The room was too quiet.
Orario never slept, either. Always the sound was drifting through the windows: the distant din of the adventurers, the footsteps echoing through the stone corridors, the cries rising and falling with the tide. But within the little headquarters, the silence was oppressive enough to give Hestia a pounding chest.
Two days.
Two full days now that Ethan has been missing.
Hestia paced the room for the hundredth time, her sandals ringing loudly on the floor. She came to a stop beside the window, her eyes fixed on the view without seeing it, and turned back around, pacing the room again. Her twin tails swished back and forth with each step, uneven and agitated.
"Where are you…", she whispered.
The Guild had scouted. Other families had been called in since the news of the accident broke: routes down, adventurers missing, bodies found in layers that didn't make sense. Stories of creatures manifesting in the wrong places, floors acting wrong simmered through their frightened whispers.
But Ethan—
No trace.
No body.
No witnesses who had seen him fall.
Simply absence.
She clenched her fists. Her nails left impressions on her palms. "As a goddess, I felt my children. I didn't feel them all the time. I'm not a beacon. I felt them when bad things happened. A break."
She felt nothing.
This scared her much more than any confirmation.
Across the room, Lili sat on the edge of a couch, her shoulders slumped, her fists clenched in her lap. She hadn't uttered many words since the news had come back inconclusive. Her eyes were red and puffy, her sharpness replaced with something delicate.
"…It's my fault."
Hestia froze in her
Lili's voice was no more than a whisper.
"If I hadn't asked him to go deeper… if I hadn't trusted the route… Ethan wouldn't—" Her breath hitched. She bowed her head, tears dropping onto her gloves. "I should've known something was wrong."
Hestia took three steps across the room and knelt before her.
"No," she said firmly.
Lili flin
Hestia placed the palms of her hands on the girl's shoulders.
"No. Don't you dare do that to yourself."
'But
"Lili." Hestia locked eyes with her, unflinching. "You didn't push him. You didn't force him. Ethan made his own choice—he always does."
Lili shook her head feebly. "I'm the supporter. I'm supposed to—"
"You're human," Hestia said, her voice softening. "And you care. That's not a crime."
Lili's grip on herself finally slipped. She leaned forward, her forehead resting on Hestia's shoulder as quiet sobs shook her slender body.
'I told him I'd watch his back,' she screamed. 'I promised…'
Hestia embraced her strongly in her arms. Then, for an instant, Hestia could allow herself to close her eyes.
Ethan's smile popped into her mind: crooked, peaceful, maddeningly arrogant. The way he'd touched her hair as if he knew no one could hurt him. The way he'd stepped into harm as if it were merely another bad road to walk.
"He's strong," Hestia whispered, her words more to herself than to anyone else. "Stronger than people think."
Lili's grip on mine tightened. "What if…what if he's alone?"
"Swallowed"
"He won't be forever," she said. "And if he's still breathing—if there's even a chance—then we wait. We search. We don't give up."
She leaned back, her hands resting on Lili's shoulders once more. "And you do not have this burden alone. Not while I am here."
Lili nodded nervously, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
The door creaked very slightly as the breeze passed through the room. Hestia's attention turned to it, and for a moment, she couldn't help but hope to see the one person she expected to be there.
Nothing.
"Her heart sank—but only for a moment."
Her heart sank.
Somewhere, far down below the surface of Orario, a change was coming to the Dungeon. She could neither see it nor touch it, but she could sense the ripple of tension that even gods could hardly disregard.
"Ethan wasn't gone
He was somewhere else.
Hestia straightened her posture. Steeled will was etched
"Rest now, Lili," she said softly. "I'll speak to the Guild again. And the other gods."
GUARDIAN OF GRINGRAD "
Lili hesitated. "Do you really think he's alive?"
Hestia smiled—small, fierce
"I know he is."
Because, if Ethan had taught her anything, it would be that sometimes
It was that silence didn't mean surrender.
But whatever had swallowed him in the depths. It hadn't finished with him yet.
---
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