Holed up in a cavern, far from the dangers of that everlasting night, the wraith had set himself to work at brewing. It seemed a useful enough skill to spend his time on, and while the glowing fungi had been the worst of test subjects, the usual suspects had proven far easier to work with. Fermenting grapes in a warm, dark hollow in the earth had taken up most of his time. It had left him with little time to pine and fret over the state of his family, and the world crumbling apart around him. Hallux had indeed been overcome by the plague, and crystals had sprouted on her talons and beak initially, before slowly spreading over her face and constricting her breathing. It had taken weeks of careful tending for the parrot to recover, and only once the sun had finally returned had the luminescent points begun to slough away.

Now here he was, with bottles upon bottles of crude wine and mead at his disposal, and a whole lot of time. There was no one to worry about, and not much to do. In the wake of the plague, spreading the word of God had fallen further and further down his list of priorities. What if the wolves he spoke to were infected, and he became ill too? He hadn't been willing to take the risk. Somewhere along the way, he'd made it to the bottom of one of his jars of wine and wound up at the edges of a familiar forest. The ghostly trees beckoned him with boughs outstretched to the heavens and budding leaves producing the faintest aroma that plucked a quiet tune on the homesick chords of his delicate heartstrings.

"You shouldn't be here, boy." his companion warned softly from above, perched on one of the bleached bone branches overhead. "You aren't welcome, you know this." her raspy voice bore the unmistakable tones of a disappointed mother chiding her toddler. He sighed, and lowered his haunches to the frost laden grasses underfoot. The sun hadn't risen yet, had he been out all night? Casting his pale eyes down to his mismatched paws, he couldn't help but wonder if God had tugged his legs forth like a marionette. Was it nostalgia? Or something more?

"I'm checking on Iki, there's nothing wrong with that." he snapped, and the defensive tone of his voice betrayed him. Even from so high overhead, he could see the way Hallux cocked her head to the side to stare at him with one beady eye. "Then why aren't we standing at the coast, where she would hear you better?" the chilly retort cut to the bone, and the dark furred godling knew he was beat. Why bother arguing with someone who spent all day with you? "You aren't my mother." he retorted coldly, and rose quickly back to his paws to pace anxiously. Calling from the borders would draw the attention of others.. perhaps this was foolish. He was a foolish child who wanted to come home, but he wouldn't admit it to himself. In a brief flash of frustration, he kicked an errant pebble into the woods just to hear it ricochet from the trunks of the spindly alabaster trees.

"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"

Hattori knew the value of the Shrine to those who worshipped the fallen God, that Toxicity would no doubt return one day to attempt to claim what she perceived as hers. Would she fail once again and sulk back into the shadows? Or would her efforts force the Shogun's paw, to draw a line in the sand that could never be unwritten? The future held so many uncertainties, questions he could only guess the answers too.

Even at this late hour, when the world was quiet and still, Hattori was quick to notice the disturbance at the border. Remaining downwind, he moved amongst the shadows the fiery orange of his coat subdued by the clouds blotting out the light of the moon. Prepared to use force if necessary, Hattori paused as he noted the soft purple of the yearlings coat. Pontifex. Not someone he knew well, but the few times they'd spoken hadn't forced the Shogun to write him off as a religious nut, a lost cause like his Mother. As such, the Shogun was willing to show the boy a degree of leniency he might not offer an outright stranger. Whatever the boy had to say, Hattori would listen.

Catching the pebble beneath a dark paw, the Shogun showed himself. Slow and deliberate, so as not to take Pontifex too unaware.

"What brings you here?" Hattori asked, blunt and to the point but not unkind. Never without reason, at least.

By the time he caught the movement of another body beyond the borders, it was too late to vanish into the night. Not that his paws cooperated quite as well as usual at the moment. Worst of all, it was the Shogun himself. Towering over the yearling male with imposing figure and stoic expression, asking a simple question. One that he was still keen to argue with Hallux over. Slender auds tipped backwards, and his gaze fell to the man's paws. "My apologies, Shogun. I..." but he didn't have an answer. Not a good one, at least. Glancing up at the stern expression that the umber dappled man always seemed to wear, he felt his heart dropping into his paws, and sinking into the dirt with every passing second. "I don't know." he finally murmured, the dark tip of his tail flicking nervously against his inner thigh.

