Return of the Serpent

He found no sense of reassurance in her words, and Eligos turned away from both siblings and sat heavily, his paws digging into the dirt as he stared over the pack lands. He was silent for a long moment after Aureus spoke, his jaw clenched. Finally when he spoke it was in that same quiet voice, distant and cool and emotionless. "Aureus," he said, and despite the tone it was gentle. "I am not going to hold you responsible for the future actions of a grown adult. Fel's decisions are her own to make and her own to take responsibility for. To demand you do so would be to assume that Fel does not have the ability to do so. So." He turned his head, just his head, to take in their erstwhile sister. "There's nothing wrong with having gone to look for our family. But you abandoned your responsibility to us and to our father's pack when you did so without a word and without a thought of when you would return. You walked right into Aerie's borders as though there were no question of your right to be here, as though you had not left. And I still do not know that you wouldn't simply do so again."

He turned to glare back at the pack lands spread out before him. How many hard decisions was he setting himself up for in the future? Fel, Saren, any other Abraxas who had wandered only to return hoping for a pardon that he couldn't not give, that he could only hope wouldn't vanish again just as they had when Amon left, or when Malleus died, or Pyrrhic turned the pack over to him. "I can't let anyone get away with putting aside their responsibilities simply because they are Abraxas. Every member of Aerie must contribute equally to the best of their ability, Abraxas or not. Sister, or not." He thought bitterly of Torin of Lirim, accusing an Abraxas of the rape of his dead sister, and of his uncle Archon's heresy and it's results. No, he'd learned that lesson well. Demigods or not, the Abraxas were as prone to faults as any mortal being, and letting them do whatever they want ended only in tragedy and conflict. "I will accept you into Aerie if that is what you want - I want our family to be together as much as either of you - but it has to be with the knowledge that you are here to stay. That you intend to be a part of Aerie, and not just here for a free ride until you leave again." His ears flicked back, but he didn't look at his siblings. "If you can promise me that, you are welcome in Aerie."