Aegis' and Warlord's

It came as no surprise when Sirius confirmed that Iolaire was the reason he had trekked all the way down here. Artorias hadn't known Iolaire well until she began to make more regular appearances around the Hallows, seemingly out of the blue. Where she'd been staying for the past almost two years he couldn't stay, but somehow she'd persevered—barely, but she had. The more Seer spoke, the more Artorias felt his heart sink. Anyone with eyes could tell Io was in a bad state, but the keen Warlord was far more accurate than the common observer. "She looks that way because she has," he agreed with Seer's prognosis. "I don't know what she's been doing with her time, but she's been staying alive somehow. Since the past summer, she's popped up infrequently, never staying for more than a couple of days before running off again, usually in the dead of night. We've tried getting her to stay with us, but she's been a specter—impossible to get a hold of, impossible to keep, and vanishing at a whim."

Sirius voiced his concerns: that Iolaire was a suicide risk. A rueful smirk twisted at the edges of Artorias' lips, and the young man turned somber eyes towards his godfather. "I thought so too... but she isn't. She already thinks she's dead, and in her mind, the dead can't die. She's stuck in a limbo in her own broken psyche. Gwyn's looked over her, but we don't know how or if we can put those pieces back together—not completely, at least..." Artorias sighed, rubbing a paw over his face. "She had her good moments. She's been teaching my siblings and I the Carpathian language, like Resin taught her. She seems the most like herself when she's teaching, like she forgets all the bad. I think it might give her something to live for. But it's like putting ointment on a tumor. It's only lessening the symptoms, not curing the disease."

Artorias turned his gaze back to Sirius after a moment of pensive thought, offering the Warlord a reassuring smile. "I've been doing my best to keep her cared for as long as she's here. I'm trying to convince her to stay with us, to teach some of the younger members of the Hallows and give her direction and purpose, but she's a wild spirit, and I'm afraid trying to force her to do anything will fracture her even more." It was a delicate line they were all walking with Iolaire. When she was having a good day, things were great! But the good days were infrequent, and often left the young alpha worrying if they were numbered as well.

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian" | "Corbin" | "Argent"