Wesley held his toddler sister in his arms as he entered the temple. They had been eating off of nothing but the rations handed out by Angela's forces. If they were to survive….if the world was to survive, then they needed to pick up arms and fight through the Spire. He looked down to Charise and into her eyes. This was one of the few days that she wasn't crying, throwing a fit, or causing trouble. Instead she was just looking up at her older brother and had a goofy smile. Wesley didn't know if this made his decision harder or easier. The young boy sat down on the ground of the temple and looked at the fountain. The fountain of the goddess, a goddess of love and parenting or something. He wasn't particularly educated on the gods. But even just seeing her there, in stone form, was enough to make him feel small. 

This was a job meant for heroes. He wasn't one. But when he looked back at Charise, he couldn't help but feel fear. What if there was something he could do? What if he had the chance to save both their lives? The what ifs clouded his mind. But there was also a chance that he might not come back. What would happen then? After the death of their mom, he couldn't leave Charise alone. She had nobody else in the world. If he died…. Wesley pushed that thought away. 

"What do you think?" He asked Charise. 

Instead of responding, Charise just let out a giggle and began to pull at his ear. Wesley let out a gasp of pain, since little baby hands could have some of the tightest of grips. He managed to free his ear and was careful to keep his head further away from her grabby hands. Even though she was only a child, she seemed to be one of those mischievous kids. Or maybe he just had a lack of experience…

"….I promise that I will come back." He said to his little sister, "I will come back and I will make things better. For the both of us."

Those words were more for himself than for her. He then placed her on his knee, holding her in case she lost her balance. 

"One day, we are gonna be super rich." He promised, "We'll have a home. And its not gonna be just any home, its gonna be a nice protected cabin in the woods. We will have two floors and a warm kitchen. Oh, and you'll get your own room. And I'll have storage areas to put anything I find in the woods. Out in front of the cabin will be a little garden. We can grow food there and herbs for stuff. Maybe there will be a village nearby. Somewhere you can go to play with other kids and learn stuff. What do you think of that Charise?"

Towards the end of his idealistic rant, he had started doing the baby speech thing. Charise didn't understand a thing he was saying but instead just clapped her hands with excitement. But to Wesley, it was as though she was agreeing with him. 

"But…in order to do that… I need to help stop the Spire thing." He explained, "Then we can continue working for the future." 

He gently placed Charise on his soft bag, trying to ensure that she had a cushy place. Then he stood and walked towards the fountain. There were many clear bottles but he only took one, as he had no intention to take his little sister with him. He filled the bottle with the potion then placed the cork in it. Turning back to his bag and to Charise, he picked her up then placed his bottle in the backpack. Swinging the backpack over his shoulder, he stood up and walked towards the exit of the temple. 

"Now I need to find you a babysitter." He mumbled. 

Where would he find one on such short notice? And he had to find somebody whom he could actually trust. 

After he had received his filled vial of the font's potion, Aidoneus lingered by the shrine for a while. While most brushed past him to hurry on towards where the goddess of life had made camp at the steppes, the eidolon stayed to think. He had played his part when corrupted Void-born and Changed Ones tried to destroy this world. For a short time, he had almost returned home. And now, here he was again. The entrance to the Void was further down the valley and it was no longer as dangerous as it once was to approach it. If he so wished, Aidoneus could make the trek to that place and cross the boundary to rejoin the rest of his kin in their homeland within the Void's great expanse. His people likely would have entered into their latest cycles and his family would have taken new forms. Their memories would be gone, but their essence would have been remade into new beings. 'Reincarnated', as the children of Revaliir would say. He was the only one left who had yet to return to the Origin. A gentle wind blew his bluish-black hair as he stared out past the crystallized paradise of Vada into the quicksand desert known as the Scar. For a long time he stood in place, deep in thought, unblinking. 

