Up the jade steps he strode, the yellow rose he'd picked - not without a flash of guilt - twirling between his index finger and thumb. His younger self would have paused to marvel at the fireflies. His current self was no less awed, but he carried on all the same. He was in no state to dawdle.

He hastened through the crystal caverns and the salt flats with similar intent. Time was but a blur. The treks were hardly easy, but he'd grown to consider himself a warrior and would not balk. He did not dare disappoint himself… or Her. So far, he had no confirmation of his guess, but he had ascertained at least one thing: if this was indeed all of Her creation, then she had developed a more refined taste than he remembered.

A green apple plucked from the orchards of the farmstead was a reminder of times past. He knew not his heading, but felt in him a steady sense of direction the whole while. He could but place his trust in it - in the warm, familiar embrace he sensed about the entirety of the place. 

He had been afraid, at first. He had feared he might be turned away. The thought did not linger far. Chewing on his fruit, he chuckled to himself. He had always been an optimist, and despite his doubts, that wasn't about to change now. He gave a strained smile and pushed onward. How much time has passed? He did not know, and did not care. He'd always been stubborn too, and that was another thing that would never change.

But geez… more steps. The woman sure liked her staircases. These, too, he intended to scale, the beauty surrounding them admired but in passing as he slowly crept up. But it was, at last, too much. His wounds, shrugged off best as he could the earlier part of the path, had begun to catch up with him.

Part of the way up the mossy path, he crumbles, and collapses. The vivid picture of Her face alongside the faint outline of an obsidian door with a fiery leaf upon it the last things he remembers before everything goes fully black - they are the images he has been seeing in his dreams for a long time now. 

[boop]

What kind of mother loses a child to an endless void? A helpless mother? A mother who cannot shatter the bindings of reality? A bad one? What if that child was here all along and this mother could not find him?… What if that mother questioned every fiber of her abilities because of said child? What if… that mother thought she was a bad mother for not being able to break the chains of the possible and reaching into the void of the impossible?

What if… everything that was impossible for most mothers were simply erased and the impossible simply became the possible? That mother would have to be a super humanoid. A god among all mothers.

What if… that mother was that way? What kind of mother did that make her? A broken one. A lonely one. One without purpose and love without having all of the family pieces in place. A lost child in a sea of many children was still a lost child. It was a still a broken link… and a broken link was a broken home.

In the sea of all reality and the possible versus the impossible… She could break down that wall and yet… She had failed. No matter how many pockets of space between Revaliir and DaeLuin that she searched she simply could not find him. There were tears, so many confused broken-hearted tears. For she was who she was but she simply was not who she was in the past, not wholly. Those confused tears became tears of memories as the ocean of confusion slowly began to cave down into the confines of her soul. The twisted tears of the void meeting the ocean of her soul. The chaotic waves had torn her and broken her for what seemed like a short amount of time but in reality, her soul was drowning for what seemed like hundreds of years.

The soul of who she was and the soul of who she became here collided with such ferocity that she had nearly lost herself to damnation. The kindness of her soul met a sour road filled with envy, regret, and suffering. The Mother, who would have destroyed all of reality to reach her child, was lost. Lost because she could not find that one little part of her. Most would have shrugged and looked to fill that little void with something different. Something new. This mother could not. In the confines of her room where she alone could stand unless she permitted others to join her, she wept. She wept in the silence. She swept so deeply that her heartstrings snapped and mended themselves so many times that she felt numb.

She was the Mother, not just a mother, but the supreme being that looked over all of life. Yet she had failed in the one place that meant the most to her. She could not find her child. Still, she had pressed on and she had put on a strong face. She had lost her husband but that didn’t seem to sting her like it should have, he was simply gone but also the twisting of her soul hadn’t been able to change the pure being that she was deep down. Her husband had crossed the line one too many times and she couldn’t understand the relationship that they had together so she let the deep ocean that had formed take it away in the rising tide. She could not mourn so many things. She would mourn her children though. They were a part of her and they were good beings. They were her little stars in the sky… the beacons for her to find her way home. They were her heart and to have a functioning heart she needed them all.

