[J] Akakios :: Lament

[A Wandering Esper]

Alpha and Omega

Thabara

This night, unlike others, Nergal did not wander off into the library once Echo had fallen asleep. At least, not yet. Instead he had taken seat upon the couch in the common room, not lounging, but sitting ramrod straight, all symetry and sublime dignity, like one of the monolithic statues from ancient Egypt. Waiting. On his lap, half hidden by the folds of his garment, was the wax tablet he had found.

He only ever turned his head, once – sure enough – he heard movement stirr in the room the children shared. Soto was still snoring noisily, and Crys always slept the nights through anyway, but he knew all too well from previous experiences whom it would be to wander into the common room all too soon.

Zero Dream

There was the sound of small feet touching the ground, almost silently, repeating the movements he had done for almost every night since his little legs had become strong enough to support him. He'd mastered the art, a long time ago, of how to not end up in the middle of the sleeping pile - it was Crys' place, anyway ! And Soto was noisy noisy. This worked at his advantage, as it covered the sounds of his own movement and made sure that his siblings stayed sound asleep even as he left. The way out of the door was easy, and he was pretty much home-free from there.

Well, usually it was the case. It was also good to say that, usually, his father was not waiting in the room. Daddy was usually gone by this time, though sometimes he wasn't. Sometimes he would tell him to go back to bed, though he hadn't for quite some time - some other time they did things together before he left and then he either left too, or just sat there and chittered happily with whatever unsuspecting ghost often lingered behind.

Still, the sudden realisation that Daddy was right there on the couch did have the effect of having the young boy look like the proverbial child caught with one hand in the cookie jar. Uh-oh..

Thabara

Nergal's usually stern expression brightened to a smile, at the sight of his youngest' face. „Do not fret,“ he said softly, „there is nothing to be worried about. I have been waiting for you because I have something for you.“ He lifted the wax tablet up into the air for the little boy to see.

„Do you have some time to spare with your father, or will you be busy otherwise, little prince?“ He was well aware that his youngest called several of the spirits of the dead his 'friends' and might have plans made for this night.

Zero Dream

If there had ever been anything specific on the boy's mind, if he had intended to fill in the hours in between now and his mother's awakening with anything predetermined, it was now completely forgotten. No, all of Akakios' attention was now sorely focused on the tablets. No so much because of the fact that they where apparently his (with two sibilings the same age than him, things that where his did not usually stay his for very long), but mostly because he had no idea what it was supposed to be.

"Wassdat, daddy ?" The boy peered up, odd-looking eyes full of questions.

Thabara

„Writing tablets,“ Nergal replied, laying them out opened onto the coffee table and waving the boy to come closer. „See, there is a layer of wax inside, all smooth … You do know how wax is very soft, yes? Now you can take this,“ he pointed out the stylus and picked it up, „and use it to write onto the wax. K. I. O. S.“ He spelled out each letter as he engraved it onto the waxen surface to demonstrate how this worked. „Kios.“

He peered at his son, curious to see if he understood what he was offering. „Each of these signs is a letter. Each letter represents a sound. Sounds that make up words, words that make up sentences. Poems. Stories. Songs.“ He turned the stylus around, smoothing out the wax with its flat end, erasing the name he had just written, and then offered it to his son. „Would you like to learn?“

He had, in fact, prepared a lengthy, rather dry lecture on the history and significance of the Written Word, but discarded it literally the last possible second, knowing full well the extend of his children's limited attention span. He also had spent quite some thought on which script to teach, and while he himself was more fond of hieroglyphics, using one based on phonetics (and being the most common too) had won out over his personal preferences.

Zero Dream

"Oooooo..." The little boy had all but planted himself on the other side of the coffee table, observing with wide eyes as his father's explanations unfolded, clearly interested and trying to absorb as much of it that he possibly could. Nergal just might as well have surrendered the secret of the worlds and all that was, if the look on his youngest son's face was any indication. The reaction, really, was answer enough that YES, he did want to learn.

Small hands rose to take the tablets as they where handed to him, tiny hands holding steady as he peeked up again. "How to ?"

Oh yes, clearly, he wanted to learn, and it was doubtful Underworld would be able to go anywhere in the next few hours.

Thabara

Nergal smiled as he observed his son's face brighten, until it almost literally glowed with enthusiasm, and reached over the table to gently ruffle through soft lavender hair.

„Would you like to go to the library with me?“ he suggested. „If we stay here, your mother might wake.“

Zero Dream

Library... Hm. Well, daddy was right on one thing, if they stayed there, mommy would probably wake up, or even Crys or Soto, and it would not be a good thing. But he'd been to the library a few times. He knew what it was like inside, and while it was interesting, it was not as interesting as...

"Outsiiiide !" The little boy chirped. Oh yes, outside was a perfect idea ! There was all that different new stuff out there, green all over ! It seemed like Nergal would not get much of a say in the matter, as the lavender-haired boy had already bolted for the door.

Thabara

„Outside?“ Nergal's expression was positively perplexed, but it looked like he would have little choice in the matter. He had spent most of the day cooped up in the library, browsing what had been left undamaged by the previous near-Armageddon, and thus managed to completely miss out the news of the wondrous restauration of the Pantheion and its surroundings.

„Well, if that be your wish ...“ He sighed and rose from his seat, mechanically smoothing out the folds of his robes before he followed his son down the hallway. It wasn't until he reached the stairs and caught the sound of running water from below, the scent of fresh air, that he finally noticed something had significantly changed. His face, as he ascended the stairs into the wide open hall below, was filled with wonder.

Zero Dream

"Daaaaaaadddddyyyy !!!" The young child, of course, had darted ahead of his faster, giggling as his bare feet left to a large patch of grassy area, which caused him to pause for a moment and giggle. "Funny fuzz ! Down there ! Whasdat ?"

Everything was new, interesting, and wonderful. Expecially for him, who had been born into the near end of the worlds. All the little one had known had been decay, all the time unaware that once, things had been like this everywhere.

Thabara

„Grass,“ he murmured distractedly, still marveling at the decorative columns and the fountains. Just like his children, he had been reborn into the Age of Destruction. He had never experienced the world in any other way than constantly taking a turn for the worse, continuously spiralling down the path towards total annihilation. He hadn't even noticed it. For him, it had been normal.

That things could actually take a turn for the better, that was a first for him as well.

He remained at the threshold, where tiles of white marble met the green of the grassy plains, hesitating. And then extending one bare foot with utmost caution, as if to test the temperature of water before he stepped into it. It was silly, but his encounters with Gaia's wrath had left him with a deeply rooted suspicion towards all plant life. The memory of the hurt and anger blazing from her emerald eyes was still all too vivid.

Strange that it would still be, after all that has happened.

And it was a good thing, he figured, that this vile b***h of a Naga – Ageha – had never caught wind of, and thus never had a chance to exploit that little paranoia of his, or else he'd be sitting trembling at the top of the stairs now.

It is only grass, he told himself, setting one foot down. It will not bite you neither will it cut you.

At least, he hoped that was the case.

It tickled, and it was slightly moist, but otherwise – no harm done. He released a quiet sigh of relief, only now realizing that he had been holding his breath.

„This is grass,“ he repeated, looking up at his son. „You have seen it before, only that it was dead and withered. Just like the trees. Now … life has begun to make its return.“ He took a few more steps, the wispy substance of his wings dissolving and floating towards the ground, caressing the green blades as mist. It didn't take long for the first ghostly flame to make an appearance, soon followed by its many brethren, illuminating the scenery with their eerie light.

Zero Dream

Far for noticing his father's brief fear of the grass below his feet, the young boy at already darted toward one of the trees. He knew what it was - he'd seen many trees, though they had been dead and decayed. Those where very different. Full of life, with the top full of green leafythings and...

Well, this was curious.

Akakios stopped right under one of the massive fruit trees, head craned to look upward with a look of both awe and confusion, mouth forming a perfect o even as he held the tablets against his chest. Some curious wisps passed by him, hovering curiously about that little boy that felt almost like his father but not quite - but while it usually sent him into wonder, and perhaps a giggle or two if they could coax it out of the young boy, but now nothing seemed to be able to distract his attention.

Curious indeed.

"Daaaaaaddy." He finally said, letting go of the tablets with one hand to point upward. "...Ball in tree."

The thing Lament was pointing at was a rather plump, ripe peach, standing on a low branch, almost begging to be picked up and eaten.

Thabara

A ball?

Confused, Nergal looked up, his gaze following the direction Kios' little finger indicated.

Well. I have not seen one of these in a very long time now …

Not since he one wolved down that had been offered by Gaia, when he had exhausted and ravenous after the efforts of making his host's body his own, while she had been staring at him, green eyes trying to pierce him like a multitude of daggers.

…

Stop it already, will you?

„This … is a fruit. There are many different ones, and not all of them are edible. Or tasty. But this specific one certainly is. It is a peach.“ He gazed up at the fruit, pondering it. Well, it certainly looked ripe. „It is sweet. You can pick it and eat it if you want to.“

He didn't wait for an answer, instead picking up his son from the ground and lifting him up into the air, high enough to be able and reach for the delicious looking fruit if he wanted so.

Zero Dream

"Why is called peach ?" As always, Akakios had no shortage of questions, though this specific one seemed to be forgotten as he found himself lifted in the air, and more accurately in arms' reach of the prize. It was kind of funny how the little boy struggled, reaching for the round fruit with one tiny hand while keeping as hard of a grip on the wax tablets with the other, a look of concentration on his face as he executed the balancing act the best he possibly could.

It took him a few tries to actually take grasp of the fruit, and a few thugs to get it free, but soon it had taken the rather direct path to his mouth, perhaps not unlike his sister when she spotted spiders and other creepycrawly bugs.

He might not know why they where called peaches, but the fact that mattered was that they tasted very good indeed. He licked some juice from the tip of his nose before taking another bite out of it.

Thabara

„I do not know, actually,“ Nergal admitted, smiling as he watched the child struggle to reach the fruit and then rised to his toes to bring the desired prize close enough to get a hold of it. „That would be a question best posed to Gianfar, if you can find him.“ There was a faint hint of knowledge – if it was his own memory, or something he had picked up from his host, he was unable to tell – about peach trees growing in the gardens of the gods, their fruits granting immortality … But it was gone as soon as he tried to focus on it.

„Is it tasty?“ he inquired, gently setting his youngest back onto the ground. „Should I show you how to write 'peach'?“

Zero Dream

"Hmmm-m." The young child managed to answer in between two bites. There was peach juice and bits getting everywhere by now, but unfortunately, children where children. The name Gianfar meant nothing to him as of yet, but he did his best to commit it to memory. Answer to questions where always the best thing, after all. He might just have to see if he could find this mystery person.

"Want to !" He chirped again. He'd been distracted by the trees and their newfound gifts, but now his attention seemed to fully be back on track.

Thabara

„Well. Before we get started, I think it would be best to get you cleaned up a little first, or else the board will become all sticky.“ He rose back to his full height, tilting his head slightly as he listened.

„I think there may be a brook nearby – a small stream of running water,“ he added as he realized that the child had never seen a brook, or a river even, come to think of it. Not unless he had already been aware of his enviroment as the tiny wisp he'd been, during the brief time spent in Brilsworth. „Can you find it for me?“

Both, Kios and Crys, seemed to have inherited their mother's keen hearing. Soto … Well, that was probably more of an issue of him not wanting to listen, for most of the time.

Zero Dream

"Whatda-" Oh, the answer had come before he had even finished the question. That was handy. There needed to be more of this, really. This was very handy.

Though, now, there was a small challenge put forth, and behind the all too mature face he seemed to hold, there was the hint of childish mischief and innocence. "Kios find !" And with that announcement, the little boy was off, darting ahead of his father with surprising ease. It did look that the young Lament did share the similar energy that his older brother held, though he did not quite show it as often. And was perfectly able to stay still.

And also had less tendency to drive his caretakers insane, though little showed of it at the moment as he zoomed about like a little lavender, peach, and blue blur. If his ears had been mobile like his mother's, it would be no doubt that they would be darting around about as fast as well.

He'd heard a faint sound, though it was hard to pinpoint exactly from where... Ah, there it was ! The boy then darted, and stopped...

Stopped only when there was something cold and wet splashing on his legs as he had ran by.

"DADDY ! FOUND !"

Thabara

Nergal followed Kios lead, not really concerned he might lose track of him – the wisps accompanying both of them were taking care of that – but as always a little surprised when his youngest errupted in sudden activity like that. They boy's behaviour was usually so quiet, so demure, that he had a tendency to forget that the brothers could be very much alike at times.

It felt almost like being part of a game of, tag as he chased after his son, the feeling only emathized by the many wisps flitting to and fro. He'd never seen so many of them, he wondered, and then abruptly stopped his chase as he narrowly escaped the fate of stepping into the brook himself when he first felt the chill of ice cold water under his bare feet.

„DADDY! FOUND!“

„I can see that,“ Nergal replied dryly. „Come here and let me get you cleaned and dried.“ This was neither the first, nor would it be the last time for his favoring layered robes coming in handy ...

Zero Dream

Heheheh, water was funny ! Kios seemed very much busy with splashing water about, wriggling his toes inside it, in despite how chilly it was. It did take a little time, in which there was much exploration made - including a kneeling to poke at the surface just to make entierely sure that it felt the same on his hand than it did on his feets, before he actually complied and made his way over to his father.

Children, after all, were children.

Thabara

Nergal only smiled quietly – there was nothing wrong with playing and having some fun, in his eyes, not for children at least. And these new surroundings of the Pantheon must be something very exciting indeed, there was so much for them to explore now. And, that mattered much to him, it was safe. No harm would come to them here, under Creation's protection, he was certain.

He wrapped his son into his outer robe, to rub him dry, and used a corner of it – moistened with the cold clear water – to clean up the sticky remnants of the peach still smeared over the boy's face.

„Well,“ he said, once that had been taken care of, and sat down in the grass. This was a place as good as any, to stay and teach. „Would you like to learn the letters that make up the word 'water'? And tomorrow you can come here to play, together with your siblings, if you promise to take good care that nothing happens to Crys.“

Zero Dream

He did stay very still as he was cleaned, unlike the little squirming thing that was his older brother, which probably was somewhat a relief to his father. The water felt the same on his face than it did everywhere else, maybe a little colder if only because daddy's hand was so close, and daddy made things colder. Because, well... daddy was cold, even though everyone else was warm, even uncle Ankou, and weren't daddy and uncle Ankou brothers ?

It was really, really confusing, and before he could open his mouth to ask, daddy had, again, provided him with a distraction. "Yesyesyes !" He chirped, plopping to sit down as well, opening the tablet with the uttermost case, tiny hands going from the stylus, though he did not seem to quite know just how to hold it. The many wisps gathered, curious of the pair, provided more than enough gentle glow for them to see what they where doing.

Thabara

He noticed the trouble Kios seemed to have, and gently took the stylus from his little hand, demonstrating how to hold it correctly. „See, like this,“ he said quietly. „Hold it with your thumb and index finger, and let it rest on your middle finger for added support. It is easier to write that way, than if you would use the whole of your hand.“

He placed the stylus back into Kios' palm, and then aided the child in mimicking what he'd shown him. „It may take some getting used to, but you will see, it only takes a little practice. Now, as for 'water' ...“ He laid his hand over Kios', holding the writing instrument together with him and guiding it, stroke for stroke.

„W. A. T. E. R.“ Again, he carefully spelled out each letter. „Now, do you want to try on your own?“

Zero Dream

He nodded at being shown just how to hold the stylus, little brow furrowed in concentration. He was, indeed, attempting very very hard to keep his rather flightly child-like attention on the task, in despite all the wonderful distraction this new outside was giving him, and more importantly to remember everything. He probably would not, young as he was, but that did not mean the young boy would not try.

"Wa..." The boy repeated, clearly a little confused, but also having a much better grasp than a child his age could be expected to have. "tar ?" Not quite correct in the reading and of the mental decoding of what letters turned into what sound, but close. Very close.

He looked at the letters, unmoving for some time before the tip of the stylus hit the fine layer of wax, and the letters started to be reproduced the best he could, in a rather shaky, unexperienced script.

Thabara

„Water,“ Nergal corrected him, watching with a smile as the boy went to mimick his own writing. It was looking a little shaky and on the irregular side, but it would improve with practice. „It is an 'E', just like in Nergal. And that is looking very good already.“ He fondly ruffled through the child's purple hair.

Zero Dream

"Ohhh." This wasn't as easy as daddy made it look, really, but... he was doing well ? Really ? There was a small smile on his face as he looked up, after finishing his shaky rendition of the word water. A letter or two seemed barely legible, but he seemed to have used the correct ones.

"Peach ?" He asked. Daddy had said he would show him peach too, after all.

Thabara

„That is a tricky one, actually,“ Nergal admitted, carefully writing out the word for him.


„You know, sometimes, two letters, or more, come together to form a new sound. Differently from what each letter would be pronounced on their own. Such is the case here.“ He went on to patiently explain why 'ch' would sound differently from a 'c' and an 'h' separately, and then again could be pronounced in two different ways ... He was not quite sure the boy actually understood. He would have to be careful to keep to words that were simple, he hadn't considered that. Teaching was just as new to him as being taught was to his little boy.

Zero Dream

"Ooo..." This was, of course, not exactly the best indication of his understanding on the matter, though he nodded once and moved their still-joined hands - his own so tiny, almost hidden completely under the cold, bone white touch of his father - underneath the new word to copy the letters, create them on his own. There was not mistaking that the young Lament found himself rather enthralled with the experience, lip curling and small brow furrowing in concentration as he set himself on the task, though it was a rather calmer enjoyment than what one would expect a child his age to express.

Thabara

He smiled at the boy's wonder, but he couldn't help but frown as he glanced upon the word he'd just written out. This was the mortals' word for this fruit, one of them, written out in the mortals' writ, one of them. It … described none of the fruit's flavor, its form, its color, its texture … So insufficient. But it would have to do, for now. Later, perhaps, if he or the boy should manage to get hold of Knowledge sometime … Perhaps.

„Now,” he smiled, „are there any other words you would like me to teach?”

Zero Dream

"Ummm..." The boy pondered, then seemed to decide. "...Daddy's name !"

...And next had been mommy's name, of course.

Then Crys', both the short and the long long complicated version, which gave the boy some struggle.

And Soto's.

And Ankou and Cosine's.

Needless to say, the only thing that stopped the pair was the rather amused giggle of a cetain blue-haired goddess, who had wandered to find them after noticing their absence.

 

[A Wandering Esper]

Pondering of a Young Mind

Today, they had finished moving things out of Uncle Ankou's room. He had seemed... almost relieved, but Lament could not quite tell just why. Oh, well, it was nothing worth worrying about. Uncle Ankou would be fine. Especially if Aunt Cosine came back to watch over him and make sure he did nothing silly. Adults, he found, could sometime need just as much watching as children did.

