The Giver was crafting an ever-increasing number of constructs. The Nightmare as well, in its own way. Within the ocean, Nightmares became bloated and sprayed out thick clouds of eggs that burst open bringing new beasts into the realm. Their numbers were so great that it even blocked Bliss vision to see the realm below. Even with Anchors scorching the realm killing untold thousands, the beasts just kept coming.

But not all was gloom, Bliss army grew as well. It sang and feasted upon the souls that blindly flowed towards the source of the hymn. More puppets were made, more souls trapped in eternal servitude.

The battle taking place was making even the storm look tame. The combined lightning from Bliss and the Giver made the realm tremble. The Nightmares screeches were stronger than any wind the storm had produced. Still, constructs weren’t sliced into strips as the spells intended. Their Wards flashed a little brighter, and their forms become either smaller or translucent, but they remained whole. Even if the spells did succeed in breaking constructs, they’d just reform a moment later.

That was the most terrifying part of the scene he was watching through Blisse's eyes. For all the forces on display, the power of gods being smashed together. No one was winning, no side was gaining ground worth mentioning. Numbers on all side kept rising, even the Nightmare who was the only one that had taken real loses. A death for them was permanent.

Not that it appeared to be that way. Kill one Nightmare, and there would be another hundred to take its place. All growing sickeningly fast, their flesh bubbling, bones and muscles at times could be seen trying to spear through Warded flesh. It reminded him of his own forced growth spurt, that dance of pain and bliss, his body both tearing itself apart and healing at the same time.

The Nightmares didn’t appear to mind the experience, or he just wasn’t noticing their discomfort. They were screeching, loud and numerous enough to deafen thunder. So perhaps they were both roaring battle cries and screaming in agony. It would be appropriate since the beasts were being attacked by Bliss and the Giver. Yet most of the monsters present focused on the latter. Their many cold eyes were trained on the Oasis the Giver had made, one wrapped within layers upon layers of protection. A wise choice on her part, since the storm would easily shatter that Sphere if given the chance. Dailin wondered if the Vail inside that Oasis were even aware of what was going on, of how close death was to claiming them.

‘Doubtful,’ he thought as his eyes were drawn to a chorus being fired at Bliss and his Anchors. Those creations of his were keeping things contained, and he thanked the gods for the events that let them come to be. The constant pillars of light had been keeping the Nightmare thinned, killing off many of the smaller Nightmares that were making their way up. Together the Anchors had been able to kill a few Titans as well, till the beasts got clever.

The use of a different type of barrier, one appearing and acting in the fashion of a mirror. Had abruptly changed things, those mirrors were everywhere now, angling and moving in ways that reflected the Anchors attack so they pounced about and hit other targets. It didn’t always work out so well, often times hitting another Titan. But it did keep Titans that were on the verge of being lost safe long enough their reserves to be restored.

The actions of the beasts kept it fresh in his mind that though the Nightmares were monster, they weren’t mindless brutes to be easily crushed. They could think and plan just as well as anyone else when events called for it. Sadly, now was one of those times, as the beasts continued in a borderline vain attempt to reach the Givers Oasis.

It was all coming together as he envisioned, his worst fears being born. There were chants being thrown about that would have shattered continents, ended civilizations, maybe ended all life in other realms. Yet here the attacks were shrugged off and answered with more castings of them. Even with lakes worth of Mana being used every moment Dailin couldn’t tell whether or not the ocean below him was decreasing. So much was being used, but more spilled into it as Hundreds of Anchors condensed Mana down from above.

‘And it's not going to stop is it?’ he wondered to himself, even with the Anchors gone, Mana would still come, even more than what it had been before. The Anchors had been using the bulk of the Mana to power the storm. With them out of the way?

‘Gods help me,’ It was happening.

Endless war, endless conflict, and he stuck trying to survive eternally in a realm that always aimed to kill him. No peace, no ability to relax and know he was safe from the madness. It would be a permanent and endless dance of striving to stay on top, to hold back death a little longer.

