It hadn’t been long after the war that Eldora found out she was pregnant with her and Steele’s second child. Artemis’s birth was still a recent event in the world. The boy was just now having his skin lose the pinkness that came with birth. He looked like Steele and so far the boy had his father’s attitude. He loathed Dante and shrieked whenever the half-demon uncle was even near him. “THAT’S A DEVIL CHILD. How could anyone not like someone as exquisite as myself?” Dante had yelled through the door once the small family had thrown him out to get peace and quiet. It had been a few days since that time.

Estelle was a great older sister and helped to take care of her brother when Eldora was tired. It only took her a few days to recover from the pregnancy before she was up in full swing of her oracle duties once more. Lotus would come by with her little brood to watch him just so he was safe from whatever Eldora was participating in. Everything was just too perfect even for the circumstances she found herself in.

Looking over her new son Eldora cooed softly at him as Estelle looked with her wide blue eyes. The boy was falling fast asleep. “That’s right my little one… No bad dreams can reach you here… Not as long as you are in my arms.” Both of them would be protected by their mother if not by both of their parents. She passed him off to Steele as they wandered up the house steps. At that moment, everything turned to dread as Eldora shrieked waking the baby. She grabbed her head full of black curls and started to stumble back toward the stairs. Luckily Steele caught her and made sure she was alright.

Tears were in her eyes as she couldn’t find her voice. “Steele… I’m so sorry.” The Oracle unleashed a massive amount of magic into the realm like a raging ocean. Portals opened everywhere and she pushed Steele and their children through the one in front of her. Everything seemed so normal but it was what she had seen coming. The portals locked up and closed as everyone except Xunatar and Dante were pulled out of the realm.

There was a huff of breath as the tears silently rolled down her cheeks. She warped around the realm quickly until she found Dante who was confused and alone. “Da-Dante listen to me.” She had a hard time speaking as the island began to shake. “I need you to promise me something.” She grabbed the half-elf by his cheeks but it was perhaps the most gentle she had ever been with him. The tears were flowing now as she struggled for words. “I need you to take care of Estelle and Artemis. Steele is going to have a rough time and he might not be able to handle it. Wrath is so very deadly so you need to look out for him. I chose you because I know that Steele would have tried to fight to get me. You need to leave. NOW.”

The island began to warp as black tendrils lashed out at their contracted one. Chaos and Darkness were imploded in on each other. She could still feel Xunatar nearby but he was most likely in pain from the sundering. “PROMISE ME,” the darkness was swallowing her but still the Oracle managed to open one last portal as she got a leg free from the prison the chaos had put her in. She gave Dante one good kick.

She didn’t even get to hear him promise her.

The chaos and darkness swallowed her whole but she felt Xunatar by her. He was her contracted one and unfortunately she had been kept alive by the powers he no longer had. “I got everyone out.” She choked on her words as she thought about her new baby, Estelle, and especially Steele. She would do anything for them even if it cost her everything in that moment. She couldn’t fool herself though… Even if she had gotten out it would have hunted her down. It was almost as if the dam broke once more.

Everything became pitch black but that feeling of being watched wouldn’t leave her soul.

The only thing she had left was the comfort that her family was safe in Sularia.

Had it been because he had been too rebellious? Or were his truest plans finally figured out? 

It didn't matter what had been the catalyst of this, but he was sure that the pain that echoed throughout his body, throughout his mind, was some sort of punishment. He was crashed into the vanity mirror he was admiring himself in when the pain shot out. It was tens of times worse than what he had endured in his youth and he felt his powers slipping. It had to be…yes, it had to have figured it all out now. Gods the pain was maddening and it wasn't long before he felt his isle quiver violently. He could faintly feel his sons panicking, though one of them was soon departed from Discordia. It was Steele, he was sure of it as he gathered himself up and sensed that the children were gone as well. Eldora was still here, and he guessed that she was the one that sent them away. The other denizens were fleeing as well and he could hear Dante calling for him, but their connection was weakened. It was there that he knew that he was…falling. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but not one that didn't come unexpectedly though it came too soon. There was much more work that was left for him to complete and now it would be harder without the powers he acquired years ago. 

Regaining what strength he could, Xunatar headed off to where Dante and Eldora were at. Meanwhile, his younger son was desperately looking to find him for answers when Eldora got to him first. "Eldora! What the hell is going on? I can't contact my father…" He gripped onto one of the statues for balance. Taking some time to actually look at her, he could plainly see that she was sad. Really sad, like something really bad was going on. "Hey now, don't talk like that!" The half-elf felt her hands on him and he looked towards genuinely, not liking where she was taking this conversation. But it didn't seem like he was going to be successful in arguing with her over this. His brother was going to be beyond furious if something happened to her. "Not without you, Eldora! You can't stay here!", he tried to fight one last time. 