He liked this new place, though. First of all, it was much bigger, where Uncle Ankou's was tiny and cramped full of people. There was a nice garden, too. And... he had his own room, so he could do as he wanted without fear of awaking his siblings. That was a nice thing, but also a very weird thing to suddenly get used to. The three of them had slept in the same room ever since they had been born, and it was odd to suddenly be alone... in a place that was completely his. Something he had no need to share unless he wanted to. It was a very odd, almost lonely in a sense, even if he knew that his siblings were not far - to the left and to the right of his room, to be exact.

He sat, in that space that was to be his... empty save for the four walls forming the edges. His father had told him that it was his to form as he wished.

He did not know what to fill this place with. And how to do it.

Much like he did not know how to undergo the task that had been given to him and his sister. To tend to the passing of the one that had been the sky. Lucius. Universe. Such was apparently their tasks, for he was Lament and his sister was Grief. She was feeling, and he was expression.

But he was but a child, younger in mind that physical appearances would make him be. He did not even know, ultimately, what he was to do. Their domains had been given in explanation, but he did not know what a Lament was. What it meant to be Lament. He and Crys had accepted the task eagerly, but now he found himself unsure of what to do. He needed... to think about all this some more, to figure more information, both about this Lucius and just what he had to do. What was expected of him. He knew that it was very Important, and the last thing he wanted to do with to do it wrong.

He did not wish to make the pale, rainbow-haired god, whom he knew the request came from, any more upset than he had been already. He had lost. The godling knew at least as much.

There was so many things he did not know, and they all seemed very important... Akakios did not like this, and pouted. He had been given some gentle reassurance from his mother before stepping inside this empty room, stark white everywhere, told that he merely needed to think of what he wanted, and that his power would make it happen, with the aid of Creation's...

But that sounded hard. And he did not know what he wanted. Beside the fact that it was too bright, too bright -

That single thought sent everything into motion, the white suddenly becoming the darkest black, and the boy's eye widened as he let a small surprised sound escape from his lips.

Whoa... Well, maybe it did just work that way. He stared silently, eyes wide for a moment, before he dared even think again. That was too dark... The space around him reacted, turning gray.

Hmm...

That was better, but not quite right. Another thought and everything was in motion once more - the floor beneath his bare feet turning a dark brown, made of wood much like the floor had been in his uncle's rooms - he had liked the chocolaty color, and the feel of the wood under his feet. The walls kept their grayish tone, but the gray turned more toward purple, a dusky color.

Ah ! That was it. He liked this. This was easier than he's thought ! Lament seemed rather proud of himself, though there was no one to see the expression cross his face and pat his shoulder. He did not mind. It looked nicer now, but it was still very empty. This would not do.

He needed some place to play with crayons.... and just like that, there was a desk, large, with a matching chair, wood dark like the one on the floor, with paper and crayons ready.

But now that brought another problem - he needed some place to put everything that he did. And just like that, suddenly there were bookshelves, going all the length of the back wall, but short enough so that he could reach the top shelves by standing on the tip of his toes.

This continued on, following the child's fancy - there was a small fountain, as he liked the sound of water. Small closets, to hide what he did not want everyone to see at first glance, and to put things in, like clothes and more crayons. One could never have enough crayons. And paper.

Especially since Crys kept trying to eat the crayons...

That was alot for one little godling in one go, however, and he felt tired - something just a slight bit foreign. The last thing to came from was a bed... well, more like an odd, large beanbag than a bed, really, much too large for the child that crept into it and curled up.

Now it was naptime.  

[A Wandering Esper]

At Dusk

The day had been rather confusing and long... even for him. They had gone what had probably been the furtest away from the pantheon, home, as they had ever went – toward some odd place underground. He had been a little too awed and curious of all those unknown things that he had not recognized it for what it had been.

As the day went past, however, it became more and more apparent, as his father did not return. After all, Akakios was not stupid, and his father had talked of a special place before, and how it was to be remade. Daddy left without him, when he had clearly said he would help !

The godling pouted some more, swirling one crayon on a blank piece of paper, trying his best to replicate actual letters without outside help. It was not working so well just yet, though he did manage to get the A and the E down from memory, with no outside reference to guide him.

Which all reminded him too much that daddy was not there and could not help him. Which in turn made him all the more unhappy.

Your father has his reasons, little one...

He is going though so many obstacles now_________

leaving so many things behind.__________________

for us.___________________________

The boy grumped a little more, then peered up. His mother was there, busying herself with the care of her instruments and otherwise not seeming to pay much attention to him, at least not constantly, allowing for some privacy even though she most likely overhead every small scribble on the paper and every movement he made, not to speak of the words he would say. The young boy, by now, was very aware of his mother's keen sense of hearing, and had yet to find a way to properly dodge it.

”S'not fair.” was the only answer the ghosts managed to get out of him – brow furrowing in concentration as he tried to write out his own name from memory... and was not quite able to do so, though he remembered the `kios` part of it just fine. The boy expected some sort of rebuke, but it did not come.

Instead, something else caught his attention, made him suddenly look up from his work and pay closer attention. The odd sensation of movement around him, of a silent call.

That was being answered.

He Calls, young Lament

And with the call comes a message – tell your Mother that He has suceeded._________

We must go now.__________________

The sensation of movement stopped and then...

Silence.

Nothing at all. The unseen voices were gone, as they had said.

”Akakios ? Is there anything wrong... ?” It was his mother's voice that broke the silence – she had moved from where she had been sitting to kneel at his side, her expression confused and just a tad worried.

”They gone ! Just like...” His pondered how to best explain this - he knew, for a fact, that his mother did not hear what he heard – to her, nothing would seem different at all. ”Just like, poof ! Gone !”

”Shh, dear... Who is gone ?” Explainations were not working as expected, it would seem.

”Kios' invisible friends ! Gone !” He continued. She had to know what he was talking about, right ? ”Said daddy calling, that it was time, and gone !”

That seemed to do the trick, as Echo's expression changed – but to something rather uncertain and unreadable for the young boy. The silence stretched on for some time, until he broke it.

”Mommy.” Kios looked up to meet her gaze. ”Invisible friends come back ?”

His mother hesitated – just long enough for him to notice, but then continued. ”I do not think so.” Was the answer, which made the start of a pout form on the godling's face. ”But you will see them later, in daddy's place ? Would that make you happy ?”

”Hmm.” He would like that, he thought, if only to make sure they had made it there allright. In fact... ”Kios go now ?”

”No, not yet.” Echo smiled... but the lavender-haired child could see that it was not quite true. ”Daddy needs some time, to make it all nice. And time alone to focus and work on that, yes ?”

”But.” He frowned. ”Kios said Kios help ! And daddy left all alone !” And that was unfair, so there !

”Ahh, but... Sometime, my dear, there are things that one needs to do alone. This is one of those things. I am sure daddy will be happy to have your help once things are a bit more safer down there.”

One word of that explanation in particular caught his attention. ”Safe ?” Suddenly, he was both confused and scared. ”Is dangerous ?”

”It might be... Or it might not be. Neither I, or even daddy, really know for sure. But..” His mother's hand moved, caressing his cheek fondly with a feather-light touch. ”Sometimes, one has no choice but to do things that are not quite safe, because not doing them... May end up being even worse.” His mother sounded certain of that very thing, at the very least. He could feel it in the conviction in her voice, which had been lacking until then.

”Kios wants daddy to be okay.” He muttered, crossing his arms over his chest, a vague look of determination replacing near-perpetual sadness.

”As do I, but... We do not know yet. We might not know for some time.” His mother continued, shaking her head and sending some long strands of blue-purple hair free from the rest of her updo. ”We will need to be patient. But then we can go see, and maybe daddy will make a place just for Kios ?”

”Really ??” His eyes widened. His own place, just like he finally had his own room there ?

”I am sure of it, my dear.” Echo said with a smile, ruffling her boy's hairs as she rose once more.

And it was at that moment that he truly noticed just how quiet things were now. This... would require some time to get used to.

 

[A Wandering Esper]

Hide And Seek

Meepfur

"...ninety-eight, nintey-nine, one hundred!" Rio finished counting and pushed back from the tree he'd been leaning against. He blinked his eyes open and peered around, trying to decide where to look for his daughter first. One of the teahouses was nearby, but that was a little obvious...still, it was a place to start, so he headed in that direction.

Zero Dream

If there was one thing she was sure of right now, it was that she needed out - less that all she do be sit back and worry as her imagination kicked on overdrive. It was useless to start worrying now, so the goddess forced herself to action. Well, forced herself outside, violin case in hand, at the very least. She was not quite sure where to go or what to do, though usually she found something, someone to play for and inspire.

Akakios followed closeby, pair of waxed tablets held close to his chest. He had taken to following his mother, where he had mostly followed his father before - but there was no doing that anymore, now that daddy was gone. Beside, he liked this strange outside full of green grass, peaches and ponds, so it all won out.

The boy drifted, however, toward one of the trees. And indeed, talking of peaches... "Mommy !" He called out to his mother, certain that she would hear him, pointing out at the fruit that was out of his reach.

Meepfur

Peaches weren't all that was up in the tree - Adi was up there, too. And the last thing she needed was someone pointing and making noise! She peered down to see who it was, frowning heavily. It wasn't anyone she knew, that was for sure. "Shhh," she hissed, "I'm trying to hide!"

Zero Dream

Akakios seemed rather puzzled, both by seeing someone that seemed roughly the same age as him, and... what was she doing up the tree ? Though, he did remain silent, and let his arm fall down.

"What is-"

"Shhh !" It was the young boy's turn to hiss, hoping his mother would understand.

Echo seemed to grow rather confused, but looked up in turn. There was Adi, but... what was she doing in there ?

She caught a glimpse of Rio - well, she thought it was Love, who seemed to have changed, himself - from the corner of her eyes, and a rather mischievous smile followed...

She rose one hand to catch the peach as he had his back to them, handing it over to her son and trailing away from the tree as if there had been nothing unusual, with her son closeby.

"My, my, and who might be this vision of wonder ?" The goddess asked, leaning against one tree, opposite in direction to the one the young girl had climbed into.

Akakios seemed all the more confused, but said nothing. This seemed Important... And then there was someone else, not quite as scared as uncle Tian Yue, but... he forced himself still instead of shittering off to hide in his mother's skirts. After all, mommy and daddy would not always be there for him to hide behind.

Meepfur

Hey! It was Aunt Echo! Adi beamed down at her when she looked up. So the boy was one of Crys' brothers? Well, either way! For now, she just needed to stay hidden. She could find stuff out later.

Looking for Adi, Rio hadn't expected to find anyone else - much less the goddess of Music! Too delighted to be suspicious, he favored her with a charming grin and a quick bow. "Hello, my lady," he said, and glanced to her son. "And who might this be?"

Zero Dream

Working perfectly as intended, yess...

Nothing showed of that, however, as she covered her expression with a genuine smile, replacing one full of mischief. "That would be Akakios." She said nothing else, leaving it for Love to figure out. "Say hi to Uncle Rio, dear ?"

Another uncle ? He sure seemed to have many ! "Hi." The boy said, rather shyly. He was not quite sure about this... New people were, after all, kind of scary.

Meepfur

"Wonderful to meet you, Akakios." He smiled brightly, his wings fanning out behind him. "I don't suppose you like candy, do you?" Rio was, in fact, already aware that Echo had had children, thanks to meeting Crys.

Zero Dream

Well, that seems to do the trick just fine, as far as getting the boy to be less worried - curiosity trumped shyness rather easily. "Candy ?" He asked, tablets in one hand and whole peach in the other. "Issat like cookies ?"

Meepfur

"A little," he answered, nodding. "It's sweet too, but different." He curled one wing around to break off the tip of a 'feather' to offer to Akakios.

Zero Dream

Moomy was not saying anything - in fact, she was smiling, a rare thing lately, and the last thing he wished to do was break that - so he assumed that it was alight. But... He had no free hand to take the offered piece of candy.

... DILEMMA.

Though the solution had been simple - holding out tablets and peach for his mother to take, then taking a few steps to take the offered piece and give it an experimental lick.

Echo, for her part, only watched the scene unfold while holding her son's precious things and letting the case of her violin on the ground, a rather amused look on her face, though it seemed to be slightly held back by something else... There was a glint of worry in her eyes, these days, that never truly left.

Meepfur

Rio folded his wings again, unbothered as ever that they'd be missing a piece. More often than not, they were missing several - not only were they delicious, it was terribly easy to break them. Adrienne's gummi wings were much more durable, which he supposed was just as well, because if she had breakable wings...well, she'd've been missing most of them more often than not.

"Oh!" He smiled at Echo, noticing the look in her eyes but leaving it be for now. "Would you like some, too?"

Zero Dream

While Lament did not seem to know just what the candy was supposed to taste like - as he had yet to come across a raspberry in his short life - he seemed to decide, quite quickly, that candy was a very good thing indeed, as the piece vent directly into his mouth. "Thank you~" The child chirped.

"As if I could refuse such offer, though I fear for your wings now, since it does seem like Akakios find them delicious." She said with a grin, visibly both endeared and amused by her son, and also quite happy that he had remember to thank Love properly.

Meepfur

"You're welcome!" Rio chirped in reply, before bringing around his other wing to snap a piece off of - at least they'd sort of match - and offer it to Echo, chuckling. "No need to fear for them - they grow back, after all. And it's better than when I break them by accident!"

Zero Dream

"One must think so." She admitted with a grin, sliding the piece of candy into her mouth much like her son had done before her. She had no such problem of wing-breaking, and it seemed none of her children would, either. None of them seemed to have anything remotely resembling wings, ornamental or otherwise. An hidden blessing, perhaps, as such thing would likely get in the way of their playing, at least for the elder two.

Meepfur

Love re-folded his wings, watching Echo eat the candy with a pleased smile. If she weren't happily taken...well, he had Gaia to focus on anyway, provided he could catch her. She was quite literally elusive. But that was neither here nor there, at the moment. "I don't suppose you've seen Adi anywhere? I seem to have lost her."

Zero Dream

"I do not think so, no." It was hard to keep herself from smiling. Music was not the best of liars, but she attempted nonetheless. "I have not seen her anywhere. Have you, Kios ?"

Unlike his mother, the child was quite a bit better at putting an front and looking completely innocent about it. Ha, it was like a game ! Just like when Soto wandered off and tried to hide from daddy ! Oh, oh oh, that was always fun ! He had not heard her name, but it seemed rather evident that Adi had been the girl in the tree, and... "See who ?" He said, candidly.

"Your cousin." The goddess clarified, pretending to bite back a sigh. "A little taller than you, white and furry ?"

"Nuh uh. No see." He announced before taking another lick.

Meepfur

"Well, that's a shame," he said, stroking his beard. "I could have sworn I heard her run this way. You must have just missed each other. Would you like to help me look for her? I'm sure she'd love to meet her cousin, and see her Aunt. She's gotten a little taller since you last saw her, actually."

Listening to people talk about you was a little weird, but fun too. It was like spying! Unfortunately, however, she had a bit of a sneeze coming on, and clamped her hand over her nose to try and keep it in.

Zero Dream

"I think we could find the time to do that, would we ?" The goddess asked, glancing downward at her son once more.

"Hm-hm. Kios find !" And so the boy darted... ...comically, in the opposite direction to the tree where the little wolfgirl was hiding.

Meepfur

With two other people looking, he was bound to find Adi, although he supposed it might be considered cheating. Still, it had a bit of another purpose as well, and he grinned, offering his arm to Echo as Kios darted off. "How have you been, my dear?"

Sneeze successfully stifled, the young girl breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Now all she had to do was be patient and wait to be found - or for Rio to give up, whichever came first.

Zero Dream

The goddess took the offered arm with no hesitation - perhaps it was odd, but she knew that from Rio, of all being, the gesture was more out of gallantry than anything else. She had not been able to keep her smile from fading from her face at the question, however. How was she supposed to answer that ? The last thing she wished to do was damper on his day...

"...Busy." She finally answered, shaking her head. "We are rebuilding, slowly but surely. My songs and my play... give them hope. It is the least I can do..."

Meepfur

It would have been difficult to miss the fading of her smile, or the hesitation before her answer. Rio tilted his head, laying his other hand over hers. He wasn't one to readily leave off after getting an evasive response, not where a friend was concerned. "But something is troubling you?"

Zero Dream

"There are things on my mind, yes... But... It is rather silly of me. It is much too early to worry..." Though, with the sigh that followed, it was clear that the goddess was not quite following what she preached.

But then she knew Rio too well... once it got to that point, he would not let go, so she might as well get out with it. "Nergal left." Came the reply. "To remake his realm. Kios and Ankou have noticed that most of the ghosts closeby have gone, were called but... there was nothinmg since. I have no mean to know what is going on..."

Meepfur

Well, at least Echo and Kishara both seemed to have learned that resistance was futile with Love, at least where honest answers were concerned. If only they were not so stubborn when it came to more - the latter, anyway. The goddess currently on his arm was well off the 'pursuable' list; she had no need of him in such capacities.

"I see." Unfortunately, there was little he could do for her to assuage her worries, only listen and be as encouraging as possible. He doubted she would be easily distracted from them. "He will return in time, I'm sure, though I know that eases nothing." His smile was touched with self-deprecation, an acknowledgement of his helplessness here. "All you can do is believe that he is well, that he will succeed and return to you - he has quite a bit of motivation, after all."

Zero Dream

"See, I told you it was silly." She managed a smile, if only for his own benefit. "There is nothing I can do but wait." At least for now. But the days... seemed to stretch on and on and on, with her unable to truly put her worry for the man she loved aside for more than a few minutes at a time. It was almost suffocating. It couldn't compare to the time where he had been taken - at least, she had very valid reasons to worry then. Now ? None, beside nearly one week passed with no contact. She had been pretty sure that the first thing he would have done was send some kind of contact, if only because he knew she would do exactly this.

...But now she was just making things worse.

"The children are taking it all better than I am." She shook her head, gesturing at her youngest, who continued to run without a care in the world. "How sad is that... ?"

Meepfur

"Well, if you're lonely..." he he offered wickedly, expression playfully suggestive, and laughed. He wasn't serious, of course, being not stupid enough to hit on Nergal's woman and mean it. Not as she wasn't actually interested, anyway.

Returning to actual conversation, he noted, "Children are good at that sort of thing. And there's plenty to distract them now, with a world that's safer to explore."

Zero Dream

Echo's only reaction to the first comment was a grin, and her free hand moving to twap Love on the nose lightly, much like some did to discipline unruly cats or dogs.

"There is, indeed. So many new things to see and discover. So many things for them to learn yet. I have taken from their example and did my best to keep myself busy... Perhaps once things are a little more stable, I could offer lessons..."

Akakios suddenly stopped, pondering for a moment as he slipped a thoughful expression on. They were a bit far from the tree now, but he probably should pretend to be looking... And as such, the boy started heading toward one of the teahouses.

Meepfur

That was dangerous! Quite unable to resist, he nipped at the offending hand, missing intentionally.

"You're all welcome to come and visit anytime you like," he offered. "Adi and I would certainly appreciate the company, and I'm sure she'd be more than happy to share her flowers, if they're interested."

