Welcome to Gaia! ::

"You're welcome," Rhea smiled, waving back as the others left the room.

It wasn't a long walk down to the dining room again, and when they arrived, Aethos was indeed present, eating his lunch. He looked exactly as he had the first time they had seen him, even had the same troubled expression on his face - though Earendil was certain that his troubles were far different now than they had been six years previous.

Aethos looked up at the sound of his name, and he blinked when he saw the three of them coming towards him.

"Earendil-sola. Lin," he greeted them. "And ..."

Earendil smiled. "Our daughter, Miyuki."

Aethos's eyes narrowed slightly, but he nodded. "I see. So you've finally come. How was your trip?" His tone was light, and his eyes changed to reflect his tone. Very quickly, he seemed much more friendly.

Aethos nodded slowly, thoughtfully. "Peaceful," he murmured, rubbing his eyes as if he were tired. "I still don't know what that truly means."

Earendil blinked at the man. "Why not?" he asked. "Things seem quite peaceful here ..."

"On the surface," Aethos replied, looking at Earendil tiredly. He opened his mouth as if he were going to continue on, then seemed to think better of it and closed his mouth again and shook his head. "Never mind."

Aethos didn't answer for a moment, simply chewed on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully. How much or how little to say? But keeping things bottled up inside wasn't good for him either.

"Physically, I'm fine," he replied. "It's just ... so many things have been going on ... so many ... changes ... and I just ... can't figure out if it's for the better or not."

"It goes beyond that," Aethos shook his head. "Nothing makes sense anymore. That is all. It isn't something that you would understand."

Earendil blinked, feeling insulted until he remembered that it was Aethos, and that the prince had a habit of not thinking before he spoke.

"You might be surprised," he murmured, taking a seat at the table. "Would you care to try us?"

Aethos looked over at the three of them. "Nothing seems right anymore," he said simply. "And it doesn't make sense to me because I know that ... that there are some things that are working more smoothly, and that now that we don't have to worry about the gnomes we're safer ... but ... it just doesn't seem right."

He paused and looked over at them again. "Does that make any sense at all to you?"

"I don't know," Aethos admitted. "I don't know what it is. There are so many things it could be ... nothing is being run the same way that it was before. I was heir to the throne, and all of a sudden one day ... I came home and Aerin was ruling and Father was in prison ... and then the army was all but disbanded, and taxes are just about nonexistent, and the people are just about doing what they want ... there's no order, no system anymore. It just doesn't make any sense ..."