At least… she needed answers for them. Reyviir Maverick was such a child that gave her no answers. He just simply wasn’t. He was a special child to her even more so then the relationships of mother and son, he was a gifted child and her special little one that she had doted on with all the love in the world. Even this Angela who had hundreds of children and had lost some of her own to death hadn’t been prepared for the pain that his disappearance had brought.

She hid it well and controlled her temper and feelings if only to be strong for the others. She would have torn the world apart if she thought it would help but… her spheres had told her it would not. It would only make her the villain and she would need to be careful on how much her envy had grown. Envy was her worst enemy even when Dalanesca faced off against her.

Even in the face of death, Angela had wished to just catch a glimpse of her missing child. She had gotten killed to spare her children but not even death would have her. She would suffer more and be reconstructed again thanks to immortality. Immortality, true immortality, was a curse. She would stand against time and watch as her children would fall to death and illness. She would watch them call to their own mortality. That was the nature of being a god. Reyviir was a child that she had lost though and it wasn’t from his own mortality but from her own failures as a mother to find him. She had found so many others and helped them pass. She had even found Nathaniel, who had escaped from Death’s grips to be with his family once more.

And yet… where was Reyviir?

It’s not too strong of a name, is it?

Taylef’s words oddly echoed in her ears. She had never heard his voice so clearly as she had just then. She stirred from her spot. A mess of alchemical ingredients and maps. What had she been working on so late? Her hand moved to the slight bump of her forming children. They were so young yet but like all of her children she knew them to be strong, she could feel it.

That was when the odd sensation hit her completely. That feeling of nostalgia. That feeling of a longing being fulfilled at last. Something missing… had suddenly been found. It took her only a few minutes to realize that she was feeling someone walking in her realm. There was a curiosity in her eyes about why a person could make her feel such a way. It hit her like the weight of the world had crashed down on her.

Her lip quivered a bit in almost a sad way but it wasn’t sad… It was excitement and relief as she ran from her desk knocking everything over. The alchemy ingredients created a gas cloud and explosion as particles met that shouldn’t have but it didn’t effect the red haired goddess as she ran from that room.

She almost didn’t even think about it as she melded to the earth and appeared before the boy… no, he was a man now… wasn’t he? He would always be her boy though. Her green and red eyes teared up. “Rey…” She picked him up the best she could as she snuggled her head into him and wept. She had been longing for him for so long that her heart was shattering. It was an odd feeling but soon her motherly instincts caught in and she appeared in the clinical area of her temple.

She told people to move in a way that wasn’t befitting a person like her but she did not care. She laid him down and immediately began to work on his wounds and his health. “Reyviir you need to wake up,” she didn’t want him to sleep. She wanted him conscious so she could hear his voice and love his soul. He was her child.

The missing piece of her heart had come home.

Never before had the world been so whole.

But he did not wake. Not at first. His wounds were not visible in a tangible sense - there was no blood, no sickness. He appeared hale on the surface, the skin 'neath his freckled cheeks and shoulders betraying naught but what should have been a strapping, healthy young lad. Yet on he slumbered. 

A peaceful expression had surfaced the very moment Angela picked him up. He'd made it. Reyviir wasn't sure how, but he knew it even in the midst of unconsciousness - he hadn't been rejected, and he had stumbled into the right place, and the rumours had not been wrong. A timid smile on his youthful face, he slept, comfortable and in no hurry to escape from his dreams - and oh, how pleasant those dreams were..

… He saw his family again - his mother, his siblings, and even his uncle and father, and even Keremeos, too! Everyone supped together and got along - well, best as they could - and things were ridiculously perfect and, and, and... His chest slowly rose and fell, and he stirred, but did not dare open his eyes to the world, lest the too-pleasant illusion be dispelled. Time marched on. And still he casually ignored it. He was home now. He was safe. Nothing else mattered.

