“That’s a lie!” a voice sings out from behind her—it is Amanan, appearing out of nowhere. “You know that I’m the only real one that enters and leaves this place. Except you and our missing ‘god’, of course.” They say the last sentence with a derisive snort.
Austicera laughs, light and bright, and pushes herself off the couch. She wobbles a bit when standing up, but doesn’t fall to the floor. “Is it?” she says, a smile playing on her lips. Her skin flickers white before fading back into translucency, but her hair turns a silver-blonde colour. She flips it over her shoulder—arrogantly so, if Tyren may add.
Amanan lifts their head in a way that would indicate rolling their eyes, but doesn’t say anything. Lao appears from behind them, arms folded across his chest. He looks… angrier than usual, Tyren muses.
“So?” he asks.
Austicera shrugs. “I was just saying that Carena needs a visit to the Holding Well. She’s been getting… well, you know her, being your mother and all.”
Lao narrows his eyes. “She’s your mother, too,” he says.
“In name only.”
He rolls his eyes—visibly, this time. “The concept of family is made-up and stolen from Aeon,” he says. “None of that exists—if anything, our mother and father is the Holding Well and the Holding Well alone. Us original deities, anyway.”
“Not you, though,” Austicera says lightly, almost as if verbally poking Lao. “Not you and Myrau.”
