It was time to visit one of her good friends! Friends were great and they were grand! They were far and wide and in many different places but Naota’s palace was one of her favorites. She managed to gate herself into the crystal garden, however, a butterfly had come with her and she began to chase it around. Her red hair was swaying, springing, and jumping with her as she went after it laughing and giggling along the way.

She found the throne room on her way in just merely by senses his warm energy, though it was erratic. She pushed the doors in and found him in a mediating state as she walked in. Her bare feet clapped against the floor of the quiet room but he was so far in a trance he didn’t notice her. A mischievous smile appeared on her face as she began to run up to him and tackle him. Her arms went around his neck as she hugged him.

“NAOTA! Naota! I missed you Naota! We can have tea parties and sweets again now!” Her joyful green eyes stared at him as she was sure he was quite frazzled by him. “With Echo and the babies too.” 

Ever since the news of Angela’s death there had been more things he was unsure of than ever before.  While her realm was still intact, it comforted him little, and he had started to become a bit of a recluse in his mountaintop home.  Echo was still safely in her crystallized state in the in-between, with only his elementals and Angela’s last gift to him with permitted access.  Shayla had started to become a person he was used to lately with how much he had to bring her to Echo’s frozen chamber, but today had been particularly more difficult.
 
With Angela dead he didn’t know if he’d ever feel the world was safe enough to bring his wife and unborn children out.  It was bittersweet to keep them safe but so far out of reach.  Presently, he was sitting atop his floating black tourmaline throne.  There hadn’t been any visitors to the altar today, and while he would have preferred to be in his private chambers or the hidden airship, he wanted to make sure he was reachable by anyone in his domain that may need him.  The white sigils that littered his body were so dim that they seemed more like flat tattoos than actually containing divine magick.
 
Suddenly there was a small warm body against his, tiny soft arms around his neck, and an impossibly young voice calling his name.  His eyes opened quickly and he managed to keep from knocking his head back against the black tourmaline as his arms instinctively went around the small stranger.  His lips parted, the dulled gray of his eyes brightening but keeping their dead hue.  Who was this child?  He didn’t remember her from any of the families that had come into the sanctuary palace.  And then she said Echo’s name, knew of his children, and his blood ran cold. 
 
His eyes searched hers and he recognized the irises of the Rosenites immediately.  Her dark red hair was uncanny to Angela’s, and despite her words all he could put together was that maybe this was one of her many children…?  The only other one he had ever known that was this young was Iva though…Then again, Angela’s children were so great in number that he doubted he’d ever be able to keep track of all of them.  It was painful to look at her.  Still, he managed a very small and sad smile,
 
“I-I’m…sorry small one.  I’m not sure what Angela may have told you but Echo is sick and can’t have parties right now…”  His arms stayed around her to keep her safe from possibly falling due to the height of his throne, but he lifted a hand up and pushed a few of her long curls behind her tiny ear.  It wasn’t often that he was so close to children, and his eyes saddened at the idea of not ever being able to see or hold his own.

“Did you come through one of the pools?”

Naota hugged her back and she squealed lightly but his eyes looked so dead. She got close to his eyes and kissed both of them. “I am Angela you stupid God Child.” She said it with much sass. “I may be small but I’ll knock your head off your shoulders to next week. I know Echo isn’t sick, liar.” If she had a tail it would have been flickering as her power spiked in the moments that she was slightly upset with him. “It’s so rude that you don’t recognize your favorite goddess.” Her pipsqueak voice was whining now.

She stood up on his lap and now stared at him. “I made up with Dalanesca and now everything is alright. Echo can come out and play with me. You can check the soul-stream yourself. OR ARE YOU GOING TO BE A SOURPUSS MORE.” She pointed at his eyes. “FIX THAT.” She leaned in to kiss his eyes more. “You look so upset when I told you I would fix it.” She reached up and began to brush his hair.

“Can we have cookies and cake when we wake Echo up? I think that would be good for the babies. We can have Shayla look at them. I don’t think I could trust myself with such tiny little savages. SPEAKING OF SAVAGES. The savages back in the Gardens took all my sweets away! I AM THEIR MOTHER.”

His eyes saddened as they closed from her kisses.  Whoever this child was, she was almost too affectionate for him to handle right now, with everything that was going on in his life.  But his head quickly pulled back when she called herself ‘Angela’.  His mouth nearly fell agape from this amount of sass…yeah, that could only be Angela.  Right now though, she was so…so tiny!  For a moment he was too in shock to be sad.  He’d thought her to be dead or worse.
 
He blinked quickly when she brought attention back to his eyes and he knew now that they had to be giving away his less than happy aura.  Angela or not, it was still a nearly bittersweet feeling to be comforted by a child…it about weakened him more.  For now ,he forgot to reply to any of her comments and sass and quickly wrapped his arms more and pulled her into his chest; his face pressing into her hair as his fingers gripped tighter.  He really had thought that she was gone…Tears of light ran from his tightly closed eyes, sending soft glimmers down her locks of hair.
 
The relationship between the two of them had always been a complicated one with its ups and downs, but at hearing of her death he’d known stronger than before how much he loved The Mother.  With a shaky exhale he kissed the top of her head, forcing his grip to ease on someone so small, “S-Sorry, I’m sorry…”  His youth was showing, and while seventy wasn’t exactly an early age, when compared to immortality it was barely a blink.
 
“U-Um…Echo.”  His eyes lifted up, thinking about where she was in the in-between.  As much as he trusted Angela, he knew he’d feel better with more affirmation and summoned a looking glass.  Being gentle, he turned Angela so that she was sitting in his lap with her back to his chest: a common position taken while holding small children in your lap. 
 
The mirror floated in front of her, reflecting them in it for now, “Can you show me the soul stream using this…?  Though, even if I were to bring her back she would need rest…”  He looked at himself in the mirror, at her, so small and young, and wondered what it would be like to hold one of his own children like this one day…

Blinking Angela calmed her sass down and hugged him back. He had missed her and she could feel the love for her radiating from him. It was comforting to know how much her fellow deities loved her. Even Dalanesca was now over their little spat. She buried her face into him as he kissed the top of her head. Her green eyes turned up so she could peek at him.

He turned her around so she could sit on his lap and she tilted her head softly. Did he really not believe her? She did drop the big news on him in a big way. She nodded to him and took a few breaths. “You want to make sure the soul stream is fine. Okay.”

She grabbed his hands and in an instant, they were in a dark place with vibrant auras. Souls were everywhere. There was a clear line of death and life. The pull was hardly there and it meant that it was equal. She hopped down off of him and opened her arms. “This is the soul stream! This is the fine line between Dalanesca and myself. See it’s all better.” There were souls waiting to be reborn all around them. Bright glowing orbs.

As soon as it was good enough for shock value she took him back to his temple and walked around. “Rest won’t be necessary. I gave you Shayla for a reason. Take me to Echo and I’ll show you why.”