In the months that followed the relocation of Tatenen, Ishtar had not been idle.
Her first priority had been the task of explaining -- and introducing -- the Elemanti to their new home and patron, Nevanlinna. So once the introductions to the Archon had been made, the two women made the trek to each of their tribes. A process that had taken several weeks, and had gone quite well as the tribes, all eleven of them, had taken to Nevanlinna with an endearing amount of naive curiosity. The only downside to this curiosity being that, as the first of her species that any had ever seen, the questions they had for her bordered on endless. To Nevanlinna's credit however, she fielded each and every one with the grace, and aplomb one might expect from proper royalty.
After the questions finally trickled to a stop, the Elementals satisfied and Nevanlinna wholly exhausted, Ishtar turned her focus toward the restoration of Tatenen's satellite. With Illargi destroyed however, there was no restoration to be had regardless of how potent the energies of Vaikuntha were. A dilemma that found itself the focus until a solution from Nevanlinna herself was offered:
Simply find a new one.
A thing that was rather simple in hindsight, and yet one that had been overlooked in favor of, perhaps, trying to restore Illargi to life with the Dragonballs. With the much simpler, and much faster alternative in place however, it was simply a matter of selecting a suitable candidate. Something that was similarly easy given how well-traveled Ishtar was; and in no time at all a candidate was selected from a list of adequate moons; and one in particular stood out: Hellenia. Once, it had been home to a species Satyr-like creatures, though in the years that Ishtar had stood upon its surface the once-verdant world had suffered a series of volcanic upheavals, leaving it little more than a smoldering grave-world. A perfect choice for relocation, and once it had been approved -- something that did not take long at all -- it was only a matter of acquiring it.
Though given the progress Ishtar had been making since coming into her Mother's boon, it did not take as much out of her to repeat what had been done with Tatenen.
With that done, and finally free from pressing obligations now that the Elementals were safe, with their new home along with its satellite were in the process of mending; the next thing the Oni prioritized was ... attempting to mend herself.
She was not, however, prepared for it.
The things she had learned from Zurvan, and Shek'hinah, about her past and how she came to be were not simply an obstacle to carefully navigate. They spanned far further back than simply a few thousand years, all the way back to the moment she was conceived, and the truth these things offered would change everything she had thought she'd known about herself. So when she dropped the barriers, and dredged it all up from the depths in an attempt address them ... move past them. She couldn't, and the more she labored to, the more she attempted to put one foot in front of the other and simply forge on ahead; Ishtar could only keep circling back to a single question. One she began to fixate on, as the realization that her whole live had been artificially constructed based on a future others wanted for her; and as much as she recalled them saying she could simply renege ?
She realized that they had all known that was impossible. Which mean that the question, the one she had long-thought she had discerned the answer to, after accepting ... choosing, who she needed to be, was now something she was no longer sure of.
Merely a puppet ...
It was this uncertainty, along with the other things she had learned -- pertaining to magic, and how it was perhaps influenced by things beyond the veil -- that began to haunt her; and quickly overwhelm what barriers she managed to erect in an attempt to compartmentalize and press forward as she had done so many times before. She began spending her nights sitting up and not in her lover's embrace, as she attempted to reconcile these thoughts ... it until the strain of it all caused the golden-eyed Oni to simply pull away entirely, hoping that seclusion would afford her the space and time to mend, or at the least compartmentalize. Yet ultimately, it failed; and when Sarada stepped in, unable to simply sit by and watch as the Oni she loved began to spiral ... she failed too. Her reassuring words, and attempts to literally beat sense back into Ishtar doing little more than accelerate the spiral. So Ishtar simply shut down, and unable to stop herself herself to be consumed wholly by the uncertainty she now felt, the nights without sleep became weeks. With no signs of improvement, and no answers -- from either Sarada, or those close to her -- the downward spiral seemed endless. Which became a free fall, once she realized that thanks to the Aka Manah, what she was suffering was being shared ... putting a monumental strain on Sarada's own shoulders.
Nearly driven mad by this, and everything else, it reached the point where Ishtar simply could not take it anymore. The urge to flee, as she had after the destruction of Illargi consumed her, and she simply knew she could not remain. Not here, on Vocado, or on Earth ... or in this Universe at all, until she had found a way through this. So one night she made the decision to do just that. Though even as sure as she was that her presence had become little more than a burden, and leaving the Universe behind until she could mend the fragments of her now fractured psyche; Ishtar did offer Sarada something before she fled:
A simple promise. One the Oni sealed with a soft kiss ... before vanishing into thin air as if she'd never existed at all.
"I will return, Sarada ... I love you."