‘That’s every life,’ a voice whispered to him. ‘In the end, no matter how hard you try, death will one day claim you. But it’s not The End, you of all people know that.’

‘It’s a step,’ another voice added after he remained silent staring at the growing chaos. ‘One of many coming together to determine what kind of person you are, and where you belong.’

‘I do not belong here.’ Dailin said to the voice, his tempter being to rise. The voices remained quiet, silently judging him, and he spoke his truth again. He'd done questionable things, everyone has at some point. But no amount of ill acts should have qualified him to be here, in a realm of madness and monsters.

‘Not yet,’ A voice whispered. ‘But continue down Convenience path and you will, like so many others.’ Dailin scowled as he watched monsters fight, as souls carved into each other at the behest of their puppeteers. ‘You only make things worse for yourself looking for an easy way out. The Vail did that, and look what it brought.’

‘Easy way out?’ Dailin said stunned, his mind not believing what he'd heard. The audacity of it, after all he'd done, anger bubbled in him. ‘The easy way out would have been killing myself!’ He shouted at the voice.

Oh, the temptation, it licked at his heels, whispered to him. It could all be over so quick, all the madness gone in the blink of an eye. The realm it was trying to get him to fall further, the voices the same. All trying to get him to make things harder for himself. Telling him to not focus on survival, to purposely commit acts that would hamper his chance of living. Each subtle steps to get him to move closer to the final act. Another life thrown away, and another dive deeper into the abyss.

‘Dying wasn’t your sin,’ a voice whispered soft. ‘Giving up was.’

A low chuckle escaped him as he heard the words. How easy it was to say that, to think a person should never give up. That they should be judged as the lowest of the low for not holding to such standards. That they somehow deserved to face more hardship for not taking the previous dousing well.

How can you blame a man for cutting short their suffering when starvation clawed at them? Or for killing themselves quick when a slow torturous death by lashings awaited them? Can you blame a soul from trying to escape a hopeless situation?

‘You had a few bad ones,’ voices said agreeing. ‘But what about all the others?’ Dailin hissed as memories flashed across his vision, so many lives, so many cut short but his own hands.

They weren’t good enough, never enough, not to the splendor he had in the beginning. Dailin could see the edges of it, lives full of decadence. Days spent experiencing every pleasure one could find. Lives where he didn't even have the concept of grueling work.

It was how it was supposed to be, lives full of bliss and not pain. Days of enjoyment rather than struggle. He was happy, Dailin remembered, back then he didn’t know anything else.

Then things changed.

‘Things always change,’ voices said loudly. ‘Existence is never-ending movement, ever-shifting wonders, not all were to your liking.’ More flashes, revolts entered his mind, he and those of his ilk had become corrupt. Pleasure was all that mattered, the cost was meaningless, the lives needed to maintain their comforts expectable losses.

‘And so the weight of judgment fell upon you.’ The voices said in a sad tone. ‘Every choice, ill or kind, all add or subtract to your weight and how far you will fall.’ And he fell, Dailin remembered that, each life was less than before. ‘More weight added’ The voices stated. ‘More inconveniences, more lives not to your standards.’

The flashes were moving forward through his lives now. Each a little harder, most ending in a similar way, one caused by his own hand. They weren’t good enough, never good enough.

‘Someone should have told me,’ Dailin muttered as the lives streamed by. ‘If I’d known in the beginning, I would have avoided all this.’

‘You did know,’ they said. ‘You felt what you were doing was wrong, that perhaps you should try something else. But you never did, it was too inconvenient.’ The voices added, scorn in their words.

His anger spiked and with a flex of his will he shattered the scenes cascading through his mind. The realm returned to him with its endless dance of spells and monsters.

His mind was quiet and he took that time to calm himself, to recover from seeing so many lives, reexperiencing things he’d rather forget. When his mind was back in order he finally asked: ‘What do you all want?’

The Voice didn’t answer at first, they whispered to them themselves, the words just out of his reach to hear. Then as one they said: ‘We want you to accept inconvenience.’