Zero Dream

That seemed to make the lavender-haired godling stop, head tilted toward the adults. "Flowers ?" Hey, liked flowers ! They were very pretty indeed. Like the big red lotuses that were all over the place before. Most of them were gone now, wilted, but there were still a few papers flowers littered there and there.

But Kios liked the real flowers best. Maybe even because they did eventually wilt, and one had to appreciate their beauty before that.

"You are being such a bad boy today, Rio." There was nothing about her that backed the statement as anything bad, so it was quite obvious that it was simply a joke.

"Ah, you had to go and say that, of course. You will have such a hard time getting him out of there now." Echo said, the grin settling on her face and pushing her worried expression aside, for now. It was obvious that her children brought her much joy.

Meepfur

"Which is different from any other day how?" Rio teased, before turning his attention Akakios, whom he'd managed to distract from his hunt. "Well then! If you can find your cousin for me, maybe you can persuade her to show you her work. If you ask nicely, she might even teach you."

Zero Dream

Oh, oh oh oh oh oh o-

Wait. Adi didn't want to be found, at least not yet, did she ?

...DILEMMA. The boy pouted.

"Hmm. I dare say you likely do have a point. Alas, it seems like I must put up with you." Echo gave a rather dramatic sigh, clearly exaggerated.

Meepfur

"You make it sound such a hardship," he observed with chuckle, "But you should try it from my end."

Adrienne's wolfish ears had picked up most of the conversation, and now she was torn. As much as she liked winning at games, showing off her flowers was very exciting. She didn't get to do it nearly often enough!

Zero Dream

"So what, does that mean you admit to barely being able to stand yourself ?" The goddess reached to poke his nose once more, quickly moving out of way before he could do anything about it. There was something about Love, it seemed, that brought out her silly side like nothing - and no one - else did. She could not help but be completely comfortable in his presence.

Dilemma indeed. He really wanted to see her flowers ! "Flowers ?" He asked out loud, a bit louder than his previous words, as a makeshift way to ask if he was allowed to reveal her location.

Meepfur

"That is not what I meant," he refuted, laughing. "Rather, I was referring to the hardship of being in the presence of a beautiful, but unavailable, lady." Not that it was an actual hardship - he was simply being playful, as it was the best method of distraction he had available to him.

It took a moment, but Adi caught on, and shook her branch a little in answer. If he 'found' her, at least she wouldn't have to give up.

Zero Dream

"Ah, my poor dear. Yet there must be so many available ladies around these parts, must it not ? I bet you say the same things to each and every one of them." The tone was mock-accusatory, with a pout to top it off. Yes, it seemed distraction though playfulness did the job just fine.

It seemed the boy had understood, and he made his way toward the tree, slowly - he had to pretend to still be looking, after all, this seemed important - and pretending to be looking there and there.

Meepfur

"As it happens, there are not," he said, with a heavy sigh. "Here I am, finally myself again, with no one to appreciate me properly!" He put on his very best look of despair. "I don't suppose you know anyone?"

Success! The signal sent, Adi waited patiently to be discovered again.

Zero Dream

"That is indeed such a tragedy, my dear." It was hard to tell if she was joking or not, though given how the conversation had been until now... "I am sure there are quite a few mortal ladies that would like to at very least oggle you." She grinned. "Though you may wish to be careful about the Counting Crow... I do not know if her Guide likes to share." Her expression was definitively amused now. Oh, if Rio homed on either of them, and knew she was to blame... Oh, she would never hear the end of it ! Though the prospect was amusing.

Akakios continued on his 'mission', looking like he was simply peering up the trees randomly (or perhaps looking at what had once been the sky) and then, putting his best surprised face, stopped squarely in front of the peach tree.

"Mommy ! Found !"

Meepfur

"Well, if that's the case, I'll just have to let her be," he said with a sigh, sounding very put-upon. "Would you happen to have seen Gaia recently, by any chance?" Rio had seen almost nothing of her since returning her to the Pantheon, and it was somewhat...frustrating.

'Found' at last! Adrienne dropped out of the tree to land softly on her pawfeet, and got her first good look at her cousin. He had pretty hair, and wicked eyes! Maybe not quite as cool as Crys' lack of eyes, but still pretty cool. As for Adi herself, she had indeed gotten taller, as Rio had said; she was getting dangerously close to qualifying as a teenager.

"Hi!" she chirped happily.

Zero Dream

"No, I have not." Echo let out a sigh. She often caught herself wondering how the Mother was doing... But could never seem to see her, or know where she went.

"Hello, Adi." Echo said with a smile, looking at her niece. Ah, she'd grown quite a bit. "If that keeps up, you are going to wind up taller than me soon." The goddess gave a little fake pout.

It wasn't like ending up taller than her was an hard feat, anyway.

"Hiiiiii~" The boy chirped, but his expression barely changed from what it had been. "Adi show flowers ? Please ?"

Meepfur

"Hello!" Adi beamed at Echo, pink-bowed tail wagging happily. "Rio says I'm part weed," she said, giggling. She would have given her aunt a hug, but as she and Akakios were both impatient, she skipped it for now.

Instead, she grabbed her cousin' hand and darted off. "Come on!"

Rio shook his head, laughing. "As long as she doesn't end up taller than me. That would be odd."

Zero Dream

"Part god, part werewolf, and part weed ? That's rather impressive, dear. And you know... just for that, I hope she ends up taller than you. Then we can bond over the woe of being tiny next to our children." Echo said with an amused grin. If the boys were anything like their father on that department... There was little hope of them not beating her in the height department.

"Shall we follow them, then ?"

Indeed, Akakios had already darted after his cousin (whom he had already dubbed the best cousin ever. She had white fur and funny-looking wings and flowers !. Nevermind the fact that he only had one cousin, as far as he knew...), allowing himself to be pulled by the hand.

Meepfur

"Don't forget the vampire," Rio added, laughing, then stuck his tongue out at her. "Misery loves company, hmm?"

"Certainly." His pace, however, was much more sedate than the children's.

Adrienne pulled her cousin up the stairs, then left into the green-doored room Rio had inherited from Uncle Ea. While it might not seem quite so striking now that there were growing things outside again, it was still pretty uniquely lush for being a room. And there were, indeed, quite a few flowers.

Zero Dream

"Oh, indeed it does." Was the answer he got. She honestly felt like she was starting to know a whole lot about this.

The goddess did not seem to be worried when the children zoomed straight up the stairs and out of their view. She was quite sure nothing could really happen to them up there, and the little werewolf would make sure Kios did not touch anything he shouldn't­.

"Oooooh !" The boy stopped a moment to stare. It was still very impressive, it seemed. Flowers and all sort of things growing in a room !

"S'pretty." He said, taking a few steps to look more closely at one of the flowers, not daring to touch it almost as if he feared he might break it. "What kind ?"

Meepfur

Rio almost never worried about his daughter, wherever she happened to wander off to...because, well, she didn't really wander off. The farthest she ever got it into her head to go was Ea's temple, and though she was curious, she usually had enough sense that it didn't put her in danger. Although there had been that time she'd met Destruction, and stuck around to play with him. Still, it had turned out just fine.

"I have a feeling you're going to end up with a flower or two," he mused.

"Snapdragon," Adi answered. "Watch this!" She then crouched down to squeeze one of the flowers just so and make it 'snap.' "That's why they're called snapdragons." The little werewolf was very fond of them, much as Rio was - they warred with the orchids in the trees as his favorite flowers.

Zero Dream

"I have no idea how you could think of such a thing." The goddess said, amused. "Though, I am not very good with taking care of flowers, to be honest..." Her attempts at gardening had been... rather disastrous. But it had been quite a long time ago... Perhaps she ought to give it another try ?

The boy stared, eyes wide, and perked as the flower, indeed, snapped. That was so cool ! "Wow !" It was his turn to crouch and reach to touch the flower as gently as he could, still very much fearing that he might break it, but did not quite squeeze it in the right way to make it 'snap' like the werewolf had done seconds before.

Meepfur

"Most of them aren't terribly hard - they just need a little water, is all. But I suppose we could give you a cactus," he teased.

"Here," Adi giggled, reaching for her cousin's hand to show him how to do it right, "Like this."

Zero Dream

The goddess gave a fake huff, as she entered the room. "I am quite sure I would find a way to mistend even a cactus." Beside, cacti and young, curious children did not exactly add up to an ideal equation in her mind.

"Ohhhh..." He perked when he heard footsteps. "Mommy ! Uncle Tian Yue flower !" And with just the right squeeze, the flower indeed snapped. That never seemed to get old. And it made sense in his mind - his uncle was a dragon after all !

Meepfur

"They are surprisingly difficult to mistend," he said as he closed the door behind them. "Calico is very fond of them, actually. I think she meant to give one to our Lord, at some point." That had been when he was Destruction, but...he didn't feel the need to mention that part.

"Uncle Tian Yue?" Adi tilted her head, curious. The name seemed very vaguely familiar, but it definitely wasn't anyone she'd met. The werewolf had an excellent memory when it came to people.

Zero Dream

"I often do the impossible, it seems." The goddess admitted with a sigh, but seemed to bite back her melancholy once more as she crouched behind the children, careful to not accidentally plant the tip of her heels into something green and alive. "Oh ?" She inquired, watching as the flower snapped. "But it is not the right color. Tian Yue is all purple. Like this." She gave a playful poke at her son's hairs.

"Hm-hm." The boy nodded. "S'My Uncle. Is a dragon." And what a dragon his uncle was ! Tall with a funny scaled, fanned tail and horns and shoulder spikes. It had been easy to first be scared, and then awed. His uncle was certainly impressive.

Though, he decided, Uncle Rio came close too, but for different reasons. Like his nummy wings.

Meepfur

"Now now, my dear," he scolded, wagging his finger, but said no more as she stooped down to see what her son had to show her.

"There's some purple ones," the girl said helpfully, pointing one out. They had just about every color of snapdragon there was. It was what Orin had been planting when Alex had first met him, and her resulting fondness for the flowers had carried over to Rio. As a result, they were the rooms' most populous flower.

"A real dragon? That's awesome!" Adi would have liked to see a real dragon.

Zero Dream

"Hm-n !" The boy nodded. "Not seen all dragon...y though." The boy admitted, looking over at the purple flowers. These looked about right !

At this mention, Echo seemed to make it a point to look at mischievous as possible. "But I certainly have..." Well, not anywhere near recently, but she had a general idea. And from the dragon's own words, the biggest difference was mostly size.

Meepfur

Quite surprised by Music and her mischief, Love couldn't help but laugh. "And here I thought I was the one who was supposed to make innuendos. Have I corrupted you?"

"Would you like one?" Adi asked, sounding hopeful. She didn't really have anyone to share her flowers with, as much as she would have liked to. "What's your favorite color?"

Zero Dream

"If you are so ready to take blame, then it is where I shall lay it." The goddess winked, the irises moving sharply as she allowed a laugh to slip out. Company was good... it helped her focus on other things than her misery.

The godling looked at his mother for a moment, but she was not exactly paying attention. Oh well ! His decision then. And he decided that YES, he wanted one, thank you !

His mommy just had to pay attention.

"Like purple." The boy said. "And... Blue. Red." Colors were among the first things he had learned, carefully named by his mommy's gentle voice. He had yet to find a way to explain them to his sister, though.

Meepfur

"Well, as long as it's not something I'll be getting into any trouble for," he amended, winking back. He might have said 'in trouble with Nergal,' but he didn't want to bring her mood down again.

"Okay!" Adi chirped, hopping to her feet to scuttle into the other room and get a pot - a pot big enough for three snapdragons.

Zero Dream

"How naive for you to think I could not get you in trouble." The goddess grinned, proving the potential mood-dampner had been dodged. Echo pulled aside the front of her skirt in order to sit in the grass near the children. "How do you take care of then, Adi ?" She would make sure these ones did not die, put them in the care of an aoidei if she must, but they would be fine - depending on how much sun the flowers needed to thrive, they might do very well in the garden...

The boy watched on with wide eyes, not once occurring to him to ask such technical questions. Flowers ! He got to have flowers ! Though, he wondered how Adi would get them from the ground to the pot without hurting them...

Meepfur

"They're really easy," Adi answered, settling back down by the flowers and starting to dig out a red snapdragon with her hands. The soil was relatively loose and easy to dig in. "They're supposed to have sun, but...everything seems to be doing okay without it. Water them when their soil gets dry, just enough to make it kinda damp."

Zero Dream

The goddess remained still, scooping her skirt out of the way so the little werewolf could make her way around more easily as she needed. "They will probably do good in the open garden..." Well, it was a garden of sort, full of random greenery, but mostly used and beloved for it's fountain and fresh air.

"Hm-n." The young boy nodded in agreement with his mother, though his attention remained sorely on Adi, and what she was doing.

Meepfur

"Ohh, you have a garden?" Rio asked, curious. He'd always liked flowers, but he'd become especially fond of them in this self. Excited about them, even!

Adi dug the flower out carefully, cradling it in her hands before nesting it gently in the pot. As she moved on to a blue one, she listened attentively for Aunt Echo's answer. She wanted to see her garden!

Zero Dream

"Well, it is a bit like a garden, though there is not much plantlife yet. Your own is certainly much more impressive." She admitted, smiling. "There are some small trees and plants... But I am not sure what they exactly are, beside the rose bushs." She had focused more on making the whole thing into being rather than on specific details. "There is a fountain... And it is open to the elements, not under a roof. It's... more of a zen garden than anything else, really."

Meepfur

"There's Orin and Ea to thank for that," Rio said with a chuckle. "Adi and I maintain it, more than anything."

"What's a zen garden?" Adi asked as she put the second flower in the pot. "Can I see it?"

Zero Dream

"It is... I believe it is more of an asian thing." The goddess said. "A place more focused on relaxation. And of course you can come to see it if you want, though I have already stolen a whole lot of your father's and your's time, hmm ?" Even wrecked their game of hide and seek ! "You can even take one of the roses to transplant here if you wish, though you will need to watch out for thorns..."

Meepfur

"We have lots of time!" Adrienne was quick to assure her aunt, tail wagging fiercely. There was a whole different kind of garden she'd never even heard of before, and she wanted to see it! And then she could tell her father about it, even if he probably already knew what they were. And she could have a rosebush! Rio could make roses, but they were already cut and everything. "Do you have any pink ones? Or yellow ones?"

"Good luck ever getting rid of her now," Rio cautioned his guest, laughing.

Zero Dream

"I think it may be more accurate to for me to say, 'Good luck having your daughter back'" Echo said with a small laugh. After all, who wouldn't want to keep Adrienne ? She had been about to answer the young girl, but she saw her son fidget a bit and said nothing.

"Hn..." The boy thought on for a moment. "Have... pink and red and yellow and white. Kios like white best." Lament said with a sage nod. He wasn't exactly allowed to touch them, thorns and all, but he rather liked to look at them.

Meepfur

"At least I'll know where to go when I want to visit her," he replied with a chuckle.

And red and white? That was awesome! "Pink is my color," Adi explained, pulling on her tail ribbon with her dirty fingers for emphasis, "And yellow is Papa's. Someday I'll have a rose that's both."

Zero Dream

"I see." Echo offered with a smile. "That would make a very lovely gift, would it not ? Or a lovely reminded of the love you hold for each other. I fear I cannot help much, beyond perhaps letting you have a bush of each... I fear I do not know much about flowers."

Lament pondered for a moment, blinking in thought. "They make roses blue 'n black ?" He asked. "Or purple 'n black ?" Or light blue and purple. Or green and purple and blue and black !

That was alot of colors for one flower. Probably not.

Akakios waited as his cousin finished potting the snapdragons, and when she would be done, he would show her his mommy's place.

Meepfur

"Maybe I can use them to make roses that are both!" Of course, she had absolutely no idea how to go about breeding roses, but maybe she could ask Aunt Kishara? Papa would know, but it would be better if it was a surprise...

"There aren't any blue roses," Adi informed her cousin sadly, patting the soil around the newly-potted snapdragons, "Or black ones or green ones. There are some purple ones, though."

Rio smiled quietly, happy to listen to his daughter's conversation and plans. He would have to find a way to help her acquire that pink and yellow rose of hers. Now that it had occurred to her, she'd probably want to breed it, and he had no idea how to do that. Well, a little bit of an idea, but not much of one.

Zero Dream

Akakios seemed both delighted and saddned at once. "Aww..." His small face pulled into a tiny frown before lighting up again, looking up at his mother. "Can have purple roses ?"

Echo gave a chuckle, ruffling her son's curly hair fondly and pretending not to hear his noises of protest. "We shall see."

 

[A Wandering Esper]

Fretting

This wasn't right. This wasn't right at all.

Akakios was watching, silently, as his mother seemed to attempt to busy herself - earlier she was standing, looking blankly out the window. Even earlier she had settled to play, but had not seemed to be able to get any note she liked out of her flute.

And now, she was back to pacing again. Back and forth. This had been happening every night, ever since daddy had left. Lament did not understand just why. He missed his daddy, yes, and his invisible friends... but not like this. Not so much.

Whenever Echo failed to keep her mind busy, this happened. No matter how much she tried to hide it... she could not fool him. Most likely did not fool his siblings either, but especially him. He could feel her sadness, her pain, her worry, the emotions that always threatened to put a frown on her face. He could feel them so clearly that they might just as well have been a tangible thing, that he only had to reach up and touch.

There was...

There was something beautiful about it, he had realized. Something beautiful in his mother's sadness, in her worry, in all these emotions that she barely showed before. Now it was the opposite - she rarely smiled anymore. She only did if there was someone watching her, or something to catch her attention and pull her away from her sorrow

It was beautiful. It... made him want to sing, even if his invisible friends were not there to hear it. He had not sang, ever since they were gone. Lament had yet to sing in presence of actual living beings, his shyness paralyzing him. It was only his father that had heard him sing, only because Kios had not been aware of his presence, leaning against the ajar door and listening, had not been clued by Underworld's approach by his steps, as they were always silent. He wondered how daddy did it... and hoped that one day he would teach him. It sounded very handy.

It also made him want to write, though he knew so little words to do so. The urge was maddening almost, barely able to be repressed in spite of having so little tools - words - to work with.

No one else seemed to find beauty in sadness, loss, emptiness... But he did. He did not find it odd - he simply found it beautiful, and that was all there was to it. He always seemed to find beauty in what others disliked. He was okay with that.

But that did not make it any more right to see it mirrored on his mother's elegant face. His mother was meant to laugh, to smile, to sing, to dance, to peck kisses at the tip of the wet noses of kittens, or trailing them just where daddy's hairs started... (he had seen such thing once, when they had forgotten to close the door, and... quietly made himself scarce)

His mother was meant to be happy, not to worry like this about things that even the young boy knew she could not change.

It was alright for Kios to look downcast, to be carefully aware of things around him, to find beauty in tragedy, to rarely ever smile. He was okay with him feeling and acting like that. It was all fine. It may be creepy for others, but he accepted those things as how he was, not yet knowing that these where due mostly to the things he represented - laments were, after all, sad stories, beauty in tragedy... but the boy was not aware of that just yet.