When it didn't persuade her, he finally caved and was about to oblige when he was sent into a portal. Coming out from the other side, Dante cried out her name and pounded the ground. How was he suppose to tell her family this news? And what of his father?

Xunatar hobbled over to Eldora as she was being consumed by that of both darkness and chaos. But there was more than was hurting her than that- it was what his power suppressed in the first place and now that it was waning, it was going to overwhelm and possibly kill her. Using what remained of his strength, he tore them away from her and cast a portal to the only other person that could save her. Taking her with one arm, he led her through it and onto the grounds of Elysia. "Angela. Save her now." He produced the doll that had helped the Oracle with her troubles and held onto it in his other hand. "She won't last too long, and I don't wish to explain to her husband and children what happened to her. And I know Dante doesn't what to bear the news to them either. I, unfortunately, can't help her now…"

Angela had felt the fall possibly before anyone else had besides Xunatar and the Voice. She had been sipping tea in her study when the teacup dropped from her hand and shattered across her desk. The reddish liquid puddled out over her work. That could be redone. It could be rewritten. The goddess pushed herself up and walked towards a window that looked outside into her realm. Of course, she couldn’t see the storm but she could feel the sorrow. The life that was about to extinguish. “What will you do now?” She couldn’t get into the void that was closing around them. At least not without killing either one. No, this was up to Xunatar now.

Feeling the spell break through Elysia Angela flickered to the spot and caught both of them as they were nearly drained completely. There was black ick that was floating about Eldora and Angela shook her head lightly. “The girl… so much pain.” This was the price of Xunatar’s saving. It had merely been a bandage but that was the type of man that Xunatar was.

“Quickly now.” She grabbed both of them before appearing within her clinic. She laid Eldora down and summoned a seat for Xunatar. “Drink this,” a teacup with an odd blue like tea formed and floated in front of him. “It will help with the pain.” Like she had done a thousand times for people before him. She understood the pain of the fall all too well.

She rolled up her sleeves and took the doll. “This is beyond a mortal’s job.” Angela wasn’t scolding Xunatar but she was merely telling him the truth. It was cold but she appeared to be in work mode as she put the doll down and flooded the room with warm magic that flickered green in the filtered sunlight. “I’ve stabilized her for now… but… She is unconscious. If she leaves here right now her body will give out and possibly decay on the spot. Eldora is on borrowed time more than any other person.”

Up went Angela’s hair next before she got magic powder. “I’m going to do something that I might just regret later.” Her eyes went to Xunatar. “You never should have messed with the magic like this. If I wasn’t around there would be no one to save her. Hindsight though. I know that you only did what you know.” She did not sound mad but oddly serious even for the Mother.

“Right now the spirits of Arri that have been locked out from her are converging right directly on her soul… Her body can’t take it so it’s breaking down and killing her. It doesn’t help that she was just now getting back her magic from Artemis’s birth. You could say this is the worst case scenario. If she hadn’t of been pregnant she might have lived through this. It was doubly suppressed thanks to the perfect storm.” Angela summoned a mallet in her hand after drawing a unique alchemical circle around the doll. The energy shimmered and the doll transformed into the likeness of Eldora.

The black ick seemed to get confused and tried to converge on the doll all at once. After waiting a few moments Angela cut her finger and let blood drop onto the circle around it. The magic lit up like skyfire and suddenly the spirits were assaulting the barrier. “This hurts me more than it hurts you.” She brought the hammer down on the door and the voices of thousands poured into the room before dissipating.

Eldora’s body was still heaving heavily as she slept. Black veins were running up and down her body but it appeared like slowly they were receding. “That’s only a temporary fix. Now comes the hard part.” Angela took Xunatar’s hand and cut it letting some blood pool into her own. Their blood mixed from the cut she gave herself. Red strings appeared like a raging hornet’s nest from Xunatar to Eldora. “It’s all a mess… Look at this.” Angela began to pick at the strings and unravel them.

“Snip snip.” Angela retrieved some shears when she couldn’t find a breakpoint. “I would say this isn’t going to hurt as a good doctor should but… This is going to really hurt so brace yourself.” One by one Angela began to cut the strings. Eldora’s shrieking filled the room and if Xunatar screamed too Angela didn’t hear him.

“Ninety-nine. One Hundred. One hundred and one.” Finally, Angela reached the last of the strings. Eldora had pools of sweat all over her and Angela was sure that Xunatar wasn’t fairing any better. “These strings are what we call fate strings… though in this case, they are more like life strings. Her fate was tied to you and now it isn’t. Forcibly but still… I’m not Fate or it could have been painless.”

