Close, he had said, but Beltane had not believed him. Not completely, at least. He had been whispering away and Beltane had hissed at him, driven from the Iromar borders just to make him quiet. They, after all, had not been close for years, though the years had not felt as long to Beltane. Lucy had vanished into the stars, and Aos Si had become part of the mist and moors like her father, but Erie was a mystery to her. Onias had taken her to treat her, but one day, the pair of them had simply not returned to Beltane. Of course, she had accepted it. But now, Wraith had been whispering away. Close, close, near, near, so near! It made Beltane's skin crawl in an unfamiliar way, and she had done everything but crawl out of it just to make Wraith be quiet. What frustrated her, however, was that he might have been right. Beltane did not hear them, and so, they were most certainly alive. The dead saw nearness differently. Had he meant they were close to him?
Driven from Iromar, Beltane had taken to the north. Her path carved through the crags, deliberately having passed over the grotto lest she find herself seeking out Onias in the darkness below. Instead, she loosely followed Sidhe's scent, feigning curiosity in her daughter's escapdes in order to occupy her mind. It was Sidhe's scent that lead Beltane north, but it was something else that lead her towards the riverside itself. Several days earlier, Moladion's magic had been strong, connecting the young souls of children to one another and even days later, Beltane could feel that uncomfortable, metallic vibration in the air. Her mind had roamed and found it, a suitable distraction from Wraith and his chattering. It made Beltane quiver, a wave of twitching flesh moving down her body until it ended at the tip of her tail, lashing out as her dead-ear twitched in agitation. She'd never liked the feeling of imprinting-magic. Whatever it was, it made her aware of a hollowness somewhere within herself. When she had been with Onias, it had disappeared, but it had returned in due time. Perhaps...she did need to see Onias again...
She had paused at the thought, her head jerking up. She suddenly felt the heat and drew in a slow, exasperated breath. Heat settled on her like a cloak and she moved instinctively towards the water, single-mindedly so. If Wraith had been right, in either their closeness to her or himself, then what was she to do?