Aether Draka had arrived earlier that day, just before dawn, with a little girl of four on her hip and trailing behind an exhausted 14 year old who had his younger cousin by the hand. AD wasn't as tired as any of them were, but she let them set the pace. The guards were shocked to hear of the news and even though they tried to take the girl from AD, the child refused to let her go, starting to cry in a shrill pitch at the attempt. So AD found herself in Kellen, a city she herself had attacked. None of them seemed to remember or recognize her at all though. It had been night and there had been a full sized demon vampire going on a rampage too... It didn't matter.

She felt numb. The entire thing had made her feel numb. She was polite enough and after refusing at first, finally accepted the coin the family pressed on her for escorting the children there, even though the older boy insisted her was nearly a man. She refused to stay and made her way back through the city. She had been planning on going to the gate once more and leaving, but she found herself wandering the city.

After wandering about for the better part of the day, people began to look at her oddly seeing anyone else in the city at all. She was lost in her thoughts. So much so that she walked past at least one person she should have noticed and turned the corner. She came to a stop there, not because she noticed anyone or anything, but because she had come to a conclusion. “I'm so pissed at him! How could he do something like that! How could he!” She threw back her head and demanded an answer from the clear blue sky above. She didn't expect an answer. She knew there wouldn't be one. So she turned her back to the wall next to her and sat down right where she was. Not noticing she was just outside the Green Gryphon.

Something had driven him her, an unknown force of some sorts... or some sort of burning rage that Rothardan had never known before. It was a white hot fury that seemed to burn from deep within, a place that was once full of love for one person. And now that person had been removed from this plane, never to be seen again. Whilst Rothardan had been in the past, experiencing the worst moment of his life, he had felt the same force that had attacked Enelya. And it was somehow... familiar. It had taken the best of a week to finally come up with a result, the force was the same he had felt when the demons in Taras had attacked.

Rothardan knew that Aether Draka was apart of the attack and knew she had something to do with it. She had something to do with Rothardan's life falling apart. And now he wanted answers. And who knew what would happen if she didn't give them to him. He was waiting outside the Green Gryphon tavern, as his divination powers had directed him. And then she appeared, Aether Draka, lost in thought.

"I will say this once," Rothardan said, his voice in a hushed silent anger that only pure hatred could produce, "You will tell me how you summoned those demons, and if not you then who did?"

Her chin and gaze both dropped to level at someone she had not expected to find here. The very first thing she saw upon looking at him was that something had changed. Something had drastically changed. As she looked at him the center of her pupils flickered with a soft purple for a single moment, a trick of the light perhaps, and then it was gone. A voice deep in the back of her mind warned her of caution, but at the same time encouraged her to answer him. This is what was best. She would not have to keep trying to avoid him. She might be able to keep her guild safe from him...

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she wondered why he thought she had summoned them. That was one train of thought she was going to put an end to right away. "I did not summon them. They tried to kill me too you know. Lynthaer summoned them and now he has seemed to of vanished from Imythess and the guild entirely. He didn't even tell me he was going to do that. I thought..." Her anger at the situation became more obvious as she spoke. She wasn't able to finish what she had thought though, instead she lashed out at the wall, striking it as if she was attacking it with a blade held backhanded. There was no blade though so there was no harm done except to perhaps her own hand. Her gaze left Rothardan when she lashed out. The voice urged her to keep talking, to speak of more.

"I hate him. How could he do that to me, to the guild? What sort of game is he playing? Who's game is he playing? I should send my angel after him when I see him next. I should learn that spell to summon a Celestal to beat the crap out of him. I should learn how to raise the dead so I can kill him, bring him back and kill him again..." She didn't look back to Rothardan then. She didn't want to see his reaction. She didn't want... want what? What did she want? Did she really want what she said she did? She did want to do something... but what? Everything had gone wrong and she wanted to know why. How to find that out though... AD simply didn't know... Damn...

The answers came spewing forth from her mouth, apparently she was innocent of the demon summoning. But it was another one of her guild that had used the powerful magic to summon those foul beasts from the nether realm. AD seemed to be avoiding looking at Rothardan, but there was nothing to look at. His face was blank, all emotion drained from it along with any feelings. He was nothing more than a hollow shell driven by the white fury he was feeling for all of Divschatten. And it was this white fury that was telling him where this 'Lynthaer' was... his divination powers were showing him where he was at this current moment and where he would be. All Roth had to do was get there...

Rothardan had nothing more to say to Aetha now, she had served whatever purpose he needed. Now she was no-one to him, neither friend nor enemy. He had wanted to help her but now, she was just as responsible for all of this as her friends. All her guild would burn soon, they would be removed like scum from a boot.

"You should also leave Imythess," Rothardan advised, turning around on his heel, "And never come back..."

