Ling now. All the while his touch keeping the shadows as dark as pitch around the boy.

Antarmur'ss allowed his lips to curl upwards faintly when Ling finally spoke. The silver tips of his talons gently tapped upon the arm of his throne as he considered what it was he wished to do right now. He could just leave the boy. Make him suffer a bit more. Make him long or even fall into despair. Of course that was assuming he was as desperate as Antarmur'ss liked to think he was. Or he could give him a final chance. Without knowing of course.

It took Antar a few moments to consider his options. Finally though he made a choice. not based on the value and heartfelt words of Ling. Oh no...he was simply bored and wanted some entertainment. Something to pass the time as he waited for something more interesting to happen within his domain.

Antarmur'ss shifted his darkness around Ling to focus it where the stone offering had once sat. This time Antar did not extend a hand to Ling, as he had two times before. He merely opened what would seem like a doorway in the shadows. Stairs leading downwards were the only invitation he gave to Ling. He would not carry him this time to the place he would have him go. Antar determined the boy would have to walk on his own to the destination in mind.

He chose not to speak. He still had not 'forgiven' Ling for being so distant. Honestly though, Antarmur'ss was a prideful and arrogant god. He didn't like it when some small thing hindered him from doing or getting what he wanted. One could argue he was very much like a petulant child. Though such an argument was best made in the shining light with no shadows to possibly lend a eavesdropping ear.

The stairwell that Ling would choose to enter closed up behind him once he was a few feet down the steps. Plunged into absolute darkness, Antarmur'ss had no concern that Ling might trip or tumble in a unfortunate accident. Out of all the ones he toyed with, Ling seemed far more equipped to truly thrive in his light-less world. He didn't need to add glowing crystals or moss, lighten the depth of his darkness or provide a means to lead him along. The steps would descend in a rather straight downwards angle.

At the end though, the darkness would lighten. The depth of it banished as the stairs would open into another cavern. Unlike the ravine or the mines, this place was relatively small. Shaped in a perfect sphere, a breath of life permeated the cavern. Instead of a rocky floor to walk on, the ground of the cavern was a deep rich black soil. The cavern was thick with foliage, where dark blue and purple crystals jutted through to provide a low illumination. Patches of black colored flowers grew in great abundance. Black roses, tulips, orchids, and jewelflowers spilled over from one patch to another. Strange three black petal flowers flecked with silver that seemed to glow against them grew on firm stalks here and there. Winding through the patches were paths made of smooth black onyx stones. Identical to the one which Antarmur'ss had left for Ling upon his first visit. The fragrance of the flowers was powerful, though not overwhelming to the point it might give one a headache from their strength.

In the center of the cavern was a pool of black water. So perfectly smooth it could have acted like a perfect mirror. Yet it reflected nothing. Not the plants that bowed over it's edge, or the circling pattern of red and green glowing moss on the ceiling.

Antar granted Ling time to 'see' everything present. Mostly his attention was focused on the curious way his antenna drifted and twitched about. He tried to imagine what it must be like to 'see' the world in that manner. Even if Antar were to close his own eyes, he would still see everything as perfectly in the darkness were they open. He could not remove from his sight that which was a part of his presence. Not that he would wish to, even for a moment.

As Ling took in what he could of the cavern, Antarmur'ss shifted himself from his throne and vanished. He drew the shadows in upon themselves by the lake, where a stone bench nearly completely enveloped in dark green creeping vines sat. His tail twitched as he would finally take on a completely solid form in Link's presence...though he did not approach the little pockettu. He merely sat himself down and was more then satisfied to watch him in his garden at the moment.

The garden was his place to sit in peace. Here he could just focus on himself. The concerns of his servants and the adoration of his worshipers were outside this place. Of course Antar did not mind allowing others the chance to look upon his garden. What was the point in creating a place of such beauty if others did not know it existed? He liked the rumors that flowed after he let someone experience a visit here. Of course, the garden served other purposes. A test. A reward. It could be many things to many different pockettu.

Antarmur'ss allowed Ling his chance to wander and investigate the garden. No dark beasts wandered here. The greatest danger here in the garden came just from the pockettu themselves. Antar did notice how Ling rubbed the stone he had bequeathed him on his first visit, and he could only smile faintly at him. Once Ling had been given enough time to wander for a bit, Antar rose from his seat. He had enough of watching the little pockettu. Instead he wandered to a patch of black roses and knelt down in the soil. A shadow shifted and shaped in his hand into a small weeding tool. Gently he worked the soil with his hand to aerate the soil while digging out small weeds from around the base of the plants. Antar lifted up a bit of creeping vne and inspected the white root system before tossing it into a shadow where it vanished. "Do you like my garden?" He finally asked Ling.

That, Antarmur'ss supposed, was quiet possibly the most direct answer he may have gotten from Ling yet. His tail swayed behind him, the tendrils growing and shrinking in random waves while Antar simply tended to his gardening. He turned over a bit of hard earth and plucked out a creeping bug. With a small flick of his fingers it vanished through the shadows. To be dropped somewhere else in his realm where it could burrow and hide until it's moment of disorientation ended.

Antar lifted his hand and made a small coaxing motion with it towards Ling, though he did not lift his eyes from where he worked tending to his lovely roses. "Light offers sustenance to the plants above, for they are born to reach for it." He paused and raised his hand over some of the small black buds of the rose plant. Very gently, the buds began to lean in the direction of his hand. "In my garden, these things are born to reach for the darkness. Here they gain sustenance from me. I am their sun. Here in my garden is the cradle of my love. Small and hidden, I carefully tend to these things which have become most precious to me."