Chapter 27 - Troubled

Luna reappeared onto the island in the middle of the starseeing pond, looking around for Ash immediately upon doing so. Her friend, her sister of a sorts, the unicorn she was charged with guarding over was not there and it chilled her to her core. She reached for Ash's magic where it was forever twined with her own and felt nothing at all.

Trembling hands forced her friends list open where she finally saw that Ash was still present. She wasn't gone. The ones watching over her grove had already confirmed it, Ash lived though she looked perhaps quite a bit paler than normal in her sleep, pain showing sharply in her features.

Taking a deep, trembling breath, she looked around her again. Yarrow sat by the door, his gaze going past Luna to where she felt one of Ash's marks left behind. He looked devastated and Luna understood the feeling. He'd been charged with keeping Ash safe, with teaching her the knowledge she needed because Luna had been too busy trying to handle everything the temple and the magical protection agency demanded of her. Luna still couldn't feel Ash's magic so something had obviously gone wrong somewhere.

She walked to him, leaning against the wall, "What happened Ro?"

"She was in pain earlier today," he said after taking a deep steadying breath, he'd gone over the events dozens of times and still wasn't certain what exactly had happened either, "Someone decided to try to issue a challenge to her she didn't want when we were in the crafters guild. Fi interfered the first time and we finished up there and left. I sent her to get some drink, kept watch from the steps of the adventurer's guild. I thought I was close enough to respond in case of trouble…"

Another deep breath followed as he spent a moment trying to sort exactly what had occurred next. His knowledge of Ash's personality, incomplete though it was, told him a different story from what his eyes had seen.

"The challenger from before returned. Before I could intervene, he managed to earn himself a divine sanction…I don't know if she got caught up in it, because it almost looked as if she did, or if the pain from earlier just made her weaken in the face of too much divine power too close but she looked awful when it ended. I suggested we return here and she offered to use magic to bring us here faster. I told her not to do so if it would cause her further harm…I appeared here alone nearly an hour ago. Nia already has people out searching for signs of her in the town, is looking at the other end of the teleportation spell or whatever is left of it herself."

Gardenia slid through the door towards the tail end of his sentence, a small frown on her face, "I finished that examination. It feels like her teleportation spell somehow changed into two separate spells. She brought you here but…There's nowhere else for her to go. She's Godsborn and, as near as we can tell, entirely new to our world this day."

Luna looked once more to the friend list and reached out to interact with a few things. Teleportation within the temple was an easy enough matter, particularly since she would be going from one starseeing pond to another. She hesitated for only a moment before interacting with the option that should have teleported her to Ash's home.

That was a notification she'd never seen before. The only thing that could seal a location from teleportation was a god. Reaching inward, she touched her connection to Sidus.

His voice held a sharp edge to it that she keenly felt was not directed at her, "Someone is talking to the whelp right now," he clearly didn't refer to Ash, would have never used such words even if frustrated with her antics, "I had to step away," the edge to his voice seemed to indicate that the normally even-tempered god was on the verge of a fit of rage, something Luna had never even heard of happening in the past, "Things will be resolved one way or another shortly. Ashterra is safe but would not wish visitors right this second."

Ash was still staring at her starseeing pond when Lucrum returned.

His voice was far less certain when he cautiously seated himself beside her, "I returned to apologize. I had thought that I had acted correctly but your response spoke otherwise clearly. I did not think it a wise decision to beg from you where I missteped so I went to ask the gee-," he paused with a light sigh.

His words reminded Ash rather sharply that Yarrow had only known of the god for a short century and that the people of the world she was currently in seemed to know him as a god of dungeons rather than knowing his actual domain. He was a young god and was likely still learning his place among the others.

"The elder gods," he continued with more respect than he'd mentioned them before, "I had thought I'd learned everything correctly the first time but clearly they still have more to teach me. While a kiss is supposed to be a pleasurable experience, it was wrong of me to force it so without your input. I do not ask forgiveness, but know that I will strive not to act so foolishly in the future."

She forced herself to glance towards him though she'd rather just watch her pond for as many hours as it took to feel better. His golden eyes watched her, soft and truly remorseful. He was not faking his apology to keep from being scolded by the others. She was curious, though, why he'd acted in such a way to begin with.

He frowned suddenly and shook his head, reading thoughts when near those that were not gods was an all too easy task, "I do not know if I was jealous of you or if I covet you, if I'm being honest," he answered her thoughts, his voice growing soft, "You have all that I am supposed to offer the world…and you gained it all without my input or guidance. I did not bend events ever so slightly to connect you to the people you hold dear. I did not provide anything for you to earn the wealth that you have, both in monetary form as well as in the far more important form to you of the love of those people. I had nothing to do with your sharp personality, with the mischief alongside unwavering kindness that will make for endless entertainment for the Godsborn and, I'd like to think, the Earthborn as well. You didn't need me to do any of that…I didn't exist when you gained all of that."

"I did not need Sidus to make me either. Not in the way you are speaking of," her voice was quiet, she spoke slow to keep it from cracking with the pain that still slid through her, "His magic created me. He named me. He left all else to others because it was not his place. Certainly he remained a figure in my life to make certain I learned the values he represents, but he was as a father to my whole herd and I like to think he did so for them all. You are gods that watch over things and can manipulate events to allow change to some degree, but you are not gods that control all. I doubt you want to do so anyway, it doesn't sound entertaining to know everything to expect."

He laughed slightly, the sound holding an edge of self-loathing to it, "Ah, to be schooled in my own place by a creature that is not a god…Part of me feels I should be ashamed of needing it, but I'm not. You are quite well my elder, so I've been told. Considering how he cherishes you, having to remove himself entirely from the conversation to keep from striking me in rage at what I'd done to you, it should not surprise me that you know a lot about what it is to hold the kind of divinity that you do," he stood, "I am sorry, truly so, for using my power to make you want to be near me even if for just a moment. Perhaps, in time, we may mend what I have broken and start a proper connection between us."

She watched as he turned away from the pond, his golden eyes looking over the home she was building for herself and found herself speaking, "I don't know if I will forgive you…If I can. But I am grateful that you are a good god, a kind one, that can see when you have caused harm. I do not think your young age should wall you away from them…nor do I think your godhood grants you an immediate place among them."

He smiled slightly at her words, taking his own meaning from them. He had to form the connections himself with the other gods. He had to earn from them the wealth that they offered, knowledge from eons of watch over worlds aplenty. He could not bridge the gap between them just by being an entertaining bundle of mischief because he could not always be a child to them if he ever wanted to be an equal. He took a couple of steps and disappeared, taking with him the barrier that had shut her off from the rest of the world.