Eldora was dealing with much during this time. Perhaps it had not been wise for her to be out in the middle of this chaos. It was true that chaos kept her grounded but this was pulling at the strings all around her. She didn’t have absolute control over it but she was quick to notice someone now did. Her eyes flickered up in his direction.

Her patron deity.

Her father-in-law.

The man who held her life in his palm.

“What is it, Mama?” Estelle looked up at her and Eldora turned a smile back down to her.

“Your grandfather is just winning the war Child. It is a good thing.”

“So… Papa will be home soon right?” Her big blue eyes were looking up at her mother and Eldora smiled.

“You miss him don’t you Starbright?” Eldora pet her child’s wild black curls and the child nodded up to her mother. “He will be back soon Dearest. He’s making sure the world is good for you.” She kissed the top of Estelle’s head. “He’s way too stubborn to die.” Estelle understood death even at her age. Eldora hadn't shielded her from it. Even now once in a while, Estelle could catch glimpses of soldiers who had fallen. They were being brought back to the camp for healing and many Eldora knew wouldn’t make it.

“I’m going to go see your grandfather…” Eldora knelt by her daughter so she could look at her eyes on an even level. “You go be with your cousin Kirika okay? I’m sure she will let you play with Sahara if you ask nicely.” Estelle smiled and kissed her mother before she ran off. A sigh left her lips before she pushed herself up. Using a water puddle Eldora formed from the water near Xunatar. “You can see them now too… Can’t you?”

Her eyes narrowed in on the god. In her arms was the Xunatar doll now as she looked at the battle all around. “Estelle has been asking for Steele lately. Not that she doesn’t understand why he isn’t here with us. I suppose it’s just her missing him and worrying.” Her voice was oddly cold right now but perhaps it was to mask her own worry.

Eldora winced a bit as a blue mana circle appeared over the battlefield. Those who had died resurrected. It was Angela’s voice now. ‘I will not be doing this again.’ Golden flames ripped through insects that were breaking through. Eldora could tell it was a god and if it wasn’t and couldn’t be Xunatar. “Angela’s new domain?” The Oracle looked up at her god. “She had some trouble at first controlling it. She was incompatible with it. Says a lot for a person who has been a god for almost as long as she’s been alive.” Eldora knew it was a fact that no one could be good at everything. It was interesting that there could be domains that one wasn’t compatible with.

“I left Estelle with Kirika since Kirika is staying back in the camp. Figured that Lotus and Dante had their hands full enough… With those other sons of yours running around and the twins of course.”

There had been no reason for him to be shocked when he felt Eldora’s presence. Xunatar had captured one of the other wasp-like creatures that had scouted too close to their camp and strapped it onto a table. He was in the middle of his…interogations, mentally wearing the thing down while trying to keep on the line and keep it from getting killed when he felt a tug that was starting to get familiar to him by now. One eye peeked from its corner and saw the oracle, one of the few people in the realm that could understand…or perhaps as she said, it was him beginning to understand the ways of the oracles. THey could see bits and pieces, the beginning and the end…and its touch had reached him as well. Though as his glanced down onto the doll that he had crafted from chaos to keep her in order, he didn’t appear to suffer from the same side effects as Eldora have.

“As with the way of little children, unless they are unhinged…Estelle will see her father soon.” Xunatar turned back and continued to unweave the wasp’s mind as he dug deeper for more information. Knowing Steele, he loved his family to pieces but a very close second was battle. To say that he wasn’t relishing in the carnage would be a lie that he very much doubted Eldora would believe. The war wouldn’t last forever; he was sure that the rallying forces would do away with these pests in the coming weeks, if not days. “This power is strange and I have yet to master it. There is some understanding but I do not think there will be enough time… “ He was unconcerned if the bug was overhearing them- he had learned from the last time they kept its kind alive. There would be no space for making that same error twice.

He peeked up to see the light show up from afar and heard the voice of the goddess as she continued her own work. If Xunatar had some problems with how she would go about and resurrect people, with Fate now, it agitated him some more for there was a reason why they had died. To reserve what has been done so freely…it made him care about a sequence…or an order if you will, one that he hadn’t cared at all about. A perfect paradox. “Yes, he replied, trying to keep his temper away from his tone, but instead intensified his power over the wasp. “She threw a fit of all things over being granted a new domain. I am sure that the others have as well, and they struggle greatly too.”

Once he felt that the wasp had given him every it could, he went over to stand over its head and against its struggling, place his hands onto its head. Within a brief moment, he ripped it off and dropped it to the ground where he had it meet with the underside of his boot. “They will be fine, but for your sister and nephews to be here in the first…as well as Estelle…they should have remained in Sularia.”

The god rubbed his boot with the earth, trying to clean off the mess. “I see more than what I could have ever wanted in recent days. I don’t get voices, but sights instead. Visions, I suppose of what lies for people ahead and glimpses of past transgressions. Do you want me to peek into yours?”

Eldora’s blue eyes wandered down to the wasp. Her eyes were uncaring and cold as they often were with people she did not care for. She saw the creature’s string fading and all strings pointed towards death. “I still do not fully understand it from time to time… Though you should have no problem doing so if only you had the time.” Like he had said… There just wasn’t enough.