The goddess came back over to Xunatar and looked him over. “Drink more of that tea. There’s a whole pot.” Sure enough, the whole pot was steaming next to him on a table that hadn’t been there before. “It’s an elixir that helps with the fall. Should make the pain at least a little bit more doable.”

Eldora made a light moan as her eyes flickered a bit. “Where is Eldora?” Soon the Oracle was scrambling and screaming. She pulled at her hair and fell off the bed. “LEAVE ELDORA ALONE!” She had reverted. It was blood-curdling screams but at least Angela didn’t react to her. She let the Oracle try to get away but she couldn’t. She was far too exhausted. “LET ELDORA GO HOME.”

“Where is home… Eldora?” Angela’s phrase brought the shrieking to a stop. The Oracle’s body heaved more from heavy deep breaths as blue eyes met green.

“Home… I don’–… I do?” The woman looked so very confused as her hands took more of her hair and she sat balled up on the ground. “Confused. Spirits do not say much.”

Forming in Angela’s hand was a teardrop-like necklace that had a dark form of energy in it. The swirling seemed to be alive as Angela approached Eldora and placed it around her neck. “Rest… Easy does it.” The goddess helped her back up and put her back on the table. The Oracle was mildly confused but lulling back into the deep slumber. “She’ll be like that for some time… She might snap out of it once Steele and the kids come here. It’s not fully safe to let her leave.”

Another of the same pendant appeared and she put it around his neck. “This is a remnant of chaos and darkness. A part of you which is why it is not gone. It will serve as the link that was severed until I find a more permanent solution. Don’t take it off.”

Finally, she pulled up a stool and sat in front of her fallen brethren. “You must be exhausted… There’s a bed right over there for you to rest. Remember to keep drinking the tea. You have to take care of yourself too Xunatar. Even for how powerful you are without godhood… Nothing prepares you for the full fall. I was once told that it feels like a thousand deaths. I’m going to let Dante know to bring them here.”

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath. ”Dante, your father brought Eldora to me. She is alive but barely. She seems to have lost a good chunk of her memories when I stabilized her. Please bring Steele and the children. I think they might be able to jog her memory. I would rather not force it or I could make the situation much worse.”

It was unfortunate that he couldn’t do anything more for his daughter-in-law and it took a great blow to his pride to come and ask for help from her Aunt. But there was no other choice but to come here. It seemed like clockwork as the goddess came and carried them inside. He fell into the chair and watched Eldora get settled down. With slight annoyance, he huffed before taking the tea into his hands and sipped at it. The fall was unlike anything he had dealt with before and it had come without warning, though he supposed that came with the deal with it all.

“Tell me something I don’t know”, Xunatar coughed out immediately between sips. “I came here for a reason.” Just a tad snappy, he caught him as he realized that his facade of calm and collected had faded even faster than when his domains changed. The demon calmed down and focused on drinking the tea while she worked on the doll.

“I acted rashly back then. I had no solution for her when she came to me so I sought to suppress it enough for her not to be overwhelmed by the spirits. I would have looked for a more developed solution, but I was cocky enough to believe I had fixed it. I can admit that now.” He also didn’t expect for her and Steele to fall in love either. There was no telling what the latter was doing now if he had heard the news from Dante. Heavens should help all those around him at the time. The spirits were drawn out and lured onto the doll before they realized the truth behind Angela’s deception. The worse wasn’t over just yet and he held out his hand, familiar with the concept of taking one’s blood for these sorts of things. Unlike previous times though, the pain did make him wince. It had been so long since he felt true pain and it made he realize that he had taken things for granted when he was a god and it made him sick. Xunatar didn’t believe that he couldn’t die, deity or not, but now that he was mortal again, it opened up his eyes further to the truth.

And if that hadn’t, then the lifestrings that she brought out and then…cut would have. The searing pain was great and he tried to hold out from screaming, which proved futile after around the fortieth one and they slipped out from his lips. But endure he had to so that he could see this through. By the time she was through, he had been on the cold floor, heavily breathing. The demon rose back up to his seat, panting with sweat coming down his brow. He had long forgotten about the sundering and his hand felt like it was on fire but took to the tea as instructed. By now he couldn’t feel his son’s senses anymore and knew that his time as a god was gone.

