"Have you ever felt so happy and grand as this?"

He is speaking so loudly that it almost hurts him to hear his own voice, because his voice is a beautiful bright yellow. He is sputtering and wheezing, black flecks balling up the sand that smooshes with a satisfying waterfall effect as he steps closer to the flatlands. He was in the deep forest, he thinks, spending some time with Knox and his companion. Knox is very small, he likes Knox. Knox is also very quiet, he thinks that is also good.

Every once and a while he nudges Knox's small dog's rump, urging him to follow. His companion seems lost, but she too is quiet as she looks up at him with brave bright eyes. Bright eyes like Archibald's, like Aylin's, like so many...

Everything is yellow! This is grand, yes, grand.

His Knox is not very good at hiding, he has observed as she lopes at an injured limp. Half of her, no, his, side is still healing from a God's burn that he does not remember getting. His own side, torn up from Archibald's attack, is just barely healed and beginning to feel distant in a smooth field of silver visions.

In the distance, the Goddess of the Moon towers bravely. He is not certain that he is happy to see her, but he is also not sure he is sad. And he cannot think much of her then, or for very long, because then he sees Evers, his able silver brother, looking so lovely in white and red. Like a true mountain pass, that Evers.

The hunter draws closer to his brother, Knox and his companion at his side. His companion is nudging him, nervous as a newborn colt (as if she was one!) and he snorts towards her. Not now! he thinks in their bond, not realizing that his son cannot hear and that his companion doesn't know why she addresses him. Evers is here!

"Brother, brother!" he says with high spirits, soon breaking into a run when the clarity of that mirrored water comes into view. He stops short before Ophelia, reaching out to touch her with affection he and Evers never shared. His face drips with black. "Oh brother, I have missed you! I have not seen you patrolling your domain of the foothills for some time, Evers, I had grown worried you were away, but no! NO! You are here with the moon and I am so glad, so glad you have come, come here to meet my daughter," he coos dreamily, gesturing to himself when he means to refer to young Milo--his son.

Manhattan is worried. She wishes she could stop her master from so loudly proclaiming his disease, but she knows this is beyond her control. As she lets her body fall and tugs Knox's child to join her, she knows everything here is far, far beyond her control.

""