The rush of warm air told him he was back in Antikythera. There was the ever-present hint of metal around, and the humming of machines. Everything here was so…consistent. Looking at the plain walls and stark interior made him feel boxed in, and it all felt too clean. There was a bit of a commotion, and he followed the sound of murmurs to one of the redesigned towers. A crowd of people were swarming around something or someone, and he pushed his way in to see what was the matter. There was a brown-haired woman lying on her back, with an annoyed look on her face. "Oh, you're back. So how'd it go?" The deity asked him. "Nothing today, but I've a bit of good news to share with you." Getting into a more comfortable position, he seated himself. "You won't believe what I saw today. I was making my rounds as usual, when I caught wind of an unusually potent fragrance. I followed it to the source, a small tunnel. It opened up to a glade tucked far behind the trees, and there was what I believed to be a wood nymph–like from the stories…" He then paused, realizing the younger woman hadn't moved from the spot she was in.

"By the way, why are you on the ground?" There was an awkward pause as the deity said nothing for a few moments. "…I fell." She rolled her eyes to look opposite of him. "From where? Where's the ladder?" Silence followed before she tersely answered. "Up there." Her neck extended as she motioned above. Following, he strained his eyes as he could barely make out the shape of a ladder. "Don't you see it?" She asked, noting his silence. "…Shiloh. Why were you up there?" Walter responded in a concerned tone. "I was…testing things." Before he could say more, the presence of someone arriving interrupted them. Looking up, he was shocked to see who it was. Shiloh didn't see his expression due to being 'grounded', and drew her lips into a thin line as she had a feeling what was going to happen.

“I got this feeling something is wrong over at Antikythera. Can you go over there and make sure she is okay?” Shayla gave her goddess a look that she had been pulled away for a feeling. However, the feelings that lady Angela had were normally on point. They were most of the time never wrong and the times Angela had been wrong someone had intervened. It was a mother’s sixth sense.

Getting gated was usually the oddest feeling but once she was inside the temple Shayla let her eyes look over the details. Though she was in a rush to make sure the goddess that resided there was okay. Maybe if it was a quick trip the man was still there in the tunnel. “I was sent by Lady Angela of Elysia. I’m here on a welfare check to make sure that Lady Shiloh is alright.”

“Well… Actually…”

Lady Angela had struck again as she was led into the room where Shiloh was laying down on the ground. However, Shayla was stuck in an awestruck stare as her eyes once again met the man from the forest. “You again.” Her voice was low but her healing aura entered the room as she remained focused on her job. She bowed to Shiloh. “Lady Angela sent me here because she got the feeling you were hurt and wanted me to do a welfare check on you. I am sad to see that her intuitions were once again true. Please allow me to assist you.”

Moving to Shiloh her magic manifested with a golden warm light. It’s healing powers aided those who needed it though it wasn’t quite on the level that Angela used. Gently Shayla took Walter’s hurt hand and untied it. “Is it well now?” Her hands were warm and gentle as she checked his scratch. “I’m looking over Lady Shiloh’s injuries as well at the moment.” So that they knew she wasn’t distracted she kept them well informed. “It looks like you are busted up in several spots Lady Shiloh. While your immortal body will heal… It will still take some time to heal the breaks you’ve caused yourself.” Shayla gave her a smile. “I can amplify the healing time and at least get you back on your feet.”

Blushing a bit Shayla gave a smile and shook her head. "Pardon my manners… I am not quite that used to talking still. Lady Angela calls me Shayla."

There was a silence as he saw the same woman from this morning. "…So what about that wood nymph you were talking about?" Shiloh said, breaking the moment of silence. Walter stared in disbelief. The same appearance, the same scent…it was impossible. Awestruck, he didn't hear the deity's question. "….Hey. Why's everyone gone quiet?" Shiloh asked, a bit louder than before as she had slight difficulty moving herself without pain. His eyes on Shayla, he said slowly. "She's the wood nymph…" The deity turned her head and saw where he was looking, and glanced back at him. She said nothing, and made a face that went unnoticed by him. That initial surprise dissipated as the woman came to tend to Shiloh's injuries. Both he and the young deity were surprised when the healer said why she had been sent. "How'd she know…" The brunette grumbled. It was then that he saw Shiloh's eyes lock onto the piece of cloth around his hand. Somehow the way she was staring made him self-conscious and he moved his hand out of her line of sight.

