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Saracyn seemed to agree easily enough to her suggestion for their daughter's name and soon after he made his own suggestion for their son. "Estelle and Lucius," she repeated quietly with a nod, letting her paw shift and trace along a few of the carved markings along the stone. She was already looking at a few blank spots in the stone and wondering if she should add a few starbursts to represent their little fallen stars. She loved that she now had names for their pups, names she could think of longingly and fondly for the rest of her life, but it brought a whole new wave of heaviness and grief over her. She would never get to yell after Lucius as he ran off into some sort of trouble the way their own mother had often called after Saracyn. She would never get to have the pride of introducing Estelle to the pack and their allies as her heir and future Matriarch. They wouldn't get to raise their children and all that would be left of them now would be their names.

Lost in thought, she hadn't noticed the shift in Saracyn's expression until she heard and saw his paw flexing across the stone. She turned her gaze back to her brother as he growled his wish that he had never been made by the Ancients and her ears folded back against her head, her chest heavy and hurting for her mate. She couldn't even begin to understand why the Ancients had allowed for their children to be conceived if they were not going to carry them safely through into this life, but her logical, analytical mind understood why things ended up the way they did. She knew the possible out come of having children with her brother. That didn't make the loss hurt any less, but she understood. Her brother, however, felt every emotion so strongly and put so much of this on his own shoulders even though she would never blame him for it.

He stopped himself from saying something, but she could feel it. She knew him inside and out, body and soul, and she could see the thought cross his mind even though he kept himself from saying it. Without another word, Avacyn stood long enough to slip herself between Sara and the table, ducking under his foreleg to do so, and lifted her white-tipped paws lifted to the back of his head to pull him down into her neck and chest. She held and cradled him, using the table that pressed into the back of her shoulders for support as she nuzzled and kissed around his ears, her forelegs slipping around him and squeezing him tight. "You are the one good thing the Ancients have ever done for me," she insisted quietly in among her love and affections. "I am grateful every day that I've gotten to live my whole life with my soul mate. Whatever happens or has happened, none of that matters more than the fact that you are more precious to me than anything else in this life." One of her paws rested on his cheek, tipping his head up enough for her to kiss along his flame-like marking and down along the top of his muzzle. "Can't you see that everything I have ever done was to keep you with me? Don't you understand that I can't be whole without you? You haven't done anything to me. I've chosen every step and every moment to be with you. Please never wish those things. That hurts me more than anything else that could possibly happen."

"Avacyn & Saracyn"