You turn back and try to lose it down another path...
Aennin awoke with relief to dead silence in his room. This not only meant that the voice which haunted him had ceased to speak, but that he had woken up before Kana got home. He glanced at his bedside clock and found that it was less than an hour before dawn. Since leaving school, he did not usually wake up this early but, then again, he did not usually turn in as early as he did. As it turned out, drowning out the girl who spoke directly to his mind made him a motivated sleeper. With a yawn, he shrugged out of the clothes he had been wearing since the day before and began to prepare for the day. This time, he would be ready early so he could have a few minutes alone with his sister before she could pester him with the urgency of Katim's daily summons.
He didn't feel much like cooking, so he simply pulled a canister of mixed nuts and a bowl from the cupboard and pantry respectively and poured him a lead helping. With his bowl full of what would have to pass for that morning's breakfast in hand, he walked over to the dining table, where he found the cup he had drunk from the morning before. He picked up the cup and took it back to rinse it in the sink. But as he pumped the water, he suddenly realized that wasn't what he wanted to drink. He shook the cup dry and set it on the counter before slipping into the living room. There, he began to rummage through everything trying to find something better. He finally found what he was looking for in a compartment hidden beneath Anera's favorite chair: a bottle of her favorite bogwine.
He returned to the kitchen to pour what remained inside the bottle into his cup. He then settled into the table with his nuts and drink. As he chewed on his first handful of nuts, he began to ponder the pungent odor coming from his cup. It nearly nauseated him, but he was curious enough to try it anyway. After he had finished chewing, he gulped the food down with the wine-- and nearly spit it out.
"Well, that's enough of that, then," he muttered distastefully as he returned to the kitchen to replace the revolting drivel with some water.
As he stood up, however, he suddenly felt different. His limbs felt lighter and his head felt like it was floating. The sensation was subtle, but by the time he had reached the sink, he had already begun to rethink his plan. He understood then what made this drink so desirable to his mother. Even the ache that had followed him out of bed seemed to subside almost magically. Why waste such a miraculous elixir?
So, he finished the cup, then scrounged through more of his mother's things for more. She never seemed to run out, so it seemed unlikely that the bottle that was close to going empty was the only one around. Aennin's search seemed fruitless at first, for which he supposed he must blame Kana, but then his efforts led to their parents' bedroom. Neither of the siblings had walked into the master bedroom of the apartment since they lost their parents, but in this intoxicated daze, there was nothing to stop Aennin now.
He pushed open the door and gasped at the first glimpse of the room. The walls were etched with splatters of black paint and Anera's long-forgotten vanity seemed to have been replaced with a makeshift altar, on which a rotting goat's head rested. Aennin took this horrible sight in stride as his mission took precedence over this new mystery. Fortune favored Aennin at last when he rummaged through the closet and found another bottle hidden away in the pocket of a coat he hadn't seen his mother wear in years.
With another gulp of the disgusting, amazing drink put away, Aennin could once again turn his attention to the altar. Beneath the decaying skull was a card etched with his father's handwriting in only one word: Katim.
"Desperation can lead one to do things that would make them unrecognizable to their own family. How tragic that his gambit failed."
Aennin froze. Although the alcohol still held his nerves together, it could not contain the dread he felt at hearing that voice in his head once more. He was visited with a sudden urge to scrub his brain clean, but this impulse evoked laughter from her.
"You can't purify yourself by scouring what is already pure," the girl said in a playful tone.
"Who are you?" Aennin mumbled awkwardly.
"I'm the last goddess who heard your father's prayers," the girl said cryptically. "Alas, I don't receive many prayers--especially not from elves--but that is just one of many products of desperation."
Aennin's eyes widened with realization. He cursed his current state of intoxication, ashamed that a deity could see him in the act of something he was forbidden to do.
"I don't care what you do with your body," the goddess said with a trace of boredom in her voice. "Well, I might. That body could come in useful later."
"What do you want from me?" Aennin asked, unable to help himself from speaking despite being fully aware that it was unnecessary.
"Finally, the little elf asks!" the goddess chirped excitedly. "What I want is for you to take what I couldn't give to your father before he died."
Aennin's eyes wandered to the altar as his mind struggled to process what she was implying. He was talking to someone that elves in particular didn't pray to and the altar he had built to her held the name of his father's enemy.
"My father actually prayed for you to kill Katim, didn't he? Lady Maula?"
"Right and right!" the goddess exclaimed. "Now he's dead but that doesn't mean I have to spare the vermin he wanted me to end. He went to a lot of trouble to earn my favor and he would want you to benefit from it."
"What did he do?"
"That doesn't matter and I highly doubt you want to know. Isn't knowing that he called out to me bad enough?"
Aennin shrugged and nodded. She had a point. He was tired of hearing worse and worse things about his father. Maula, the Goddess of Death, was the antithesis of Tanisian culture so even talking to her was a secret he planned to take to his grave. This thought incited a chuckle from the goddess.
"So, Katim is going to die? Just like that?"
"No, not just like that!" Maula snapped impatiently. "I'm sure you mortals love to view me as the type of person to just snap my fingers and make someone dead, but I'm not! For me to do this, there has to be a purpose!"
"I'm guessing my family's freedom isn't a good enough purpose," the boy mumbled in a disheartened tone that suddenly gave him pause. Did he seriously want Katim to die?
"Good guess!" Maula hissed. "No, Katim will die when I'm ready to kill him. Until then, I want you to stay close to him. The more you can learn from him, the more inclined I'll be to end his life."
Aennin tried to ask what the point of this command was, but she wouldn't respond. Finally, he shrugged and left the room with his bottle, which he hid in his room before returning to breakfast. He began to worry that this meant an end to his escape plan. If even a goddess wanted him near Katim, what right did he have to argue? He didn't know what would happen if he disobeyed Maula but, considering what she stood for, there was no sense in taking that risk. On the plus side, this could mean having the opportunity to watch Katim die.
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