Walter held his breath as the lady came beside him. "Is it well now?" She asked him with that lovely voice of hers. Tilting his head downwards, he feigned a slight cough to prevent his face from going red. "…Yes, thank you." Moving his attention to Shiloh's condition, he saw her frown as the healer gave the details. Stubborn as she was, Shiloh tried to weasel her way out of things. "…I'm fine. Really. See, I can feel the pain–that means I'm regenerating…" He could tell she was doing a very good job at holding herself together from showing how much it really hurt, but he knew better than to be fooled. "It's a pleasure meeting you Shayla. I'm Walter, this stiff-necked one sometimes asks me to go check up on things elsewhere from time to time. Thanks to both you and Lady Angela for looking out for this little troublemaker." He gave a small chuckle before giving the younger woman a stern look. 

He was starting to wonder why Shayla had disappeared suddenly back in the Virens Forest. Perhaps she had been a bit shy? Or… A thought came into his head that made him frown. The deity on the ground certainly was a troublemaker–in more ways than one. "Wait a minute, shouldn't you be trying to hold her down? Where do you think you're going, you little polecat?" The tracker said, noticing that the deity was slowly trying to edge away.

The two of them were stuck in a deadlocked stare. Then he spoke and it was the first time she had heard his voice or at least had heard it coming from him. Shiloh’s words reached her eyes and she finally snapped out of her daze. “Lady Angela sometimes has… Well, I suppose one would call them visions but it is more like an intuition. Sometimes they are wrong but most of the time she is correct in a sense.”

Once Shayla was over Walter and looking after his hand she paused for a few minutes. “I’m… not a wood nymph by the way.” There was a soft smile on her face but quickly the troubled goddess was becoming a problem. “You are not fine.” She waved her hand and magic images appeared using her healing magic. “As you can see here… These are your bones… and they are very broken.” They disappeared and she moved over to the goddess.

“It’s no trouble really… Lady Angela pulled me away earlier because she felt an urgent matter needed my attention. Turns out it was her intuition on Lady Shiloh here.” Flashing another smile towards Walter she began to figure out what she was supposed to do. “I’m not too worried about this goddess…” A wave of her hand froze the goddess in place. “Many things have been created to deal with people like Lady Shiloh.”

Shayla began to tend to her wounds and for a few moments, she was quiet. “I’m a Willow Tree Spirit not a nymph.” Her bi-colored eyes moved to Walter. “I was a tree once before the Godslayer War. I had been transplanted from Nisshoki to a little farm… and the farmer took good care of me and watched me grow for decades. Until the day the war broke out near our farm.” There was a hint of sadness in her. “Lady Angela felt fit to give me a name and a body so I could use my magic to heal those who need it.”

He watched in amazement as Shayla worked some kind of magic, creating an image of the inner workings of Shiloh's injuries. She certainly had broken quite a few bones–it was a miracle she was still able to talk. It must be that immortality the deities were granted with. "So some sort of intuition, then? I never thought deities could be able to sense such things." To be fair, it wasn't difficult to imagine if it was about Shiloh. At times she put herself under such extreme conditions that it would make him worry. Walter hadn't known her for long, but felt a kinship between himself and the young deity. He had been that way once, when his hair had been darker and his body younger. But there was something else he couldn't describe, something that was disconcerting.

With a simple motion of the hand, Shiloh was unable move. Realizing her attempt at escaping had been foiled, she glared and made an angry hissing noise through her teeth. It was like a mountain cat's, and seeing her like this made him chuckle. It was funny how someone who didn't have beast blood could act like one so convincingly. With the deity now immobile, it was back to mending her wounds. Shayla corrected him, explaining that she was a tree spirit–and not a nymph. This was news to him. For someone who had been taught that everything on the earth was alive, he had always assumed dryads were the manifestations of the trees' spirits. "I never knew…who would've thought?" The next things she said were even more shocking. "The Godslayer War?" He repeated, eyes wide. "That was…centuries ago." That great disaster had been long before his time, and Shiloh's too. 