Wake up.

No. He didn't really want to.

You need to wake up.

With a groan reminiscent of his childhood days, he leisurely stretched and, eyes blinking slowly, adapted to his surroundings with a curious interest. Licking his lips, he grumbled some and then, all at once, sat himself bolt upright. Calloused hands tousled his already-messy lion's mane of cyan hair. He had come here for some reason… Why? Glancing to his left, his eyes widened in sudden realization when he saw Her. Despite his lack in energy, Reyviir launched himself from his bed to her, wrapping the woman in a tight hug. "Mother!"

He struggled to fight back the tears of elation that threatened to spill. "I missed you so much!"

Then, releasing her from his near-strangling bear hug, he stepped back and looked her over carefully, cautiously… almost warily. "It… It really is you, right?" There was something decidedly different about her, he knew in his gut, but he couldn't put his finger on it. It was clear from the frown that leaned on his thick brows that he was suspicious, now, but though he'd always been an honest boy, he tried his best to mask it. Maybe this was just another dream in the long series of dreams he'd meandered through the past gods knew how long, but… either way, he meant to make the most of it.

"I never stopped looking for you…"

There was that familiar lazy air that came from him. She knew that well as she remembered back when she had to make him rise in the morning. There was a pitiful laugh that came from her lips as the reality of everything washed over her. Even in his weakness, he had flung himself to her and she clung to him. “Oh Rey…” she started to sniffle and nuzzled her head deep into his hair so she could smell him. It was an odd thing but her memory was good and strong when it came to scents like that. Rosenites were good with their scent like most creatures with heightened senses but it was also one of Angela’s favorite ways to paint memories. His scent brought back so many.

“Not more than I have missed you,” she started to lay him back down or at least attempt to as she stopped and listened to his words. It would be hard to fill him in on so much when all she wanted to do was hug and love on him. She had missed him so much that it hadn’t crossed her mind to stop and explain everything that had happened.

“It is a lot more than a tired mind like yours could comprehend at this time.” She gave him that stern voice he was used to but only for a moment as it melted away. “It is a rather tiresome story… but yes I am me… Maybe not completely as you once had known but know that I am your mother. It is a much more complicated story.”

She rubbed his soft cyan hair and kissed the top of his head. “And I never stopped searching for you. I ripped dimensions open searching but not nearly as hard as I should have… If I had tried more I would have found you so much sooner…” Even for her, searching all the pockets would have been impossible in such a short time. “You are exhausted, Rey… Are you hungry? Thirsty? You have needs please tell me. My attention is completely yours until you are better.” She pushed his hair back and smiled. “Need only tell me what you need. Questions, I will do my best to answer.”

Part of him didn't want to concede the point - didn't believe that anyone could have missed anyone as much as he'd missed his dearest mum, but… She was his mom. She was probably right. Resigned, Reyviir could but offer a bemused shake of his head and, though he flashed his teeth in that trademark boyish grin of his, it was a weary smile he wore. His aches were not commonplace - they were the sort found deep in one's soul, woven now into his very being, and all of a sudden he was just so very

tired…

"But ma…" Again, though, she was right. If it were as complicated as she made it out to be, best they keep it as a tale for another day, he suspected. Her answer had calmed his uncertainty, and that was enough for him. He released a deep breath he didn't know he'd been holding, and in the process just about melted into the bed once he'd been lain on his back anew. "If you say so."

A great part of him did not wish to tear his eyes from her face, for he wanted to soak in every detail, wanted never to forget. But so weary was he, as he shifted, he directed his sleepy, half-lidded gaze now at the ceiling, and it lent him a rather uncharacteristically pensive expression. 'Exhausted' wasn't the half of it - he felt like he'd been constantly on the move for decades now and was only finally getting a chance at a respite.

