Kali found words of war to taste bitter on his tongue when spoken and to roar through his ears like blood. He had never been satisfied even in moments of victory, for victory always came with vigils and wounds. Wounds not only to their skin, but to their numbers and kin. They had lost so many of their own to battles that victory seemed to lose its meaning in those moments.

The tom's paws ached as he slipped into his father's den. He had ran into countless battles with fear draped over him and panic soaring through his veins like cold blood. He was desperate to convince his father to stray away from war for as long as possible, for the recent loss of Orchid had taken a devastating toll on Guardians. Anger was common in moments when AsterClan had enacted terrible tragedies, and Kali knew Adonus would be desperate to initiate war, but they needed to think. They needed to rest.

More importantly, their wounds needed more ointment. More time to heal. Kali didn't just mean the physical wounds across their skin either, for mental ones were more damaging in these days of loss and blood painted battlefields.

His father sat straight in the back of his den, shadows curled neatly around his form and his eyes lit like sunrise in the dark. His moss bedding beside him lay torn and cluttered, almost as if he had been kneading on it while he waited for Kali's arrival. There was this look they shared the moment they locked eyes, one of understanding and grief, but also one that knew of their different approaches to these situations. They had bickered through loud words and gritting teeth before after these losses, but this one was like sharp pebbles under their pads, and a different tone settled in the air between them. Kali sat before his father not only as a son but as the Prince and most notable advisor.

"Orchid was buried this morning." Adonus' words fell heavy on Kali's chest and it was solemnly silent for a moment before he spoke again. "I cannot have another burial like this. Ones where kin is left wondering why this keeps happening and why their blood was chosen to be spilled like this. This is despicable, and it's becoming inevitable."

Kali caught his breath then replied back in a low, cautious voice. "What is it you're planning to do?"

He knew the answer but now, it didn't sit so tangy and awfully on his tongue to think of spitting it out himself. Still, he let his father answer, with his ears tilted forward to listen carefully.

"We chase them out," Adonus proposed.

The answer was unexpected. Adonus had proposed in the past killing the hierarchy of AsterClan and taking the rest of the Clan as prisoners or possible Guardians, but never had he insisted he chased them out all together. It lightened Kali to not hear a direct insinuation of murder, but thinking of those kits and elderly within AsterClan being chased out to the barren hills beyond their territory filled with high-walkers and unknown predators. A surplus of wolves and bears. Any threats cursed by the ancestors could be lingering out there, and he had no hesitation in that moment to challenge his father's ideas - again.

"But-"

"No, Kali." Usually, Adonus let him speak. They would argue and stammer until there was no conclusion in the end or Jupiter told them to save it for the next day. Now though, he silenced him instantly, narrowed his eyes, and flicked his tail to draw all the attention and power to his shadow-lined form as he spoke. "I will hear my Prince - my son - out till the day I die, but in this moment I am using my overall power as King for the one and only time to tell you I am taking no other options." His voice went cold and the air went to ice around them. "I admire your empathy and dedication, but I believe this is the only way to rid of AsterClan's terror once and for all."

Kali knew his position in the end had zero authority over his father, but he was hot-headed and opinionated when it came to his empathy. The idea of leaving kits and more helpless, innocent souls out to the unknown to face whatever came their way was incredulous to him. "We can take kits in. We can take their elders in. We can gather any of those with good hearts and allow them within our ranks," Kali advised, straightening his posture almost as a challenging format.

"Ever since I was a kit these cats have grown into nothing but menaces. My father and mother died in an ambush where even the most feeble of apprentices joined in the clash. Our best option is to destroy their camp and get them out in the open, then we slowly chase them out. Their main defense will be gone. Destroyed," Adonus retorted.

Kali twitched an ear. There was an irritable buzz that made his paws grab at the stony surface beneath him, but he kept his words straightforward to avoid conflict. "How do you suppose we do that?"

"As a kit, I used to visit those caverns when Thistlecrown was leader - when there was peace. The waves have been eroding at the top of that cavern for moons, they slowly and slowly become more worn," Adonus explained. "If we can get our strongest paws out there unseen, we can aid this erosion and cause landfall within their cavern. A big enough landfall it should flood and destroy their camp and draw them out."