All that he knew was that this was not what his mother was. Who she needed to be. That this, beautiful as he found it, was eating her inside, leaving her acting like merely a part of what she was. She was still his mother, beloved like nothing else, but she was barely herself anymore.

This was not right.

But Lament did not know how to fix it.  

[A Wandering Esper]

Shinies For Mum

((Note - There is more to this rp, but only the bits relevant to Echo and Kios have been logged. The full version will be in Soto's journal.))

Reyna Crelos

Soto was still and quiet. Both things were quite odd if not a bit disturbing given the child's usual demeanor. The only movement that came from his form was that of his brightly glowing wisp-like eyes that were carefully following the elegant form of his worried mother. Occasionally he would sigh softly when she did, or his brow would furrow with worry when she happened to look upset for the briefest, flickering moment. Eventually, he became restless as he was often wont to do. Without much warning, save for the barely there sound of his feet landing upon the floor, he jumped up and ran to his mother.

He offered her the brightest of his brash grins and threw his arms about her delicate waist. Had he only been a little older, he likely would have picked her up and swung her around the way he would his beloved sister. "Mum!" he announced as he nuzzled over against her side and all but threw himself into her arms. "It be okay," he told her before repeating in a more insistent tone, "It be okay."

Zero Dream

Soto was not the only one to watch his mother's movements carefully - Kios did, as well, from where he was sitting, golden eyes going back and forth as he leaned against his sister, clearly a bit upset by the turn of events, tiny brow furrowed in a way that did not match his father or older brother, but indeed got the point across.

He glanced at his older brother silently before he went, deep in thought. This was not right... this was not right at all. He did not like this. There had to be something they could do, right ?

And if someone was to know, it would be Soto, of course. Maybe mommy needed a puppy... ?

She was pacing again. The goddess had not even noticed it, just like the other times this day. It seemed that as long as she could keep herself busy, to keep her mind focused on something, anything but her future husband and the fact that there are yet been no news, all was well.

But the second she had nothing to do, nothing to truly focus on... she simply started up again.

It was the grip on her waist that stopped her, one hand moving to run though her eldest's hairs before she moved to sit so he could reach toward her face if he wished. It... was better than pacing, she figured.

Her children seemed to all be taking it much better than she did. They were the ones handling it right, of course. Then why couldn't she do the same ? She tried... but it was hard to just let go.

Though... She knew all too well that she had to. "I know, my dear. You're right." She offered with a smile - strained but genuine. "Mommy knows all that in her head, but it's like her heart does not... I am sorry, my dear."

Reyna Crelos

Little Guardian huffed a bit and waived his hand in a nonchalant way as though to indicate to his mother that she was indeed being silly without outright telling her she was being silly. "No being sorry, Mum. Why sorry? No need for," he murmured sweetly as he leaned into her hands and wiggled closer to her. He hummed quietly under his breath some aimless tune before reaching to pet at her hair in return. It seemed like a good idea. It certainly lent him comfort when he was upset and making pouty faces like his mum.

His humming turned into an odd, half disjointed mumbling sort of song. He was not nearly so musically inclined as his brother, or even his sister, but it hardly seemed to matter that he come up with words. His mother would know what he meant just fine. "Would find you shines," he sing-songed in a loving voice, "Too make you smile."

Zero Dream

"I am indeed being very silly." It seemed the goddess had guessed, even thought he had not said so outright - one hand traveled upward to pluck the pins that held her hair in place, sending it falling down, blue and purple strands shifting much like small waves. every time she did but the smallest movement.

"But who needs shinies to smile... She joined in, smile more genuine and clearly touched by Guardian's care. "When the greatest treasures surround me daily ?" The goddess trailed a finger on his cheek, lightly.

Reyna Crelos

Sotiris continued to hum happily, infinitely pleased with himself that his mother had taken up his song and made it that much better. He reached for her soft waves of hair and began to gently plate tiny braids into his hair. He had become rather adept at it from watching his father do the same to both his mother and Chrys' hair -- but Lady Music did not shriek at the prospect of having her hair braided.

"Would bring you shines," he murmured again, trying to follow her far more elegant tune, "For smiles and laughs. So mother might shine prettifulll-y."

Thabara

Crys remained snuggled against her younger brother for most of the time, but she was listening closely. Nothing escaped her sharp senses – their mother's restles pacing, the faind sounds the goddess' robes and golden strings caused as they rustled across the floor, the silmutaneous sighs she and Sotiris heaved …

It had been hard to not notice their mother's growing distress, even for her. Least of all for her, perhaps, for there was a certain air about the goddess of music, faint, but familiar. The air of loss. As if she was afraid that daddy might never come back.

The young Grief frowned. That seemed ridiculous. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't imagine anything that would keep their parents parted for long. Sometimes daddy was busy, which meant he stayed away for a few days. And to make a place for all the many dead people just meant he would be very busy, possibly turning days into weeks. Maybe she could ask aunt Cosine to figure out how long he'd be gone.

Zero Dream

Echo did her best to stay as still as possible, in order not to hinder her son's careful work if she could avoid doing so. She had no idea he knew how to braid... well, he had not picked that from her, that much was certain. Her own skill with hair left much to be desired, it would seem.

"I would shine for you, beautiful and true, my dear." She hummed in return. "Smile and laugh for you. With you. Will you one day show me the best-guarded wonders of this world, little Guardian ? For perhaps the best treasures are sweet memories..."

Seeing his mother happy once more - even though he could still feel her sadness, her worry rooted deep inside of her heart, persistent, pulsing, almost as if calling to him - seemed to settle the youngest child somewhat, though he did not leave his sister's side for the moment. It was Soto's moment, not his. At least not yet. He was glad, more than anything, that he could make their mother forget her anxieties, if only for one moment.

"S'not right." He whispered into his sister's sensitive ear. She would know what he meant - she felt it too, this feeling, would she not ? She always did. They often felt similar things at the same time, though differently.

Mommy was supposed to smile, to laugh, to sing, to dance, to play... not to be worried about things she ought not to be worried about. Even he had stopped doing so and accepted the occurrence as something that had needed to happen, and that things would one day settle and that all would be well.

Then why couldn't she ? Adults... could be so silly.

Thabara

Crys' fingers shifted to intertwine with those of her younger brother's, as if she had sensed some of what was going through his mind, and she nodded. Sad songs and sighs, these were for her and her brother, not for their mother. Maybe if they brought her gifts, like their father had, that would cheer her up? For now, however, Soto's disharmonic sing-song seemed to do the job just right.

Reyna Crelos

Sotiris chuckled quietly as he nuzzled over against his mother as he listened to her beautiful voice sing. His eyes drifted half closed in his contentment. "Of course would find treasure and shines for you!" he declared outright, "For ever and ever find things for my mum."

He turned to face her with an air of seriousness and a smirk on his face as he held her face between his hands, fingertips threading through her long locks at her temples. "Will find you a treasure. For cheering." He kissed her forehead and skittered away with a skip to his step, tail wagging in his excitement as he went to fetch the small satchel he had claimed as his own.

It was time for some es'ploring!

Zero Dream

And Echo did little to stop him, a smile on her face as she watched her eldest skitter off. After all, she had talked over this for quite a length of time with the three of them - they could go as they wished, on their own, as long as they did not leave the pantheon. She knew very well that nothing too bad could happen to them here, under Creation's watchful eyes. They were allowed to go beyond that only if they had someone accompanying them, and if she heard wind of this not being respected... then there would be consequences. She had not spoken of just what, but she had seemed rather serious. Lacrymosa and Akakios, she fully expected to listen, but Sotiris... was another matter.

But she had a trump card for that.

That trump card, in fact, was laying against the wall beside the door and, by all appearances, taking a nap, though the familiar sound of the footsteps of her young master made one black, smoke-trailing ear perk up, and by the time Sotiris would exit, Shima would be sitting, tail wagging and greeting him with a wuff.

Where were they going today ?

Reyna Crelos

The little godling had enough presence of mind to pause near the door and pet Shima atop her head fondly. It would require effort, but he figured he could probably escape her if he put his mind to it. Given the circumstances, however, he wasn't exactly intent on causing his mother any sort of worry. She was already distraught enough. He wasn't about to add to it; at least not while he was in her presence and blatantly within both plain sight and hearing range.

"Okay, Mum," he declared, tail still wagging behind him with pent up excitement, "Will be back with Puppy to bring you shines." He darted forward quickly to hug his sister and kiss her cheek before whispering quietly, "Will bring you things, too, Sis." He pat Kios' atop his head and nodded towards him with a sort of knowing glance. While his youngest sibling got on his nerves with his constant cuteness, he at least knew they were on the same page. Plus, he made for an excellent cohort.

"Come on Shima-puppy," he murmured with a grin as he skipped out the door before taking off at a run while cackling with glee. "Race youuuuu~uuu," his voice echoed down the hallway back to his mother and siblings.

Zero Dream

"Be careful, now." Echo said with a smile.

Kios only nodded in answer to his elder brother. They were, indeed, on the same page on this one. Something needed to be done to cheer their mother up again... and Lament was not especially good at cheering. It was simply not in his base nature.

But Soto would find something. He was sure of it. He and Crys could stay here and watch over mommy.

Shima's smoky tail kept on wagging, the shapeshifter acting much more like a puppy than the large shadow-beast she looked to be in reality, awaiting to see where her young master wished to go today.

When the green godling suddenly went into a run, she was quick the rush behind him, carefully maneuvering around the door frame and stairs without colliding into anything, though it looked like she was intentionally keeping him ahead.

 

[A Wandering Esper]

He Who Knows The Secrets Of The World

Zero Dream

Ever since daddy had left, things hadn't quite been the same. Mommy was clearly worried, even if she tried to hide it. He could tell. But for now, he had left her in the careful watch of his siblings and had retraced most of his father's daily steps without the small boy realizing he was doing so.

He had headed straight to the library, holding the pair of wax tablets and the stylus close to his chest, then peering upward and taking one of the books that had resisted the near-apocalypse, balancing it onto the tablets and making his way to the small table. He looked to be alone - at least at first glance - and he sat, sprawling the tablets nearly and opening the book to a random page. Daddy had just barely shown him anything, he knew at the very least that much - and he would hate to bother his mother when she so clearly had other things on her mind.

So, he figured, he could just try to copy words and learn on his own, right ?

...Only it did not quite work that way - his face pulled into a tiny frown as he looked over the books, and noticed that most of the words he did not know. He just might as well be staring at gibberish, and while he could indeed copy the words just fine, that did not bring any understanding as to what they meant.

The godling have a small frustrated mumble, and tried again. And again. And again...

XiaoRen

It was usually so quiet in the Great Library now. His worshippers had all gone, fled or dead, and what had he done for them? None of his efforts here had come to fruition. His attention and heart had been elsewhere and it showed. Well, Revei and Endiovar weren't going anywhere. And he was decided, this would be his University. The failure was in him, and moving locations would be meaningless. If anything there was a symbolic element to cleaning the rot away and starting fresh. If there weren't that many books, it didn't matter. He could lecture.

He had his sleeves rolled to the elbow and his arms were black with grime. He reached into another pile to fish out a golden tablet. It was heavy, and he labored with it back up the stairs to the entryway, where he had been moving all the tomes that had survived. There was something poignant about people having to dig for the answers they wanted, but a bit too literal. This way the tokens of Knowledge's continued existence were there for any who wanted them.

There weren't doors anymore, they had crumbled under Yu's claws. He liked it better this way. Now fresh air filled the room, and the way in was always open. It didn't matter if some weather got in. Any tablets that had survived the Week of Decay weren't going to flinch at a little rain.

He didn't even notice the godling at first. He had the tablet propped on his stomach, his wings out straight for balance, and his feet braced wide as he walked. From the front he looked like a slab of gold with hiked up robes, skinny dirty calves, and sandles. He dropped it by the wall with an "oof" then startled when he turned to see wide eyes.

"Oh!" his own matched the shape. ::Nergal's child! Nergal had children?:: The fact was plain before him, he might have known even if he were someone else. This one had his father's face. "Nergal had..." It was as shocking to him as his own liasons would be to anyone who had known him before.

Zero Dream

At first, Knowledge's movements and dragging of heavy tablets were not enough to catch the young child's attention - as he bit the bottom of his lips in frustration, bare-footed legs kicking at the chair. This... clearly wasn't working out as planned. It hadn't looked that hard before !

Ugggh.

It was only when Knowledge spoke that the lavender-haired godling became aware of his presence, making the leg-kicking stop completely, and his head tilt, sending curly locks to frame his face as he gave Gianfar a look full of curiosity. "Daddy what ?"

XiaoRen

“He…” Images of Nergal’s ever downturned white lips…kissing, his ramrod body…naked. Gianfar blinked down at the youth, too caught in fascination to respond. Gods could have children alone, but there was someone else in the sweetness of the boy’s face. Who took on Nergal? Shock made the thought flee, the way names will when meeting someone unexpectedly. He couldn’t catch the fact.

“Daddy.” It became its own sentence. Someone called Nergal daddy. “…has bequeathed his image and power through another into this world, like light fractured through a crystal. The new shapes and colors are product of light and crystal both, without diminishing either. And that new color is…you.”

Just that, or 'those'?

“What is your name? Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Who is your mother…other father?

He came over to crouch by the boy, making himself lower as he wasn’t seated. His own curls framed his face and his head tilted much the same. “My name is Gianfar, and this is my Library. I am impressed you…read Sanskrit?” It was a little playful, the boy was obviously having difficulty.

Zero Dream

... ... ?

Clearly, Gianfar had lost the young boy somewhere in that elaborate, fancy explanation, if the rather blank look on the boy's face was to be any indication. He wasn't even sure what a crystal was.

But that was easy to get over once the pale man started asking questions he could, in fact understand. "'m Akakios." The name was pronounced rather awkwardly, as if it was not spoken on the young tongue often. "Kios has one big brother, one big sister~ Soto 'n Crys."

He tilted his head to look back at the book, tiny brow furrowing. It looked much too mature to fit the face, but yet somehow endearing.

"Sans-what ?" Clearly, all this stuff was much easier when daddy was here. The boy pouted.

XiaoRen

It went right over the boy’s head as he had intended and they were on safe paths. The procreation of the gods was a complex metaphysical mystery rendered into a simple physical act – varied as that act could be. For now that mystery was boring to this child. Someday this keen, pale-eyed curiosity would turn that way and then…then Nergal would have to explain it to him.

Gianfar kept a straight face, lest the boy be annoyed at jokes he wouldn’t understand, but his eyes crinkled and glittered. Ah, if only he and Harmodius were on better terms, he would like to share this amusement. It was Creation’s joke after all.

“Sanskrit. That’s the name of this language.” He tapped the tablet with a dirty finger. “There are many. Have you ever heard someone speak anything besides the common tongue of the gods? Mortals have all kinds of languages. Most of the books here are actually by mortals and about mortals. Since they die, and go on to your father's realm, they have to write things down for other people to remember. Your father is lucky. He can ask them their stories face to face. Do you like stories?"

Zero Dream

"Oh..." He hadn't thought about that. ...Did that mean that he needed to learn all of them ?

.... This could be rather complicated. Though, there was some comfort that the reason he could not make heads or tails of it was that he took the wrong ones. But how was he supposed to know which one was the right one ?

Auuugh.

The boy seemed to go from slightly annoyed to rather pensive then. "Kios no think so...." He admitted - everyone had spoken words that he mostly understood so far. "...But Kios like stories !" The boy perked up, eyes shining. Clearly, Gianfar had his attention now. "Invi..." He stopped himself. "Ghosts tell Kios stories too sometime. Used to." They were gone now, after all. He'd gotten used to the relative silence, but at first it had been odd.

XiaoRen

"Did they?" It wasn't surprising but it was interesting. What sort of little god was this? A guide to the dead, a guardian? A guide would be exploring, a guardian would be closer to Nergal, walking among the dead. This boy was here, in his domain, wanting to learn languages. "Did ghosts talk to Crys and Soto too? Or just you? Do the dead want you to know their stories?"

Nergal must be incredibly busy. Gianfar hadn't been paying attention to what was going on with Underworld. The Void had taken many, unmaking them. But war, disease, drought, flood, and fire had taken more. If the ghosts had suddenly stopped talking it meant that Nergal had gathered them. If he was inundated with dead, that would leave the raising of 3 to the other parent. They might not have time for a young god's education. It would be a favor to them.

Gianfar wouldn't admit to himself how much he needed a student.

"I like stories. Tell you what, I'll trade you stories. I know LOTS. You can tell me any story and I'll tell you one in return. I'd love to hear about your parents and your siblings, and about the stories the ghosts told you. When did they stop?" He stressed the pronouns to see if the boy would pick up on it. Talking in 3rd person meant giving something of yourself away to everyone you met. Even if it was only a nickname.

Speaking would have to come along with writing.

Zero Dream

The boy looked pensive once more. "...Sometime ago." That was rather vague indeed, but not intentionally - he simply had no idea in terms of days... hours... minutes. "When daddy left. To make his place." They had left in turn that night. Had been called, they had said.

"......Kios thinks ghost only spoke to him." Slight hesitation and one right - some progress, perhaps ? At least, it was more than Echo ever achieved with her own gentle corrections. Something about the god in front of him just seemed to catch his attention, and make him focus. "Crys 'n Soto.. never said 'nything about it. Mommy hears 'nything but them." This was what he believed, as his mother's keen hearing seemed to catch anything - even Soto trying to sneak out most of the time. Though he had not needed to do that much lately, as Echo tended to let them go wherever they wished as long as they did not exit the pantheon.

"Ghosts want Kios to hear stories. And sing. Makes them calmer ?" They sure had seemed to enjoy it, at any rate. "Ghosts followed Kios' voice to daddy." But singing... well, he did not hate it, but the idea of doing it in front of many many people, especially those he could see... was rather petrifying. But there had been something about those words his father had taught him... something inviting. Like a siren's song.

"Daddy started showing Kios writing." The boy said, eyes holding a rather deep sadness. "But then daddy had to go... Mommy very sad. Doesn't play her things that make noise much 'nymore." Oh, he missed the sound of his mother's violin... "She busy lots, with Soto 'n Crys 'n Kios 'n other people... Would rather not busy mommy more. Kios though could do it alone but..." The boy made a face, and poked at the tablets with the tip of his stylus.

Clearly, from his expression, that was not quite working out.

XiaoRen

The little rough hewn words weren’t enough, stacked on their own, to build a story, but deduction mortared the cracks.

Music. Music was the one. A gauge in his brain lifted from “pleasant entertainer” to “inherently intimidating” and filed her there. Nergal had either gone to create the Underworld anew, or to put it in order - since “make” could mean that too. Music was left with the children and didn’t even have time to play, which said how upset she was. And this little god of Lament, possibly Solace, needed to learn his letters.

He pushed his glasses up his nose, left a dirty stripe, realized (this time), and wiped it off with his stole. “Well now. That was at least three stories. It seems I owe you.”