"Dimensions?" he echoed in a whisper, the corners of his lips upturned in amusement. "All for me…?" That sounded serious. Surely he was not worth the trouble - he was but one person in a vast sea of many, and tearing open dimensions sounded like it had the potential for damage or untoward consequences at the least. His lips thinned into a grimace. "You shouldn't have… I would have made my way home one way or another, mother… I…" Weakly, he shook his head. He sighed. "Thirsty? Ah, yes, something to drink might be nice. And food… I can't really think of anything. Maybe those things you used to make! What were they…"

But again, after a period of deliberation, he could but shake his head. So much was yet fuzzy in his memory, as though the pieces were still falling back into place. "I can't remember what it was…" And on his face, his brows furrowed in consternation, his question was implicit: why couldn't he remember?

Angela’s gaze softened even more as she looked at him, it didn’t even seem like it could have been possible to soften that much but she did. She relaxed just a bit more as she cupped his face and hushed him softly. “I am your mother Rey. I would have destroyed places if I thought you would be there. If I have the power to easily do so… I would do it as many times as it took to bring you home.” She leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Mothers tend to do things without thinking if their babies are in trouble and despite how old you’ve grown you are still just that.”

She shushed him a bit as he struggled with remembering. “It’s probably the void.” She frowned a bit as she pushed his hair with her fingertips. “You’ll remember, it will just take time and patience. I know that you can do that much.” She smiled at him and teased, “It’s not like you are Aellie and have a fuse as short as you are.”

Again the goddess kissed the top of his head and held him close. She struggled with the want to get him those things he wanted but at the same time, she didn’t want to leave. She resigned to sighing a bit. “Melina, will you come here?” The clergy member came over and took a moment to look at the two of them. “I’ll be prepping Rey a room… Will you get him something nice to drink and a hot meal? I don’t want to leave his side.”

Melina nodded and ran off. “We’ll get you settled in a room of your own.” She took the moment to pick him up again and almost seemed to warp around the temple. It was wide and spacious and she finally stopped and began to walk slowly to a room actually not far from his sister’s. She pushed the door open and the candles flickered on softly. She put him in a softer and nicer bed than the clinics as she sat down with him.

“Do you remember what happened before you were lost, Rey?” She had been so very worried. Melina wasn’t far behind them as she opened the door up and brought the tray of hot food and a glass of his mother’s rose water for him to drink. “Thank you, Melina.” She helped Rey sit up as the tray got sat on his lap. “That’s all… Thank you again.” The brown haired girl bowed and made her way out of the room leaving the two of them.

“Here eat and drink. I’ll get you more if you need it.”

"But…" He frowned and squirmed uncomfortably. She was his mother, yes, and despite the tenderness in her tone Reyviir was remembering now just how fiery she could be. He huffed and looked away - no doubt she was where he'd gotten his own passion from, given his father was likely unfamiliar with the true meaning of the word. And so, though he was hushed, he did not stay hushed overlong. "What if I wouldn't want you to destroy places looking for me?" But just as quickly as his bluster had flared up, it left him, and he sat deflated once more. "Just… How do you think that'd make me feel…?" Maybe it was selfish of him, for no doubt she would be hurting also. He had seen her pain concerning some of his other siblings before.

Maybe they were both selfish, then. He hunkered down, miserable - if for a moment. Best they move on, perhaps, to a more amenable topic of conversation… and certainly no topic could have piqued his interest more than that one peculiar word Angela had mentioned: the void. "The… what?" he echoed, incredulous. Gnawing on his lower lip - a habit he'd picked up from his uncle over time spent together - he stewed in his anxiety. The void… What void?

Though he answered on autopilot, he couldn't help wondering. What void? Why did that sound so pertinent so his current situation? He'd think something like a 'void' would be a big enough deal not to have been forgotten in the grand scheme of things… Wait. What. A room of his own? All it took was a prolonged blink of confusion and just like that, they were someplace new. But for now, it was just another bed and another room, and did not register as being his bed and his room.