It was then he learned of why he saw the burns on her earlier. It must have been from that time. Even though she was just a tree, something most wouldn't even think much on–the goddess Angela chose to give that tree a second life, and this was the Shayla now sitting beside him. "I can see why people call her the Mother. She watches over all spirits, even those who live quietly." Then, he felt himself wanting to ask her how she was. It was probably silly of him, but he couldn't help it. Seeing her burnt like that…it was hard for him to sit by without saying anything. "Your hand…and arm. Are you alright?"

“They call Angela the Mother and mothers always have some sort of sixth sense. Considering she would be all of our mother in a nontraditional sense… I suppose it does make sense she can tell when someone she knows is getting hurt.”

Soon Shayla had the young deity until wraps as she was kept still. “Aye, I’ve been with Lady Angela for a long time now. Even before she became Life and lost Earth for Love. Back then she pulled me out because I was a part of the earth. I was within her realm of control. She has the biggest heart of all the deities having been with the conclave as long as she has… It opens her eyes to more things than most.”

Shayla gave him a smile. “Aye, she does just that. Always has been. People thought it weird when she goes out to her garden and has active conversations with her plants but they answer… Always. Each one having a different personality.” Much like Shayla herself. As she worked her eyes drifted down to her hand and she stared for a few moments. “It hurt. I remember it did but it didn’t hurt for long because the fire burned too fast. I am alright now.” It caused her to have a weird look on her face from trying to remember how she had felt about it. “When I died… It was the only time he got to see me as is. He knew.” She gave Walter a smile. “It was a blessing and a curse.”

After they moved Shiloh to her room and got Shayla set up with her own quarters Shayla got out some food and found Walter. It was an odd feeling but with the deity not looming over them anymore at least it wasn’t as odd. “Do you want to share it with me?” She held up the basket and it had several things in it. “It is a gift from Angela. But I’m afraid I wouldn’t know the best place to share it here.” She gave him a small smile.

The muffled sounds of disagreement as Shiloh was sent to rest faded as the other staff members carted her away. He didn't expect her to stay bedridden for long, as with Shayla's assistance the little polecat would be clambering out in a week or less. If she had been this troublesome before obtaining godhood, he could imagine how the woman had been before. She was stubborn and tenacious, like a tick–in a good way. The atmosphere felt less pressured without that piercing stare present, and he could breathe a little easier. Maybe this was why that vampire lord and red-headed dandy steered clear of her when they could. Those two were especially sore when it came to talking about her, and they had plenty of complaints. They probably didn't understand her as he did. She was a cunning little weasel, but never meant any harm. She was very heavy-handed in her actions, however. He'd have to sit her down and have a talk when she was able.

Shayla brought out a basket and showed it to him. "Do you want to share it with me?" He nodded. "Of course. Here, I know a place you'll like to see. It's still in the works, but we have a greenhouse where one of the girls has been bringing plants from all over." With a smile, he led her to see what the curly-haired Rosenite herbalist had been building. The 'greenhouse' was actually much larger than just a simple glass house for plants. It was more like a collection of miniature environments linked together by corridors. Some areas had the glass houses for plants that required special living conditions, while most were out in pre-built beds. "There's not much now, since they'll add more as they go. There's some plants Nerine brought back from Eyota Etu, like the paintbrush flowers and night-bloomers." There were benches and seats designed to blend in with the surroundings. It was like a little patch of forest in Railoch. 

It was different here than the rest of the Machinarium. Everywhere else save for the Chapel had the hum of machinery in the background. There were the artificial waterfalls that Shiloh installed recently using things he couldn't even fathom, and the light here was gentle, almost like daylight. "It's amazing, isn't it? Not quite like the real thing out there, but she tried hard to make it as close as she could. She even wanted to put in fake weather here, but decided it'd be harder than it looked." A small enchanted rain cloud periodically hovered around the beds, watering the plants that needed moisture in turn. That was one of the strange things the herbalist had found and brought back to Antikythera. It was strange to see a cloud move on its own and not in the sky, but magic was something he never grasped well.

Shayla tilted her head softly towards Walter and chuckled a bit. “I love to see all walks of life both metaphorical and real. I don’t think I’ve been in many greenhouses though. My experience with much of the outside world is very limited due to my life’s circumstances and my job for Lady Angela. I will admit that this is the first time in a long time I’ve even been over here in Parvpora. The last time I was here I was still planted deep within the soil of Ayaito.

