Cera snarled, a dog fighting the leash of masters he had always trusted in, cared for beyond belief and reason. But not any longer. The lord he had once considered a grandfather grumbled the dumbest excuse to Ktulu, not even caring to mention that Cera had been there with Hototo too. That they had grown together, loved together, flown and aged and cried as a singular being. Yet he was thrown away in favor of blood. Not that Cera condemned Ktulu for that relation, but it only burned deeper into his mind that he was separate. Distinct. Unwanted. "He's only at peace because you failed to protect him! Protect us!" His voice is strong, unwavering, as it choruses with Ktulu's disdain and agony. The disappointment in the God's gaze did not break him nor cause him to waver, eyes cold with the desire to see the bitch wither and die.

"Will it avenge the other nine?" he spat. Ktulu well summed up the other things he wished to point out, that they said they did not interfere and yet the Moon Bitch had done exactly that. "Why should we trust you any more than we now trust her?" He is venom and pain wrapped in a patched bodice, but even so he does not budge from Gaucho's prone form. Whether he is recognized for it or not is beyond his realm of potential care. He has suffered, he has bled and broken and lost for these immortal beings. He will not move aside from the only one who had never let him down. And he did not have immortality on his side. Amani came to him, to his side, his name on her lips and sympathy in her eyes. His free wing moved to claim her, to feel her touch and try to mend himself with it, but it was a chasm inside that cold not be fixed.

But Cera could only take so much when the Earth god claimed he had done nothing.

"I was in my herd, helping them while my Sultan was away! Because you told us as our patrons that you would protect us! I kept our borders strong, I did as my Sultan bid me, I trusted that you would fix this! Someone had to stay, someone had to help!" Gaucho had trusted him to remain behind, to keep peace and safety while he was away trying to find the murderer and similarly failing beneath the weight of his own forced guilt. "I was working with Gaucho and Ampere, I held their ideas at mind and heart. So much for your false words telling us the herdlands would always be safe," he snarled, hackles all but raised in the face of his God's ignorance. His wing tightened against his side where Gaucho had stood and slipped away, refusing to cripple down into his sudden doubt. Had Gaucho wanted more of him? He had done the best he could with the orders he had been given.

His heart was broken, his mind more so, and he was useless.

Back to square one.