“Try not to make so much noise.” Echo put her finger to her lips as she smirked. The triplets were raising all holy hell with their other siblings. She had a white-haired baby on her hip as she toted him around. “Try not to make a mess I am waking you… Or someone is.” The children squealed at their mom in a chorus of voices.

There was a long drawn out sigh as she walked the halls of Kagayaku Yume. The light seemed so distant but on the other note, she knew that Sularia wasn’t far from there now. She looked down at the small child on her hip and smirked a bit more. So many things had changed and yet so many things had stayed the same.

“Come on… Let's go to Mommy’s room and lay down. Maybe Daddy will come to check up on us?” She kissed the top of the child’s head and moved up to their bedroom. She laid down on the bed and put the small baby under her. He was just now being able to hold up himself so she played with his feet. There was a squeal of laughter as she tickled him. She kissed his small hand. “You are a crazy child… None of your siblings liked their feet touched.”

Her white hair had gotten even longer during her time married to the Lord of Light. The baby grabbed at her hair and pulled softly. Her amber eyes watched him and she grew said for a moment. “Don’t grow up to fast little one. The others are getting way too big as it is.”

From the sphere of Tomurau he gazed down at the opened book. So many names, so many people lost. They danced around him along the walls and he shuddered to think about how many had been added since he and Xunatar’s ‘game’. It sickened his stomach to think about how that had gone. In fact, it was a damn near miracle that he hadn’t lost every single follower at the end of everything. He was nothing like the man everyone had grown to know and love over the past years of him being a deity. And now? Now the world was in chaos again.

Angela was at the helm of the fray, trying desperately to steer their life’s ship on the right course alongside Shiloh. The trials were the only thing standing between a world falling to destruction, and safety. There had to be something he could do, something to redeem himself for the selfish acts that had caused more than enough harm to Revaliir. He wondered briefly if Xunatar felt any remorse on his end. Likely not.

With a sigh he flickered out of the sphere and reappeared in the halls of Kagayaku Yume. As he looked around he wondered what would happen to everything should Revaliir fall. Would it be like DaeLuin? Lives cast to the void? He didn’t want to go through that again but more than anything he didn’t want his family to suffer it. True that he was still coming to terms with having a family in the first place, but the infinite bond he had to his wife and children could not be broken no matter the circumstance. If nothing else, he’d make sure they were safe.

Laughter fluttered towards his ears and he turned his head to catch the retreat of a small back around a corner. One of their children was at play, but he wasn’t sure which one. There were so many now, more than he ever could have dreamed of having, and they were growing much too fast for his liking. That was another obstacle he needed to hurdle: selfish as it was, he couldn’t imagine a world where he lived on and they didn’t. It was the same with Echo-Rose.

He walked the halls silently, phasing through them to take the necessary route to he and Echo’s bedchambers. He stopped just short of the door when he heard her gentle voice just through the threshold. Playing with feet? That had to be Jirou. For just a moment he closed his eyes, focusing only on her voice and the childlike cooing of their youngest child. Suddenly he was filled with a fierce need to protect them, bordering on anger.

When his eyes opened they were a smooth onyx with no whites to his eyes. He walked into the room, managing a weak smile, “Keep playing with them like that and his toes will spoil…” he teased softly, sitting on the bed next to her. His hand hesitated before he rested it on her shoulder. She was so young in comparison to him, this was something he’d already come to terms with even in DaeLuin when his years far surpassed nearly anyone he came around. But now? Now he worried any touch would break her. Moments of passion with her were the only times that his fears were completely gone, and, well, here was Jirou.

His eyes moved from her to their son, somehow it was easier to speak the words while looking at his purely innocent face, “There are trials…” She had to know where this was going, and he wasn’t expecting the most positive reaction. He’d only just come back to them after the upheaval between he and Xunatar, and now he was about to bring up leaving them again.

Echo smirked up at her husband as she pushed some of her hair before her ear so she could look at him. “Nah, babies are forever. Look at him he isn’t going to spoil… are you?” She blew a raspberry on Jirou’s belly and smiled up at Naota. Her hand went to his and she took a deep breath. His eyes spoke something fierce to her.

“If you need to go protect the world Naota… Just go.” She gave a smiled as she pulled herself up to a sitting position. Jirou was cooing behind her but he was slowly falling asleep like she had promised. Their bed, after all, was comfortable.

“I will support you in whatever you need to do. You are a god and you can’t be bound by our mortal bonds like this.” She took his hands and kissed them softly. “We’ll be here when you get back. Don’t take me for some woman who would get mad at you over going to help the world. That’s literally your job now. The kids and I all understand. We love you no matter what… I know that this last time was hard on you and that my words might not bring comfort but… I think that you can do good and bring the light back to your name.”

Echo gave him a soft smile as she leaned up and kissed her husband. “Just kick their asses and make sure to do some for me too. I have to stay with the kids…” Gods what she would do to go on a hunt but she was a mother now and she focused all of her energy on that. Gods know she needed to with how rambunctious their children were. “Go do what you have to do. However, if you want to spend time with me and the baby before you go… I won't object to that either. I am allowed to be a little selfish."

