[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/NvKc3OR.png[/img][/center] They took shape and scurried about so quickly...it was jarring to have so much motion, so much vibrancy, all of this [i]life[/i] in his lonely world of dust and dark. But his one great eye kept track of them all, nonetheless. In the wake of the first one's departure the other gods began to gain their bearings, some faster than others; however, only one had the audacity to address him. She had only a simple inquiry, [color=DAA520][b]"Why?"[/b][/color] His piercing gaze had already all but impaled her, but the moment that the word began to leave Melantha's lips -- or was it an instant [i]before[/i]? -- the ancient god began to tense and shift in his throne so as to face even more directly at her, and by that point his eye was practically swallowing her whole. The depths of his black pupil were bottomless and unfathomable, yet even still, one could sense his anger in there without even seeing it. The very question had seemingly offended him. [color=lightblue][i]'What could you hope to know of such things? Your mind could not fathom what I am,'[/i][/color] the cyclops whispered without lips. Though she did not escape his eye, for none ever could, his stiffened body relaxed ever so slightly as he spoke louder, addressing them all. [color=lightblue][b]"My cause is beyond your understanding, but my instructions are not. When I give them, I expect that they [i]will[/i] be obeyed."[/b][/color] As he spoke, there was one goddess wreathed in fiery red hair and equally fiery fury. Even as some other struggling divine fought to free itself from the red one's overbearing grasp, the fiery Seihdhara met his eye with two of her own. Her hands reached down to the ground, and finding no loose stones, used a titanic grip to tear free chunks of the palace's tiled ground. And then there was a whistling in the air as she hurled the first stone at his massive visage. Her aim was true, but the stone never struck. By his will, it froze in the air and was suspended halfway through its arc, as was the second stone, and the third. And the god upon his throne was furious. [color=lightblue][b]"I will teach you to respect your elder."[/b][/color] There was a slight flick of his wrist, and suddenly an explosion of light erupted from beneath Seihdhara. She tried to jump in panic, but that movement brought her into a collision with some unseen object. She flailed her arms, but they couldn't move, for the magical seals had enveloped her body and trapped her in what might as well have been an invisible sarcophagus. A small stir of his finger made the cage contort in strange ways, and for a brief moment the air simmered and light bent as the barriers came to press into her long tresses of hair and become entangled. The god that embodied confusion began to offer some riddle, its quick clicking and jabbering coinciding with a momentary pause in the Architect's speech; however, there was hardly time for her to contemplate its puzzle even if she'd wanted to. The Enlightened One leaned forward in his throne, watching Seihdhara squirm. [color=lightblue][i]'The fortitude of your frame, the blood in your hair and flesh, the very air that you breathe. [b]I[/b] gave you all of this! Before I brought you here, you were nothing but a worthless echo, a formless shadow, doomed and trapped in the Beyond. Such a waste.'[/i][/color] With a shearing pull that painfully tugged at her hair and tore a few tufts free, the seals shattered. The force of their breaking threw Seihdhara onto her back, on the cold hard tile of his palace floor. The Architect's eye told her to flee and thank the stars for his mercy, but perhaps that was simply a projection of her own imagination. Quickly the Architect's expression once again became unreadable as he followed the motions and doings of all the other gods, even those that had departed. [hider=Summary] Archie thinks Mel asked him a dumb question. Or maybe he's just miffed that she had the guts to even ask a question. Either way, he gives a somewhat annoyed and dismissive answer. Then when Seidhara throws rocks at him, he puts her in her place.[/hider]