Time was supposed to heal all wounds, and maybe that was true but he still missed his dad just as much now as he had a season ago, and the season before. He'd taken to making the trek to his father's grave almost daily, just to sit and talk to him. He couldn't bring himself to just spill out everything to Sirius; she had her own problems and her own worries and he didn't want to add to them. He wondered if his father could hear him on the other side, or if he was too busy being a king there. No, Dad had always made time for them when he was king of Regium. So he sat, and he talked, and he always left feeling a bit better. A bit less alone. He knew Dad wouldn't have left them if he could have helped it. Mom and Bellona needed him over there more than Siri and Inty and Minnie had needed him, and they had all had each other so he hadn't really left them alone. He just... really wished his dad hadn't had to go. Dad wouldn't have let anything bad happen to them. "I've been working on my endurance," he told Drashiel. "I feel like I'm really improving. I can go a lot longer without stopping than I could before and I feel like I might be getting stronger too. I... don't know where Minnie is yet." His face fell at that admittance. "And Integra is still gone. I don't know if anyone else knows they've been away or not. I don't know where Minnie went, or why. That's why I've been staying in Imperium, because this is the last place they were so maybe they'll come back? But they haven't. I don't know if they're ever coming back." He shifted his paws, and his face crumpled into a lost, childish expression. His claws scraped across the dirt in aimless patterns. "I failed you, Dad. I don't know what to do anymore. I wish you were here to tell me. I miss you. Please bring them home." ""

Lysis hadn't expected to stumble upon one of her nephews today. She didn't know that Drashiel had been buried here, in these lands - no one had bothered to tell her. If it'd been up to her, she would've found a way to drag his body north and let him be immortalized in the snow and ice of their childhood. She had no doubt he would have preferred it that way. But she knew little of his death, and certainly nothing of his burial. She did, however, hear Atreides talking aloud as she roamed about the knolls. Curious, her ears would perk, quite attentive as they swiveled to get a better sense of what he was saying. Her pace would slow, a selfish desire to hear what he was saying - and who he was speaking to - suddenly overwhelming her. His was the only scent she could distinguish here, and her nose would wrinkle as she crept closer curiously. It was clear who he was speaking to, before he even said the word dad. Drashiel. Her heart clenched painfully in her chest. He was not the only one who grieved for him still. She did not speak to him like Atreides did. She saw no reason to. Did it ease the pain he felt, she wondered? After a moment of thinking, she would slip even closer to him. Her usual smile was gone from her lips, replaced with a far more serious, inquisitive look. "Does he ever answer you?" came her soft question, not wanting to startle him and definitely not wanting to make him feel awkward that she'd overhead him, though she figured that part was unavoidable.. and yet she felt inclined to ask anyway.

The voice flicked his ears back, and he went poker-faced pretty quick, but he didn't otherwise move. It wasn't like he couldn't pretend he didn't hear her, though, and he couldn't really resume his conversation with her standing there. Though she didn't sound judgmental as he'd have assumed, this woman who said she was his aunt. "Yes," he finally answered her, his voice surprisingly hushed, and then after a second's thought elaborated. "I don't hear his voice, or see him, nothing like that. But if you pay attention, he's there." He lifted his head to thoughtfully watch a flock of geese honking high overhead, their v shaped formation straggling as they passed, as he considered whether he wanted to actually talk to her. He already had, hadn't he? So why not. "Mom and Bellona needed him more than we did, but Dad loved us and I don't believe even something like death could stop him from watching over us and taking care of us." He turned olivine eyes to her, his aunt. "You weren't there after Mom died. Dad called a meeting of all the pack to send them away, but you weren't there, you or Kyarst. You didn't come find Dad when he was hurt and dying. But you came to find my sisters and I. Why?" His face was clear of the anger and hurt he'd born last he'd spoken with her, and though his expression was still closed it wasn't accusative. It felt as though his brief outpouring of emotion, of pleading for his father's help, and the strangely surreal nature of Lysis' sudden appearance, had numbed him. It felt dreamlike. Like nothing here was really happening, so it didn't matter what he did anyway. ""

Perhaps he would refuse to speak to her. It was a likely possibility - and one she was prepared for - though she hoped it would not turn out that way. His expression seemed guarded, suddenly, all hints of sadness and confusion that his voice had echoed a moment before suddenly disappearing. Still, after a moment, he answered her - yes, Drashiel answered him. Not in any sort of tangible way but Atreides seemed to feel as though Drashiel was still there, somehow, surely guiding him. If only she felt any sort of remnant of her brother's legacy. All she felt was a painful emptiness in her heart where he had once resided. Despite his tone not being accusatory, it felt like a sudden blow to her chest. Without meaning to, she exhaled sharply and realized she'd been holding her breath. Did he think that she wouldn't have come to Drashiel if he was dying? Proud as she was, she would've done anything to keep her brother alive - even if it meant sacrificing her own life. "I never heard their calls," she explained carefully. Perhaps he would believe her - she knew it was up to him if he decided to believe her or not. No matter of convincing would change his mind, if he was anything like Drashiel.  "The Armadas are wolves of the north," Lysis would explain, somewhat wistfully, as she cast her eyes to the sky. Surely he would not believe that his father had left her without much explanation, and not the other way around. She didn't blame him for carving his own path, but she wished he had reached out to her first.  "I never knew that Drashiel and Roman had gone south. They left without telling me." They had grown apart, something that was not necessarily only Drashiel's fault - though she felt as though she had tried just a tad harder than him.  "I ought to have gone looking for him sooner, but I did not expect them to leave the home of our youth. Only when I was certain that all family had fled the north did I go too. I suppose I was hanging on to some hope that my brother and sister might return to our home." Her voice wavered slightly, a rare moment of weakness, though she composed herself quickly. "I am sorry I wasn't here. I would have been, if I had only known."