Dailin felt a cold go through him, dread weighing heavily on his shoulders. ‘Something is about to go wrong isn’t it?’ He asked but received no response. Silence reigned and after a minute of being ignored he shouted his question. No answers, no judging voices, just silence.

It took him a moment to understand their muteness was a fitting answer in itself. Perhaps the worst answer they could have given. He hated surprises and this whole realm was nothing but that. Endless amounts of it, and now he knew, for the voices hadn’t refuted it, that something was about to go wrong. Or part of him believed so, it wasn’t that grand of a prediction. No work of an oracle or some divine insight. It was given something was going to go wrong, that was just the way of things for him. One he wished to escape from but didn’t know the means how.

A pair of hands held him tighter as a small version of Bliss sat in his lap. His creature could easily tell he wasn’t well, the cold from dread was having him shiver. But the monster had its hands full at the moment, Giver had revealed a great many new surprises. The worst was she’d become immune to his warmth spell, at least from what he could tell. It wasn’t like last time where she’d run from him whenever he began to sing. Perhaps the Elders had made improvements after he destroyed their original bindings? He didn’t know, nor cared about the details, only that the Giver had become a threat again, and a growing one.

Like the Nightmare, she was multiplying at a staggering rate, her army swelling, and appeared to be trying to overwhelm Bliss. But his monster wasn’t falling prey to that tactic, not yet. Bliss was feeding off the souls from the Nightmares, new waves of Consumed joined its ranks, It allowed his monster to keep pace with the Giver.

Everyone was growing, the chaos spreading wider across the realm, and no one was making any gains. Even with the Anchors Bliss couldn’t push back the Nightmare. There were too many Titans within the ocean, too much Mana around for the larger beasts to be killed off.

‘Besides,’ he thought darkly to himself. ‘Two of my troubles are immortals, death means nothing, constructs can be shattered and made anew.’ Even without them Bliss and the Giver would remain, they were a collection of souls, and that wasn’t something that could be simply ended. Changed yes, but it seemed even that path was being closed to him. The Giver had become something that couldn’t be influenced in the same manner as before.

‘Is this the inconvenience they speak of?’ It felt like it, all paths leading to quick ends were being blocked. only the long battle for supremacy remained. One that could take decades, him forced to fight and conceive of ways to remain safe every day, always worried that death would get to him.

It certainly did sound inconvenient, so bothersome. It used to be so simple when the Mana only listened to him, bent to his whims, now everyone was doing it.

He understood why every person of prestige hoarded power for themselves. It was the only way to have peace, to live a life of luxury and carefree days. He had to do the same, it had to be done if there was to be any end to the spreading madness. The power had to be removed from the many and held by only one, by him.

Dailin lifted his gaze up to the storm. It was thin now, the Anchors in his area completely changed and under his control. At the moment there was an ocean of water above him, though not as it had been before. It had lessened enough that rays of light were penetrating through it. The vortexes of spinning water that touched the surfaces of the Mana ocean were small and sickly compared to the slicing tides before. Nor did the storm change all that often now, and when it did it wasn’t instant like before. Changing to a screaming sky of fire took the longest to complete, near half an hour before he couldn’t see any of the previous form.

‘Perhaps it is time?’ He thought and had the Oasis came to a halt. One look within his beast and Dailin saw the three-way battle increasing in magnitude. Nothing was slowing, and the ocean wasn’t dwindling in any rewarding manner. Nor would it now that the Anchors no longer wasting large quantities of the substance. Even now he could see it, the Mana from above didn’t need the Anchors for guidance, it came floating down on its own. The realm around him, covered in golden light peeking through the waters above, was joined with glistening specks that made the realm sparkle in wonder.

He had once again made matters worse. He needed the source of this mess more than ever. Because without it, nothing was going to stop. Worse one of the others might try and claim the true power for themselves, and that would be the end of it.

“I’m out of time,” he whispered. Nothing was going to improve his odds by waiting a little longer and turning more Anchors to his cause. The Storm, even in its weakened state would help keep things bottled up a little longer. Or at least keep his enemies blind as he raced for the object of his salvation.

