He heard the door creak, but he didn’t respond. This was normal. He hadn’t responded to much since he wore the matriarchal sun as a shroud - or, more accurately, she had worn him. Used him for all he was worth, burning him from the inside out and discarding him when he was no longer of need.

She wasn’t the first woman that had done that to him. That honor belonged to the legless creature being carried through the wooden entrance that had complained a moment before. He imitated it’s sentiment.

“Ja’Kal.” Her voice trailed off as she took in the sight of him, immobile, disheveled, and dirty. ”I’m so sorry.”

He moved only his eyes to greet her and immediately wished he hadn’t. Seeing her made him almost as angry as their goddess had been with the sunset-eyed stranger, but he couldn’t relay it and just creaked again.

“I deserve that.”

Had she understood is odd grunt? She had been an Oracle, after all. Perhaps she still was, but to a different deity. He had seen a glimpse of something like that before the darkness came and overtook everything.

Elainia nodded. “I converse with the daughter star now and — yes — It’s unfair.”

Was this in the realm of the little sun’s power? Could she read his mind?

“No. Not normally. I cannot read minds, but for you — it’s as if you’re letting them leak out.” She took a breath and addressed another unspoken question. “No. Zellyth cannot hear them.”

Moving the only thing that he could, he cast his eyes down at the Cafran tribeswoman whom he had fought only weeks ago. She had hurt him, but he could not find himself to be angry with her for it. Plate shards and pottery hurt less than emotions. He cast his eyes at Elainia again, who now had tears running along her snout.

“Ja’Kal. I promise. I didn’t know. No, that’s not right. I knew her disposition and what she was capable of. I thought you were an exception though. How else could you have made it to be my…”

He watched as she realized that his office was not what she believed it to be. It never had been. There was never a male affiliate of Orianna - not even as an assistant. In all the ages, there had only been hapless lovers, left on the sidelines as the brilliant women they loved basked in the life-sustaining light of the largest star and it’s dark objectives.

Elainia brought her hand to her mouth, finally able to see him though the light of the evening sun as he inadvertently mirrored the morning’s. “I… honestly, I never knew.”

He sighed and she took his hand in hers. It was warm to the touch, but not scalding like it had once been. Perhaps he could forgive her, but it would take time. She nodded in agreement and promised that she would never leave his side before kissing his forehead.