She stared at her reflection in the water of the oasis, not quite knowing her own face anymore.  She had spent so much time in her lupine form, Moliira had nearly forgotten her drow form.  How much time had passed here while she had been gone?  The stars were strange to her now, and the drow felt more than a bit lost.  But her skills had not deserted her, and Moliira went to the one place she had a feeling the one person she wanted to see the most would be.  She did not deserve this moment of rest, but she did feel she owed Krys an explanation.  She stared again at the note that she had quickly penned, and sighed.  He would be angry, most likely.  Not that she could blame him.  But There had been greater forces at play than even she had know about.

Krys,
I know I am probably the last person you would wish to see right now.  I don't even know how long I've been away from these lands.  If you want to know, you can reply to this, and the stormcrow bearing the note will return it to me.  Or you can come to the oasis I found, and I can tell you myself.  I leave that choice to you.  I just wish you to know how sorry I am for what happened.
Moliira

The drow sighed a bit, and finally turned the note over to the small elemental.  It had already been given its instructions, and left, winging to the northwest for the city.  She sat cross legged, staring in the fire while she braided her hair.  It had grown long while she had been away, there hadn't exactly been time for haircuts while on the Hunt.  There had at least been time for tending to wounds.  New scars littered her body, the most prominent ones on her face looked like she had been mauled by some wild beast.  The sleeveless tunic she wore showed more scars on her arms, but the long leggings hid the ones on her legs.  Her hands had been unharmed, thankfully.  She had shot a pair of rabbits for her dinner, and they were roasting over the fire.  She could have caught them on her paws, but Moliira needed a rest from her lupine form.  A knot of anxiety was forming in her stomach as she waited.  What would he do?  She wanted to see him, and she wanted to tell him how much she had missed him, and then she would leave again.  Moliira had a distinct feeling he would not stay long, if he came at all.

The letter… that was the last thing that Krys had ever thought he would receive. When it first arrived, he didn’t know what to make of it or how to feel. Happy, sad, angry… The best thing to describe it all was that he was conflicted. He didn’t say anything to anyone else as he started to get dress and and head out of the White Rose manor. With each step, he kept remembering the words written on that parchment over and over again. It seemed pointless to him to write back and leave things the way they were right now. He knew Moliira well, their complicated relationship had been a winding and twisting road. Him meeting with her had to be done, there was no other way.

But really he wasn’t sure how he was prepared to deal with this as he ventured outside of the city. He would definitely look vastly different to her, given that his hair was cut and he held a more rugged look in comparison to his normally clean kept appearance. Seeing the fire up ahead, Krys slowly moved towards it. He felt some discomfort and anxiety built up as he drew nearer to her. His eyes just watched her from the edge of the light for a long time. It looked like she been through hell, and that's saying something since her life at a constant battle for survival. He felt like a lump was in his throat that dared not let him speak to her until he drew up the needed courage. 

“Always getting into trouble, huh?”, he asked, some jesting in his tone as he pulled the coat against him tighter.”Never thought that someone or something could get to you like that though. Was it a tough fight?” His jaw clenched tightly as he came closer and sat across from her at the fire. “Where have you been?”

She couldn't answer him at first, only with a weak smile and nod at the mention of getting into trouble yet again. It was close enough to the truth. It was hard for Moliira, seeing Krys again and not knowing what had changed for him. Gods knew she had missed him, but Moliira's wary nature made her wait to act. She didn't answer right away, staring into the fire, trying to find the first words she would speak to him after so long away. “It was a very difficult fight, five years long for us. It wasn't in this world, or even another world, but a place in between. A place where all worlds meet together,” Moliira finally said. She wasn't quite sure how he would take the time displacement, but glancing at him, Moliira knew she had to continue before she lost her nerve.

“You would not believe the things I saw, Krys,” she said, finally smiling more genuinely when she spoke his name.  It was almost as if she was believing for the first time that he was actually there before her, and not a memory or nightmare.  She knew he would listen, and Moliira had quite a tale to tell. “There were wild gods from other worlds, some like me, and some totally alien. I met a wild goddess from the world my mother's people originally came from. Not Daeluin, but beyond there. Others who were little more than ghosts guarding primal lands, but they came too. And we were hunting…” Moliira paused, hesitation in her tone. It was hard to find the right words to explain the thing they had hunted. She knew that there were so many side to the tale to make the whole thing understandable.

Taking a stick, she drew a number of spheres with lines connecting to one large sphere in the middle. “Think of the smaller spheres as all our worlds with wild places and primal lands, with nature spirits and gods protecting them. That center sphere, that connects all the worlds together. A sort of portal realm. There was a monolith of stone built in the center of the realm, with a stairway winding up through it. If that monolith had fallen, all the wild places would have started to die,” Moliira said, a finality in her tone. She stared off into the stars for a few moments, waiting for Krys to reply. But he was still silent.