Kali's ears drew back to show his discernment with the idea. "It'll take more than a few paws to erode at that cavern. It could take moons."

"We'll have to observe it first and make sure it can," Adonus instructed. His idea was not sturdy to say the least, and also laced with some cruelty. Flooding that camp could drown and destroy young, innocent lives. "It taking moons it not an option, but if we can erode it enough within the next moon to cause at least a minor one to drive them out, we can execute an ambush with them on open land. There'd be nowhere for them to hide."

Kali could feel a knot in his chest, one so tight he almost brought his paw there to try and pry it away. "It's not a bad idea but I still believe we could cause more damage to their unharmful members."

"We'll take time to talk about it Kali, I won't jump to an execution or solidify a plan just now. I don't want to kill any cats who shouldn't be killed." Adonus then looked away, not only as if he was avoiding eye contact with Kali, but with his own sense of self. "But war is war in the end."

There was a silence that meddled between them for a moment, one between a father and son who still had so much to understand about one another. There was a wedge driven between them solely by Adonus' past, but still to the tom did Kali mean everything to him. He would do whatever it took to ensure Kali didn't have to witness what he had all those moons ago. That was the one thing Kali understood about his father that kept his mouth sealed shut at Adonus' last words on then plan.

"Now, I need you to speak to Zahra. Make sure she's ready for her travels, as well as you. You two have a long journey ahead - not as the distance, but as the meaning of it. May Orchid rest easy with Zahra now in her tracks," Adonus spoke solemnly. Just as they both stood to dismiss themselves, Adonus added,"and before you leave, you have a ceremony to witness, one you won't want to miss."

Kali blinked in confusion as Adonus finished with a knowing grin. A ceremony at this time? It was vexing with its timing, but perhaps every cat needed something light on their whiskers for today.

He slipped back out of his father's den and trotted across the stone-laced flooring of their camp. The cracks of the surface extended over time, weeds tracing the edges of them and dancing over their fleeting paws. Bees had even started to wield nests in the creases of old archways now, hiding from the sun and whisking over the flowered weeds. Their camp didn't only bring live to them and their ancestors but the nature around them as well. It was beautiful in a whimsical way but also terrifying in a distinctive way. Their temples were growing old and so were their legacies and their ways, eventually they would be nothing but cracks in the stones of history if AsterClan unleashed their full terror on them.

Maybe that was why war had to be war. Blood has to be spilled back for their wounds to be patched. Kali knew war was an endless cycle though, so maybe that was why he pinched his mouth at Adonus' plan. The only way to end a cycle was to obliterate the source - every inch of it.

He cleared a fallen column in a dainty display of sunflowers outside an archway that slanted into a hollow cavern. The sunflowers were all pointed and open towards the sun on the other side of the archway, but the cats of Astéraki it was a symbol of the importance of their Vótano. They were believed to be ancestrally linked to not only their ancestors but to the sun and moon that shone down their lights of the afterlife to the mortal land all the time.

"Zahra?" He whispered her name as he stepped easily into the cavern, careful not to scare the mourning she-cat.

Zahra was nearly hidden in the shadows alongside her herb supply, until she twisted to reveal her white muzzle tainted with a frown and green eyes. She stood to her paws instantly when she noticed Kali. "Is it time?"

He nodded, and stayed planted in the entrance where the sun lay his shadow out over the stretch of sunflowers behind him. "It is. Would you like to share some prey with me before we leave? It's best we don't leave on an empty stomach."

She dipped her head and padded over to his side, casting him a gentle smile. "Of course. We wouldn't want to miss this gia panta ceremony either!"

Gia panta ceremony? Was he the only cat who didn't know about the upcoming event? As they left the den side-by-side, it finally clicked in the tom cat's head. Dante and Echo? Finally!

