Return of the Serpent

Eligos flashed Aureus a hurt look, disappointment in his eyes as he glanced over at the blatant lie. He knew that Aureus' scent hadn't met Fel's at the border to invite her in, and it hurt more than a little that his brother would think to lie about something so easily disproved. "I wouldn't have expected to find them," he said instead, turning his head away from them both. "It wasn't the first time Mother had walked away from us with claims that the Fallen God was giving her visions. I only regret that she pulled Amaris away from us with her mad quests for answers." His words had a more bitter bite to them than he'd intended, or thought they would ever have had. Perhaps he had more hurt and bitterness there than he'd thought, buried beneath the ache of his father's death. Why would the Fallen God have given her visions? She wasn't an Abraxas, merely the mother of Malleus' children. Her visions had divided their family as much as Malleus' death had. He turned blood-red eyes that had more than a hint of ice in them towards his two siblings. "Did I say I would turn you away, Fel?" he said quietly. "I have no more wish for our family to remain divided than do you. But it isn't healthy for any of us - Abraxas, or Aerie - if you join us only to abandon us when next a whim takes you. If you want to join Aerie, it needs to be to stay." That was unfair of him, he knew. When Malleus had died he too had walked away from the Empire when the grief had been too much for him. But he didn't want to be fair. He wanted her to know how abandoned and hurt he had felt, and then for her to just walk right through their border and make herself at home without even a thought of the pain she'd caused by vanishing without a word... He couldn't help but doubt that she'd not just walk away again. He needed more than "hey guys I'm back where's the fridge I'm hungry" from her, family or not, to reassure him.