"The thing we hunted, it sought to consume the monolith. We fought through its minions, some fell then, but not many. It took a long time to find its trail, it kept slipping through other worlds, taking what it needed from there, and returning to the monolith. For almost five years, we hunted it, seeking it through many worlds. Some we saved, some we could not,” she explained, a lump in her throat, silently mourning those worlds that had been lost their wilds. “Imagine a world without any wild places. No forests, no grasslands, nothing but bare dirt where they had been. That is what we were fighting to keep from happening,” Moliira said, her palm again the trunk of the tree behind her. After what she had seen, the sight of green was balm to her soul.  She fell quiet, sensing that Krys had questions.  

He had often wondered months ago when he had first arrived to Sularia what would happen if Moliira had come back and see him. If it had been him previously, he would have just been fine with her coming back and they could have continued where they left of. But now? Krystopher watched in an eerie silence as she had done the same. Aside from the new scars, she looked the same as the final day he had saw her before she fell from godhood and took off into the unknown wilderness.

Calmly, he listened to her tale of what had happened with her. Krys leaned forward and felt the warmth from the fire, but it was her story that had his focus. A world where all worlds were together? Had it not been for the circumstance that was the fluid time with Rev and having been transported from DaeLuin to here, he wouldn’t have believed his ears. But anything was possible and from there, she told him of other gods and of the fights they had to endure to protect everything- their world, the other worlds, the monolith. The look in his eyes spoke that he was still in shock that Moliira wasn’t only here and not some sort of illusion, but also that she came back after some sort of great war with things that he was sure he would never see or understand in his entire life.

“It’s hard to grasp, but I don’t doubt that it must have been hell for you. The time certain had been for me; not knowing what happened to you or even knowing if you were alive or dead…” He threw his head back and looked to the sky. That starless night sky loomed over them, blanketing darkness all around them save for the spot that was lit by the fire she had. 

“How did you first know about this? Some sort of divine signal? I know you well enough not to chase after wild goose chases.” Krys wanted to know how she knew, and why it had been her that was summoned to leave. There were plenty of questions swimming around his mind but he couldn’t voice them all. Or more so he was still having trouble coming to terms with all of this. He forced himself to look back at Moliira. As much as he wished he could be upset at her, he was more so worried and had been afraid that she was lost forever. “It’s been rough, or at least it was in the beginning. Blaine and the others here have helped me get through these trying times. I still have some days that aren’t pleasant, but I make it through them. At least I don’t have to fear that you’re dead anymore and I’m grateful for that. But I doubt that things can be the same as they had been for us.”

Her head was bowed, that had been the hardest part of the war.  "I wish I could have sent you a message back.  But the risk was too great.  It could have been traced to the Hunt and endangered the whole thing.  Or worse, to you.  And I couldn't risk you.  I don't know what I would have done had I gotten news you had died because of my actions," Moliira admitted quietly, tears forming in her eyes.  Perhaps it would have been better to tell Krys she had died, all that time ago, and to sever the bond then.  But it had been the hope she would see Krys again that had carried her through five long years.  She nodded, pulling the rabbits off the fire before they burned.  There would be time for them later.  "As I said, the Hunt was formed of deities from other worlds.  We figured out the signal had been sent by the monolith, as a sort of defense mechanism.  It called the strongest and most skilled.  Just my luck, I guess that's what I get for not siding with Angela or Dalanesca when they had their little fight," Moliira said with a bitter smile.  It had been a fear of hers to be lost within either the divine power or a spat with a fellow deity.  But she had never thought about being pulled away from her world entirely.

She was quiet for a long time after Krys voiced his thoughts.  She couldn't blame him at all, mostly herself for what had happened.  "I know.  I wish things could be different.  I told you to move on, and I hope you have.  I cannot forgive myself for how I failed you…" Moliira said her voice trailing off as she stopped to dash the tears that had finally spilled onto her cheeks.  But she found enough strength to say the words she wanted to tell him for so long.  "I want you to be happy, and if that is not to be with me, then so be it.  I just hope you won't forget me," she finished softly in a tone that was almost a goodbye.  She had already planned to move on, it would be better for all involved if she was not around.  At least, that's how it was in her mind.

Did he have the right to be upset with her? Logically, he shouldn’t and emotionally he couldn’t be. Moliira had to do what she did and Krystopher knew that. It still hurt but he wasn’t really upset with her. More so, he disliked that war had parted them and time had eroded what they had. If anything more, he felt guilty about what happened after she had left him. She sacrificed much for him and in turn he wouldn’t really it until just now. “No, you had nothing to do with Angela’s and Dalanesca's struggle. It was something that those two had to work out. Besides, the other deities needed one of great skill, and that person was you. There’s no arguing with that, anyway.”