Eldora woke up, but he wasn’t pleased with all with the results. Not at all. And if he wasn’t, then he could only imagine that her husband would be furious and lose his own damn mind. “It’s the influence of the spirits, isn’t it?” He looked onto the necklace, of what it had represented. His hand clamped onto it for a bit of comfort. Setbacks, he could handle. This wouldn’t be the first nor last time he would suffer, but this had been the greatest yet and damn hard to beat. “Perhaps, though death itself would be a release for it all. What I felt was beyond pain, beyond the suffering of any sort. I fear that I can’t put into words what I went through.”

Dante himself was in a pickle as he was met with the clamping hands of his brother’ that were around his throat. Steele was outside the Black Rose Manor with him after he explained things. Colden was inside with Estelle, holding onto her as she cried for her mother while Lotus was sought out by the twins to come tend to Artemis who was in Colden’s other arm bawling.

“Why did you leave her!?”, Steele roared and Dante had had enough. Pushing his older brother with all his might, he snapped at him, “I didn’t! I begged her to come with me! I begged her to escape and not do something stupid, but she wouldn’t! She had to force me out to stay there! She had to, Steele. She knew that you would have stopped her!” The halfing’s eyes teared up but he wouldn’t let them drop as he was upset that he couldn’t stop her. Steele slammed a fist against the wall, and while the pain was enough to let him know he hurt himself, it wouldn’t compare to the loss of his wife. Dante blinked as he heard a voice in his mind- it was Angela’s.

After a bit, he approached Steele, “Grab the children, she’s alive. She’s at Angela’s. But you might not like the rest of what I have to tell you… “ And he was right, Steele was in shock but she was still alive that’s all that mattered to him.

Within time the three brothers came to the realm with Colden cradling a sleeping Artemis and Dante holding Estelle against him. Steele rushed over to Eldora’s sleeping body and kneeled down before holding her. And wept, perhaps for the first time since he could remember. Xunatar had still remained awake and watched this display from his son and sighed.

“Easy, I’m just being blunt about everything as I work. I don’t tend to hold back when I’m focused on something.” Angela spoke calmly to the fallen god. For a moment, Angela pondered what he said and looked up at him. “Eldora wasn’t family when you did it. You probably would have done things differently had those two already been married. For the family… After all.”

After Eldora went crazy and was subdued Angela took a long minute to think about the situation. “I believe so yes. Some of them are more hostile than others. It could be that Steele had an effect enough on Eldora that it protected her extra from those that cause malice. So it might have reverted her to a state where Steele didn’t exist.”

Once more her eyes laid on Xunatar. “I don’t blame you for thinking that way. However, you are more beneficial alive. Who would take care of the children? Yes their parents but… They depend on you too. For everything I see in your heart, those kids made a change in you.”

There was a sigh that left her lips. “I am offering my protection to you of course… Until you are back to where you need to be. It will be dangerous for you until then. Many people are still angry. All for the family… Right? And we are family… Deeply now are we entangled.”

When the boys and children finally got there Angela was quick to step in front of Dante with the kids. She shook her head as Steele had a moment with his wife. Her green eyes slid over and watched the scene as Steele held her sleeping form. It was sad to see it all but at least they could still be a family. At least that’s what Angela was hoping.

Eldora’s blue eyes fluttered awake as she pushed Steele from her. “Crazy man hugging Eldora like he knows her!” There was hiss as Eldora started to grab things and throw them at Steele. “Crazy red-headed lady put Eldora to sleep.” She started to toss stuff in Angela’s direction. “SPIRITS ARE TOO QUIET.” It was just like when Dante had originally met her. She was feral.

Angela went over and took Artemis from Colden. “Estelle, will you come with Auntie?”

“KEEP THEM AWAY FROM ME,” Eldora shrieked as she climbed off of the bed and into a corner curled up.

Estelle looked like she was about to cry but Angela knelt down and whispered something into her ear. IT made Estelle’s face light up as she ran over and hugged Eldora. “NO NO NO NO,” Eldora froze up though as she went to grab something. “Eldora… doesn’t know you. You are little one go hug someone else.” Her voice got a bit quieter before Angela came over and put Artemis in her hands.

“Why?” Eldora looked up at Angela.

“I think you know why… but do you remember?”

“No… The dog… is mine?” She looked down at her hand and seen the wedding band. She looked around Angela to see Steele’s. “Head… hurts.” Eldora passed out in the corner and Angela was quick to act.

Angela took Estelle and Artemis back to their uncles before looking at Steele. “I think it would be best… for now, if Steele tries to maybe romance Eldora and do things to get her to remember. The children were a good step. She must have thought she was dreaming some things but now that she knows the children are real… We can start to jog her memory.”

Putting her hands on her hips she looked towards Xunatar. “He brought her all the way here Steele… Even in his state. It’s more than most would do.”