Lifting the Sanskrit text from the floor he stood and held it up, considering it like a wine. “Once I was a great teacher, and had as many students as there were stars…” He cut off. Had Kios ever seen stars? It was hard to tell how old a god was by looking at them. Lucius If this really was the god of Lament here, sad stories were the best to tell him. But Gianfar wasn’t ready to tell that one. “And now I have none. No, not this.” He put the Sanskrit back onto the shelf, then walked back to Kios and considered the boy in similar manner.

“Then a boy named Kios walked into my Library with a great hunger in him. Not in his stomach…here.” He put a smudge between Kios’s eyes with a tap of his forefinger. “Tell me how the story ends. Would you like to come here every day and talk about stories? I could teach you how to read all these symbols, every one in here, but you would have to do things my way, even when it wasn’t fun.”

Zero Dream

And the boy listened, wide-eyed and interested. He sure acted the part of the perfect little student - attentive and calm, looking much like the kind that could sit and listen to Knowledge for hours without getting bored, or getting too distracted. There was a glimmer in those eyes, of unspoken questions, small lips twitching but kept still, not once interrupting the god even if it seemed that the want was definitively there. Where had all those students gone, he wondered ? The mention of stars reminded him of what he should be doing, of what Creation has asked Daddy, who then had asked both him and his sister in turn.

But he didn't have enough information to do it right, and no knowledge of just how to do it... of the letters he would have to use...

The boy did not seem to notice the spot on his face (thankfully so, else he would have most likely darted off at once to wash it off) "Gianfar would ?" The boy asked, eyes still wide. That would probably be best, as he had no idea where to even start on all this.

After that moment of thought, he nodded. "Yes. Kios would."

XiaoRen

Those earnest eyes, the irises so stark against dark sclera, gave Gianfar a rush. A young god. How many had even been born since the gods had first been called back through gem and host? (7, the answer came to him.) This immortal, powerful mind, without the scars of past life or the imprint of a mortal host, was a flawless parchment. The opening paragraphs were all that Nergal and …Echo, that was her name…had written there, but new lines were about to be scribed there in his own hand. He wasn’t the sort to get off on power but…well he was a god. In this moment he felt like one. Of course he would be careful with his words and respect the patterns already present in the boy, but like a Japanese garden he knew that things came into natural perfection and balance only though careful pruning and support.

“Gianfar would…” he unthinkingly repeated the third person, mind distant in pleasure, seeing a strapping tall god with hair long and soft as the river Lethe, singing the memories of ages so that people would come from worlds away to hear. Kios’s voice would be a bait to lure them, a venom to paralyze them where they stood, a medicine to lance and wash their wounds, not books but oration, knowledge poured into ears too rapt in sorrow to close against the flood.

He blinked, and the god was cute and small before him, with an endearing smudge between his eyes. “And now I have one student. You are very well prepared, bringing your stylus and tablet to class without me even asking you.” His tone was playful again, recovering from his moment. He remembered pronouns. “But I have come unprepared. The books we will be wanting aren’t here. I think it would make the most sense to learn the common tongue of the gods first, and the only books that are legibly written in that language are Tian Yue’s.” They were his journals in fact. Gianfar had mountains of his own journals, but he doubted anyone could read them but him. He switched languages as he wrote, to whatever seemed to best suit the subject, and his handwriting was terrible in all of them.

“So why don’t you choose the place you would most like to have class, it doesn’t have to be in here, and I’ll go…borrow those books.” He didn’t know if Tian Yue was around, but either way there couldn’t be any harm in sneaking in and stealing some books. Tian Yue would understand...probably.

Zero Dream

The little godling was left rather perplexed. What was... ?

No, it seemed, the boy noticed as he tilted his head to peer curiously. Gianfar was looking though him, not at him. Oh odd ! Kios was not like daddy's wings, that you could see things though, no.

And thus, Gianfar would return to the present to a rather amused, yet still subdued godling glancing at him curiously, stylus still in one hand. The first comment was met by the first thing Knowledge would see on the boy's face that resembled a smile - but it was not, not really, not with his eyes being yet so heavy. It was more like contentment. He was doing good !

The name, in perticular, seemed to catch his attention. "Uncle Tian Yue ?" He perked upward again. Then the hesitation, again, before a careful addition was made. "I not seen in awhile ?"

He nodded, though. "Hmm..." The boy pondered. He liked it here, it was all nice and calm. He liked Outside, too, but he was not sure Gianfar would. Alot of people did not like outside much because there was no sky... No Lucius anymore ? Hm.

"Kios wait here." Oh, well. There had been at least progress.

XiaoRen

Gianfar walked out with grave dignity…until he was out of sight. Then he gave a hop step, snapped out his wings, and glided. He had been choking down this giddy wellness, not wanting to rejoice that things were returning to how they had been. Now he dropped the pretense. The grass was thick and soft on his feet where they brushed the earth, and he had a student!

He burst into Revei’s room (if it could be called just Revei’s room anymore), and past his lovers without a word. His robes flew from the bathing room door, catching the air a moment like a tatty brown ghost, to land crumpled on the common space floor. Then sounds of water and fluttering wings, suspiciously like a bird in a puddle. He emerged moments later, clean and naked, and grabbed one of Revei’s sarongs, wrapping it like a toga as he walked out of the room. Thus clad in uncharacteristic color and still dripping he went padding through the halls to Tian Yue’s room.

…and returned to Kios with an armful of scrolls and heavy, leatherbound journals. His curls were heavy and silverwet, and his wings poofy, all the feathers flexed to dry. There was an air of mischief about him.　He laid the journals out on a clean shelf and then brought one over.

“Your uncle Tian Yue has very nice handwriting. It is easy to see the letters apart from each other. Let’s start with…this.”

Zero Dream

And the child was at the very same spot he had been when Knowledge had left the library, most likely keeping himself busy with observing the tabet. He could not understand a word of it, of course, but apparently that did not make any less shiny to look it.

When his teacher returned, however, Lament straightened himself as much as he could on his chair, right hand going for his stylus. He was ready~ !

It looked like he was gonna make a comment about Gianfar no longer being dirty, but that was adverted by the mention on his uncle's handwriting. Akakios peered over to the side to see.

And he stayed, watched, listened, learned, until even his energy finally gave out - and was returned back to his room by his mother, once she came looking for him.

 

[A Wandering Esper]

A Gift For Mommy

Adults mystified Akakios sometimes.

Not that he was complaining about this turn of events, of course - he had a teacher now, and to top it all off, mommy looked like she was doing better. Not the only when someone's looking better. Real better. The beautiful air of sadness around her... Well, no, it was not gone, but it certainly wasn't as bad as it was. Any improvement was good, right ? Right.

After all, mommy was meant to act like mommy, and not act more like if she was him.

Soto's present had to had worked. After all, what else could cheer up mommy all of sudden just like that ? Though...

The boy laid on his bed, poking at the open notebook with the tip of the fountain pen. One thing he quickly figured out was that he did not like those kind of weird pens. They flowed oddly on paper, and was awkward to use. He much preferred his stylus, or a good old feather and ink pot if he was to write on paper. He did not write on paper often, since mommy had told him paper was a very precious thing he needed to treasure because there wasn't alot of it anymore.

Which made no sense because all he had to do was think about it and there had been many many books full of blank paper in his room...

Though this was not the point. No, he'd been working on a gift for mommy on his own, just in the very unlikely case that his older brother's did not quite do the trick. It also made him practice his writing even when Gianfar wasn't there. Lament figured he could do that without really doing anything specific other than writing down letters, but it was much better to do something 'real' with the words. But now... what did it do with it ? Did he give him to his mother anyway ? It sounded like a good idea, but...

He had wanted to write something nice and happy. Something to make her smile. But he... he couldn't. Either the words did not come to him, or he hated the end result so much he could not bear to have anyone see it. Ever.

But he had started, so he might as well finish, should he not ? But... Nggghhh. Eventually, the boy seemed to give up, and simply scribble like she wanted to write. Ahhh, this... was better. But would it make his mother happy ? Most likely not. And such, the young Lament swallowed what little pride he had and added a few more sentences. He... could live with this, he figured.

As long as mommy was the only one to read it.

He flipped to another sheet, copying it again as neatly as he could before ripping the sheet gently and folding it, getting up from his bed to climb up and peer outside his room.

No one.

And thus, as quietly as he could manage, Akakios tip-toed his way to his mommy's music room, hiding the sheet into one of the instrument case before scurrying off to his room again.

There. Only his mommy would find it here.

Quote:

Storm outside
Rain fall
People cry
Flower pretty then fade.

Then stop rain
Mommy smile again.

Kios ♥ Mommy, smile !

 

[A Wandering Esper]

With Letters Come Numbers

Zero Dream

He was doing good... at least he hoped. He had been quite lucky that Gianfar had come to him - he would have had no idea where to start otherwise, and Knowledge made it all look so easy.

However, there were days where Gianfar had other things to do. The boy accepted this and did not fuss about it - outwardly, anyway - which left him to his lonesome on some days.

Though, he wondered. They had not quite gotten to numbers yet. Numbers. Counting. Crys knew how to count already, as she loved to demonstate. That was Aunt Cosine, was it not ? Hm.

The little godling found himself staring at his uncle's door for some time, before finally raising a tiny fist to knock. If she was busy, then maybe he could go outside and see if Adi was there to play with...

midnight_medea

Cosine was indeed in the room and she was not entirely busy. Her things had been moved from her room in the inn and her aoide had joined her, one of the twins. The other, Zero, remained with the desert tribe to help keep them safe.

Now it was a matter of figuring out where her things could go, which made her nervous as it did not feel lik her room. At the knock she looked up and made her way over to the door, slowly she pulled it open and looked down at the young godling with a smile.
"Kios, hello." She said gently, opening the door further so he might come in. "I am afraid your uncle it not here."

Zero Dream

"S'okay." The boy said lightly, padding his way inside and peering at his aunt. "Came to see you... Busy ?" The young boy asked, fidgeting with his bundled pair of wax tablet. "I wonde-wonda-" He stumbled over the word, and made a face. It was one of the words Gianfar had taught him - a fancy way to say that he wanted to know something. "Wanted to know if could teach count, like Crys... ? Please ?"

That would certainly surprise Knowledge, that he already knew his numbers. Akakios liked it when Gianfar was surprised, or smiled - it usually meant he was doing good.

midnight_medea

Cosine watched the little one with a smile and closed the door behind him.
"No I am not busy." She said, following him hrough to the main part of the apartment and smiled more as she stated what it was he wanted from her.
"To count?" It was a simple request and one she could easily honour. "Of course, why don't you get comfy and I'll be right back." She gestured to a fixed up couch and disappeared into the bedroom for a few moments. When she returned she was carrying her abacus.
"Well." She said, sitting next to him and smiling. "Counting is very easy you know."

Zero Dream

The boy did as he was told, flopping onto the couch and laying his pair of tablets on his knees, little legs going back and forth and hitting the couch with a barely audible thud, and waited calmly for his aunt to return.

When she did, he peered up curiously at the abascus. What was that ?

midnight_medea

Cosine smiled and placed the abacus on her lap.
"This is an abacus. You can use it for counting." She said, holding it up so that he could get a good look. It was made from a dark wood with swirling glass beads. She lifted up a slender finger and slid one of the beads up a metal rod.
"This is one." she then held up her finger. "This is also one." Her finger moved to point to him. "You are also one. It is the first number."

Zero Dream

The boy listened, captivated, and just barely repressing the urge to reach out and touch the glass beads. It was so pretty !

"Is first ?" He repeated. "Must be very important." The child said with a nod, leaning against the top of his tablets, his attention completely focused on what his aunt had to teach him.

Zero Dream

The boy listened, captivated, and just barely repressing the urge to reach out and touch the glass beads. It was so pretty !

"Is first ?" He repeated. "Must be very important." The child said with a nod, leaning against the top of his tablets, his attention completely focused on what his aunt had to teach him.

Zero Dream

One plus one made two. The boy held up two fingers and glanced over at them in thought. Hm. Two of the same thing making something different ? It seemed odd, but Cosine knew better than he did, and he trusted her completely.

Balance seemed to make sense, however. If you had one thing on one side and another on the other, then that was balanced, right ?

midnight_medea

"You can ask me questions if you like." She suggested with a smile before looking back down to her abacus. "See this." she pointed to the next bead and held the abacus out. "You can move that one. We call it three. One, two, three."

Zero Dream

The boy knew this, of course, but he seemed rather content to simply listen for the moment. Questions could wait until there was something he couldn't figure out himself. That was half the fun after all.

As the third glass bead went to the other side, another of the boy's fingers rose, and then, with the other hand, he pointed, going from left to right. "One. Two. Three ?" Was he doing this right ?

midnight_medea

Cosine nodded encouragingly.
"Yes, that's good, very good." She pushed one more up. "This is four. One, two three four." About to launch into a discussion on odds and evens she stopped herself. He was just a child, there was no sense in teaching him too much. There would be plenty of time for detailed explainations. "Then after that comes five."

Zero Dream

The child did his best to follow along, counting down on his fingers. Oop, no more space on that hand ! "So... Hand has five fingers ?" Did everyone had five, or was it like wings and tails and other things that some people had that other did not ? Both his parents had wings, and even Aunt Cosine and Uncle Ankou had wings, but he didn't have wings. Neither did any of his sibilings ! And mommy had a tail, an odd one with stings. Soto had a tail, like a puppy ! But Crys and him did not have any. And neither did daddy. Hm.

Interesting. Of course, there was this thing called genetics (or lack thereof) that he was overlooking completely.

midnight_medea

Cosine smiled and nodded.
"It does. Hmm." she thought for a few moments about how she had taught Crys to count. He was a child of music after all, Lament. A song might be more helpful for him.
"How about a rhyme, then you can sing the numbers. Does that sound like fun?"

Zero Dream

"What's a rhyme ?" The question came out a mere second after the goddess of Numbers had started speaking, the boy peering up at her with those odd, yet interested eyes. He'd never heard that word before ! He liked learning about new words. And new numbers. Well, new things in general.

He... had never sang in front of anyone that he could actually see. At least not in purpose. The prospect seemed... a little intimidating. Fun, but intimidating.

midnight_medea

"What's a rhyme?" The goddess laughed, shifting to get a little more comfy and placing her abacus to one side. "Well, it's sort of like a song. I'll show you, though you have to forgive me I do not sing well."

She smiled and shifted to face him.
"One, two buckle my shoe, three, four knock at the door. five, six, pick up sticks" as she sang the numbers she held up each finger to show him each number.

Zero Dream

The young boy listened the best he could, even doing at attempt to raise the right number of fingers as she did, almost turning it into some kind of game. Though that seemed to be a little too fast for him just yet as he found himself basically stumbling over his own fingers a few times, especially with the bigger numbers that required more of them.

And that had been so a lie. She didn't sing as well as his mommy (but then, who could ?) but his aunt sang very well indeed.

midnight_medea

Cosine smiled as she watched him try to count along with her.

"Okay, let's try together. One, two, bucklr my shoe." She said the words slowly so that he would have time to catch them and follow along. As she did so she held up her fingers.

Zero Dream

She really wanted him to do this ?! Ahhh !

He hesitated for a moment, but it seemed the desire to learn was stronger than his shyness for singing in front of most people. It did not yet occur to the young boy that he would need to get over this one day.

"One." One finger rose. "Two." Another. "Buckle my shoe ?"

midnight_medea

Cosine smiled as he copied her and nodded her head in encouragement.

"Yes, that's it." She smiled. "Three, four, knock at the door." She smiled at him expectantly, he was catching on quickly an of course he had a beautiful little voice just like his mother.

Zero Dream

...Maybe this wasn't so bad. His aunt seemed to like it, and the encouragement motivated him. The young boy definitively liked to be praised, it seemed, and thus became determined to do even better.

"Three..." He rose four fingers at first, staring down at his hand with a tiny frown on his fair face. Something didn't quite seem right here... After some thought, he put one finger down, only to raise it again when he countinued. "Four, knock at the door."

The song itself didn't make much sense, he thought, but maybe that was just how rhymes were ?

midnight_medea

"Excellent Kios!" Cosine exclaimed, clapping her hands together in her excitement to see the child managing to grasp it. "Five six, pick up sticks." She continued, singing it through to the end just as slow and careful as before so that he could count along.

Zero Dream

As they both went upward in numbers, however, it was when things started to get a little more complicated and where the young boy was starting to have issues following. Especially once he had ran out of fingers to count on. It had apparently not quite occured to him to simply keep on counting on the other hand, as he was using it for pointing at the fingers of his left hand. The child was clearly putting in alot of effort and attention, but as they went up and up, he required a bit more explanation to grasp the concept.

midnight_medea

Cosine watched as he seemed to struggle and smiled as it hit her why he was having trouble.
"Oh!" She said, laughing a little at herself. "Kios, you can use your other hand too, look. One, two, three, four, five." She counted on her right hand. "six, seven, eight nine ten." She continued using the other one. "Five on one and five on the other."

Zero Dream

...But then what was he supposed to point with to keep track ? Certainly not his feet, right ? "Oh..." The boy seemed to ponder it for a moment, then tried again with both hands. That certainly helped a little, though he would run out of fingers again eventually. Not having anything to point and keep track had also hindered him, but not for long before he picked it up just fine.

midnight_medea

Cosine smiled as she watched him. Sure, he did not seem to have grasped it completely but that was okay.
"I will write them down for you." She said with a smile. "Then you can practice. We will stay with one to ten for now. They are the easiest."

Zero Dream

"Please." The boy asked, with a nod. That would certainly help a little, he felt. It was how he learnt words, after all, so it may work for numbers too ?

Plus, he liked to have things to read over and over again. And his aunt had a very good handwriting - better than his' by a mile, though, granted he was still learning. It would most likely become better and clearer as he practiced.

midnight_medea

The goddess grinned at his eagerness. An enthusiastic student was a wonderful thing. She thought to herself as she stood once more, handing him her abacus.
"Now, you can practice and I shall go and get some paper and ink to write these numbers out."

Zero Dream

The boy accepted the abascus very carefully, almost as if it was made of glass and was afraid he might break it... which one touch of the beads revealed wasn't that much of a stretch of imagination. He watched it for a moment, and started sliding the beads back and forth, but it was unknown if it was the numbers or the sound of the glass beads sliding against each other that held his attention.

"Thank you." He said, after a moment.

 

[A Wandering Esper]

Looking In Depth

Today had started out to be a day like most of them were - practicing at his letters and reading, or his numbers, to remain there unless his siblings or his mother came to distract him and potentially drag him away from his self-imposed studies. Lament, it seemed, was rather strict toward himself when it came to this. Combined with his calm nature, it made it extremely easy for the boy to focus and learn quickly.

Bot that day, something seemed to bother him. More exactly, what he was supposed to be doing but was not was bothering him. He had promised his daddy, which was something in itself, but this had been requested by the pale, rainbow haired figure he knew as Creation. So in a sense, he had promised it to the other deity as well. And so far, he had done little.