Their child’s exuberant squeal was music to his ears. It was the final nail in the coffin for the powers that be that had threatened Revaliir this time. Would Revaliir ever have a time of complete peace? It produced some of the strongest individuals due to its naturally hostile atmosphere, but at what price? She took his hands and he was left to look into her eyes helplessly; his own a fathomless void of black.

He shook his head, having to look away from her. He didn’t deserve her, he knew that, but he wasn’t willing to let her go. As cruel as it might have made him. He pulled her closer by their held hands and kissing along her knuckles, leading up her arms to her shoulder. Though he knew he couldn’t get too lost with their child so close. “Why not…?” he asked softly against her neck. “Why can’t I be bound to your ‘mortal bonds’ for a little while?”

Not that he was going to relinquish his duties, but sometimes he wished he could be as she was: breakable, vulnerable, finite. He kissed over to her throat, knowing there was always the chance that any encounter with her could be the last one. “I preferred when we fought together: when I knew you were there with me to lob their heads off when I was too distracted.” He smiled against her skin at the memory of their first meeting and every other hunt they’d been on since then.

“You’re not selfish,” he said, circling an arm around her waist and slowly moving over her. His other hand moved out to move a protective touch at Jirou’s side so that he couldn’t roll too far towards the bed’s edge. There was a constant protection barrier to keep him safe, but still. His lips trailed up along her neck to her ear; nudging her head to the side with his nose. “Mm…yes, time spent with you and our children is incomparable. Maybe we can practice making another one before I have to depart…”

Echo-Rose stayed close to her husband as he kissed up her arms and her shoulder. Her skin goosebumped as he spoke against her flesh. There was a laugh from her lips. “Mmmmm… Because you have divine responsibilities?” She smiled towards him. “But I wouldn’t be disappointed if you wanted to be bound to my mortal bonds for a bit more.”

Again as his lips hit her neck she shivered a bit and smirked at him. “Aye, I miss it too but these babies need their momma.” She smirked at him and kissed the top of his head. She wrapped herself around him and looked back at Jirou. Naota’s lips were giving her shivers again.

“Only practice? Every time you touch me causes a blessing.” She chuckled a bit at him and winked. “Give me a minute or two.” She scooped the baby up and kissed Naota gently. Taking the baby to the nursery she pulled the blankets over him and tucked him in. “Mommy and Daddy love you…” She reminded Jirou softly.

After a while, she came back and wrapped her arms around Naota before throwing them onto the bed. “I guess I can give you some time since Jirou is tired now.” She smiled at him with a laugh before she kissed him once more.

“When you go… be careful. I don’t care if you are a god… You are still my husband and that means I get to worry about you.” She kissed him again and rolled them so he was on top of her. “You can be a bit reckless so please be safe?”

“Hm,” he mused against her skin, there were times where his divine duties felt less like responsibility and more like shackles. One shouldn’t have to abandon their family so often, but that’s what made deity-hood such a burden. Mortals had no idea how good they truly had it; timeless life and abilities beyond comprehension meant nothing if your loved ones suffered. Echo wasn’t suffering, neither were their children, but the threat was always there just under the surface; a disease waiting for the most opportune moment to flare.

He chuckled and allowed his lips to trail down along her collar, “Someone has to bring laughter to the temple, who better that than children? Motherhood has always suited you,” he whispered just above the lining of her shirt, so close to the soft skin of her breasts but not letting his lips touch there just yet. “Though,” he admitted, “So does a blade.” One day their eldest would be able to stay here by themselves, their abilities -both psychic and non- were growing each day. Soon she would be able to go on daring expeditions with him.

She moved from the room with Jirou and he watched after her with a smile, propped up on one elbow. Where would he be tomorrow at this exact time? Would there even be a world tomorrow? For just a moment his eyes grew distant; the onyx fading to smoky quartz. When she returned to the room his arms easily wrapped around her waist to keep her up on his hips. Just looking up at her like this was enough to slowly spread emerald back into his eyes.

Soon he was over her and he moved a hand up to run the backs of his fingers along the curved line of her cheek. His eyes gazed down on her with such want, as if he’d never again be able to look at her this way. Revaliir had suffered so much by his own hand, what if they next time there was no Voice to stop him? Or Xunatar? Or any entity that threatened the people of Revaliir en masse?

“I’m not reckless,” but the words were barely out of his mouth before he had to turn his eyes away from hers. A light smirk upturned the corner of his lips as he looked back at her, “Fine. But, I’m just the right amount.” But he’d heard her loud in clear. This time he couldn’t falter, not even for a second. He would make it back to her, to their children. The temple was probably the safest place he could imagine them being, and it was this knowledge that he had to continuously remind himself of.

“Soon,” he said, tipping his head down to rest his lips at the dip between her breasts, “Our eldest will be able enough for you to come with me.” He moved a hand down the curve of her side to her hip, down along the skirt of her dress until he was able to trail his fingers back up underneath. His fingers gently gripped at her calf before sliding towards her inner thigh.

“Will you go to fight with me again…?”