A harsh croak from overhead, Hallux was chiding him without openly saying as much. The wraith lifted his head to make eye contact with the dark parrot high above his head, narrowing his eyes in a not so subtle scowl. When he looked back to the Shogun, the man who had been in power for longer than he had been alive, he found himself meeting the larger male's gaze. Eerie, pale eyes set into dark features both locked with one another for just a moment. And then the dainty male sighed softly and looked away, at something just over the Shogun's shoulder. "I suppose I just missed the Shrine.." he admitted quietly, and he knew Hallux was puffed up with pride over her victory. He'd admitted it, and she had been right. Stupid bird. "Is Ikigai recovering from her affliction?" he questioned softly, tipping his tapered crown ever so slightly in question as his dark brows knit together. She had been so sick when he'd last seen her, and he hoped she'd made it home to get well.

"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"

Hattori made a point of blinking slowly, highlighting the ridiculousness of Pontifex's claim. How could he not know? Did he make a habit of blindly roaming the land, stumbling upon borders only to shrug and say whoops?  Silence settled between them, accented by the soft rustle of Pontifex's fur as his tail brushed up against his hind leg and the wind in the trees. This place always had a deep and resounding quiet to it, like conversations were supposed to be held in whispers. He couldn't blame the boy for missing this place in some way, it meant a lot to his bloodline and had been his home once. Sometimes the Shogun tried to grasp onto the same sentiment, willed it to mean more to him, but Venom's legacy still felt so stale to him. As though the Abraxas faith and the Fallen God were mere excuses that had lost their merit a long time ago.

"She is better." The Shogun felt a slight tinge of warmth knowing his daughter was loved and valued, as she ought to be, but remained as aloof as always. "Is that all?" He then said, verbally shoving the yearling to get out whatever he had in mind. The sooner the better.

With the kind of ambivalent succinctness that Pontifex had long since learned was simply the Shogun's way, the massive man told him that his cousin was doing better. A soft nod, two-toned eyes dropping down and to the left as he struggled to grasp onto some kind of reason to linger. When the Shogun prompted him with a question, as though demanding that whatever was brewing in his little head be brought to light here and now. Suddenly, the amethyst marked yearling was painfully sober, and the beginnings of a headache was throbbing in tandem with his pulse at the base of his skull. He was dimly aware of the irksome scraping sound that Hallux made with her beak whenever she wanted to annoy him into moving more quickly. It worked, even if he would never admit that.

"Can I come home?" the harshness with which the utterance was brought forth was decidedly out of character from the soft spoken, quiet young male. He'd forced it out before he could convince himself to stay quiet. A moment longer and he would have swallowed the words down and forced himself to turn away, wander back to his cave to rot. A few moments of silence, before he picked up the thread and clung to it like a lifeline. Old habits slid back into place, well trained eloquence rising to the occasion as he dared to try and make his case to the Shogun. "I've been learning to fight, and while I'm aware that I lack the skill of your children, I would work tirelessly to meet your standards... if you would have me, at least." here he found himself hesitating, because truly all he wanted was to return to the Shrine. To make his home in the place that was so familiar, and he would readily do whatever was needed to get what he wanted. Sell his immortal soul, slaughter heathens, move mountains. The price only needed to be named.

From her perch, Hallux croaked a soft chuckle. Wisened with age, she had seen this coming from a mile away.

"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"

Hattori waited, quiet and expectant, as the yearling grappled with his inner turmoil. He had his suspicions of course, fair few lingered by the borders for so long unless they wished to step over the threshold, but this was a conclusion the Fallen son needed to reach on his own. No weighty stares hurrying him along like a flicking hand, vamoose, just easy silence as the wind clattered the branches above.

The Shogun blinked slowly, expression shifting slightly as the muscles in his face relaxed. It made sense for the boy to yearn for the only home he'd ever known, Hattori did it too sometimes. But should the Shogun deny him? And what would Venom think? She did not seem the type to brand Toxicity's children guilty by association, but the hurt inflicted by the Fallen ran deep. Family had a way of inflicting wounds like no other, designed to hurt long after the scar had healed.

Hattori exhaled, a rush of air flooding out from the dark of his nose. Close to a sigh but not quite."If that is what you wish, I will see the arrangements made." Mortal or not Hattori had his ways, if the boy wished to learn he would.