How long had it been? Across the dark threshold, the leviathan walked, his steps rendering hardly a whisper's clack against the hardwood as he searched the empty halls and midnight drenched spaces. No warmth radiated from these walls that once brought the beast comfort, the scent of family barely a memory coating the cushions of his armchair and leather couch. Dust had collected, but only a few days worth.... a few days worth. Frozen eyes cut into the darkness, scanning, brows furrowed, searching for her. Where was she? Where was his mate? A fear peaked and swelled like a malignant growth at the back of his mind, a truth he did not want to acknowledge but felt deepnin his gut. She was not here. She hadn't been here. All that remained was this drafty husk he once called home and the servants he left behind. Who now milled about in the corners, locked in the shadows like statues; awaiting orders that would bring them to awareness. He felt emotions rise like bile, acidic and unnaturally painful, but he could not let them take control. Not now. Raiju moved upstairs, to Kalanie's bedroom. Half expecting the child to be gone, that he would need to track Quinn down and take her by force, the leviathan was not prepared for what he found. A toddler, a little girl-no more that one or two years old-lied asleep in her crib. This couldn't be his daughter, an infant barely six months old, but... she-she had his mouth, her mother's nose and hair.... Mechanically, he came forward, daring not to breath lest the vision prove to be a mirage and disappear before his eyes. Over the edge of the crib, the serpent stares down at the sleeping child, at his second born. She was healthy, recently fed but... he could not tell if it were Quinn or the servants that kept his spawn well. He'd been gone too long.... far too long. A miserable smile spreads across his face as he carefully picks Kalanie up. The child wriggled but did not stir as he tucked her, blanket and all, into the crook of his shoulder. He'd take her from this place. It wasn't their home anymore. Questions, he had plenty, but the Shadowborne could wait to have them answered, at least, for the night, and so he walks away. With his daughter in his arms, the world falls away, and they fall into the silence of the void. To find a place they could call home, a place where she was safe while he looked into the world that had so dramatically shifted in his absence.