“Bliss,” he said to the thing in his lap, the beast was hardly aware of its current surroundings. “I’m heading up, its time I claim the means to end this nonsense.”

His monster didn’t react instantly, there was a few seconds delay before the lifeless puppet moved and looked up at him smiling. “Most wise Maker,” the beast said. “Sorry for my Lowly manners,” the monster continued, and Dailin saw a version of itself taking up a position near the panel. “The fight with the two Wrongs is becoming very distracting. But Fear not, I have split a small portion of myself to remain here with you.”

“That’s very kind of you my wonderful Bliss,” Dailin said, making sure he didn’t sound halfhearted as he was. “Are you in control of the constructs encircling the Oasis?” He asked, he’d rather not leave them behind considering there were hundreds, each as large as his home.

“I am,” his creature announced, its face blushing, apparently pleased with the mock affection. “We can depart at any time Maker, I will follow you."

“Good,” his hands activated runes, and he closed his eyes. The Oasis moved up slowly at first, buying the constructs time to get out of the way. After the Oasis surged up, the constructs racing to follow. His bodying instinctively clenched when the wall of water neared and his home collided with it. The lack of felt impact never stopped being jarring to him as his home glided through the walls of water.

The Mana from the ocean below followed along, making a scene of a raging towering reaching up and spearing the water above. A blatant sight to mark where he was if his enemies ever neared enough to see it. Hopefully it wouldn’t last once his distance from the ocean grew wide enough.

He counted the time and peeked at his instruments to see if anything was going wrong. All glowed calmly to him, the water phase was the most peaceful of the three shifts, and the reason he chose to embark now. It was going on fours minutes when he saw the approaching surface. Even with the journey up being calm and uneventful, his heart still raced with anticipation. His jaw clenched, and his joints locked up when the Oasis broke through the wall of water and was encompassed within the golden light.

He looked up in awe, for a brief blissful moment the sight took him away from his plaguing fears. Then it came back more monstrous than before as the sight registered in full. Despair welled up inside him accompanied by his oppressive dread. High above, encompassing the entire sky. Was the source he was after. But it was not a single point he could encase.

Dailin looked upon a thousand suns, all dancing, spinning in formulaic circles and patterns. The sight felt familiar and then in a flash of insight he knew why. He was looking at a realm sized chronicler the Vail used. Or they’d copied and used to track the movement of time.

A realm clock looked down at him, endless waves of glistening Mana pulsing from the suns.

Arms tightened around his midsection, hands began rubbing his shoulders and back. Warmth smothered him as the chamber was flooded with the musical notes of Blisse's hymn. It's then he noticed his panicked breathing, his body shivering as if he was held by a mad fever. Bliss was calling to him urgently, he felt hands cupping his face. As his eyes opened freeing him of the sight above, Dailin found Bliss staring at him bugged eyed with glaring concern.

“Everything is going to be alright.” His creature kept saying to him. “I got everything under control, Peace Maker, listen to Peace, we’ll get through this like we always do.”

‘You’re going to die,’ a voice whispered. ‘You always were, life’s a temporary thing, meant to see what kind of person you’ll be, see what you’ll leave behind.’

‘No!’ Dailin wanted to shout, but found he couldn’t, he was shaking too badly. His body wasn’t listening all that well to him, that was fair, he was scared to. Enough that Dailin couldn’t help himself from pulling Bliss into a tight hug. It continued humming words of encouragement to him, saying it would handle everything. He believed it, it would no matter the obstacles put in its place, it would with every fiber of its being keep him safe, and bring about what he wanted.

He believed, but Bliss was up against things just as determined, powered by the same substance they were using. And just as adept at using it. Without the source, without hoarding the power, things were going to on forever. The Nightmare was going to flood the realm with endless numbers, all of it aimed at claiming him and his family. All the while the Giver would aim to cleanse him from the realm as well.

