After many weeks of walking, Gunter arrived at the Sanctuary proper.

The guards at the palace gates asked the usual questions and gave their standard proclamations and wrote his name and description in their logs. And even though a few of the guards had encountered Gunter before, they did not recognize him.
He certainly did not seem the same Gunter who had many times swept past without pause, quelling protests with a piercing and compelling gaze.

Not this ragged and weary traveler.

In short order, he made his way to the great hall. Noone was there. It seemed a lonely place indeed. It was as he expected he deserved, after what he had done.

He caught the attention of a page and requested his pack be taken to a room and then have a mug of spiced zzar brought to him. He then sat down in an overstuffed chair and gazed into the fire which always seemed to be perpetually blazing in the hearth.

He lost himself in thought, wishing he hadn't learned the things he had recently learned.

In due time, the page returned with his zzar and Gunter thoughtlessly tipped the page with an enchanted dagger from his belt. Some bauble he had picked up in his travels.

The page happily ran off to attend other duties. Tucking his new blade in his belt.

The Fang of E'ela Kaeth.....which will one day change the young boys world and that of many he knows and will know.

But that is someone else's story....

Gunter had been in the Sanctuary for a week, and ,like every night since his arrival, he sat before the fire. Thinking. Waiting.

He had yet to see a soul. Certainly. This place was not as....lively...as it once was.

Suddenly, Gunter whipped his head towards a shadowy corner.

Go away! Leave me be!

A vaguely human form detached Itself from the shadows and glided towards Gunter.

All are welcome here, Priest. Even I, so far....

Gunter's eyes smoldered with anger.

We both know you would not be here, if not for my coming. So what do You want?...And I am no longer Your priest....

The Shadow glided closer

It does not have to be so. You can serve Me still....
Besides...what could you possibly accomplish here. Tell them what I am doing? They can do nothing. There are no longer enough of them.

You helped Me see to that....

Gunter stood and faced down his former Master. His anger causing his body to subtly vibrate

If I had figured out sooner what they truly believed in! If I had studied them as I normally do!
But you ordered me to assassinate all those many beings quickly!

And I obeyed....

The Shadow slowly drifted around Gunter, oblivious to his anger.

What they believed in...what I once believed in...it failed. It does more harm than help. Eventually, you will see, My Priest. There is only one True Balance. I mean to make it so...

Gunter clenched his fists in impotent anger. For all that he had learned. All the power he had accumulated in a very long life. And it was not enough to stop this One.

NO!

A nod of a shadowy head

Then let me die!

Zchadazar shook His head no.

Your Death serves Me still. You may not have it back....

All fury then left Gunter, and he collapsed back onto the chair he had been sitting upon. He stared into the fire. He was weary still. So weary. It does no good to argue. So he focused Him out...

But the Shadow hovered nearby. A mockery of Death that had been denied...

She watched him as she had for the past week. Mother had been very explicit in her instructions....leave Gunter alone, give him his space. And she had complied.

But, Mother had not made any mention of Zchadazar and Wisdom felt he had overstepped his bounds.

When he stepped back into the shadows, she was waiting for him. Her voice was soft and low.

"My Lady Mother Jaeden has left me in charge of the Sanctuary with my sister Prophesy. This is, if I may remind you, a Sanctuary. Beings are not to be harmed nor harrassed here. You are harrassing Gunter. You may now leave this place until such time as you learn to behave, not like an unruly child who has broken his favorite toy, but as a rational being, keeping your mouth and your thoughts to yourself. Failure to do so will bring all sorts of ... unpleasantness. And don't you presume to lecture me on who and what you think you are. Here....YOU ARE NOTHING but a pesky visitor who has outlived his welcome."

The starfilled eyes behind the protective glasses she wore flickered not unlike her mother's.

"And Zchadazar.....take your petty ideas of Balance elsewhere. Mother has already corrected that which you sought to destroy........"

And with that, she faded into the shadows until she was gone, but Zchadazar was left with the glowing spot of starlight left in her passing.

The Shadow did not react when Wisdon appeared. He did not acknowledge or even seem to be listening as she made her demands. Still He did not stir as Wisdom disapeared and left starlight lingering.

He did not move until a few hours after later.

Yet He had seen and heard it all, and it was almost, word for word, what He had predicted He would hear.

She told Him things He already knew. And though she knew it not, she told Him that there was much they did not know.

Yet.

Of course He was nothing in this place. In her own words was the key.

This place....

As to what He had done being undone... He was currently in those places as well as being here.

Oh. There were a few things undone or salvaged. Some of them not even by Her. To be expected, with the vastness of this Existence. But the only things truly undone were in this place...

But stir He finally did do when He slowly turned towards the faint spot of starlight. And the twin cobalt stars that shone from the Shadows hood dimmed...and went out.

What was now there was something even Darkness did not exist within.

And whispering voice spoke...

Omniscience and Omnipotence does not truly exist in any one being, despite any claims that are made. Usually by those claiming to be so.
Not in Myself. Not in you. Not in My Sister, your Mother.

But there IS close enough...We are close enough.

Perhaps you will figure out what My view of Balance is after Gunter tell you what he has seen.

But Whos Balance is True will not be determined in....this Place.

It will be determined outside...

With that, He faded away. To someplace....outside.

And He was gone....for a little while...