The journey is long, but familiar. Cera does not know why she would ever sacrifice so much time, just to be there for him and keep him afloat, lest he drown before he ever receives his answers. That she had been the one to approach him, to offer to go alongside him - as his friend his heart cries pitifully with tentative hope - is beyond his comprehension. She and Hector, for all their swallowed time, had always been there to offer him wing and shoulder to hide beneath or cry upon. Though Hector had disappeared into the sands once more, Megaera was there, a beacon of light and embodiment of all that he had sworn himself to so long ago. Sultana she may be to him, but her title was unbefitting at times for how magnificent she was to him. Sunspear she may be, but to him she was a shield as well, protecting him from the elements and the horrors of his heart, chasing away the long shadows with her sisterly light. 

They travel in companionable silence, and she says nothing when he must stop to collect himself, staring into the distance with deadened emeralds that long ago lost their fires. In his heart he has become but a shadow of his former, righteous, faithful self. That faith is unshakeable, a bedrock to fall upon and prostrate himself against in his darkest hours. But his fires have dimmed to coals, awaiting the return of the sun. Simmering deep in his chest. He has lived by that code as long as he can remember, one of justice and redemption shown to him by Onni and Gaucho. But he had failed his Lord, had failed Hototo, by what he'd done. 

That was why he was there, taking the Goddess up on her offer to speak with her. Because in the world he knows, the values he lives by beneath the light of his Lord, there is always atonement. And so he seeks it, hidden beneath the shadows of her broken shrine - one he'd always respected but never prayed at. It looms dark and foreign before him, and he shudders, having to stop once more as his heart squeezes in his chest. Ilaria sits on his hindquarters, and she sends waves of wordless love and support to him from where she watches him face this path with trembling lips and unsteady heart. There is nothing she can say, and even if there was something to impart to him she would not do it. Ilaria is his supporter just as Megaera is, but this was something his gnarled heart had to face alone.

"As I tread this path of darkness," he whispers, throat tight as eyes turn to face the shrine of his Lord, "guide me with your light. May I return to your graces anew, atoned for the sins I have committed." Megaera is sure to hear him, but he does not try to hide it from her. Cera had never been a creature of illusion or deceit, his soul happily bared to those who wished to gaze upon it. "May She and Hototo forgive me." One last prayer, to a God he hopes will listen, one he has sworn himself to ever since he was a colt with nothing to his name and nobody to love him. A child of the sands, but one who stood beneath the heavy weight of darkness and shadows, seeking to find a way to purify himself. To become worthy of the light once more.

At last he approaches, and his eyes turn like a scared foal to Megaera, drawing off the image of her smile alone the strength he needed to do this. Ilaria slips from his wing, going to curl around Megaera's nearest ankle, knowing she would only be in the way. Cera turns away from them, holding breath inside his lungs as if it will bolster him as he stands before the broken shrine. Knees bend, wings spread wide along the earth, caressing warm stone. Completely prostrate, vulnerable, an action of submission as much as respect and reverence. "I have come to you, Goddess, as you bid. I have been a foolish mortal, with a heart too full of grief and pain to lead me down a path of faith." His eyes water with his emotion, and he knows she may mock him for it, but he is a visceral being. He loves too strongly, and it ruins him eternally to feel it and be beneath its weight and grasp. "I beg you for your forgiveness, for your wisdom. I seek only answers, so that I may place myself within your graces once more. I have tainted myself with my actions against you, please let me atone." His heart and chest are tight with fear that she will deny him, that he will fail her as he already has her brother whom he follows. Prays that Megaera will not see him differently, for how he confesses so readily upon the stone, a broken being led astray by his own overwhelming heart. For all the pain and suffering he had endured, it had never made him bitter. It had only ever made him kind. 

He prayed he could return to being that, that his one moment of despair and anger would be forgiven. Had he not held the weight of everything else so patiently? Had he not refused to strike out, to make this same mistake time and time again in the past when he could have? Surely that meant something?

OOC HERE