Dailin closed his eyes, sent strings of Mana connecting him to the panel and look out once more at the sun clock. He stared, racking his mind, and the idea that formed was the same as before. It was just going to take a little more effort on his part. There were multiple sources, but that didn’t change the fact he could still encase them in creations to siphon their power to his own end. It was just going to take longer, and he properly didn’t have the time to claim them all.

‘But I don’t need to,’ he thought his shivers receding. ‘I just need to claim a few, turn them into weapons like the Anchors.’ He would have suns contained within Oasis’s, he would send them down and cleanse the realm.

‘Yes,’ excitement growing, he only needed a few, Bliss could control them, keep the troubles back while he focused on claiming more.

‘Gods, there still a chance.’ Hope bloomed in his chest as he leaned forward began activating runes with shaking hands.

The Oasis floating above the water peacefully shot upward, its Wards glowing brightly as the Oasis surged towards the suns. Up and up it went, the suns growing in size, and the Mana coming from them raced towards the Oasis. “Everything’s going to be alright” Bliss whispered so sweetly to him.

But the realm, the realm told him otherwise.

One moment Dailin was surging up to towards salvation, the next the Oasis made contact with an invisible barrier that stopped it dead. He felt no impact so he was confused at first, till his mind noticed the half-visible Wards making up the blockade.

‘No,’ Dailin thought as dread grew, the excitement in his chest dying with his hope. He had the Oasis pull back, and launched forward again angled to the right rather than straight up. But as before a barrier was blocking the way.

‘Please gods no,’ his fevered shivering returned in full. Dailin had the Oasis pull back again, this time he activated Hearts, manifest a swarm of hands. Those went flying upward and collide with the same obstruction. The hands didn’t pull away, instead, Dailin had them fan out, pressing against the barrier so it stayed visible. Like a fool he prayed that it had an end, that it didn’t encompass the entire sky. And yet his hands kept spreading and the barrier kept revealing themselves.

In a fit of rage Dailin smashed a fist down on his favored rune, activated the top Heart and fired upon the barriers daring to stop him.

The realm burned as the light erupted from his home, it collided with the barrier, but, nothing happened as it should have. The barrier didn’t shatter, only became more visible, more intricate. His spell, unable to pierce the block, scattered in multiple directions. It's searing light, spreading and causing more of the realm to burn wherever it went. The beams punctured the ocean below causing the water to hiss and form steam clouds.

One, then two, then five, then ten minutes passed by as layers emptied themselves. Runes pulsed at him and defeated Dailin lifted his hand, the light winked out. The barrier in front of him dimmed then became invisible to him again. He stared, gazing up at the suns that appeared in reach. They weren't, a hope dangled in front of him.

His anger died with the Oasis beam, and though he was being suffocated by fears and dread, they to lessened.

It was quiet at first, but with each breath, the sound of laughter began to grow. It grew and grew till he was having hard time breathing. Bliss wrapped her hands around him, he couldn’t see its face, as his own was pressed into its chest. Still, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine it with a distressed mask. But that didn’t matter at the moment, hysterical laughter had taken him, leaving him barely functioning.

‘It’s all a joke isn’t it?’ Dailin asked the voices in his head, they knew this was going to happen. Knew all his plans were fantasies to be scattered on the wind. ‘

‘Of course it is,’ he thought, answering his own question. The laughter, the mad yet beautiful laughter, began to change. Slowly then quickly it was replaced with choking sobs.

“My darling Maker,” his creature said so softly, “It going to be alright. I’ll take care of everything.”

His cries didn’t end, not even with the room smothered in his cheerful warmth. It should end, he was head of household, he needed to get things done. Needed to find a way to save his family, and yet. The tears kept flowing, he was so tired, and the realm so cruel.

It was laughing at him, always had been. He was a big fat joke. The man who dared to try, dared to live, rewarded with a realm that aimed to kill all. Born into a civilization at its end. Born in a realm full of monsters whose only purpose was to consume him. Death all around, all of it openly mocking and stomping on his efforts to live. To make something out of life, to provide a place of safety for those he loved.

Why was it all being so inconvenient, why was this happening?

