[center][h2][b]Reunion[/b][/h2]

Feat. [@Aristo] & [@Crispy Octopus][/center]

	Aelius couldn’t tear his eyes away. His gaze was fixed on the ribbons of crystalline dust that had once been Asceal’s Lustrous Gardens. At once, there had been a flash of light and the blue sphere just… ceased to be. The pieces drifted from the epicenter, glimmering like stars. Of Asceal, there was no sign. 

	As the god of virtue watched, he felt his throat tighten into knots. What had Asceal done to deserve this? Why did they hate her light so? Aelius was caught between mourning and self-loathing. He’d done what he had to to defend Heliopolis. But it left him powerless. Powerless to save the Lustrous Gardens, powerless to save his only friend. 

	Aelius slammed a fist into marble. He saw her in his head, radiant in the Architect’s hall. He saw her as she beckoned him to see the fledgling furnace. He saw her next to him in the chariot, strands of light that passed for hair whipping behind her as they soared. And then he saw her sphere in a million pieces. His shoulders heaved and he let his tears flow freely.

	He was sprawled on his palace’s steps, still weak from his encounter with Melanthia. Weak. Why was he so weak? He should have gone back to Asceal’s sphere with her. Maybe if he had, he could have spirited her away from the blast. Maybe he could have done more. [i]Maybe, Maybe, Maybe…[/i] 

	It seemed like hours passed by as he watched the fragments of the Lustrous Gardens disperse, no longer recognizable as a sphere. He was tired of maybes. Aelius forced himself upright, brushing wet eyes. Asceal had a vision, and that didn’t change just because she was gone. He was still here, and so was this furnace. There was still light, and there was Galbar - a Galbar sorely in need of someone like him. He took a deep, shaky breath and turned to his palace to think. With the movement, his eye caught sight of something flickering in the sky. Too far to identify, but too near to be another sphere or distant celestial matter.

	The bubble carrying Asceal and Liana streaked towards Heliopolis. Aelius watched it soar, first with his own eyes, then with his mind’s eye, as it penetrated the invisible barrier that was the atmospheric boundary of Heliopolis. With his barrier as his eyes, he could see the spherical shape of a bubble. He could barely make out its contents, hazy beneath its layers. He thought he saw the shadow of a humanoid. Or was it two?

	Inside Asceal was weary, but even she noticed the transition from the cold void to the bubble of gas that enveloped Heliopolis.  This close to his city the field Aelius had set up to warn him of intruders would herald her arrival.  Well, hers and Liana’s.  She glanced at her new friend and smiled, for a moment forgetting how they had met.  Liana was pressed against the inside of the bubble watching as Heliopolis grew from a disant, though intense, light to the city of marble it was in truth.  Turning her own gaze onto the city, Asceal’s grin faded.  Much of it was still in ruins.  Hadn’t Aelius had time enough to repair his home by now?  She wasn’t sure how long she’d writhed in pain before summoning the will to save herself, nor how long she had spent rescuing Liana, but it couldn’t have been so short a time.

	She hoped Melantha had not returned.  Aelius had been in no shape to fight another battle, especially not alone.  If Melantha had returned she could have overpowered Aelius and…  Asceal shuddered as the memory of her own Furnace failing entered her mind.  

	No, she nervously ran a hand through her glowing hair and shook her head, it wasn't worth considering.  Aelius had probably just taken a moment to recover his strength.  Melantha was gone.  Before she could dwell on the line of thought her bubble touched down on Heliopolis and evaporated, depositing Asceal and Liana before Aelius’s palace.  Liana stumbled and caught herself before looking around in awe, but Asceal only had eyes for the one standing in front of the great edifice he had erected.

	She wasn’t sure what to say, but at least the fear that Aelius, her first friend, had come to harm evaporated as she regarded him.  With a relieved smile she all but whispered, “Aelius…”

	Aelius’s stomach was ready to leap out of his throat. He blinked, once, and then twice. He opened his mouth but there were no words. Hadn’t he just seen the Gardens explode? And yet, she was here. Asceal was here. His eyes threatened to run again. Aelius was down the steps in an instant. In the next, he pressed Asceal to his chest and cried into her hair. 

	Aelius held her for minutes until gradually, his body stopped heaving. He forced his weight off Asceal’s shoulders. The lump in his throat reduced his voice to a pathetic squeal of, “I thought you were gone.” 