In fact, he still was not quite sure of what he and his sister were supposed to do. Their father... had been little help to their questions once they had actually reached an impasse after so eagerly agreeing to it. Nergal, it seemed, had been quite adamant about letting the children figure it out for themselves. He could potentially ask his mommy, but even Echo seemed adamant on this being something they needed to think of on their own. She had never given them true, in dept explanations of what they were. While in truth, she meant well, the boy was still too young to fully grasp and understand it.

Akakios stopped his writing, tapping the red feather quill against the side of his face. There had to be one way to figure it out. Something he had not thought about yet. Something like...

The thought was as sudden as it seemed completely stupid and crazy. Gianfar had told him about dictionaries, tools that could be used to look up words he did not know if his teacher was not nearby, or otherwise busy.

Maybe a dictionary would be able to tell them what was their domains supposed to truly be ? Mommy had once told him that domains were very important indeed, the very core of what they, as deities, were.

Letting the quill rest down on it's holder, the boy slid down from his chair and, instantaneously, was in motion, darting out of his room and toward the door leading to outside faster than he ever had, making his mother look at him with a rather puzzled look from where she was sitting in the garden. The boy had resembled more of a blur of peach and lavender rather than anything else.

If he could find that, than likely they would know what it is that was expected of them, at the very least... !!!

He bolted to the library as quickly as his little legs allowed him to run, though the space where there had once been a door, stopping to the side where all the books and ancient tablets had been moved to. Not this, not this, not...

Ah ! The godling stood on the tips of his toes to reach the large book barely out of his reach, and all it took was a gentle, yet firm touch to pull it out. It was pretty heavy, but he could carry it with one hand with no fear of dropping it. Then he moved slightly to the left, taking some of the tablets that referred to the gods of old. There might be something useful, information about this Lucius there... With the dictionary and the tablets acquired, he moved to sit at one of the tables.

Where to begin... ? Oh, yes, Gianfar had told him everything was in alphabetical order. Hopefully he would remember the right order of letters of the alphabet of the common language, as Knowledge had called it. So many things to remember ! The only thing the child could honestly do was his best to remember it all. Sometimes it took a few attempts for him to understand, but usually when something was in his head, he remembered it for good. A little pull and the heavy book was opened.

H...I...J...K...L ! The next letter was an A... Careful scanning of the pages revealed what he sought after a few minutes. There were other definition, but one in particular seemed to catch his eye...

la⋅ment;
–noun
1. an expression of grief or sorrow.
2. a formal expression of sorrow or mourning, esp. in verse or song; an elegy or dirge.

A-ha ! So he was meant to write. With about sad things. Those words were complicated, but he could recognize them. It was nothing new - he had felt it, a long time ago, deep in his heart in mind. It was what had drove him to learn as much as he could, relatively so early in his life. He had known, yes, but having what he had thought be confirmed somehow added another layer of importance. And... even his sister showed up in the definition ! Probably why they had both been asked, yes ?

Which led him to backtrack the pages and seek...

grief
–noun
1. keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.
2. a cause or occasion of keen distress or sorrow.

....Hmmmm. So Crys was the feeling. And he, was one of the way to express it. Connected. Interconnected. Interesting. So for this to be asked of them, this Lucius had to have died. The realization did not bring with it the usual pang of sadness most being felt with death. To the god of Lament, death was simply something that happened. Beauty in it's own way. Beauty in tragedy.

Next were the tablets. Pale irises scanned across all of them first, putting aside those that were in languages foreign to him. This left with a few, which he then started to read attentively. No... no... no ! The first held nothing useful, and so was put aside. The second was much the same, and suffered a similar fate. Likewise, so did the third. Just then the boy feared there just might be nothing...

Lucius, son of Creation and Gaia, the primordial god of the universe...

A-ha ! Everything was fine now. After all, part of the fun of learning things was having to work for it. At least in certain cases. There were only a few lines, which told little of the god himself rather than what he was... But at the same time revealed a whole lot.

The universe... was the sky. The sky was gone. Has Lucius died at the same time ? Or had his death what caused the sky to fade away into nothing ? Hmmmmm. And... Creation was his father ? The request seemed to make more sense, now.

He could do something with this. He had seen the sky be eaten, stars blinking out one by one, though, back then, he had not quite known that.

This was good. He finally had both the tools and the knowledge to work this this. The book was flicked closed with a loud thud, a grin slipping on his face that looked like it belonged more to his brother than to him.

There was the beginning of a plan forming in his little head. He got up then, and back to the doorway, putting the tablets and dictionary back on the shelf. He had learn a long time ago that Gianfar was very unhappy when he left things scattered about after he was done with them. Hopefully the pale god would forgive him for not putting it exactly where they had been taken, but he did not quite reach that far. Pulling down was one thing, but stretching his arm upward to push the whole back in without risking damage to it was another.

He left the way he came in then, heading back toward the room where he lived. He so had to tell Crys about this !  

[A Wandering Esper]

The Sky

Zero Dream

He had stepped back into his room, thankfully more calmly than he had left it. The lavender-haired boy took a moment to survey it, and make sure there was nothing anywhere that his sister might bump into, as he was not sure that she was as used to his room than she was with the rest of the set of rooms. While he did held worry for his older sister's blindness, it only manifested if she was to be presented with an place that was foreign to her. Otherwise, he knew full well that there was no reason for worry to be had. She could very easily out-run even him in a familiar area ! He still was not sure what he felt about this.

He found the state of his room to his liking on that part - he seemed to keep things tidy mostly by instinct, and nothing was in the way. It was only then that he went to the door that linked his room to his sister's. He knocked softly, a simple rasp of tiny knuckles against the surface, knowing full well that he did not need to knock loudly for her to hear.

"Sis ? You there ?" If she wasn't... she would probably be outside.

Thabara

„Am here,“ she replied distractedly, giving up – for the moment – on catching that slippery thing in her pond, herself standing knee deep in its murky waters. It had come come with the pond itself, and she wasn't sure yet if there was just one slippery thing, or several ones.

„What do you want?“ she asked, already moving through the shallow, duckweed covered water towards the door. She didn't bother shouting, knowing just fine her brother could hear her well enough even if she whispered. Soon enough, her bare feet treated upon soft moss, and she opened the door. She hadn't bothered tying up her dress, so its seem was dripping wet.

„What do you want?“ she repeated, opening her door a little, appearing to look straight at Kios with the strange empty hollows that were where other people had their eyes. She had been so close to catch that thing, its tentacles twirling around her fingers for just a moment, so she was … somewhat miffed about the disturbance.

But only somewhat. It was her brother, after all.

She was always there for her brothers.

Zero Dream

...Sis was dripping everywhere again.

Containing his sigh, he instead moved to allow her in his room if she wished. Or he could go in hers if she preferred. He would just have to watch for the ponds of...

stuff.

"I found stuff. You know, for what we promised daddy ? Things I need to tell you." His sister's mild annoyance, though, was not lost to him. "If not busy ?"

Thabara

She remained where she was standing, just beyond the threshold, her hands clasping behind her back. She didn't mind being dripping wet at all, it seemed, but apparently Kios did. So she stayed where she was, for now.

„Was trying to catch things,“ she explained. „In my lake. Things with tentacles.“

„What kind of stuff?“ she inquired after a little while, digging her bare toes into the mossy surface of her room's ground.

Zero Dream

"Tentacles ?" What kind of weird thing lived in water that had tentacles ? He would have to figure out what it was.

...

"What's a tentacle ?" Knowing what he was looking for... usually helped.

The boy seemed to swallow his pride for now. He could clean up later. "Come, come." He said gently, calmly. "Things I found in books. Things that happened when the sky went away." Did Crys even know what a sky was ? It was so hard to find the right words to explain things to his sister in a way she could understand, though it was no fault of her own.

"Found what we supposed to do. What daddy asked, remember ?"

Thabara

„A tentacle …“ Crys paused, wondering for a moment how to explain. „ … is something like an arm. Only, there are no bones inside. But it can still hold onto stuff. Like snakes. Or hair – if it could move.“

She stepped inside, but only after Kios had invited her to. „You and your books,“ she said, screwing up her nose with disdain. „Books are boring.“ That wasn't entirely truthful, in fact she adored the stories and rhymes that could come from them. but that she couldn't 'read' from them, on her own, it bothered her.

Zero Dream

Books were so not boring ! He would show her, once day. The young boy wondered if there were books that his sister could be able to read. Or, rather... feel.

Like moving hair, uh ? "Sounds kinda cool." It was a little odd to think of something with no bone able to grasp onto things. "Will show later ?" Now he was very curious. But ! There were more important things to do first.

He walked close to her, holding his arm out by her side for her to take if she wished, but he did not force himself on the blind girl, as probably many would have.

"Figured out why sad things and death, loss and stuff make us feel things." Grim words from such a young boy, perhaps. "Is..." He hesitated. "When people lose other people, or things they like a lot... They're sad. They call that grieving. Grief. They call to you. For you." He waited, then, before explaining any further.

Thabara

„Will, show,“ she agreed. „When I manage to catch one,“ she added, pointedly reminding her little brother that he was the one who had kept her from doing so.

But she took his arm, having been able to tell he was holding it out for her by the way the fabric of his clothing shifted. That she did so was a surefire sign she wasn't really angry, merely a wee bit annoyed. And watery things could only live in the water – or so she had been told – so they wouldn't get away in the meanwhile.

„I didn't know what it was named,“ she said hesitantly after his explanation. But she knew what he meant, had felt it. When her father had wept for the sky, the night it had been eaten – and she knew he had cried – it had been the only time she had felt truly close to him. There had been other occasions, like that lady who stubbornly claimed she looked just like her daughter, and would hold her in her arms for hours.

Zero Dream

"Sorry." Even though he knew she wasn't really angry with him, it still felt right to apologize. Akakios did not especially like to bother people, but this was important. At least, it felt like it was important.

"Did not know what it was called either." He admitted much more readily. He had found that admitting he did not know something usually led people to explain those things. It worked in his advantage. "Mommy told me once that..." He stopped for a moment, thinking it over. It was complicated for him, and he wanted to convey it properly. "That we are these things, these forces. She's Music, so she sings and play. You... are that feeling. Grief." He led her toward his bed, so she could sit if she wished. He would not let silly things like being all wet get in the way of his sister's comfort. "I... sing about those things. Because I find things like loss, tragedy, and grief beautiful, and... want people to see them the same way that I do." He did not speak of the whole writing angle, even though it was what he preferred. Singing - listening, what was made more sense for her, so he kept to that.

To his sister, he could tell all these things. She, more than anyone else, would not find him odd or weird for it. "So I am Lament, because... It's what a lament is. That's why daddy asked us to do this. Why Harm..." Complicated name there... "Creation asked us to do this. Because we're the only ones who can." It made sense, in his head. "Lucius... the sky. Was his son, from what I found. He's gone." His intonation of the word gone seemed to talk more of true finality rather than death, or simply someone leaving.

Thabara

She plopped down on his bed, patting the squishy surface with her hands a few times contently, before she drew up her legs and wrapped her arms around them.

„He's … gone gone, I know.“ The young goddess nodded gravely. Most people went to daddy's place when they died, but for some reason that didn't seem apply to them. „Daddy was very sad when it happened.“ She thought it important to mention that, because it seemed significant as their father barely ever showed any emotion. That it had partly been to her presence never quite occurred to her. „He cried a little, even,“ she added in a respectful whisper.

„If one of us were gone forever, mom and dad would be …“ She paused, searching for the right word to describe that kind of loss, but couldn't think of anything that seemed … powerful enough. But the thought of it made her little heart beat faster.

„Harmodius must be very sad ...“ The thin girl rocked back and forward a little, wondering if Lucius had had a mom as well. „Maybe he wants us to do this so he can cry? Things feel better after you cry ...“

Zero Dream

"He did ?" The boy did seem surprised, but not disbelieving on his older sister, as he took a moment to sit beside her. To think of his daddy, crying of all things, just did not seem to add up in his mind somehow. He had always seemed to him as strong, very nearly untouchable. Almost like hard rock.

But she was also right, on that other point. If something was to happen to them, like that... "I... don't think mommy would be able to get over it." Her, she knew, was the opposite of their father. Emotional and flexible. "That might be it ? Adults... are very suborn about not crying." At least it was what he noticed, time and time again. He was not quite sure just why.

"I don't think mommy realized just what it was when it happened." Not the whole thing, anyway. The boy stopped a moment, thinking of just how to explain her what he had seen using terms she would understand. "It was like... like the jaws of a big beast. All over the sky. Chomp, chomp, and then there was nothing there. I didn't understand when it happened either, but afterward... I did."

The boy was silent for a moment... and then, apparently, made up his mind. "Want me to sing... what it felt like ?"

For her, he could. For Crys.

Thabara

„He did.“ Crys nodded. „He was very quiet about it, so I almost didn't notice, but there were tears.“ She licked her lips. Strangely tasteless her father's tears had been, and cold.

She tried to grasp what he told her. It was a little scary to try and imagine this, the sky being eaten away like that. Something so huge.

„Sing for me,“ she agreed, resting her chin on top of her right knee.

Zero Dream

And so he did. He leaned toward her sensitive ear, and sang, a bare whisper. He sang with words he knew now of things he had not known words to describe back then, his voice low and strangely sweet as he spoke of the disaster that had struck on that night, and spilled over to the morning after.

Nothing where there had once been something, not darkness but something even darker, heavy and scary. True emptiness, true oblivion. The panicked screams of the mortals below that had almost defied all logic in their spilling though the barely open balcony door of Uncle Ankou's room where he had crawled to, unnoticed by all, to watch and listen. Watching them panic, say things about the end of the world and how there was probably not long left for them. For everything.

How he had stood there, hidden behind the curtains, and listened, started, facinated, both with this emptiness and the reactions of those below. How it had been the first tragic thing he had seen that he did not find beautiful, but how instead it scared him so much, and how he did not dare let go of the curtains in fear that it might swallow him, too.

He sang of oblivion and chaos, and the heavy feeling of death that had hung in the air as he watched the sky be eaten by that massive black maw he had told her, the beast swallowing the sky whole and leaving only that unnatural emptiness behind. The look on their beloved mommy's face, when the very same thing happened. How at once she looked so beautiful when she felt pain, and yet how much he hated to see it in her eyes, because it was not right for her to be like him.

He sang of all this, with little in the way of thought order or nifty organization, simply taking it as he remembered.

Thabara

The girl listened enraptured, sitting completely still. She had heard Kios sing before, but not like that, never with such intensity and feeling. By the time he was done, his voice softly trailing off, those dark hollows of hers, where others had their eyes, were overflowing with tears.

The Sky …

She herself still had no clear concept of it, and it was beginning to bother her. Clearly, something great and wonderful had been lost, if everyone had been – and still was – so upset about its passing. But to her, if the sky was there or not there, made no difference. She couldn't see it anyway. But this was bad, how could she properly cry for something she herself felt so distant from?

Zero Dream

"Shhh." The young boy said, raising one hand to gently wipe the tears away from her cheeks, though the gesture was more one of comfort than one of trying to stop those tears. She would stop crying in due time, when she felt it right, and he knew this.

He gently coaxed her into a hug, one loose enough that she could easily pull away from if she wished to do do, small fingers running though her hairs as he often seen so many others do, careful not to pull or tangle on accident.

Thabara

She snuggled against him for comfort, and soon enough the flow of tears ebbed, even though they still gathered as tiny pools in those empty hollows of her eyes.

„What was the sky like?“ she asked.

Zero Dream

What was the sky like ?

A very simple question, at least usually. But it became much more complicated to answer keeping in mind that his sister could not see. Well, could not see as he did, as Echo had told him - Crys could very well see, but not with the eyes she did not have. She saw by touching and listening, mostly. Which meant colors were right out. He had learned that a long time ago.

Though the mental image of his older sister trying to nibble on the sky like she did with crayons was not without it's amusement, even if none of it showed in his demeanor.

"Sky... was way way way up high." It seemed like a good time to start. "Veeery high. So high that not even daddy or Uncle Tian Yue could touch it." They were the tallest persons he knew, so it seemed like a good reference." Concepts or dark and light were also right out, he noticed belatedly. "Changed depending on if it day or night. Sometimes there were..."

Suddenly hit with an idea, the boy held out a finger and traced a shape on Crys' arm. "clouds. Things like this, big big and fluffy like mommy's cats. When it rain, it came from those." Though he was quite sure it had rained even thought there was no sky anymore ? ......Confusing. "That's during the day. When it was night, there were things. Like..." His fingers made little dots on her arms. "Stars. Little dots, but daddy told me each star was a place, they just looked like tiny dots 'cause they very far away." Which had made sense, because the sky was very high up, after all.

"S'all gone now, though. With the sky."

Thabara

Crys frowned thoughtfully. So, things actually looked smaller from a distance? She hadn't known. It did make sense though, because sounds became softer and softer too, the further one walked away from their source, until you could barely hear them anymore. Or not at all. But the thing making the sound was still there. Hrm.

So the sky was a little like … a ceiling, she figured, only way, way up. A ceiling that covered the whole world, and even had other worlds in it too. And awesome things like clouds. She liked rain, but she'd never thought of asking where it had come from. She nodded slowly. No small wonder then, that everyone was so upset that it was gone.

Still, it seemed something so far away and intangible …

„But, it was a person too, right? Do you know what he was like?“ If only daddy was still here, she could have asked him ...

Zero Dream

"Don't know much...." The boy had to admit. "Just found a few things... What I told you." There weren't many books left. Gianfar had told him that much. That there were once books as far as the eyes could see, mostly written by mortals hands as a way to pass knowledge down, and not have things become forgotten as those who knew things died. But many were simply gone now, only a handful of books and the sturdier tablets remaining. So many things lost.

They could ask daddy when he came back, but... that could take a long time indeed. The boy frowned to himself. There had to be people that knew Lucius, yes ? But he could not think of anyone off-hand."

Thabara

„Hm ...“ She snuggled against her brother, the side of her head resting against his shoulder as she stared blindly into the air. „I bet Ishum can help. Or mom. And then …“ She paused. „What do we do then?“

The mortals, they burned their dead, or buried them, but no such funeral could be held for the Sky. There was nothing left, after all ...

Zero Dream

"I can try to write something..." The young boy honestly felt like he could get out something that might work, at the very least, with what he had seen and heard. The lost of the sky, in his mind, felt like the lost of the person to him, since they were one and the same. To mourn one was to mourn the other, even though there was nothing left to conduct some proper rites.

But it was easy to see his sister's uncertainty on the matter, that she felt that she didn't have enough to go on. That she had issues connecting to something that was so abstract for her. If only he had a way to let her 'see' his memories of it... Not sing, but truly see. But of course, he couldn't do that.

"I bet there are others who knew him. Has to be. Other deities maybe. There's alot here." As it should, since everyone called it the pantheon. And a pantheon was a grouping of gods and goddesses. His books said so, so that had to be right. "Just have to find and ask them ?"

