Mairek watched as Ishar broke free of Nielda's hold over time. His body ceased vibrating and he was once again capable of motion though his movement was slightly slower than normal. "Nielda." Ishar said, causing Mairek to scream and curl in on himself upon the ground. Ishar's voice had another layer above it, a deeper one that scrambled his thoughts and threatened to twist all that he was into an amorphous mixture. "Leaving so soon?" Ishar's voice sounded more like his own and Mairek raised his head to see his friend facing a God. Nielda stood before Ishar after having moved from where he once was within a blink of an eye.

"My domain Ovek? Has the gates of Oblivion crumbled your ability to reason?" Nielda asked. The stars dotting his dark body seemed to glow brighter but the blue glow of his eyes had faded back to green. "I can turn your champion to dust as time does to a body and scatter him upon the winds."

Ishar laughed, something that caused Mairek to tremble with fear for him for Nielda's words were not to be taken lightly. "It's hard to take your threat seriously provided I recall when you had come to me because you thought Nyawe had made you fall in love with Alietsi." Ishar said after his laughter had died down. "'Ovek, I belong to the sky yet I itch to dive into the depths of the sea if only for the chance to ran my finger upon the strands of her green hair or to listen to her talk about fish!'" Ishar quoted Nielda. "'Ovek, Nyawe has played her hand against me! Ther-' "

"ENOUGH!" Nielda said and took a step away from Ishar, turning his back to him and facing Mairek. He spoke without looking at Mairek's position on the ground, his eyes focused just above the Talisi's head. "You talk of her fondly, as if her death did not alter you as it did the rest of us."

Ishar took slow steps towards Nielda, coming to a stop behind him. The glow from his amber eyes unsettled Mairek, it reminded him of what he'd once heard about Yendw wolves. It was said that if you were to see amber eyes in the woods in the dead of night you should pray to be ushered into Tabrimas with haste. "There is no order to love as there is to time so I am not as altered as the rest of you are for her absence doesn't involve a part of me missing. All that she was was an addition to what I already am and not something I never had." Ishar said. "Love is chaotic, it drives many to the brink of insanity and stains one's very being with a need that transcends all else."

Nielda abruptly turned, glaring down on Ishar. "With time love fades."

Ishar stared up at the God's eyes, unwilling to break. "But it is not forgotten." Nielda looked away, peering into the frozen flame of the massive bonfire. "You still have that itch, don't you? Nyawe is lost to the void, her entire being completely consumed by the bringer of the endless night as a part of you once was. You don't have an excuse anymore, you still want to dive into the depths of the sea because you love Alietsi."

"Love is a waste of time." Nielda whispered but it was as if the wind carried his voice to Mairek.

"No it is not." Mairek said. Both Ishar and Nielda turned to him as he stood up. "I've loved and I've lost and if I were to do it all again I would do so in a heartbeat." Ishar smiled, his smile touching his amber eyes. "You should dive into the depths for the one you love, swim through a lake of fire for the one you love, scale the greatest heights for the one you love." Mairek nodded while meeting Nielda's glare.

"Love is timeless."

"He is a worthy champion, he knows what you do not. You can learn from him as he channels you and maybe by doing so you may one day get the courage to dive into the depths of the sea." Ishar said.

"He has your touch." Nielda said.

"I swear on my champion's life that I did not alter him but only coalesced his strength to alter himself." Ishar said.

"Which divine aspect did he alter?" Nielda asked and Mairek's hope swelled. Ishar or Ovek was pleading his case for him.

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"Nyawe's absence." Ishar replied.

Nielda scoffed at Ishar's words and waved a hand and Mairek felt pressure building beneath his feet, suddenly a great force catapulted him into the sky. He screamed as the large bonfire became a tiny orange speck upon the Ganidan plain as he traveled further into the night sky. Nothing is timeless. Nielda's words were clear as Mairek punctured through clouds as he screamed, he kicked and waved in an effort to gain whatever semblance of control possible but it was as futile as breathing underwater. Mairek swirled as he rose higher and higher while flailing his limbs and screaming for his life.