Contemplative, he reached for a chunk of bread from the tray and dipped it into the… stew? or was it soup? in the bowl before him. Angela's question had stirred in him some thoughtful chewing. "I was on my way home from…" He frowned. Something wasn't adding up even as he was speaking. Would it be like this for a long while yet? He hoped not. "From Uncle's grave at the falls." But… a grave? Why? He was certain, through the time he'd spent dreaming, that his uncle was not actually dead. Reyviir would have sworn his own life by it. Perhaps that would be a mystery for later. "And then… nothing." Wait, that wasn't right, either. "Or… chaos." Maybe chaos was a better way of putting it. It had not been so pleasant as 'nothing' might have been in comparison.

Then, midway through a second bite, it was as though a switch had flicked, and he remembered a word - no, a name - Angela had mentioned just moments ago:

"Aellie!" The exclamation was accompanied by wide eyes, and a pulse beating a frantic dance. He forced himself to finish his bite and then take a breath. He remembered Aellie. She had been in his dreams. "Aelwen… Is she… Are they… Is everyone…?" Are they all right? He wanted to ask, but the question was lodged in his throat. He gulped nervously, fingers clenching the blankets beneath him. Food and drink would be well and nice, but the sustenance he felt he needed most at present was an answer that would assuage his fears. He needed to know his siblings were safe.

Angela stared at him for a vast moment before looking away. “If I had really wanted to tear apart the universe it would have happened Rey. Seeing as it wasn’t what happened… wouldn’t it be safe to say that I did not think it was a wise idea? It is more that it is what I would do if there were not consequences for such actions.” She turned and gave him a smile. “I will not pretend that I didn’t think about it… I most certainly did but I am a woman who has a worldly image and I would have possibly been hunted down for that.” She reached for his cyan hair and smiled more but it was softened.

“Trust me, I knew how you would feel about it Reyviir. I am not the woman that I was who would have selfishly done whatever to keep things to myself. I know that you and your siblings have different ways of doing things… Different wants… I am no stranger to that. I respect that and I would try never to violate that in which you trust me with.”

For a moment she had felt bad for letting the void slip her lips. She took a moment as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I will explain in a few moment… but like your uncle.” She reached and pulled on his lip softly. “You shouldn’t do that.” She gave a smile. “I’ll explain in time… maybe a lot sooner now since I had said something stupid like that.”

They were in his room now as she settled him in so he could eat. “Chaos would be the best way to put it, Dear. It is why I haven’t been trying to explain it all to you. I fear what learning the truth could do right now.” She was honest with her son as she made him comfortable. Her green and red eyes watched his vibrant green, like all magic users of Cathro, just like his uncle before him.

He was suddenly up in arms as he began to get frantic and she tried to calm him down with hand movements. “Not everyone is fine but all of your siblings are…” She took a moment as she smiled. “Somehow… Even Nathaniel is here with us. It is just like the Draconis not to stay dead though.” She reached for her son’s hand and held it for a few moments.

“I’ll now tell you what I understand about what happened…” She closed her eyes. “If I think it is too much for you I will stop… and I will start to treat your mind. I don’t want you to be hurting anymore than you have to. The Void… was an event in DaeLuin that we believed destroyed the lands whole. Whether or not this is the truth we don’t know. We do know that a good majority of DaeLuin’s inhabitants even gods ended up on this side. Some of us combined with doppelgangers and some of us had no one to form with and simply found ourselves on the ground.”

She let her other hand play with her skirt as she thought about how to put it. “For myself… I combined with the Angela of this realm. A goddess who had been here for more than fifteen hundred years. I found all of your siblings… but Nathaniel and you. Nathaniel showed up out of the blue in Sularia ready for a new trial… Aaryona told me not to bring her here and let her find her own path. You, I couldn’t find and I was upset but I have responsibilities here… so many in fact that it was like getting drunk and trying to forget I hurt.”