‘This is how it always ends,” voices said, just as kindly as Bliss. ‘Convenience makes you comfortable, makes things easy, has you follow the simple path no matter than damage it causes in the long term. It makes you soft and complacent, lazy. For a time, it’s wonderful. The problems building up distant enough to ignore. So people keep their eyes closed and bask in the comforts Convenience provides. Lets it wrap them up tight, listening to its lullabies. And at the end, you see it.’ The voices said growing closer.

‘Once you’re tied up and unable to move, too weak to escape. All the problems appear, the once lovey environment begins to crumble around you, and you can’t move, you can’t do anything. There Convenience stares down at you, smiling, then leaves. And the realm crashes down on you.’

‘Then why did I even try? If this realm was doomed from the beginning, the Vail with it, why?’ He asked.

The voices laughed, loud and long before their words thunder out: ‘So you’d learn!’

'You’re here because you didn’t try,’ they spoke. ‘You followed Convenience, this where it always leads. But it doesn’t have to be this way, there’s still time, you have endless power. The path will be long, and inconvenient, yet your family can still be saved, this disaster can be survived. It's just going to take a lot of effort. There’s no easily paths this time, all those lead to death. And you don’t want that, do you?’ the voices asked.

Dailin didn’t answer, he didn’t have to, all already knew his thoughts on the matter. Convenient deaths had brought him here, more would just send him further down into the abyss of madness. And he couldn’t stomach any more of that, the possibility of even worse realms awaiting him.

‘You have all this power, you just have to use it,' they said. 'One day the storm will pass. The calamity Convenience bred will fade, and the realm you wish to build will be opened to you.’

‘Just don’t give up.’

Dailin didn’t need to hear those words, he would never act as before. Even with the realm trying to push him towards it. He was a fool, but not that big of one. He knew what laid beyond death. Another life waiting to take him, to bring him to a fresh new hell.

He wasn’t going to give up he was just, just tired of it all, of his efforts not being rewarded, of endless monsters and situations. He wanted it to end, wanted the nightmare to stop. He wanted to go back to the lives before, comically mundane, routine all around.

‘You have to earn those,’ Voices whispered, ‘Got to lessen your weight, rise back up from the abyss and for that, you got to try.’

They keep saying that, why did they keep saying that? He wasn’t’ going to give up, he was just taking a break, he would continue trying at any moment. Any moment.

His grip on Bliss grew tighter rather than relax, the tears, the frustration it continued to flow out even when he told it to stop.

‘Don’t give up.’ They whispered again.

‘I’m not!’ He screamed at them, ‘I’m just taking a break,’ the strength of his voice fading. ‘Just a small break,’ It wasn’t like it was going to make a difference, the source was denied him, his every attempt to bottle up the madness had been blocked. The realm laughing at his attempts, for what other reason could there be to explain a shield blocking his way to the source of all the troubles? The realm was laughing at him, making fun of him.

A chuckle mixed with his sobs, short-lived, but it made him aware again of the racket he was making, even with much of it being muffed by Bliss. He should stop, it was embarrassing.

He really should stop, there were things to do, even if they didn’t matter and wouldn’t change anything.

“Everything’s going to be alright.” Dailin flinched, his sobs lowered to sniffles. There had been two voices, one Blisses, but the other, he couldn’t place it, and for some odd reason he felt a small fluttering in his chest.

“It’s going to be all right,” the new voice said, drawing closer to him. “Have no Fear, nor Worry, and certainly not Despair, for Hope is here.” The voice chimed to him and he pulled his face from Bliss chest and look to the source.

His eyes fell upon a little girl, smiling at him in a way only a child could. “Though times might seem hard, and others try to tell all is for not, remember I am here.” The child said and he felt that fluttering again, spurring him on, making things less bleak than they'd been a moment before.

“And who are you?” he asked still sniffing like an infant.

The child laughed sweetly as she swung her arms back and forth. “I already told you, Hope,” the child said emphasizing the word. “Mama said you needed me,” Hope added her eyes looking up to Bliss. His followed and their gazes meet. Bliss holding him close didn’t look so well, the smile it always wore was almost gone. Odd how ill it made it look, even if its face appeared neutral.

