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"...It seems like you have brought back a squirrel." Tempo looked rather confused once he finally did notice the tiny, furry creature - when it did hop in Echo's hand. And 'spoke'. Wait, what ?

When it was done, it spoke at her, and Tempo blinked. "Greetings." He echoed, clearly a little dumbfounded.

"Ah, not quite. And I must admit I am not quite sure how you do navigate." Already, Exalla was shifting, with the same sickening pops and crunches, and Alto's eyes kept getting wider and wider. Well, Echo could not really blame her aoide. Exalla was quite strange, by mortal standards. For this place, at least.

"Would you mind going to the library, Tempo ? I need the star charts for Exalla to refer to. And look for Shiana, if you can ?" The asari would be better at reading star charts than she was.

"Of course, my lady." Tempo bowed to Echo before leaving, Well, Echo certainly was on a roll with collecting blue aliens, was she not ? Must have been the color...

Well, there was one thing done. "Is there anything I can get for you while we wait ?" Something comfortable to lay on, perhaps.

"This is where most of the gods live." Echo said, seemingly completely relaxed with that explanation. Mortals tended to vary in their willingness to believe, and she had no idea how Exalla would take the idea.

Still, she'd had to prove herself once, and she would do it again. "There are many of us here, and most will be accepting of you. There are all sort of beings here, that gathered at or around the pantheon when things started to go wrong, a few years ago. Do you remember that ? People acting strangely, the sky vanishing, things breaking down at a rapid pace ?" She knew Gehenna would likely mean nothing to the andalite, so she settled for a more straight-forward explanation. Unlike some of her peers, Echo rarely intentionally set out to be cryptic.

"...Come to think of it, how long has your ship been in space ?" Had... Exalla been in there while the sky had vanished ? That could not be possible, wouldn't it ?

"Yes, gods." Echo had to weather a fair share of disbelieving looks - less so lately, or even since she became herself in truth. "I am Music, as I have told you."

Exalla's mental speech turned panicked, and Echo could only ready herself to attempt to catch the andalite should she slide on the tiles. Thankfully, Music was a great deal stronger than her petite frame could subject. "One of our own fell, eaten by the Void. Universe." There was a certain sorrow in her voice, even through she had not known Lucius personally.

The creature who had been so composed earlier on now looked so small, almost fragile. "What is the name of your planet ? I can reach out for it." She knew some worlds had been thorn apart completely and utterly, but even more had survived. In what state, however... Well.

As soon as she knew what to look for, she could find out.

Oh, little did Exalla know... Echo certainly did not need any of that. In some roundabout way, she existed on all worlds at all time, had some sort of presence everywhere there was Music or Song... which was, really, everywhere. Rare were the civilizations who did not know song, at the very least.

"I do not need any of that." She answered quite simply. Why would she ? It took her some time to find the correct planet, the exact location she needed on the world tree, but when she did something in the air seemed to shift, as if something unseen was bending to the goddess' will. She remained there, and yet she was there as well.

"I see it." Something in her voice had shifted as well, distant and intense all at once. "There are... three moons. Your people speak that the fourth was swallowed whole with the blinking of the stars... and was never seen again with their return. Most of the smaller settlements are lost. The surviving andalites branded together in the remain of the capital and it's surroundings and are rebuilding. There is... one leading them all, but I cannot make out his name. The ships are... damaged, but a few are salvageable. Only one spaceport out of the three is a remotely recoverable state. They plan to take to the stars again... But it may very well still take years."

"I exist wherever there is music or song, on some level. There is only a matter of routing my awareness more directly to the part of me that exists there." Echo seemed endlessly patient with Exalla's disbelief, and her awareness seemed to shift, settle again.

How to prove herself, then ? She could have taken Exalla back to her homeworld. It would require a Door, yes, and given Exalla's wavering distrust, how likely was she going to follow her into one ? Not very likely. "I can take you there, if you would be willing to follow me. Or you can tell me about something that only exists on your homeworld, a kind of plant perhaps, and I can go and bring it back for you."

If that would not be proof of her claims, well, she had no idea what would do it. Perhaps Exalla would only come to believe by seeing it for herself, only by slowly assimilating it.

Trees, uh ? That could be a little more difficult... But at least she had not been asked to bring back an animal. She was not even sure she could do that, really.

A plant would not try to run away, at least. Through, hopefully a flower pot would not be considered cheating. She was no Gaia, after all. "Very well."

Finding such a pot was not too hard to do, given the inner garden that they were in - and once Echo had found what she needed, she simply blinked out of existence, with only the fading tune of her wings to betray that she had, in fact, been there at all.

It seemed like Echo and Exalla had forgotten something, however. Tempo and the requested star charts. Through it was not Alto that carefully opened and closed the door, but rather a figure rather familiar to the one who had just vanished - but male. Clearly a close relation, from what could be seen behind the rather impressive tome the slender being was holding.

Really, that Tempo was unwilling to carry this out himself was strange. Something about looking for Shiana and an alien. But wasn't Shiana an alien ?

"Mother ?" He called out, blinking when he did not get an answer. He walked the steps toward the garden, and then the strange eyes behind the lace veil went wide.

Okay. THAT was an alien.

"...I assume the star charts were for you ?" Really, Akakios was just eager to finally let the impressive tome down. He had been eager to go back to his research but... Well, no so much now that he had seen Exalla.

Poor girl was doomed.

"Yes." Was the simple answer to where the star charts were, and the massive tome was handed over carefully. Now free of his burden, Akakios sat in the grass, resting his arms and head on his knees in obvious curiosity, eyes still wide and nearly child-like behind that veil. "My name is Akakios. Im Lament. Echo is my mother." The alien had to know who Echo was, yes ?

"And who are you ?" He asked right back.