“Like father like son.” He thought in a voice that wasn’t entirely his own but harsh and cutting all the same. Tyranis stood at the top of the maw, looking over what had once been Ruina, his eyes closing with frustration. Had this been what it felt like for Cloud? For Aranea? For his mother? Had they felt so disappointed and so lost? He couldn’t have given a damn about the others that had been in Dauntless, but the loss of Ruina, the loss of his family, hurt him deeply. He had just found the answers to the questions that had tormented him his whole life, he had truly felt that his calling had been answered and now it was gone. He howled furiously, calling his adopted son. He had come too far and given too much to let it all waste away. He would be damned if Astraios needed to hear that Tyranis would never be able to fulfil the promise he had made to him. He would find the others later, for now all he could think of was assuring his son that everything would be alright. "Talk"  "Thought"   "You"

"Speech"

His father called to him over the ruins of ruina. His father. The thought was still strange to the boy who had known no sire, only his dam. And even her, he had no longer. He had known the pack had fallen, its creator had vanished to the abyss, and non knew his fate. He had expected, with the fall of this pack, that another chapter in his life would end. He had assumed that he would be alone once more.

Confronted with the realization that Tyranis had not abandoned him, the boy glided over the rocky terrain as through in a dream. Ty had waited for him, called to him even now, and he was not alone.
To Rai, Ty walked on water.

He could hear the anger and the strength in his father’s call, through Astraios did not fear him. He appeared at his father’s side without delay, standing there beside the taller man, as his eyes glinted over the pack lands. The lands that had been pack.

Rai did not speak often, saving his words as though they were a finite wonder, but if there was one man who would always be worth spending them on, it was Ty. “What’s next?” he asked his father, absolute in his loyalty.

Art by Sigath

“We make our own claim, our own pack, with you as my heir and no one to question it.” He said seriously. Somehow he had known it would always come to this; that he would splinter off from Ruina one day and make his own claim on the land. He had hoped his new pack would be sworn to Ruina, alleged to his father’s will in every way. He looked Eastward at the green valley of Abaven and felt the tremor of a snarl tug at his lip. Since joining he had been overjoyed at the prospect of raining doom upon his birth pack, making those that scorned him pay, and bringing the Destruction bloodline- particularly Bass’s get- to its knees. He looked to his son then, a small, pride filled smile on his lips. “What shall we call it?” He asked, his golden eyes that marked him as a vessel for a nature spirit burning with fervor and righteous strength. "Talk"  "Thought"   "You"

Their own pack? The young boy looked up into Ty’s steel eyes, and knew that his father could do it. He could create a pack, something new and better than the one they were leaving behind. He hadn’t been in Ruina for long, but the only thing that had been in it for him was Ty himself. He lost nothing with Ruina’s demise.,

Was this what his mother had lead him to in the end? She had let him to Tyranis, and it seemed Ruina had been nothing but a stepping stone to greater things. He knew that Ty wouldn’t forget his promise to him, to teach him to fight. To teach him revenge.

His smile was slow in the making. Haunted by the horrors he had witnessed, the loss of his heart and soul - and perhaps, even a part of his sanity. The spark of hope that Tyranis had kindled in his chest seemed to bloom a little brighter. Ty wanted a name? Perhaps Astraios had one for him. A word he had heard at one point in his childhood. A word his mother had spat from her lips in the shadows of the evening when she thought him asleep. Back when he was soft and nieve, his view of the worlds limited by the love of his mother.
“Erövrare” he would whisper softly.

“Erövrare” The boy had said, and the lightning king felt his spirit soar. “Erövrare” He repeated, testing the foreign syllables on his tongue. Even without his propensity for other languages the word resonated in him. “Do you know what it means?” He asked quietly, his eyes looking out at the landscape before them as he waited for an answer. “We will not stay here.”He said after a brief silence stretched between them.“We will take our pack to the south, and should we ever return here it will be only briefly. Demons take this land.” He said with the cadence of  a snarl. "Talk"  "Thought"   "You"

Ty asked the meaning of the word, and Astraios mulled it over for a moment or two. His mother had not known him awake when she had first spoken the word, and when he had whispered a soft question to her later, she had been reluctant to explain it to him. “It’s a piece of my past. It was the name given to the one that had forced us from our home. To my mother, it meant defeat. To him, it had meant victory, conqueror. Perhaps now it’s come full circle, and it would be our future, as us the victors.” He spoke so little about his past, the memory burning cinders against his skin. Searing holes across the barriers he built to protect himself, poking holes in his riddled heart.

He gave Ty this word with double meaning, reminding his father of the promise he had made him. Astraios wanted, needed, to become the victor. To hold sway over the one who had killed his mother, and to take his time ripping the man apart. To conquer the conquerors.

Rai did not think himself bloodthirsty or cruel, in fact, he would be uncertain what made up the core of him past the memory of his mother and the pain disguised as a need for revenge. With a little nurture perhaps he could become good. With a little guidance, and a hard road ahead, he could become something great.

“So it shall be.” He said resolutely his head raised as he took in his surroundings. “We will take what is ours by right, even if it means we take it by force.” This time his pack would be different, there would be no Fairweather members slacking off the benefits of a pack, not while he had reached adulthood and could punish those he deemed unworthy. “Remember son, the weak must always fear the strong.” He said coldly then slowly made his way back down the mountain side. He didn’t bother to see if Astraios would follow him, he knew the boy would be at his side no matter what, standing beside him as a proper heir should. "Talk"  "Thought"   "You"