“Are you well now Maker?” Bliss asked its voice empty of the mirth it normally carried.

“I’m getting there.” He said and saw Bliss lips twitch and rise some.

It was Blisses turn to shiver as if it was about to break down into tears as he’d down, was still doing. It was so embarrassing. “That blessed to hear Maker,” it said brushing fingers across his cheek removing tears. “You weren’t answering anything I said, weren’t reacting. I, I wasn’t sure what do, your warmth wasn’t working, so I, tried a different type.”

Dailin looked back at the child, who was happy as one could be. “It’s ok Maker,” Hope said. “This realm, it tries to beat you down, make you part of it. It reveals in doing so.”

‘Convenience calls once people get near enough, and most people follow it willingly by then.’ Voices whispered.

“It's fulfilling its role rather well then.” Dailin spoke and hummed softy removing the dried tears from his face. He wasn’t shivering as much, the depression he’d been falling down had dissipated, chased away by the fluttering in his chest. It was familiar to his own spell, there were aspects of it. Though Hope didn’t bring about any kind of pleasure, it was a drive, an urge to get up and try again.

It was helping him more than he thought it should, but maybe that was appropriate, his own hopes had just been dashed twice in a roll. The spell, combined with Blisses own was pulling him from his stupor, the tears finally stopped flowing, the haze and dreariness fled. It removed the fog from his mind, and let him pay attention to the new being in front of him. ‘Mama’ the child had said when looking at Bliss.

Dallin turned his eyes from the child to his creature, his mind piercing into its and he searched. What he was looking for was right in front him, Hope was on the Bliss's mind as well, mingled with the endless thoughts of him. He saw why he’d only now became aware of the new entity. Hope had been sequestered away watching over the vessels why Bliss focused on seeing to his demands. So Hope hadn’t been on its mind, and without that Dailin wasn’t aware of it either. A flaw in his gaze he realized, people could still hide things from him if they had the will not to think of certain topics. Not unless he went digging.

There was a part of him worried, his creature trying to keep secrets from him again. Yet looking in Bliss he felt none of that intent, Hope really hadn’t been on its minds, and only now had the child been called because Bliss had deemed it necessary, and was at a loss of what to do.

Dailin felt his body relax seeing that truth, and he pulled from Bliss mind, and turned his gaze to the child. She had neared while he’d been quiet and distracted. So he found the child’s hands closing around one of his own as she stared up at him with, well, hope-filled eyes. As their gazes met he looked into Hope and beheld a child’s mind. All of its thinkings fell on the same unquestioning belief, that everything was going to work out. No matter how dire things appeared, everything was going to be fine.

Unlike him, even Bliss, this child was oblivious of any kind of thought that things could go wrong, that perhaps the worst could happen. It was truly the mind of a child, the mind of innocence. He was rather jealous of it, not plagued like him with endless worries, always envisioning something going wrong.

“I know things look troubling, but that's just the work of Despair and Doubt, they’re always trying to drag people down to their realm. Don’t fall prey to their nonsense Maker,” the child said. “There’s always away, no matter how bad things may appear, if you keep trying everything will work itself out.”

Dailin let out a small chuckle, gods how he envied the child before him. To have that innocent once more, just for a little while.

But no, there was work to be done, and though the nagging thoughts plagued him, they had their uses. Showed him what could go wrong, and find the means to counter it before the worst occurred, not that he was doing that well of achieving such.

Already his mind was turning, the depression that had held him was pushed back by Hopes belief. It urged him to continue on, and Dailin was willing to embrace that. He had a family to keep safe, had wrongs to make right, most of all he had Death to avoid. He had to hold on to life, cherish it so he wouldn’t fall further.

Eyes closing, he looked up at the clear sky before him, the dancing suns out of his reach. There was one more thing he could do, and he already knew there wasn’t enough time. But he would try, for anything else meant death by his own hands.