Should he take up Astra again and join the ranks? Colias would have told him that the choice was his, and not to become so rooted to the future and present. Change was a natural, inevitable part of their lives. Their very existence was one of constant change and adaptation. Perhaps this was what set him apart from his brethren, this serious contemplation of how actions taken would lead to changes in the future. It was why he had been chosen as ambassador of Parnassia to the people of this land. But now, even Parnassia was gone. While the younger races could easily forget with time, Aidoneus remembered every past moment with perfect clarity–just as if it had been yesterday. At times he envied their ability to simply move on, to gradually omit that which they chose to no longer remember. No, there was no reason for him to think of that now. Although Parnassia had fallen, he had Antheia and the warmth of Sularia. The Arriese were gracious and accepting towards him despite his foreign origins. 

As his thoughts continued to wander, the current crowds began to disperse. It would be some time before the next group of pilgrims seeking to join the cause of the goddess would arrive, leaving the eidolon standing by himself. Watching the people pass him by as they went, he marveled at the diversity in features and forms the children of this world possessed. They were rather slight differences compared to those of eidolons, but he appreciated them nonetheless. What especially caught his eye was a boy with an even smaller child, less than a third of his size. It always amazed Aidoneus how most races when born were so small, then grew quickly to maturity. What some saw as ten years was only a moment in his eyes, and in no time at all those same people would be at the end of their lives. Coming close to the boy, he knelt down to have a better look at the little one. "Such small little hands…yet they are perfect miniatures of those fully grown." Holding up his own hand to compare, the eidolon was spellbound by the wondrous intricacies of life. He had no way of guessing if this little child was male or female; it was among the myriads of things he was ignorant of when it came to the physiology of short-lived races.

Suddenly, a tall pale man with bluish black hair approached them. Wesley began to panic as he didn't know who the stranger was or why they had attracted his attention. Had they upset him in some way? What if this person was sent from their father? That could mean the most brutal beat down in the history of beatings! Despite his panic, his expression was relatively calm. His eyes were wide like a frightened rabbit but his mouth was closed and serious. He was trying to remain calm but it was difficult to when the man was just staring at them. Finally the stranger spoke, bringing up his hand to Charise's in comparison. 

Meanwhile Charise was not intimidated at all. After Aidoneus finished comparing hands, she reached out for his face but was unable to grab at his eyes or ears. She settled for his bluish black hair instead. A strand of the mans hair was caught in her tight grasp and she yanked it towards her mouth. Charise stuck his hair into her mouth and looked up at him, almost challenging him to do something about it. 

"No no Charise we don't do that!" Wesley said quickly, "Eating people's hair is bad and very rude." 

He quickly pulled the man's hair out of Charise mouth and out of her hands. The second he did, she began to scrunch up her face. There were little sobs coming from her mouth and her face was growing pink. This made Wesley panic even more and he desperately went through his bag, finding a particular toy. The toy was a crochet stuffed rabbit that was as black as the night. Charise stopped her tantrum the second she saw the toy rabbit. Wesley handed her the toy and she began to rub her face on the toy. It was soft and she enjoyed the texture on her face. 

"There." He said with a small sigh then looked up to Aidoneus, "I'm so sorry about that. She has grabby hands and will snatch just about anything." 

What if this man got upset? It was a baby but still, there were many people who got mad over less. Wesley knew he could handle hunting down a few monsters but socialization with people who were smarter than a monster was completely different. Now it looked like he was about to cry. Charise noticed her older brother's nervousness and whacked his face with her toy rabbit. 

"Thanks Charise." Wesley said sarcastically. 

Strangely enough, getting hit with a rabbit toy lowered her nervousness but it was more because he was becoming annoyed rather than calm. 

