The fighting with Knox absolved, and the broken colt slank away like a coward. White, hot anger still fumed within Archibald's head and he let loose a roar. It was something so fierce and primal it shook the earth around him. Armor collapsed into his breast collar and Loretta ran towards him. Archibald! She yipped across the bond, eyes flashing an image of the golden and black filly he knew as a neice. Snorting and stomping his foot, Archibald let the anger fall from his back. Sighing, the stallion dipped his head and shook his body out. Despite Respledence's healing, he was exhausted. Turning, golden eyes swept over the battlefield. The Goddess was gone, but the words washed over him. He could go to the veins, visit her shrine, and get answers. The Dauntless suspected they might not be the answers he wanted--the truthful answers--but he tucked the information away. He saw Ranjiri then, and trotted off after her. Ktulu was nowhere to be found, and so Archibald took the parenting onto himself.

"Ranjiri!" The massive stallion bellowed, closing the distance between he and she. The Dauntless slowed to match her steps, and he could feel the radiating heat of anger coming off of her body in waves. "Ranjiri--I know you're hurt--we're all hurt--Ranjiri--WAIT!" Archibald finally commanded, stopping his own hooves. He stood planted behind the stalking mare. He waited for her to turn on him, become a hurricane of rage--much like her mother would do--and he even remembered the remnants of her mother's magic lacing through his esophagus. Blinking, the Dauntless stood silent and vigilant, the beginnings of black ooze starting to drop from his nose.

As Archibald stood there, waiting for the filly to respond to him, black tar-like ooze dribbled from his nose and mouth. Small black tears fell slowly and silently from his golden eyes. Archibald had no idea what was happening to him, but he suspected the Moon Goddess was behind it. She was not above torturing mortals, as all of Helovia knew, especially those that defied her. A slow sputter started in his lungs, then he coughed. The massive stallion spit and coughed thick, dark tar onto the ground beneath his incredible, feathered hooves.

Ranjiri spoke and Archibald perked his ears to listen. What!? she demanded, eyes not even cast his way. The Dauntless' jaw hardened and he took a single step towards the black and gold girl. Finally, the filly turned to face him, but she slashed at him with cold words and broken anger. Even with the Labyrinth ooze dripping from facial orifices, Archibald's face was as stoic and hard as always. "Talk to me, Ranjiri." He demanded, voice softer than before. He wanted to talk with her, to help her understand his position and his actions as much as he wanted to understand her's. How she could forgive the Moon's transgressions he could not comprehend--the lilac deity had slaughtered her brother in cold blood--but he wanted to understand. This girl before him, still but a babe in his eyes, held a wisdom and strength he obviously could not grasp in his brokenheartedness.

Behind him, Loretta stood guard. Her tail was a rigid board behind her body, ears flattened against her head. No matter who they were, no one had the audacity to talk to her Dauntless in such a manner and walk away without a limp. The bitch started to snarl, but Archibald silenced her harshly through their bond. Enough. Be gone. He commanded, and she--although pissed--obediently retreated toward home.

Archibald was a statue before her, dripping with thick, black tar. Even as the day faded toward night Archibald was silent, standing stark still as Ranjiri yelled at him. Emotion was clear in her voice, ranging from sadness to anger to gods know what. Within his dark breast, the same emotions waged war. For a beast so outwardly stoic, Archibald felt quite a lot in the wake of his mother's death. The leech of a black widow that she was was gone, forever, and in her demonic shadow Archibald finally had the ability to feel for himself.

And with those feelings, brought pain that Archibald wished did not cut so deeply.

"I want to know it all. I want to understand how you--so young and so pure--can overcome something so tragic." Golden eyes, outlined in thick, ebony eyeliner, stared down into her pupiless crimson. Where others might find the blood color of her eye, with no pupil to offset or darken, might be afraid, all Archibald could see was the image of her mother. Even as Ranjiri spoke now, she resembled Ktulu--probably more than either of them would like to admit.

At her question, however, Archibald's ears flicked back against his skull. I did it for Circe. For my sons. For my daughter. For Ktulu. For Ophelia. For you." His voice was hard, his face contorting into some dark scowl that seemed so natural on his stoney features. Warmth spread in his gut like wildfire, overtaking his tongue. "I learned that gods can bleed today. No words, no actions can make me feel remorse for what I did. If I can make her feel an ounce of the pain, the suffering, I have then it is worth the cuts and scars and bruises and death.  I fear nothing."