Once they were inside the greenhouse softened eyes looked about everywhere with curiosity and amazement. To think that such a wonderful thing could be created by mortal hands was impressive to Shayla. It was certainly better than tools of war. She much preferred creation more than destruction due to her past. “It’s very beautiful and quite amazing actually.” Shayla smiled up towards Walter as she continued to look around. “Fake weather tends to be hard when it can be so unpredictable and uncontrollable but I suppose for a god… Shiloh could probably make it work if she put her mind to it.” Though that was just the Willow spirit musing as they continued to wander around the greenhouse for the perfect spot.

Antikythera was amazing to Shayla and very much different than that of Tar Eisalae and Elysia. Though at that thought she realized she had been over in Parvpora though she felt too embarrassed to speak up on her mistake. Maybe eventually she could correct herself without causing too much of a fuss on the inside of her mind. For now, it was a harmless little thing she had simply missed. Not that she thought Walter would care much about it. Mistakes did happen and he seemed very much down to earth.

Her bi-colored eyes watched as the cloud moved and watered where it had to but her attention turned back to Walter as soon as they found the perfect place to eat and relax. “Has Shiloh always been so reckless? I get that as an innovator that she must take risks but today seemed a little over the top even for a god.” Though the tree spirit supposed that was what made Shiloh a bit more of an anomaly and it did amuse Shayla a bit.

Together they spread out the soft blanket as they both took a seat across from one another. Shayla put the basket off to the side but still in between them in a way that it was easy to reach. She retrieved some of the food and a bottle of wine. There were even two crystal wine glasses that accompanied the bottle. “Lady Angela makes her own wine… I think its one of the few hobbies she has that she does just because she wants too and not because people expect her too.” Once more she smiled towards the elder lycanthrope and finally, she felt her mouth go dry for a minute or two. “In the woods when I saw you… I thought everything stopped moving. It must be odd to hear but I was sad when I was pulled away like I was. I thought fate was being cruel but it appears to have had other thoughts on the matter entirely.” She popped the cork out of the bottle and filled each glass halfway before handing Walter his.

“When Angela pulled my spirit from the soul-stream I was blissful at the second chance at life… Though I suppose it really is my third since I was replanted from Ayaito to Bohar. I don’t know if transplanting a tree means it has a second chance at life though… Everything is still so new to me and I suppose that is why it caught me off guard when I saw you.”

Finally settling down into a comfortable spot, Walter let out a sigh when Shayla asked about Shiloh's general behavior. "She has, yes. I've met her husband a few times traveling back and forth. From the bits he told me, the polecat's always been that way. So you've noticed?" His brow furrowing, he added. "This isn't the first time somebody's tried telling her to be more careful with herself. After she helped me out of a bind back in Canelux, I thought she was just brash or careless. But the longer I watched her, I realized that wasn't it. It's like she doesn't care at all." The tracker went quiet for a while, mulling over the thought. His expression lightening up, he brushed aside that feeling for the time being. "I'd like to think I've made some progress though–she listens to me sometimes when I warn her."

When she brought up how they first met, he tilted his head down for a moment as he rubbed his nose. His nearly flushed thinking of it, and it was a pleasant surprise that he wasn't the only one who felt that way. "Fate is truly strange, that's one thing I know for sure from living on the road for some odd years." Speaking of years, it gave the lycanthorpe a small reminder that he was now pushing past half a century. The old adage was right after all–time really did fly. The crystal glasses were amazing to him. For a person who lived off the land and spent most of his time in the wilds, they were the most exotic thing he had seen. Taking the glass from Shayla, he carefully admired how the wine made the glass show off its shape. "I still can't wrap my head around how people can take melted sand and shape into something completely different. It's almost like magic, but easier to figure out." 

Listening to Shayla recount how she and the goddess Angela crossed paths reminded him of how he ran into Shiloh. It made him smile; in different ways they both were given another chance at life due to divine intervention. "So you moved to Canelux from Parvpora? How was it like, finding yourself in a new land? From what I saw from some of Nerine's old books, Parvpora is full of magic–making places like far south unusual and unpredictable. I never thought trees could have blue leaves or purple trunks. Blues and purples tend to be on the rare side for what I've seen in the Corval Basin."