Aeotha didn't need to strain to hear both men clearly, but what Aeotha was having a hard time with was staying still there. Neither of them wanted to be exposed here and when she turned her head to look up, or behind she found the breath caught in her throat. How many Elves were alive up in those homes, and how many more were dead? How could Shantar, because one of them was Shantar, sit there through this. Sit and watch? And what of the Priestess? Aeotha felt that weight shifting to her shoulders again, heart in her throat. Was she dead? Did.. that had to be Gershul, with how tense Skandra was standing, it was his father. The same tightness found it's way into his limbs when he simply spoke of the man. Did Gershul kill her? Did she die somewhere between?
Aeotha's hand clamped over Skandra's mouth and she held on firmly. Listening and waiting for something to happen. To be discovered or to press on and come around the men. She wondered how it was that anyone could stand and listen to their own father speak the way Gershul was. Aeotha was angry, not jut because she sought to make the world a better place, or because she felt like she needed to protect the people of this world, but because she loved Skandra. Because she knew this had to hurt him, somewhere deep down. To hear his father and his grandfather speak as they were.
She didn't know how she'd feel, were it her father speaking there. About... about absolute madness. Speaking so coldly about his own son, about his own father. How could anyone just do that? Aeotha was sure there was a good reason, there had to be or a mad reason? Why was she trying to think of reasons for the man who appeared to be nothing more than a monster. Skandra had all but said that himself, that his father was nothing more than a monster. Shantar had said similar things about his own son. But they didn't say.. quite that. Aeotha didn't know how anyone could hate the world so much. Hate magic so much. It was.. There was a balance to it. For everything she could do there was an opposite. Fire and Ice, Wind and Earth.. Light and darkness. Even their holy magic was opposites of another. Lorien against Lloth.
She could not understand it, but she wanted to. She just wanted Shantar to turn, and look at them and show that he was as upset as they were.
Aeotha's free hand grasped Skandra's elbow when Gershul said he meant to end the world. Given their present situation, in a world of his own creation, or a path to somewhere that wasn't where they were born. It seemed plausible to her that such a thing was possible. For all the world, Aeotha wished her magic would work, and work against Immortals here. She knew, such a thing was impossible, but Aeotha didn't want to be still. She wanted to stop what he was saying but she was frozen there half against Skandra's back.