Daon heavily bruised having been tossed around by miasma infused torrents chasing after his nephew who, at this point, he cannot be sure is alive, but he is clinging onto hope. Daon, who fights his parent hard enough to trigger adrenaline and it turns into vicious snarling and roaring in the night, with barely even the moon accompanying them. The enemy dangles Akku in front of him, scared of being defeated, so it uses the boy to bait and escape him. 

Of course he scrambles to catch the child, both of their bodies tumble off to the side. Daon presses his ear immediately to the child's chest, hands rearing to call on the art of healing. 

...

....There is nothing but his ringing in his ears and the harshness of his breath as panic swells. 

No.

Daon wants to vomit. 

It can't be. 

He sets the boy down flat on the muddy grass,

It cannot be.

— as he grits his teeth, palms trembling as he lays them flat on the child's chest. 

No no nonononono—

He cannot feel movement, no raspy breathing, no small thump. All that's left is ringing, growing louder and louder and louder and—

Daon swallows down bile. His face is not any drier than it was when he was fighting those vile beasts.

The world, dark as it is that already surrounds them, lights up as the moon's eye gazes upon them once more. Daon does not notice. He only clutches his nephew's body more in a tight embrace, fingers growing into claws that glow brighter than the moon's gentle light, vibrant, desperate to hear a little thump, a little rasp as he gently pats the boy's back as one would do to make their child burp. 

Daon desperately looks up. The scenery is different now. A river of glowing white right beside them that leads to an altar, with the light of the Moon eerily close.

It blinks.

There it is.

Their deity.

Ang Mayuming Buwan.

It kneels in front of his trembling form, gentle hands grasping cold body of the child from his grip, and Daon knows he is hesitant to let go. However, he does not notice himself wail. He knows not of the pleas, the callousness of his grief that moves even a deity so lonely. He does not know what awaits him in the years to come. But he has already accepted this, hoping that it would be worth it.

He had faith that his family would come back for him.