They leaped over the fallen column to reveal cats beginning to gather in the middle of camp. There was an excited scamper that always came with a gia panta ceremony, as most displayed by the overjoyed yowls of Naak's kits pelting out of their den, Zita and Ziva not far behind them. Macquire stopped his kits with a brush of his tail in front of them, reminding them in his normal, low tone to show their respects in a quieter fashion. Jabir and his mentor Sable were batting each other of the ear on the other side of the clearing, Sable playfully ridiculing one of their last training sessions. As Kali and Zahra slipped over to the fresh-kill hollow to grab out a plump hare to share, Kali noticed Echo take her place and sit beneath the Pointed Pillar, the she-cat's pelt fluffed out in all the right places in an elegant display for her ceremony.

"Surprise!"

Dante's voice nearly made Kali jump out of his pelt. His friend was shoulder-to-shoulder with him, grimacing right in his ear over the news. "Didn't expect this, did you?"

Kali scoffed and nudged his friend. "No, I didn't! What I do expect now though is for you to be up there for her, not bouncing around and hooting like a kit."

Dante rolled his eyes as he trekked over to Echo, almost stumbling over his own paws with his odd limp barely having time to adjust to his pace. Kali huffed after his friend, Zahra stifling a chuckle beside him before her next words were spoken in a sorrow-hinted hush.

"Orchid had been planning this with them for days before she passed. They wanted to hold it now before her soul was finished its travels to the stars - the closer she was the better."

Kali felt a ache in his heart and a small smile crept on his face as he looked ahead to his friends. They were grinning at each other and not failing to look away from each other's gaze, absolutely and stunningly locked in the moment with each other. Adonus had taken to the Pointed Pillar above them, the sun grazing one side of his body and the other flitting in its own shadow. Jupiter stood close to his side with her tail curled neatly around her paws, them both smiling down at the ceremonial pair.

"We are gathered here today to celebrate the connection between Echo and Dante, and the strengthening of it in this very moment," Adonus declared strongly. "From here on forth after their marks, any disloyalty to one another will be considered entirely against the law of Astéraki. They are bound to each other not only by love but by our ancestors now, and their love is something stronger than even the stars could imagine."

Adonus took a moment to grin to Jupiter, as well as Macquire to Naak and Hai and Cael. Those who had cherished the ceremony with their own paws knew of its importance to one another.

"Now, Dante, display your paw to Echo and declare your loyalty to her."

Dante didn't hesitate to left a paw, almost stretching it out into Echo's face as if pleading for her not to step back on the moment. It was awkward for a mere second as Echo giggled at his nervousness, but then Dante shook his anxiety away and let his paw go a little more limp. He let himself sit peacefully and completely in the moment as he spoke.

"I, Dante, promise to be loyal in all fullness to Echo even after I die. She is my love and my star. She is all I will ever need."

Kali in that moment had tore all his attention away from his prey and directed in to his friends. Maybe it was the happiness of witnessing his friends ceremony that was overwhelming in that moment, or the dazing feeling that flit with his whiskers and murmured at his beating heart that he too couldn't wait for a ceremony of his own.

The ceremony continued as Echo marked Dante's paw then Dante marked her's. Adonus declared them lovers marked by the stars, and the minute their muzzles touched the cats of Astéraki chanted their names in a roar that Kali could've sworn could be heard echoing across the lands like thunder. There was a moment he swore even AsterClan could hear it almost like the light scamper of mice through their cavern walls or a little breeze through the camp entrance. It was a moment he wished could cause a difference to those of AsterClan and show them something beautiful they were doing nothing but missing out on.

He wished he could show them the beautiful things they wanted to destroy.

And at the end of the ceremony, the cheerfulness of it lingered, but everything returned to its normal routine with their normal cautions and patrols. Kits kept snug within camp, mentors trained their apprentices simply on the outskirts, and even Dante and Echo didn't even dare to think about a stroll with one another through the meadows and over to the ponds, because despite the strength they held together, the camp was still where they were the safest they could ever be.

Kali lifted himself with a half-full stomach and dismissed himself and Zahra from camp, granted safe travels from a few passing cats. He looked back before they left with a knowing look at his father, one that spoke leisures they could never reach through days on days of words to one another.

After this, maybe it was time to end things, before nature and all its beauty was stripped away from them by AsterClan's want for absolute power. Maybe, after this, it was time for the cycle to come to its end.