Anaisa's grip on her dagger, kept always at the ready in the Kingswood, tightened. Her light brown eyes narrowed as her familiar paced nervously back and forth behind her, watchful, waiting, wary. She'd visited the little encampment her siblings had founded time and time again without encountering her father, so this... this felt purposeful. On the other edge of the clearing, just out of reach, stood Dracerdis himself in all his wild, mad glory. His familiar perched in a branch above him, his pet Caracara on his shoulder. For a long moment they just stood there, staring at each other, taking in the changes time had wrought while they were apart.

"Daughter," Dracerdis said at last. "I am so happy to see you well."

But he made no attempt to draw nearer, did not open his wiry arms to welcome her with a hug as once he might have. His gaze dipped to the dagger in her hand, then back up to her eyes. His lips curved in an infuriating smile, but Anai knew better than to take the bait he was so carefully dangling before her. The time of their confrontation was not yet at hand; she had much to do before then. Her new power sang in her blood, called to her, tempted her, but land was not their realm. When the battle happened, it would happen out at sea and one or both of them would perish the way they were born, cradled by the untamed waters.

"My name is Anaisa," she replied after a long moment. "Not Daughter. You have two of those, you know, and we're not interchangeable."

Dracerdis clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Is this what our estrangement is over? I would think there were many better things to worry about."

Anaisa's grip tightened on her weapon, her lip twitching as she fought to hold back her snarl. She still wasn't sure about her father's motivations for blowing up the Drakon, and her with it. Until she was sure, until she was strong, she couldn't make a move. Anai may not have been as much for a strategist as Ghede, but she was no slouch.

"Better things indeed," she said at last, when she was certain she could control her face and her voice.

Dracerdis chuckled, taking a small step closer. Anaisa eyed him warily, making no movement of her own.

"Why don't you give me the knife, Daughter? We'll have a pleasant chat," he held his hand palm out, sidling another step closer.

"Not a chance in-"

The two turned in perfect unison as a third person appeared in the clearing. The tension, built between the two and now focused entirely on the third person, bubbled uncomfortably in the resultant silence. Anai felt the world twist, blurring apart before snapping sharply together.

"A god?" she murmured, almost unconsciously. Dracerdis smirked.

"See, you have your own unique uses, Daughter."

Anaisa growled low in her throat, her focus still on the man.