Aether Draka was surprised by what he said next and her head snapped up to look at him as he started to turn away. Leave? Wait... what? How? Where? she stumbled a little as she ran after him. "Rothardan! Wait, I don't have anywhere to go! My home is already under the rule of demons, I can't go back and I'm still not strong enough to fight them..." She ran around in front of him. She stopped faceting him and said in a very determined voice. "Imythess is my home now. I don't want demons taking it over. I want to know why Lynthaer thought attacking Taras like that was a good idea. It was horrible..." Sadness flickered across her face. Then she took a breath.

"If you are trying to fix it, I want to help. Demons won't care about the guild. They are just as likely to wipe us out for not being fully demons as someone like you would for us having no control over who our parents are. But I know how to kill demons. Raven taught me that years ago." She spoke with conviction. She didn't want more demons in Imythess. She didn't want to see another place fall under demonic rule. Not again...

She was becoming an annoyance to him now, and Rothardan just wanted Aether to find a nice bridge to jump off. She just didn't understand that she was just as responsible for all of this as the next person. No matter how much she convinced herself otherwise, she was just as responsible as the next person from Divschatten. Yet she wouldn't see that, not now and probably not ever.

"Rothardan! Wait, I don't have anywhere to go! My home is already under the rule of demons, I can't go back and I'm still not strong enough to fight them..."
She was running after him now, just perfect...
"Then you should feel right at home when you go back..." he retorted.
And yet she wouldn't give in, she wouldn't take the hint.
"Imythess is my home now. I don't want demons taking it over. I want to know why Lynthaer thought attacking Taras like that was a good idea. It was horrible..."
"Because he is evil, what more to say..."
"If you are trying to fix it, I want to help. Demons won't care about the guild. They are just as likely to wipe us out for not being fully demons as someone like you would for us having no control over who our parents are. But I know how to kill demons. Raven taught me that years ago."

And that's what stopped Rothardan, looked at Aether dead in the eye.
"You don't want to help because it's the right thing do you? You want to help because you'll use it to convince yourself you aren't evil. You helped attack that city because it was something you do. The only reason you saved those people was so you could convince yourself you aren't totally evil. That's why you do what you do... so you can sleep at night and live with yourself. You can't possibly help since you cost me everything. My love, my future... because of you... I have no tomorrow. Now get lost or I will show you how to banish a demon."

Aether Draka took a step back from his accusations and she felt as if he had actually struck her. It would have been better if he had just drew his blade and swung at her. How could he say things like that? Didn’t he see that she didn’t want to fight against him, she didn’t want there to be a war between the angels and the demons… that was what she wanted to stop. Part of what he said confused her for a moment too. She didn’t sleep after all and she didn’t know what sleeping had to do with it.

She planted her feet though; she didn’t want to give it up. She couldn’t stand the thought of losing any chance to find the angels she had once fought alongside with. Raven was only one of them. There had been Azure and Steele too that had been full blooded angels. There had been others who were half angels too, though the names were not coming to mind… and she knew she was part angel. She knew she could not be all evil because she simply was not. It was a fact. Simply a fact. She took a deep breath then and started to speak, her voice shaking slightly from her emotions.

“Rothardan, I want to help because what happened was wrong. Taras… I didn’t want anything to happen to Taras. I though… I thought I could trust him to talk to me about things. I was wrong. It isn't the first time. I know I'm not perfect. If I had known that he had planed such a thing thuogh, I would have stopped it. I have already seen a city fall, an entire kingdom fall, to demons. Thankfully, Taras wasn’t as bad as what I have already seen and had tried to fight against. Imagine those who died rising up again to fight against you. Your own allies, your friends, and even love ones coming to slay you. That didn’t happen here. That was why I tried to help get the people out. The war between angels and demons doesn’t need to include those who don’t and shouldn’t know about it. That’s how you end up with part demons and why there must be half angels. That is why there are being like me who share blood with both angles and demons. I didn’t choose to be what I am. I want it to stop. I’m in the Divschatten because they don’t know I’m part angel. If they did, they would kill me without a second thought. I am there because they are demonically infused and I want to figure out how to reverse that. I’m offering to help you because even though I don’t understand why it happened, I know it shouldn’t have. And if you really do think you can remove my demonic heritage without killing me, by all means, do so! Because I am tired of all the accusations!”

She didn’t let her gaze shift from Rothardan’s, though deep in the back of her head she felt something screaming at her to run away. When she finished, her hands were shaking a bit and she clenched them into fists and opened them a few times to try and make it stop. Not far away from them, people were looking at what was happening in the street. The road had gone quiet around them. She was ignoring them though. She often ignored those without any connection to angels or demons because she honestly didn’t think they should be drug into it. And now the demons were dragging those same people into the mess. Her voice dropped.

“With Lynthaer gone I can stop the guild from attacking, but we didn’t control all of those demons. I don’t know where they will show up. I can kill them though, and I might be able to turn the Divschatten against them too. Please, let me help. Let me do something.”