With curious eyes, Aidoneus watched as the young child reached out its tiny hands towards him, attempting to grasp at anything. "Oh, what are you doing?" The eidolon asked, watching. He felt a tug as the child pulled and eventually stuck his hair into its mouth, eyes looking back at him as if waiting for his reaction. "Please don't do that. I don't think I am very palatable." Aidoneus said to the child with a smile, though it was unlikely that his words were understood. The elder brother quickly pulled it away only for the little one to cry. Frantically the boy searched through his bag until he found a toy to comfort the younger sibling. With the child placated, the elder brother began to apologize for the toddler's behavior. Instead of annoyance or anger, Aidoneus simply smiled hoping to put the boy at ease. "That's quite alright, there was no harm done. Children are naturally curious. It must be why they stand in amazement at the smallest things we take for granted. To them every sight, sound, and smell is something exciting and new." The eidolon was not one to be bothered by such small things like a child learning about the world around them. "Is the child your sibling?" He asked the boy. It seemed the two were close, though it was possible that they did not bear any blood relation. From what he had learned through the centuries, it was expected for offspring to bear strong resemblance to their progenitors and a higher visual similarity between offspring of the same parents.

This was something wildly different from the first generations of his people who came here from the Void. Those born from the same pairs of mates varied greatly in appearance and form, rarely sharing the same characteristics as their siblings or progenitors. That changed once they left their homeland and entered this plane. Phoebis, the son of his brother and Agrias, shared many traits from his father and mother. He possessed his father's gold hair, deep azure eyes, and his mother's fair skin. The children who were born after their migration into Revaliir began to exhibit similar patterns in their appearances. It seemed that this was another of the laws of this world which created changes in their lives.

Because Charise was so young, Aidoneus could not discern whether the child was male or female. The physiology and inner workings of the biological processes of Revaliir's people were still not fully understood by the eidolon, despite his successful attempts to emulate the average human form. He was as curious of her as she was of him, that much could be said. "Forgive me if I am wrong; watching you both reminded me of my younger brother and my nephew." He explained, with a hint of sadness behind his gentle smile. Ever since they came to be, Aidoneus had been like the older boy and Colias had been in the place of Charise. Colias was bold, outspoken, fair-minded, ready to take the initiative, and had a charisma which commanded attention. Aidoneus on the other hand was not–he was reserved, placid, contemplative, and empathetic. Colias was a leader and a warrior; he was a judge and an ambassador. But despite their differences, they loved each other. And in his last moments, his dear brother Colias sought to save him from meeting the same fate as the rest of their kingdom.  

To the boy's surprise, the man didn't seem to be angry. Instead the stranger was smiling. Yet that smile held the hint of a sadness. Had something happened to this man? Wesley decided not to mention it. Instead he listened to the stranger's words about children and their growing development. Every word Aidoneus said about children was true, or at least it was true for Charise. 

"S-she's my younger sister sir." Wesley explained nervously, "My name is Wesley and hers is Charise."

It was clear that the man wasn't a threat but Wesley was still somewhat anxious. This time it had more to do with just speaking properly instead of a large fear. Wesley didn't want to get his words all tied up or say something stupid. Thoughts ran through his mind but many of them came out differently then how he planned it inside his head. Then Aidoneus mentioned how they reminded him of his younger brother and nephew. There it was. Wesley wondered why there was that sadness in Aidoneus' voice. Something had happened to either the brother or nephew or both. Wesley's anxiety seemed to wash away and he reached out to Aidoneus' hand. 

"Thank you. I hope we can live up to that similarity." He said with a small smile, revealing the dimples in his cheeks. 

He didn't often smile so when he did, it meant something. Meanwhile Charise had fallen asleep, as their conversation was far too boring for her. Wesley drew his hand away and shifted his position, careful to not wake her up. An idea came to his mind. The stranger was well-spoken and seemed to be doing fine financially. Perhaps the stranger knew of somebody who could help. 

"Do you know of anybody who could be a babysitter? It'd only be for a little while." He asked, "I…I plan on going to the Spire. But I need to help. If that Spire continues to exist then we all are doomed. And….if I don't fight for her future then I'm no better than the monsters who are trying to destroy it." 

His words were strong and meaningful. Fear still lingered in his heart. He didn't expect it to go away anytime soon. But he would still push on, for himself and for Charise.