late at night, abaddon was standing outside his house with the phone raised to his ear.

he sat underneath the glow of a full moon, speaking softly to his eldest daughter about the day''s volatile events that took place.

"are they settling in well then..?" he asked.

on the other line, thea was just getting ready for bed. aisha was sprawled across her lap, already asleep while she played in her hair.

"i believe so. they mostly seemed concerned with having their loved ones back. we could have given them paper bags to live in and they would have been fine so long as they had them."

abaddon would never pretend he didn''t understand that. when it was genuine, there was nothing good for the soul like family.

"how is your sister..?" he asked, a twinge of pain in his voice.

he didn''t like being away from odessa when she was so young. and thea knew it.

"i would tell you if i knew the answer." she sighed. "unfortunately, the grandparents have been recycling her between each other. i can barely even get a glimpse of her in the hallway."

that at least brought a smile to abaddon''s face. knowing that his daughter was always receiving the proper love and care even if they weren''t around.

"and my grandchildren?"

"i was sparing with jazzy today and she kicked me in the stomach, so this one might come out with a dent in it''s head."

"t-t-thea-nicole!!"

thea rolled her eyes. "of course, the babies are fine, dad. how can they not be when i have a house full of people who are doing their damndest to make sure that aubrey and i don''t even walk to the refrigerator on our own?"

abaddon didn''t know it, but at that moment jasmine walked in carrying a blushing aubrey. she didn''t look as displeased by the whole lack of independence thing as thea did, but then again, jasmine was known to have that effect on people.

"enough about your kids, dad... are you alright?" thea asked.

abaddon actually seemed caught off guard. "well, yes, i-"

"you don''t have to keep putting on this front, you know? you haven''t really been yourself and i don''t think it has anything to do with you being away from home... care to share?"

abaddon would''ve preferred not to have perceptive children. at least not when it came to himself.

he was a man flexible in his beliefs and principles, as every being should be. but one of the things he would never waver on was that children shouldn''t have to worry about their parents.

he didn''t care how old any of them got. he wanted to hold onto the image of himself that he''d worked so hard to cultivate in their minds.

"you just worrry about your people and taking care of yourself, my daughter. leave everything else to your old man, alright?"

thousands of years of life and thea still hated this aspect of her father. he had acknowledged that his kids had grown up in some ways, but his most annoying tendencies had yet to fully leave him.

maybe they might never.

"fine... fat head."

"huh?"

abaddon heard a familiar beeping sound and looked down at his phone. thea had hung up in a fit of displeasure.

"...kids." he huffed.

stuffing his phone back in his pocket, abaddon moved a bit further away from the house.

there was something else he felt the need to work on before he retired to bed for the night.

kneeling by the stream, he touched the crystal clear water with the pads of his fingers.

makers, pure makers, are different from other living beings. they do not have souls in the same way that the rest of creation recognizes them. gulban is more of a force of nature.

when or if he perishes, he will not go to heaven, or oblivion. the fragments of his soul will be scattered and ingrained with everything he''s ever created.

and the woman who can do most everything, will not be able to change the one thing that will truly matter.

for valerie, whose confidence in her power is only rivaled by the thickness of her glasses, there were few things that could be quite as cruel.

she was barely keeping it together before this trip had even began.

abaddon felt valerie stir within his grasp.

before he could stop her, she was pulling off her shirt and tossing it into the active fireplace.

"valerie..." abaddon said immediately.

she ignored him. her next move was to start trying to pull him out of his shirt.

she had it halfway up his torso before he grabbed her wrists and stopped her.

"valerie. this isn''t-"

"i-i know, it''s not right, but i just... i need a.."

valerie didn''t actually say the words, but they both knew what she was about to say.

distraction.

though simple, it was a heavy, hard word for them.

they had sex for many reasons. for pleasure, for self expression, for attraction, for adventure... sometimes all of those things at once.

but a distraction wasn''t one of them. there is a difference between running to your partner as a shelter from the outside world, and using your most intimate act as a distraction from your problems.

it cheapens the act. it''s distasteful. and it sets a terrible precedent.

valerie wasn''t being malicious. far from it, actually.

but she was so tired of feeling despaired that she wanted to suffocate herself with the one thing that she knew would bring her back to a high point.

because her husband was the single most pleasurable thing in creation. nothing could make her feel good like he could.

she could feel her husband wavering. her eyes misty, she met his conflicted gaze with a tortured one.

"just once... please..?"

abaddon knew that wouldn''t be the case. he was as addicted to valerie as she was to him. if not even more so.

everyone thinks that gods are paragons of their respective divinities. that they can never contradict themselves or deviate from their powers.

but just as athena can sometimes make a stupid decision, and sekhmet can sometimes lose a battle, abaddon can convince himself to do something for the wrong reasons.

in his mind, he was a failure.

the most powerful creation to ever live and breathe, and he couldn''t give his wife, the woman he loved, the one thing that she needed more than anything?

what right did he have to refuse her now? if he couldn''t do what mattered, he had to at least do something.

and if this was what she needed from him then she would have it.

was that not what he had exchanged his vows for?