Thabara

„Hm-hm ...“ Yes, there'd been others who'd wept, just before her father had arrived, causing her to rise her own voice in woe. It had been like a wave. She just hadn't known for whom she'd been wailing back then, or for what. If she could talk to those people, if she could get hold of that tremenduous feeling of loss once more …

„Ishum will help,“ she repeated. It didn't sound like the golden winged aoide would have much of a choice in the matter.

Zero Dream

Ishum looked like he would not get much choice indeed. To say he was not amused by the mental scenario unfolding into his head was not amusing, knowing full well how determined and convincing his older sister could be, but he let nothing show of that amusement, and instead nuzzled against her some more before letting her go so she could do as she wished.

"And after that... Show tentacly things ?"

 

[A Wandering Esper]

Quantity /= Quality

Even as young and in-experimented as he was, Lament had standards. Things he seemed to expect of himself even through he had all but jumped into this knowing nothing, not even how to write, and did his best at getting over the lumps on the way, as well as helping guide his sister in her own task, similar, linked to his own, yet different. He had done tremendous progress that a mortal child his age would have never been able to do so quickly...

...But he was still not pleased.

He had been writing a whole lot, that was certainly not where the problem was. When he sat down to do it, he often found himself writing for hours, filling page after page and often only stopping when he ran out of material to write on, not yet knowing or realizing that he was extending his power as a god in the process. All that Akakios knew was that it made him excessively tired, and that in the days before he had often wound up sleeping face first on his desk. His siblings seemed to find this extremely amusing, but he did not.

Writing was definitively not the problem. He wrote plenty. It what what he wrote that was the problem. The boy did not like much of it. Nothing seemed to truly fit, or seemed like it would do. Or seemed good enough to honor the passing of a god, especially one that he had never known, much less seen. Lacrymosa had proved to be tremendous help on this front, gathering information and facts about Lucius from others and relaying them to the shyer boy, who did not quite dare to reach out to find said information himself.

It was terribly frustrating, even if going over the written books to correct his mistakes was good for practice purposes. He should be doing better than this, he felt. Quicker, too. After all, Harmodius was waiting, wasn't he ? And it was important that he did it right.

...

But the thing was that he was not quite sure what was that magical 'right'­ was. There was little left to research from, beyond definitions in dictionaries. Most written works had been destroyed, and the answers he got from most people, including his mother, felt lacking each in their own right.

But maybe...

Maybe this was where he was going wrong, he suddenly realized. Maybe he was trying too hard to fit toward something, where he should be doing what he felt was right. After all, if Creation had come out of the cocoon in that big ceremony where there had been so many red flowers (it seemed like so long ago, now, in a time where he barely knew anything), then he had not seen what he had seen. He had no idea what truly had happened.

Creation had no closure for the death of his firstborn. And that did not feel right. Perhaps this was why they were asked to do this. True closure. An open wound never heals, after all. Or so he had read.

Small fingers reached for the crow's feather quill, and, after a dip in ink, he started to write once more. And Lament wrote, again and again, filling entire books over and over again, almost with possessed by some intangible desire and unable to stop himself. This time, however, it was not the lack of paper that stopped him, but the words he had written.

It...

It felt right. Not perfect, but right. This was, perhaps, the best he could do, though he would sit on it a few days to see.

He simply hoped it would be good enough.

There were once stars in the sky
Bright and clear
Dancing and dancing
Even if clouded

Then a great shadow cast
Darker than night, feel of absence
Stretching, covering all
And there was nothing left

Mortals panicked, screamed, wept
Thought they did not know
It was not only the great sky that was lost
But someone beloved

He will never come again
But He will never be forgotten
His memory kept close
in people's heart

 

[A Wandering Esper]

To Mourn The Sky

Akakios and Lacrymosa present the fruits of their labor to Harmodius, with Echo coming with to witness her children's achievement.

Logged here due to length

 

[A Wandering Esper]

Muddled Answers

Zero Dream

It had taken about two weeks for the passage of the catacombs to be cleared fully, for pillars to be added to reinforce the structure to a point where it could barely be considered safe - it was not perfect, far from it, given that even those materials had went though Decay - but it was enough to make sure the whole structure would not collapse on their heads, which was the point.

Once it had been safe enough for them to come, she had wasted no time. Tempo was by her side, as he always stubbornly was - this would be no exception. Even if the arguments of his brothers held true,  Ishum and Priya followed, as well - the children had been left in Alto's care, as she did not have to deny them the right to try and figure out just what the hell had happened to their lord.

The celling was pretty low, though it was more so a bother for the boys than he was from her, as she stepped into the dark with no hesitation, guided only by the light of the candles that had been put here as the mortals and aoidei had worked on the passageway. She had no idea what she would find, but she would not let that stop her.

Not after coming so far.

Thabara

„Lady, if I may …?“ Ishum squeezed past her – for the length of time it took to draw a breath uncomfortably close to the goddess – and then strode ahead to pick up a lantern at the first crossing. „I know you are eager to go first,“ he explained, „but trust me – it's still far from actually being safe. Please let me be your guide.“ He bowed, and then motioned for the small group to follow him.

He had made the trek down and back up again countless times in the past two weeks … To help clear away the rubble with his bare hands, to carry down heavy wooden posts, bricks, bags of cement and other construction materials required to secure the walls and ceilings where needed, and to – most importantly – offer directions and guidance. He was the only one to have been all the way down there before, together with Nergal.

Nergal … Like the others the pale skinned aoide couldn't help but wonder what might have happened. Even if Kios and Grace hadn't said anything, it was apparent Nergal had managed to achieve something, the obvious absence of the wisps being telltale. But with the god of the dead usually being such a busybody, all work and no play, it was … worrying that there was no real message from him yet.

„Careful with your head,“ he warned, offering Echo a helping hand to aide her descending a small flight of irregular stairs, the deed promptly earning him a glare from Tempo. The golden winged aoide pointedly ignored it. „They still aren't quite done yet,“ he told during one of the passages that was easy to manage, a long hall with many gothic columns, so high that the ceiling couldnt' been seen in the dim light of their candles and lanterns. But it had to be huge, judging from the way Ishum's soft voice echoed. He and the mortal helpers had quickly dubbed it the 'underground cathedral'.

„A big part of the ceiling just before the Sanctum collapsed, and they were still busy clearing that up when I left. But, we figured you'd want to go in as soon as it was possible … With some luck they'll be done by the time we arrive. I … do hope that was the last barrier that needed to be taken care of. You may still have to wait a little.“

'They', that were the countless mortal volunteers who had worked so very hard in the past weeks to clear the passage for Echo. Ishum had been downright floored by the resonance the simple request he'd put up on the noticeboard had gotten him. Many of those who'd stepped forward were admirers of gentle Music, but there were quite a few familiar faces from the Day of the Dead as well. Many of them seemed to see this as some sort of service, or sacrifice. Just like in the past, when the chance to aid in the construction of those massive tombs had been considered an honor and a safe way to gain Underworld's favor. Ishum sincerely hoped it would be regarded as such, because … there had been casualties.

Zero Dream

Echo knew better than to argue with the beastmaster on this - it had been, after all, one of the reasons she had hoped he would come as he, as far as she knew, had been the only one to ever go all the way done before, beside his own master. As much as she wanted to get there as quickly as possible, it would be extremely counter-productive to get lost.

It was a long way down, she could not help but notice, and there was a certain stench in the air that was far from pleasant, but she forced herself to ignore it as she took hold of one of the ropes and started her way down. Tempo was casting some extremely nervous glances at her as she did, but otherwise did not intervene. Or, perhaps, forced himself not to intervene was a more accurate way to put it. She seemed to be doing well enough, though her decent was a little slow compared to those of the aoidei, as she had to put more care in the rather foreign actions, less she lose her grip.

What she would give for actual wings at this very moment....

She had not initially wanted to get mortals included - though they had came, and there was little she could do to stop them. On a logical standpoint, it would have taken her small force months to clear though the passageway, but in a way, it had almost seemed a better outcome than this one, where what she had feared had come to pass and some lost their lives. Often she had rushed down the tunnels at the sound of a cave-in, followed by a small pack of rather frantic aoidei, only to arrive too late. It made her heart heavy - for them to give all they had on her whims...

... did not feel right.

The goddess had sang, hoping they would find both peace, and their ways to the realm she believed at least existed in some form, since her lover had gone for so long. She had sang, and she had refused to hide her sorrow. It was the only thing she could do for them.

Her feet hit the ground once more, and it was only then that Tempo started his own decent - he always went last, and in despite his previous reactions, always made sure Ishum was down first - that way, one of them would end up quick enough to catch her should she have lost grip.

From there, it took only a few minutes of walking to get to what they supposed was the end of the way, and, just as the beastmaster had said, it seemed that they where not quite done yet. Echo waited, to the side, in silence, her impatience betrayed by the twitch of her tailstrings. All this, and she still did not know if the gate would even let her though...

Thabara

„Hey.“ The casual greeting was offered by a short, mortal woman, her dust-smeared features only on second sight identifying her as Xing. She held out a hand to Echo which was just as stained with dirt, and tightly wrapped in bandages to protect her fingers from some of the damage done by the hard work.

„We're almost done, just need to prop up some supports to keep the ceiling from coming down on you. Just a little longer ... I know you're worried about him, but try to stay out of the way, hm? No need to have him come down on us in the afterlife because we managed to get you hurt.“ Her smile widened to a broad grin, and she winked.

„Seriously though,“ she added, her features sobering up quite quickly, „I'm worried about him too. I've rarely met someone who was so skilled at getting himself into trouble.“ She gave a nod, and then quickly turned to lend a hand with the work the moment someone called for her.

Zero Dream

Echo took the offered hand, with no hesitation that she may, herself, get dirty as a result, and nodded. "Oh, believe me." She offered a smile, though it was strained. "I am hoping none of our children end up with that particular skill." But, that was perhaps too much to ask.

Expecially with Sotiris.

"Xing... Thank you. I..." The words seemed to get stuck in her throat, and the small woman was gone before she could try to force them out, so she shook her head, and slid even further than she had been standing, in order to give them as much space as possible to work with.

She remained out of the way, as asked, however, it only took a few minutes for the goddess to start to pace, to fiddle with the rim of her long gloves and the longer ends of the shirt and pants she was wearing, that Alto had managed to make her. Dresses where, after all, not exactly suited for catacomb exploration. The tailstrings never did stop, often kicking up some fine dust in their wake.

Thabara

Getting the wooden beams and planks into place that were to secure the ceiling was hard work, and after having stood by and watched for a while, both Ishum and Priya went to lend a hand as well in the endeavour.

Perhaps they'd simply wanted to get out of the path of Echo's pacing.

There was a frightening moment when a rush of dust and rubble came down on the group of workers unexpectedly, and all present were holding their breath and fearing the worst ... But the volunteers remained stubbornly put, not letting go of the supports they were trying to erect. „Don't worry,“ Xing shouted over her shoulder. „Keeps happening all the time. No one got hurt.“ That wasn't entirely truthful, as she herself was bleeding from a small wound on her forehead, but it seemed to be little more than a scratch.

About half an hour later they were finally done, and one of the mortals – a cranky man in his fifties, who seemed to be the only one to have some actual experience working underground – advanced a few steps into the hallway beyond, holding up a lantern and critically examining the ceiling and walls for signs of more weaknesses. „Looks safe,“ he finally announced grumpily. „Someone tell the princess to stop pacing and come over here.“

Zero Dream

When the dust and rubble came down, or more importantly, when the sound carried over to her sensitive ears, Echo stilled, if only for a moment, worry flashed into her eyes, and she had been about to dart in when Xing's voice stopped her. It was not long until the pacing resumed, though it seemed to have become an increasingly worried sort.

It was no doubt that the 'princess' had indeed picked up the sound of the man's voice, as she came closer before anyone could relay the message, though no comment was made toward it. Instead, she looked at everyone present, and helped disinfect and bandage those who had sustained injuries, including Xing, and even those who had tried their hide them stubbornly. She was in a hurry to finally get to the bottom of this, yes, but she would not forget about those who had made it possible. A few more minutes would not kill her, after how long she'd spent waiting.

After this was done, she finally stepped inside. The stench was even stronger here, and the cause became apparent with the corpses littered about, but she forced herself forward still. There was was an immense... painting, if she judged by the paint peeling off, of a gate, which... was not exactly what she had expected. Where they in the wrong place ? "Ishum... ?"

Right in front of the painting, however, there was one of the corpses, placed rather oddly right in front of it. It had clearly seen better days, if the dim purple tint of sickly green hair, flayed arm and skin tone where of any indication, though it also seemed... completely different from the other ones littering the room, with the dimly glowing runes scattered on what had been spared of his flesh, as well as bare bones protruding from his back, hinting that there probably had once been wings.

But the strongest difference was, perhaps, noticed by only the goddess herself. A ragged, low sound that took her a few moments to identify.

Breathing

When she had noticed, she darted, offering no explanation until she knelt in front of the limp body, turning him so he was not face down, clearing dirt from the bone-exposed place. Not dead, but clearly having seen better days. Just what could survive something like this... ? How long had he been here... ?!?

Thabara

Once the goddess was done tending to their wounds, everyone stepped aside, murmuring quiet words of gratitude under their breath, and then respectfully clearing the path for her. Ishum handed her the lantern and kept close to her, but did not interfer with her advance.

It might still be dangerous, but it was her privilege to go in first.

Ishum swallowed nervously as he followed Echo, glancing around cautiously. The octagonal room seemed unusually chilly – even taking into account they were deep, deep underground – and the presence of so many dead made him feel extremely uneasy. What if the Defilers had set up another trap, and they were now walking right into it? Echo's voice would be powerless against the animated corpses, as there simply was no heart and mind left for her to touch upon.

Her calling out his name startled the wary beastmaster, and for a moment he thought it was because something had happened. But her features seemed confused, more than anything else.

„This is the gate,“ he confirmed. „It may look like a mural, but I've seen it open for him before. Though I'm not sure, with the deteriorated state it's in …“ His voice trailed off when Echo turned her back to him abruptly, something obviously having captured her attention. Was it the gate? No, something else, something in front of it …

He drew in his breath in a sharp hiss, when he saw she was about to tend to what seemed yet another corpse. „Get away from it,“ he warned sharply. „It may be a trap.“ It wasn't until she turned over the body that he recognized the face, even in the half decayed state it was in now.

„Ianthe ...“ Ishum uttered in a hoarse whisper, eyes wide with shock. „That … is impossible ...“

Zero Dream

If anything, this only made Echo even more confused, as she looked back up at Ishum inquiringly. Tempo stood at the door, looking like he had been about to interfere, but had been stopped in his motion by Ishum's sudden reaction, and recognition.

"Who... ?" The question seemed to slip out on it's own, before she shook her head, working on sliding his pristine arm around her shoulders in an attempt to support him and get him back upright. "Someone get some water for him !"

The young boy did not say anything at first, hanging rather limply from the hold the goddess had on him, mind muddled by the sudden influx of information around him. There had been nothing, for ages, though time was an equally muddled concept for him. Nothing, and then suddently, there had been something, someone, him, then nothing again... and then...

And then now all this. How much of it had he actually dreamed up, like so many things, and how much of the horrifying scene he had seen been... real ?

His lord, back at least, back for him, back for them, and then... gone. Gone again.

And he'd been pulled out, he started to realize as clarity slowly started to pierce though the muddled feeling, when the void had become void no more.

He had the loose feeling that he was no longer alone, that someone was pulling him upright, but it was the voice that managed to truly piece though to him. He knew this voice. He simply could not shake the feeling that he it was true.

Eyes finally snapped open, one black and decayed, but the other, still bright with a piercing blue, allowed him yet some kind of fuzzy sight. None of the faces staring very openly back at him made any sense.

Beside one, and for the moment the two stared at each other just as if they felt like they respectively had seen a ghost in each other's place. "Ishum... ?" The boy managed, after some physical and mental struggle, though his voice was raw from unuse.

Focus on the present. Damnit, focus !

Thabara

„Yeah, it's me.“ He crouched down to peer at the other's face, still seeming sufficiently spooked – which was quite a feat to achieve, considering whom he served. Whom they served.

It was hard to believe that it could truly be him, but there was no way the Defilers would have been able to get hold of his body, or for a shifter to get all the details down. But his appearance … as if he had been decomposing while still alive. He shuddered.

„When the Underworld was about to perish … back then, when the Fading happened … Lord Nergal did not only permit his court and servants to leave, he even asked them to do so. He would go down with his realm, but he did not wish for anyone else to share that fate. Still … some stayed behind. I guess … they were more devoted than I. Or less of a coward. Ianthe was one of them.“

Someone tapped his shoulder unexpectedly, causing the rattled beastmaster to downright jump, but it was only one of the mortals, handing him a plastic bottle with water.

Zero Dream

Echo did not answer, though the look of shock in her face seemed to answer on it's own. How the aoidei latched on her had even survived such, she had no idea. Perhaps his faith had simply been that strong.

Ianthe looked like he was about to answer, a slight frown on his face at the beastmaster's words, but nothing seemed willing to come out, and instead drank the water as it would be offered to him. After being alone in nothing for so long, the influx of colors, voices and sounds was almost too much for him, though it seemed like the mental fog was starting to clear at least. Everything seemed real, for the first time in ages.

"You.... did the smart thing." He finally was able to say, shaking his head sightly. There had been more, with him, but he had no idea of their whereabouts. "Where..."

The aoide's voice seemed to fail him once more, with another cough.

Thabara

„Maybe.“ Ishum didn't seem wholly convinced. „What of the others who stayed behind – do you know, remember anything? And how … did you end up here?“ Doubtless, there must be some sort of connection to the current state of the Underworld. There just had to be.

Zero Dream

"I do... not know." Ianthe answered, as he glanced to the side. The gate... he was... ? Something had forced him out, quite violently, thrown him out there. How long had he been laying here... he had no idea. "We were all together, once.... but I lost track... of them. ...Long ago."

How did he end up there... ? That was a slightly harder question. "I saw Him. I... swear I have." He started. "But I do not think... He saw me." This was, in fact, the only thing he was certain off. He had felt too foreign, too real among the absence. The rest...

He honestly wished that what had followed after had not been real.

"Something pushed me out... I must have ended... up here." There was no other explanation he could think of.

Thabara

„'Him'? Do you speak of Lord Nergal? He … went through this gate with the intend to restore his realm, at least we think he did. We have not heard from him since.“ A month, no more. A blink of an eye in the life of a God. But still … „But the spirits of the dead, of this world at least, are gone – so I think he must have achieved something.“ Ishum's voice was filled with desperate hope.

„Please, if you know or recall anything that would be of help ... if not for me--" Hardly for me, having fled the realm and left our Lord ... I can't even imagine what it must have been like ... to witness his last moments ... „--then for her at least." He motioned at Echo. „Perhaps you remember her, the Lady Echo. She is our Lord's betrothed now, and the mother of his children."

Ishum shifted his weight to his heels, peering at the gate thoughtfully. The mural had definitely seen better times, so much of the ancient wall painting had withered and faded. „I wonder if we can make it work," he murmured, speaking to himself rather than addressing any of those present. „It didn't, when I last tried, but that was before his rebirth ..."

