Everything Ends (Ebony Meeting)

His siblings began to crowd around him, asking questions that sent salt pouring into the wound in his soul and he began to tremble, heartbeats away from breaking and fleeing. He couldn't do this, couldn't... Everyone's faces, concerned and looking to him for comfort and guidance and he... he couldn't do this, he couldn't... Katja moved to sit behind him, a silent watchful presence as calm and silent and emotionless a guardian as the rocks surrounding them, and Kassander found himself both grateful for her unmoved and unmoving presence, and envious of her. His own emotions felt suffocating, molten, as though every time he sought to push them aside they oozed around, through, the walls he built to drown him in pain.

Not everyone had showed up, but most had. His gaze swept the small group, and faltered. He didn't want to do this... Behind him Katja stirred. He took a deep breath - she was right, he needed to be the one to say this. "I... A wolf came to our borders looking for a healer. I thought going with him would be the right thing to do at the time, but I was wrong. It was an ambush. I was captured. Sigmarr... Sigmarr saved me. But - there were too many wolves and..." He closed his eyes, forced the words out. "Sigmarr died from his wounds." Shame and guilt burned like acid among the mourning. There wasn't a scratch on him, but Sigmarr had been wounded onto death, why? Because Kassander was a coward, too much of a coward and too caught by fear masquerading as morality to help his own brother.

He shuddered, continued. "I can't continue to lead you anymore. It was my bad decisions that caused this and I can't keep making decisions that will kill the people I love. I can't. And I refuse to ask any of my siblings to go through this either. So I'm giving the pack back to Katja; my mother gave it to her to begin with and that's clearly who it was meant for. You all can stay or go, it's up to you. Katja, the pack is yours."

Shaking now, he wrenched himself away from his siblings, whose well meaning and loving gestures had only ground deeper into his pain. He didn't deserve their love and now they knew it, didn't they? Retreating a short distance from the pack, within earshot but out of immediate touch, he huddled upon himself miserably, eyes pleading with Katja to please take the attention away from him.

OOC: You can post before Katja if you reaaaaaaally want to, I don't mind. I won't be posting her until tonight though so there's no deadline for a second round yet.