Considering the circumstances, Esther had been a surprisingly easy child. At least, she had been what Elohim imagined others would have described as easy. She had been born under difficult circumstances, in more ways than one, but Elohim might not have guessed it had he been anybody but her father. She had been born quiet, and she'd remained quiet for long enough that Elohim had started to worry over whether she had, perhaps, been born like his sister, Badar. Just as those questions had risen up within him, she had stirred and since she'd stirred, Esther had been full of curiosity. It was a subdued curiosity, and so it was one that Elohim could appreciate easily.

Elohim certainly felt a certain level of guilt over leaving Natiya and Arius, even if it was just for a few hours, but Esther had been firm in wanting to explore. In all honesty, Elohim was eager to do so too. The flooding had well and truly settled into the landscape, and he wondered if it'd ever drain away. If it did, would they return to Glorall? He looked towards the east, towards the sea, and Esther seemed to notice the shift in his attention. She paused, and so did he, before she moved in front of him and demanded his attention with an intense stare. Elohim eventually obliged, and he raised his brows as if to ask what?

"Why not return?" They'd discussed it before. "You already know part of the reason, don't you?" He jabbed back, and began to move through the tall grass of the fields again with no clear goal. The fields had simply been empty, so he'd decided to explore the area closer to the flooding to see whether there had been any major changes or not. "Because of my relatives," Esther confirmed with a nod as she raced alongside Elohim, her legs working overtime beneath her to keep up with his long strides. "Underidge, Blackthorne, Nyteshade," he recited, and she quickly added, "...And Matianak, possibly." Elohim confirmed her addition with a low grunt. "That list could grow any day, sanguis meus," he stated flatly, thinking briefly of Eros and even Eden, who he had yet to see since the flooding had eaten up the territory in the early spring. They'd communited, yes, but they'd not seen one another, and Elohim had not been entirely forthcoming with information either.

In one fluid motion, Elohim leapt atop a stack of boulders that jutted out from the old, tangled roots of a tree long gone. He looked out over the sea of grass, its tips swaying and dancing in the breeze. Esther scrambled up beside him, resigning to her stomach as she panted hard and huffed with frustration. Elohim glanced down, and prompty sat. Ah, had he overworked her already? It was, at times, difficult to remember that children were so...small, so vulnerable. He'd just been listening off the names of those that might seek to kill or keep her, and yet he seldom considered something as trivial as such small, weak legs. Elohim couldn't help but sigh and shake his head at himself.

"What did I or Arius do to them?" Esther managed to ask, having flopped over onto her side as her eyes watched the grass sway idly. For once, she wasn't bothered by Elohim's silence as he pondered the right answer. Instead, she was content to bask in the sun and ponder it herself, trying to remember as far back as she could remember in hopes of discovering whatever it was that had offended them so deeply. "Nothing," Elohim answered just as she'd come to the same conclusion. Nothing in her memory, as far as she could tell, warranted anything like that.

For the time being, the two were content to sit idly. Elohim was attentive despite appearances, and Esther was exhausted despite hers. She had tried to scramble back up to sit proudly next to her father, but instead, she'd resorted to merely leaning into him with half-moon eyes. Elohim, though, was ever on alert. He watched and listened out towards Glorall, but behind them too, and even further beyond that to where Natiya and Arius were. When, he wondered, had he agreed to live in fear? Even worse, he thought with a smirk, was that the fear wasn't even his own.