She gripped his hand a bit more. “There are others who did not make it… There are others who existed here… Frey. I’m not sure where he is but he has a daughter here. Rhea, is her name. She comes and lives here on occasion… Your father… he was comatose before the fall and so I have no idea where he is or if he made it at all… Not that he would love me anymore or be with us. Things are much too different for him here I fear so I moved on the best I could. I won’t pretend to understand Taylef, if my DaeLuin self did it was lost in the transfer.” She frowned a bit at Reyviir and shrugged it off gently.

“Aellie is in Sularia, the home of the Rosenites. She is there with Nerezza and Lucian too. Nathaniel is there sometimes but he is here a lot of the time to help me with diplomatic decisions. Aaryona is on the other continent with her father’s clan…”

She took a deep breath. “Then there is the Angela from this realm. I am the Goddess of Life and Earth. Here I have over one hundred children. You are among my youngest. Most of them are drifting the lands but there are some here in the temple as well. Such as your little brother Rohan and little sister Iva. You will meet them in time.”

Reyviir stared back, the wary fire in his eyes near extinguished. The more their conversation progressed, the more everything started to make sense: the gut feeling that she was wholly familiar and yet not; his empty aches and pains; even his place in the world now… But he didn't want to focus on any of that. Looking up at Angela, he flashed a warm smile. He wanted her to have his undivided attention, and selfishly, he longed for the same in return.

"Sorry… and thank you." Even the idea that she might have been tempted to tear worlds asunder in her search for him was unnerving - but he would have to accept and come to terms with the fact that she had not. Breathing a little easier, he absently took a palm to the back of his forehead… lukewarm. Nothing out of the usual there, as he'd always had a tendency of running a little hot. Still… something was out of place, and it wasn't the area or his company. It was something to do with him, Reyviir knew, and being unable to put his finger on it was slowly driving him nuts.

His brows furrowed slightly as she corrected his gnawing. "Egh, mooom…" He was surely too old to be babied in such a way now. Pouting, he made a show of loosely crossing his arms over his chest and pointedly glanced away. Still, it was a bad habit, and he knew it. Damned uncle.

"I… I would like to know. Please."

And then they were whisked away.

The grim set of his lips relaxed at the news that his siblings were safe, though it was quick to return alongside his brow furrowed in consternation as she went on. Daeluin… At the mere mention, memories came flooding back to him in a rush, and he had to catch his breath. But despite his distress, his eyes pleaded with her: please, go on.

"Aary…" He gripped her hand in return as he listened. But what calm he'd managed to gather collapsed, and it was as though floodgates had been thrown wide open. "Frey, has, a, daughter?" he echoed, incredulous, and he could not help but guffaw. "Surely you're pulling my leg, or maybe I'm dreaming? Maybe I'm still lost in the void or… wherever."

It sure as hell seemed more likely than Frey ever coming to love another individual, he thought, both bitter and morose. And then having a child… Unlikely story. He'd have to see it to believe it, and even then, he'd have to hear the words from his uncle's own mouth.

Less amusing by far was the status of his father. "Taylef…" Reyviir offered a weak smile, and patted his mother's hands gently. "I… admit, I fear I could not always understand what you saw in him, myself… I… I love him, but it often felt he was not suited to the role. He scorned it, in many ways, and…" But if the man had not acted as he had, Reyviir would not be here today. He took to anxiously gnawing on his lower lip again. "Perhaps it's… for the best."

He sighed. "Aellie…" Now there was more of a name he'd been wanting to hear. "How far from here is Sularia?" And then, with a tilt of his head: "Diplomatic decisions? What kinds?" True to form, no matter how weary he might have been, he had a lot of questions. Some things never changed.

"Fifteen hundred years… Over one hundred children?" He offered a cheeky grin. "So what you're saying, ma, is you've grown old." And in a hurry at that… geez. "Well, you still look young as ever," he quickly added, giving a sheepish wave.