	She hadn’t noticed it, the cold numbness that had taken hold of her body and dulled her every sense in the moments since her world had been shattered.  Shock wasn’t something she knew, and unconsciously she had attributed the feeling to an injury she’d been unable to mend.  It was only upon seeing Aelius overcome with such emotion that she felt sensation begin to return to her, and with it came the tears she’d once stifled in the wreckage of her home.

	She returned his embrace and wept with him, and when he finally let go she nearly pulled him back in.  She was afraid the cold would come back.  It was a terrible moment before she realized the warmth he’d returned to her had lingered and even grown in the seconds since they’d parted.  

	His admission hurt to hear, and she was unable to meet his gaze when she replied, “I know and… I’m sorry.  I’m sorry for everything.”

	“What do you have to be sorry for?” Aelius asked, stooping to look at her face. “I thought the blast had taken you, and - and I blamed myself for it. But you? You owe an apology to no one, Asceal.” 

	A look of anguish passed over Asceal’s face and she finally met Aelius’s eyes, “You don’t know yet?  Oh Aelius, you haven’t seen it have you?  They’re gone.  They’re all gone and it’s my fault.”

	The look on her face tore at Aelius. He didn’t know what she meant by ‘they’re gone,’ but she was clearly distressed. He opened his mouth to reply, but as he stooped to look at Asceal, he noticed her companion for the first time, just a few paces away. Suddenly embarrassed, he said, “I’m sorry. Who might this be?” 

	Asceal looked back at Liana, who seemed quite content to ignore the gods’ conversation in favour of gawking at Heliopolis, and took a deep breath before smiling weakly, “Her name is Liana.  She’s the only one I was able to save, Aelius, one among billions and billions.  It wasn’t easy, wrenching her from his grasp.”

	Aelius raised an eyebrow. “Who’s grasp? What do you mean billions?” There was clearly more going on than he had realized. Just how long did he spend gawking at the sky?

	“He-”  Asceal’s breath caught and anger crept into her next words, “Katharsos, he killed them all Aelius.  I was such a fool, so obsessed with spreading my light, with offering all those lost souls some measure of hope, that I didn’t even notice when he did it.  When he took them.  When he stole them from Galbar and [i]murdered[/i] them.”

	Aelius’s brow furrowed. Katharsos. He wasn’t familiar with him at all. He’d left the Architect’s hall just as soon as he’d arrived, not one to mingle with his peers. Aelius’s Architect-given knowledge gave him only a vague understanding of the god’s role and power, and based on what Asceal was telling him, none of it was good.  

	“Why would he do that?” Aelius wondered out loud. “Why is everyone bent on destroying what we’ve been sent to nourish?” A pang of anger lodged itself in Aelius’s gut as he hissed those words. He forced his body to relax and took a deep breath. “What do we do when everyone is against us, Asceal? I… I don’t know,” he admitted. 

	“We do all that we can Aelius,” Her eyes lit up, burning with resolve, “I saved one, just one among billions, but it mattered.  I don’t care who stands against me, I don’t care how terrible or wicked they might be, I will do everything I can for those souls less fortunate than us.  Whether they survive Katharsos massacre or are reformed from the horrid ashes of its aftermath, I won’t abandon them.”

	In those eyes, Aelius saw passion for life. It was the same passion he saw in her at the Architect's hall, only now it was honed, tensed like the string of a bow ready to fire. Just as it did back then, her passion stirred his heart and inspired him. Even in the face of overwhelming loss, she had such zeal.

	“Come and rest a while,” Aelius said, leading Asceal up the steps by the arm. “You too, Liana!” he called to the soul. He smiled through the mess of emotions that tangled in his core. “I think we all could use some time to recoup from our trials. And then, we do what the Architect brought us here to do.”

[hider=Summary]
Aelius mourns too early. Asceal has strong opinions of Katharsos. The two share a tender moment.

No MP spent.[/hider] 
[hider=Bloopers]
“What do we do when everyone is against us, Asceal? I… I don’t know,” he admitted. 

“Cannabis,” She spoke without hesitation, “Liana has told me of it, and nothing is better.  So what if they hate us Aelius?  Just take a long drag on a blunt and forget about them.  I’m sure Phystene can hook us up with the dankest kush.”[/hider]