Mairek, feel the moment. Ishar's words were distinguishable from Nielda's but they made no sense! What moment could be felt as he flew with the wind clawing at his face as he ascended further into the sky? The entire Ganidan plain stretched out beneath him and he couldn't stop screaming. The higher he went the more he saw, he could see the dunes of the desert to the far east, he could see the Rankf sea to the west, the ranges to the south and the mountains to the north.

Feel the moment. Mairek stopped screaming, his breath became hard to take in as the air became thin. The land stretched out and merged with the endless sea below and Mairek gawked in awe as the realm's horizon curved before him. He'd always thought it was flat with an edge where one could topple off of but it appeared he was wrong. It was night but in the distance he could see the sun's glow bathing a part of the realm that was beyond the Rankf sea, somewhere he was sure nobody from the realm had ever been to let alone seen was bathed in the sun's light.

"It's.. beautiful." Mairek struggled to speak between gasps. He became aware of the fact that his ascent had slowed and he now floated in midair, higher than even the tallest peaks of the mountains north of Talisi. Higher than even birds dared to venture. He couldn't even see the Ganidan plain from where he floated and it was so cold. He smiled, if death was to greet him then this was a worthy view before the end. He waved his hands and kicked his feet, his smile morphed into a laugh, he felt like he was swimming in the air and the difficulty with the intake of breath attested to the feeling.

"It is indeed beautiful." Nielda said from beside him. Mairek turned with his limbs dangling beneath him to observe the God who blended in with the night sky as if he belonged. Nielda stood straight unlike Mairek and his hands were clasped behind his back as he floated miles above the realm. "It was not my wish to create imbalance but Ovek has opened my eye to something he knows has troubled me for eons. I may require your assistance to overcome said obstacle.

"Imbalance can be worked around if I am to take something from you and replace it with something else but I fear doing so won't make you as effective as I wish you to be if you are to help Ovek's champion face what is coming." Nielda said.

In the distance Mairek felt rather than saw a dark spot upon the realm to the south of Binoria, a place that was darker than the rest of the realm during the night and carried with it a forbidding sense of... Nothingness.

"You've restored my perception of myself through the worship you led, I will in turn heighten your perception of time." Nielda said.

"W.. What?" Mairek heaved as he spoke. He started to feel faint.

"There will be a big difference between Meena's champion and yourself for perception and intuition are different in that perception focuses on what can be grasped by the five senses, while intuition focuses on the impressions and patterns generated from the information collected." Nielda's eyes glowed blue as he turned fully to face Mairek. "Granted, what you shall perceive will hold a depth to it that none has ever witnessed before and the burden of said depth will weigh you down."

"Weigh.. Me... Down?" Mairek was struggling to maintain consciousness. Nielda waved a hand and suddenly he was able to take in a full breath of air. He breathed in and out as he thought about the God's words.

"I will take nothing from you but what I give you carries a burden with it, a burden that you shall bare with your very being and in the end of it all you shall be altered significantly for your ability to grasp as you perceive will unravel things your soul will struggle to fathom." Nielda said.

"Do it." Mairek said. What option did he have? If he rejected he was guaranteed to be a vegetable. It wasn't like there was much to his life anyway but he wanted to live, even if it was for a little while longer. Besides, Nielda had said with his 'gift' he might be able to help Ishar and that was reason enough to comply. "I ACCEPT." Mairek shouted at the top of his lungs.

Nielda waved a hand and Mairek started falling, slowly at first then at an increased pace. He tumbled through the air and pierced through clouds once more but he did not scream. He flexed his fingers, feeling the wind whistle between them. He faced the sky as he fell with his back to the ground, he could see each star in exquisite detail above him as he drifted further away from them. "So beautiful." Mairek said right before he hit the ground.