Zero Dream

Betrothed...

....Children.... ?

If Ianthe had anything to add to Ishum's previous request, it seemed to have been completely forgotten as those two points where brought to the forefront, and his valid eye gave a rather surprised look to the goddess what was still keeping him upright. What... What of this ? What about the Lady...

...No, in all honesty, it was all beyond him, and if anything, it started to drive home the feeling that a rather long length of time had to have passed in between what he had last known to be true, and the here and now.

"I must thank you then, my Queen. I should be able to stand now, thank to you." He said, his head low in respect. The words... fell foreign as they rolled off his tongue. Still, it was not his place to contest something he barely even understood. The aoidei moved then, and though he stood on wobbly legs, he managed to keep himself upright. Surely she had better to do than to act as his pillar - he could see it, in those shifting eyes full of worry. She sought his lord.

He turned, slowly, the face the gate, bare feet padding his form closer to where he had come out from, features pulling into a slight frown. "I do not remember it being this cold..." So cold, in fact, that it seemed he just might freeze in place if he even dared touch it. This was not normal, though that would be up to Ishum to confirm. The beastmaster was the one with the knowledge of this strange, foreign new world. He knew him all to well, he dared to think. He thinks himself coward, but he was the smartest of us all...

"I can only confirm that there was, indeed, something accomplished, though... You will have to forgive me for lacking in clarity." This apology seemed directed to both Echo and Ishum. He was not sure what had been real and what had not been, beside one thing... "I remember there suddenly being... something where there had one been nothing."

Ianthe was silent, for a moment, before his pristine hand rose, palm reaching from the door - a glowing rune adorning it. "...Let us see, then..." The gate had seen better days, but there was still power, strong and wild, running below the surface. It would still hold it's purpose.

Thabara

„The Lady … is gone,“ Ishum said quietly, the confusion so openly displayed on Ianthe's withered features all too evident of the questions that caused his inner turmoil, even if he did not voice them. „The Twin Crown … Destruction himself confirmed it to be so. A lot of time has passed since we last met. Ages, Ianthe. Ages.“ The beastmaster, usually cheerful and easygoing, breathed a deep sigh. He looked ancient for a moment, ancient and tired. It was one of the few occasions one could but guess at the toll it must have taken from him to watch his dear Lord's domain crumble and fall, to live through the countless millenia after-- No, to survive them, devoid of any hope to ever see the gods rise again.

If it hadn't been for Harmodius.

He of all gods had remained, his continued existence given hope to the ageless servants of the gods that remained after their Lords and Ladies had faded. Fallen. Died.

Queen. Deep inside Ishum couldn't help but twitch, when the fellow aoide addressed Echo by that title so readily. Much time had passed, yes, but even though he certainly approved of the relationship between the two deities, he couldn't help but still connect that title to the incredibly warmhearted, wise woman he'd known. He reached to gently touch upon the elaborate golden armlet he'd received from her, a small token as a thanks for his services. A key.

His hand joined Ianthe's, the flat of his palm pressing against the withered surface right next to his. „It is cold,“ he confirmed. „The whole room is.“ He had noticed this, the moment they'd entered. Usually, temperatures underground were pretty constant and didn't shift by much, which was why deep cellars were so sought after as storage rooms. But the moment they'd entered the ancient sanctuary the air had seemed chilly to him … he wondered if the Lady had noticed as well.

It took barely a moment, and then the door shifted under the joined touch of the immortals – withered paint seeming to flake back on like being filmed with a time lapse camera and then played backwards – and it was indeed cold.

Oh.

So.

Cold.

Ishum drew in his breath in a sharp hiss, fighting hard to resist the urge to pull back his hand immediately, as it did not only feel as if the warmth of his body was drained from him, but … life itself.

If one of the mortals were to touch it …

The door was looking and feeling so real now, and there was the genuine touch of wood against his skin. Root wood, part of him whispered, carved from the Yggdrasil itself.

But …

It wouldn't budge.

He pressed his hand against the surface harder, but still, to no avail. They were standing on the treshold to their Lord's domain, and even though obviously vibrant with power, it …

„It wont open,“ he said, his confusion quite evident. „He is beyond, or else the gate wouldn't respond so readily, but for some reason … it just wont open.“

Zero Dream

As the beastmaster came closer to join him, he nodded in acknowledgement of what he had been told, though it was only when Ishum was next to him and their hands joined, that he finally spoke, voice low and completely unaware that the lady who watched with wide, worried eyes would probably hear no matter what.

"...I shall miss Her." His voice was low, and full of sorrow, though nothing of it showed on his face. As advisor and representative, after all, he had long ago learnt not to let his feelings cloud his judgement and outwardly affect him. Learned to let nothing show.

Ianthe's reaction was similar, yet different, once Ishum had joined him, and they had both pressed against the gate. He remained unmoving, his face still like a statue, yes the muscles of his decayed hand twitched, the hand clenching so hard that Echo almost feared it may fall apart, with no skin to hold it together.

Yet, even as the rest of the runes that covered Ianthe's body flared to life, the gate still refused to budge. The aoide shook his head, and withdrew his hand - almost frozen stiff enough that he seemed to have issues moving his fingers. "...My Queen-"

"Please." Echo's eyes twitched closed in discomfort, and it took multiple pair of eyes focused on her to realize that she had spoken out loud. It seemed only normal to continue and voice her discomfort at this point. "...Do not refer me as such. Not yet." Maybe not ever..

Ianthe did seem rather relieved, though Ishum would probably be the only one who would be able to tell, by how well-hidden the reaction was. "I apologize, my Lady."

"You had no way to know." Echo shook her head, her voice heavy. She was the one who seemed tired and worn, now. "What was it ?"

"...I suspect the wards of the gate may have changed by the remaking of what lays behind. If that is right, then our previous means of transport from one side to another are likely not to work at all." It was a wild guess, but that seemed the most logical explanation as to why neither Ishum nor himself where able to do anything to make the gateway react.

Thabara

„What he means to say,“ Ishum attempted to translate Ianthe's words into an easy to grasp analogy for those present, „is this: Now that someone's moved in again, the locks got changed. Our old keys no longer are a fit.“ He paused, his eyes darkening as he looked at Echo. To see the gentle goddess so worn and low-spirited was just too ... „It makes sense if you think about it.“

He stood back, taking a look at the remnants of withered murals and inscriptions. Maybe they had overlooked something. Like: 'Speak, friend, and enter.' Silly.

„Well,“ he tried to sum up the good things, „at least we know where he is, and that the restoration of his realm must have worked … somehow. I think that's why it's so cold here. It may be his power bleeding through, or the air is thick with ghosts.“ That wasn't helping matters much, he realized. „Also,“ he added, „if we can't get there, probably no one else can, and that … may be a good thing. Considering the Grigori, and all. He may have done it on purpose even, a means to up the defences.“ Somehow he couldn't believe that himself. Purpose implied conscious thinking, and if his Lord were in a state to do that, he would have sent message.

„Though I rather think … it may have been instinct,“ he admitted foolishly, casting down his gaze. „Or simply because the new realm is different. He … may be resting now, or trying to get the hang of things. A month is really short, you know?“ Why the hell am I talking? „Maybe … we should wait it out.“ He wished he could have bitten off his tongue, knowing these words were an error the moment they slipped out. But it was too late to backpedal now.

„Idiot,“ Xing summed it up quite nicely. So, all the hard work, the injuries, the deaths, had been for nothing? No, not for nothing, she corrected herself. They all had volunteered. Word had gotten around quickly the night Echo had returned from her attempt to go after her beloved all on her own, disheartened, covered in dirt and grime, the items Nergal had left behind on his descent pressed against her chest. They had been doing it for her, because witnessing the goddess suffer like that was like having a dagger twisted in their own hearts. It was a suffering they understood – there wasn't a single one among them who had not lost someone dear to them during the time of the impeding apocalypse, many remaining in uncertainty still if that person had simply gone missing … or if they were dead.

She stepped up to the goddess – she was a little taller than her, but not by much – to give her a tight hug. It felt strange, the goddess' very skin seeming to vibrate under her skin, like the membrane of a heavy speaker … For a moment she was awfully aware of just how dirty she was, but she pushed that aside quickly. Echo didn't mind, she knew that. As distant and reserved as Nergal was, his beloved seemed to be very much his exact opposite, seeking closeness whenever she could. Those two – they'd simply been made for each other, she felt.

„Ignore him,“ she murmured softly, gently pushing a streak of the goddess hair back behind her ear. She was so beautiful it almost hurt to look at her. „He's just some stupid, ignorant male who doesn't know what he's saying. Ignore him. There's gotta be a way. We'll find it. For you. For him.“ There was veneration in the gaze of her slanted eyes, true and steadfast.

She'd come to know both deities a little during the past events, and quickly realized how very much they needed each other – what with Echo being too soft, too emotional and too forgiving. Too uncertain of the tremendous power she wielded over people's hearts. Nergal, on the other side, a captive of his own convictions and rules, distant and reserved, rarely accepting an opinion other than his own. They balanced out each other so perfectly, she wondered if they were aware of that ...

Zero Dream

She bore it all, silently, in despite the stab of pain she felt every time Ishum started a sentence anew. Maybe he was right. She'd been foolish to get all of this together. So many injuries, so many deaths, and it was all her fault.

The last sentence, however, was the one that broke her. The one that hit the closest to home. "No." There was no harmony in her voice - her tone was only driven by pain and determination both. "He asked me. He told me to go and get myself in there after one month. Such I have promised." This would not end there. If there had been any hope that she would sit back and wait beyond this, she had just shattered it.

She allowed Xing to come in her embrace - she needed that support right now, she had to admit. "I am sorry." She whispered. "I will make it up to you all one day... I should not have allowed this. I should..." Somehow. She would. She would have found a way. She had to. There had been so much loss, and perhaps she should have known to take the other path first all along.

_____„Yggdrasil“

__________„Its roots … went deep.“

"There is another path." She admitted to the woman in front of her, one hand reaching upward, slender fingers pulling at the hairsticks, one by one, until they where all out, and her hairs fell back like a shifting sea of blue and light purple. "But that path is not for you and everyone else to follow. It is too dangerous, and my folly has caused too much wrong already." Her hands traveled again, going for the clasp of the locket, the one Nergal had given her before leaving, and giving over the whole to Xing. "But I would like you to watch over these, if you could..." She could not bear to bring these along, and have them damaged. "...And to continue rebuilding. There is much yet to be done, but..." For now, she could not continue what she had started. A selfish choice, perhaps, but she refused to break her promise.

Something sparkled, in the side of her vision, and she finally looked away, steps taking her toward an altar, toward the back the room. There was a body here, a child, and in her hands... A small vial, filled with silvery liquid. It looked out of place, for some reason. Dead fingers should not have been able to hold it so easily...

... It had to have been placed here. To be kept by those he trusted most. She reached for it, slowly, almost as if afraid of some kind of retribution. "I will bring it back to Him. Do not worry." She whispered once more.

To who exactly, she was not sure.

The goddess paused, and then finally turned. "Ishum." Her voice had, finally, levelled once more. "Do you have any idea.. On how to get to Yggdrasil ?"

Thabara

Ishum actually flinched back at the tone of the goddess' voice, eyes widening. „Of course,“ he stammered, „I didn't mean to … I only thought … I'm sorry.“ He hadn't known Nergal had asked her to come after him, or that there'd been a promise, or else he'd never-- The aoide quietly bowed his head, biting his tongue hard enough to draw blood. Shut up and stay quiet for a change, he admonished himself. You've done enough harm already with your careless babbling.

„There is no need to be sorry,“ Xing murmured softly in response to the goddess' words, much like she would have done it if she were to be talking with her daughter, blessed be her soul. These gods reborn, ancient and newly born the same, so many of them were just like … big children, really. Unaccustomed to the world of the mortals, inexperienced without their memories of ages past.

„We all were well aware of the risks we took and willing to take them. And those who died …“ She glanced at the Gate over the goddess' shoulder, shivering as she witnessed it's wondrous transformation reverse to its former state as soon as the aoidei broke contact with the surface. Few moments later it was little more than a battered, barely recognizable mural once again. But still she could feel the cold emanate from it. „They are in good hands now.“ There was not the faintest trace of doubt or uncertainty in her voice. „He'll take good care of them.“

„As I'll take good care of these.“ She glanced down at the items Echo had given to her. „Only, of course, until it's time to return them to you.“

„I hope you'll manage to drag him back somehow. I know he'll probably be terribly busy, but … Hell, do I want to see that wedding of yours.“ She grinned and winked.

„Yggdrasil ...“ Ishum pondered this, relieved that he seemed to have been forgiven for now. „It used to be everywhere, once. It is … was … is the World Tree after all. But you could see it in all its majesty in the former Pantheon, the City of Gods before the Fading. There was something on the noticeboard, I think, about … Lady Greed and one of the Dragon Kings having gone there, into the tree, to retrieve the Manacles? And didn't the Lords Tian Yue and Zhijian go there as well, to seek the advise of the Fate Stones?”

Zero Dream

"I will, but..." She did not voice this but, but kept it to herself. If he had not returned, even sent message so far... and that she had not been able to reach the Underworld by simply world-walking as he had taught her...

The situation had to be much more complicated than anyone thought.

She had, at least, a slight idea of who she could ask, thankfully. More delays... and who could tell exactly how long all of this may take.

She would have to leave her children in an all too similar way that their father had, with no way to tell of when she would return... and her heart sank. Would they resent her - and him - for all this... ? But was a life without ever knowing what had happened any better ? Her resolve faltered. If this had worked, she had thought she would not be gone long - days, a week at the most, maybe.

But Yggdrasil... She had been perfectly happy not to think about it too much so far, but now it all came to basically smack her in the face, the knowledge. To travel the world tree would take...

Could possibly take...

"Ianthe." She finally said. "...You are more than welcome to return with us, if you like." At any rate, she could not leave the broken aoide there, all alone. Until they could get him back in there, at the very least... as she look on his face as the opening failed had more than revealed that all that he truly wanted was to get back in there.

Ianthe said nothing, but bowed in respect. That seemed to be a yes, at any rate.

 

[A Wandering Esper]

Mine ?

...There was someone in his bed.

The youngest of Underworld and Music's children found himself both surprised and curious by this fact, as he had returned from his lessons of the day, Gianfar having ended up dismissing him a few minutes earlier. He had returned to see his mother home, yet strangely melancholic.

And to the fact that there was someone in his room. In his bed. Someone he did not know, had never seen before, and most assuredly had never allowed inside his room. His relatives could come and go as they wished, and he allowed his parents' aoidei to come though only out of reluctant annoyance. That is, whenever Soto wasn't blocking the doors for him. So handy.

This, however... he was not sure if he should be amused or angry when he was the man on his bed. He certainly looked like he needed the rest – had it been not from the slow rise and fall of his chest, the boy would have been quite sure the being was dead, keeping in mind his decayed...

Well.

Everything.

Though it did not explain what he was doing in his room. Akakios made a rather annoyed face and came forward. He could feel the familiar energy about the man that he felt around the other aoidei - though there were so many already, they certainly did not need more around here ! But maybe...

Maybe this one was his ? That would explain why he was here in his room. That seemed to make the child's annoyance fade. His own servant ! That was very exciting indeed !

...He still wasn't sure how he felt about him sleeping in his bed, though. Not that he used it much. But still. He wouldn't have minded if he'd just asked first !

Lament came even closer, bending over the sleeping form curiously. He really looked like he was dead. So odd ! Unable to resist, the child gave an experimental poke to the arm with no skin. And it felt rather odd !

Poke. Poke.

_____Poke.

Mismatched eyes, one black and decayed and the other a bright blue and full of life, snapped open with that last poke, sending the child reeling on pure reflex, and causing each to stare at the other rather confusingly.

Ianthe's consciousness suddenly rushed back to him mostly due to the still foreign sensation of touch on his skin, and for a moment he feared he was back there, surrounded by emptiness and void, which ate at him slowly due to his protective runes, leaving him to suffer in a slow agony...

But it was not so. There was a world around him. Something soft below him. And a rather confused child staring at him. He vaguely remembered being carried back here by the joined effort of Ishum and Lady Music's aoidei, and being pointed a room to go into, using the last of his fragile strength to limp in and make his way to the bed.

He must have blacked out then. He managed to move to sit upright, after some struggle.

Yes, that was right. His Master and Lady Music's place in the temple of the Gods. And thus, this child must have been... It was one thing to be told that not only his Master had found a new love, and had children with the fair goddess... it was another thing to see one of the results for himself.

”Who're you ?” The child asked, holding his wax tablets against his chest like he often did, expression turning into a pout. ”What's you doing in my room ?”

...What was he doing in his...

Suddenly, an horrible fact dawned on Ianthe. In his tiredness in daze... He had gone to the wrong room.

How nice of a first impression.

”I must apologize, young master.” He gave a bow. ”I am rather tired... I seem to have headed into the wrong room. My name is Ianthe. I serve your father, Lord Nergal. And who might you be ?”

Ah, so he wasn't his. A shame, really. He didn't seem like such a bad guy, and his explanation made sense, so Lament let it go. He figured his daddy would want him to be nice and take care of the decayed aoidei.

“'m Kios.” The godling said, moving past Ianthe to let the tablet down on the desk. “Tired ? Ianthe should rest then.” He was silent for a moment, and then...

“Do you... know if daddy's okay ?”

”The realm seems to have been remade successfully, but we do not know much beyond that yet, young master. It may still be yet awhile before I may be able to return at your father's side.”

If the boy was disappointed with the lack of information, he did not show it. It was odd, so see such sorrow and calm on the expression of a young child... Just what was the domain of this one, he wondered ? But he did not ask, less he bother the young god needlessly.

”I see.” Came the answer, the boy's brow furrowed in thought before his face seemed to light up, ever so slightly. He still did not smile. ”Can be Kios' till then ? After rest ?” After all, if he kept Ianthe close, he could watch over him better. Daddy would probably be happy he made sure the aoide did not damage himself more. After all, it seemed he had already done a very good job at that !

It took a moment for Ianthe to grasp what the child was asking, and it was his turn to think. This... may not be a bad idea. He could get used to how things were at the moment and regain his strength while watching over the child. Get back into the flow, so to speak, and return to Underworld's side a bit more ready than he would, otherwise. And he doubted He would mind – after all, this was his son he would be watching over. ”I do not think your father would mind, so if you would like it, young master...”

Aha, perfect indeed. ”Kay. Ianthe rest then.”

”I am, young master. Though, I should most likely relocate myself...”

”No.” Akakios shook his head. ”You rest here. Is mine for now, yes ?” That he would have to return him in the near future apparently did not matter much yet. After all, he still had no idea when daddy would return, or would allow him to go see his place. ”I'll be quiet.”

In spite of himself, Ianthe found himself smiling. ”Thank you, young master, but I...” But even then, it took some more of the boy's insistence before he finally caved in and laid down on the odd bed once more. It was rather confortable...

Sleep came quickly once again, and likely Lament would not have been able to awaken him even if he went out of his way to be loud.