Katja watched as the wolves of Ebony began to trickle in. A few spoke to her - Sigyn she answered in a simple word of affirmation while Maximous was given a curt nod of greeting. It was the next to arrive that caused her to stiffen, and all other greetings were lost in the intensity of the moment. Why now, would the Xanilovs choose to return? First Svetlana, then Valeriya, then Kassander, three of the five prodigal children moved to take places among the pack. Why now? She had been so certain... Had it all been for nothing? No... No, she was fortunate. Freya had seen fit to send a sign to her, a warning lest she make a serious mistake. A warning lest the message brought by Auora be in vain.
Ebony was not hers. It never had been. Once more she had skirted too closely to the line in the fulfillment of her oaths. Once more she had nearly been burned.
So, very well. This was not the time, not the place for her ambitions to be realized. She would simply have to hold to the patience given her by the gods, hold and wait in calm and readiness. Silver eyes slid from one pup to another - no, not pups. They were children no longer, but adults in their own right. Able to care for themselves, and more... for a pack. It was time to shed herself of the burden of an oath she had no more need to shoulder. Not all the pack was there, but enough that it would make little difference.
Her carefully chosen words were tossed away, to leave her floundering for new words in a language but recently familiar to her. "Ebony is not mine," she began bluntly. "It do belong to another by all rights, by choices of gods and by oath. Ebony do belong to the children of Raisa Xanilov. By the laws of Xanilov ancestors, Ebony is legacy of the eldest female child." Her eyes met Val's briefly, coolly. Not dismissively, simply... evaluatingly, then shifted to Svetlana's. As the sole two female children of Raisa's line, it would be up to one of them to step forward and claim her position. "Should she so wish to, the eldest may choose not to rule and the next eldest rule in her stead. By my own family laws the wolf most qualified would be alpha, and so I will leave it to the Xanilovs to decide their own fate. I am alpha of Ebony no more."
Her words spoken she flowed down from her perch. As she said, she was no longer alpha of Ebony, but her ambition was not spent. The gods had given her a sacred trust, to found here a pack that would embody the Finnvi family and the gods they cherished as kin, but she would not begin by simply rebuilding the scraps left her by another legacy, no. She would build anew, a fresh framework for a pack more suited her. But she didn't simply leave yet - a desire to see her oaths through to the very end stayed her motion. She would see who the Xanilovs chose from among themselves, but no longer. Ebony must stand on its own paws without her from the start of this era, or they would flounder and fail as soon as she left.
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