He showed her a small smile before it wavered for a bit and he threw his head back. “You shouldn’t dwell about that. That isn’t like you, Moliira. What is done is done. I don’t think you failed me one bit. Fate just had a funny hand it dealt us.” He didn’t want her to carry this burden. The hellish war she had been through was plenty enough. Krys saw her start to cry and finally got up to his feet. He moved to Moliira and offered her his hand to help her up. If she did, he would bring her into a tight hug. “Forget you? Never, Moliira. You are still family, you know. You may not carry my blood as before and we may not be together, but you are still important to me. You will always have a place with us. Besides, Blaine would say the same thing and would kick my ass if I left things like this. We don’t have many of us as we had before, but for all that we do have, we will keep close.” 

When he offered the hand up, she knew he would want to pull her into a close embrace.  She knew he would feel the toll the war had taken on her body, her already slender form had lost everything extraneous.  She felt tired, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and in that moment, Krys offered her what she needed the most.  Support.  The tight hug felt safe, something she had not experienced in years.  And it was in that moment the dam broke, and the tears she had been holding back for five long years finally left her.  It felt like another year had passed before she could talk again.  "You're right, Blaine would.  And he would probably kick both our asses, if I just up and left without seeing him, too.  I just don't know what to do with myself now, Krys.  I was once a goddess, and a mother, and a mate.  Now, I have none of that.  I'm lost…" Moliira said, the words flowing out like her tears had.

 “I need to tell you the rest of what happened.  I need someone else to know, and understand what I saw.  We found it finally at the monolith, and that was the first time we could see the creature in its entirety. It was a creature of smoke and tar and malice, bent on killing nature and spreading its pollution. We had to kill it before it broke the final seals protecting the monolith. I was one of the lucky ones… I got to come home,” Moliira finally said. The tears in her eyes spoke more than her words of all the death she had seen and survived, but there was a glimmer of light.  She had gotten to come home, and she knew Krys still cared about her.  In time, it would be enough.  But Moliira knew it would be a long road to feeling like herself again.

Friends…blood bonded siblings…enemies…lovers…

The past relationship between Krystopher and Moliira was complicated at best. They had been through so much together and the road had been winding and twisting in all sorts of directions. Even now as he held onto her, the memories of what had been between them all these years flooded his mind as fresh as if they were living in them again. He felt her tears against her and it only made his embrace tighter against her. It wasn’t a side of her that he was used to seeing often and it wasn’t hard to see that the emotional trauma had caught up with her finally.

“Probably so, but at least with you, he’ll hesitate to go after you. Me? I’ll catch another right hook from him.” Her words somehow made him feel how he had when he lost it all. He was a guild leader and a caster of his own right. A father of a troublemaker that thankfully was found and he was working to better their relationship. “You may be lost, but not alone in this. You know you have me and the others. We will help guide you out of that abyss…”

Listening closely to what else she had to say, Krys got quiet and pondered about the creature that threatened worlds themselves. “So, this thing is dead?” He thought some more about this situation and there was worry of whether it had been the only one of its kind or not. The last thing that this realm needed was a threat like that to deal with. He didn’t know to the extent of how much she knew about these things, and for the time being he wouldn’t try to question her relentlessly about it. Moliira had already been through enough. “I’m glad that you did make it. If you would have…” Krys felt his throat dry as he couldn’t imagine losing someone else close to him. Uncertainty was never a good feeling to possess and he already had a long list of that.

The mention of a right hook finally startled a laugh out of her, and Moliira finally smiled with feeling behind it.  Blaine and Krys were either at each other's throats or about to go hurt someone who had threatened their family.  It was familiar, and something she very much needed right now.  "I would have thought you would have learned to duck those by now," she said with a laugh.  There was a vague plan forming in her head, but it was little more than a month into the future.  She would have to take things a step at a time.  "I know.  And I will need you, and Blaine both.  I need to… find a path again.  But not yet.  I need to recover first.  Imagine being in skirmishes for five years…  I think the longest we stayed in one place was a fortnight.  And we got ambushed there," she said, indicating the scars on her arms.  She hadn't slept well the whole Hunt either, that would not be an easy thing to remember how to do.

She nodded at his question, and her face hardened for a moment.  "Very dead.  We stayed awhile after to make sure.  One thing I worry about though, we couldn't be sure if that was the only one of its kind, or if there are others," Moliira explained, the ice in her eyes showing a determination that hadn't yet died to fight for a world she had come to love.  "I will have to visit Angela and Dalanesca…  Hopefully they will not be too upset.  But they need to see what I have.  They need to know what might come for this place," Moliira added.  She felt it in her bones that there was no threat for the time being.  She could rest, recover her strength a bit.  But not for very long.  "I knew I had to come back.  But the choice wasn't left to be, it was pure luck.  Gods know we've both been through enough already though," she said with a sigh.