There was a chuckle from her towards Xunatar. “It bothers you that she resurrected them. It’s the last resort for Angela. She hates upsetting the balance and bringing back the dead. In her eyes, they are never the same once they come back. However, she must have a reason to do what she just did.” Eldora looked out behind her towards where Angela was. “She was given Judgement. The one thing she hates most. It’s no shock about the fit she threw. She’s never liked the Voice as it was and now he is making her do something she doesn’t want to do. Maybe it’s because she knows she can’t fully control it in such a short time as you all have. The last incompatible domain she got she destroyed her whole life… I imagine that has weighed heavily on her as soon as she realized what he did to her.” Eldora shrugged. Time would tell if Angela was being smart abotu everything.

She slit her eyes and turned back to Xunatar. “Sularian people do not trust others while Angela is stuck places. That mistake has been made once… Twice actually, Once being when Egjora and Adeluna attacked and the other time… Angela’s daughter was kidnapped. Three times if you caught the time she was called to the conclave and was stuck there while my heathen mother tortured Angela’s son Raven. We do not leave things to chance. It is far safer here than in Sularia. That is how others feel. Plus all of Sularia’s queens are here. This is a very safe place.”

The Oracle moved to her father-in-law and put her hands upon his face. Her blue eyes stared up at him. “It sounds odd to people like us who see the odds… but to them it is survival. Sometimes even the strings get tangled and you can’t see it all. So many births… So many deaths. If we fail here… Everyone dies anyway. That’s what they are thinking.” She ran her fingers through his hair before she backed up.

“You would be the first person to be able to see my future. If it pleases you go ahead. See what others cannot. It might be tragic in the end… As we are all aware.” It was true that the Oracle was on borrowed time and that if it wasn’t for Xunatar stabilizing her she would be dead by now.

Tilting her head she looked frustrated. “You know Undine has been blocking me out recently. I can’t see what I used to with her. Just objects now. She found a way to cover up their tracks… I expect no less from my sister of the depths. As always I am keeping track of multiple fronts.”

It was at that point that for a moment Eldora’s eyes got wide and her stoic face immediately settled back down. “I also forgot to mention one other thing. Angela was concerned about Lotus giving an early birth so Lotus decided to come here. Shiroi is strong… Maybe not in the sense that Estelle is but she will be a cunning little one. A lot like her mother I suspect.”

Now that she was less distracted her eyes met his again… “You said you would read my future… Could you?” Was she destined to die that horrible death still?

Xunatar hadn’t been one to show emotions in the past, but now it seemed as though something was betraying his clever face. A sudden tick? His fingers flexing and agitated? Who knew at that precise moment but it didn’t matter. The god wasn’t going to bother overthinking what may or may not had happened. “There’s always a reason, good or bad.” There wasn’t a point in arguing semantics either- he felt that domain loath being overruled and outdone by Angela’s antics. The bloody Voice might as well have been on the chopping block too- it had made her bring back Dal after all. A feat that shouldn’t have happened. He would play along with this charade of following its whim but he refused to be a puppet like the rest. One way or another, he would outdo the Tree and still keep his power. Well, nearly most of it. Fate would be returned to its slumber, leaving a bit of a void inside the demon.

His eyes cut at her although his voice remained collected and calm, “Paranoia and recklessness make for good bedfellows for such reasons. If I wasn’t so sure that you and yours wouldn’t be safe in one of the lands that are invaded by insects with the capability of killing gods, then I’d think otherwise.” He was never one to dwell on the past, and as the world moved on, only Sularia would be left with its nightmares if it didn’t move forward as a whole. What if their goddess would one day disappear or go missing? Thinking back, it had happened once before and no one knew what to do. It wasn’t a perfect chaotic scene, that much was for certain. Had he not have offspring and their living in that city, then it would be yet another drop of a name that he wouldn’t bother himself with. Fortunately, he could see through Dante’s eyes and his lover and children were watched carefully. Steele would be on his own, but more than capable of fighting himself. If all else failed, then at least Angela could bring whoever back, though it was a partly uncomfortable thought that lingered like a bad taste in the mouth.

He had known Eldora to not be a shy woman, so only his own eyes moved towards her as she took his face. It was interesting considering the last time there had been any physical contact between them had been when he had taught her certain things shortly before she had met his son and future husband. There was nothing sexual about this situation, such an attraction had died as quickly as it had come and he wasn’t going to betray one of his “good” sons even if it were the case. Nor would Eldora.

No, she was far more worried about something more- her own fate. He knew of the doll that was kept in her arms; the very one that he had enchanted to strive the voices of the spirits from harassing her and making her more…functional. A deep breath was inhaled and then slowly exhaled as he was reminded of his terrible son and her sister that seemed to be in cahoots with him. A bothersome pain, but it was more like an itch in comparison to their current situation. “The other land will protect them well from my watchful eye, but if Sol is serious in wanting to come after me again, then he will make his presence known and your sister will likely follow him.”

Lifting a finger, Xunatar pointed squarely at her and a string shot out and attached to her. Eldora wouldn't’ feel a thing and as vision hit him like waves, his eyes shifted in an array of colors once more. “The girl has two parents that are smarter than they like to let on. I pray that she’s not lazy like her father.”

Death wasn’t what he was seeing if he was observing the visions correctly and one instance stood out much that he tilted his head. He looked at her, no, he looked right through her until he was satisfied with the results and broke the connection. “You…have nothing to fear. I didn’t see death anytime soon. Something else came, but I suppose that all I will say is that Dante will not be happy. Steele and yourself will be, but not him.”