There'd been a worry nagging at the back of Samara's mind, ever since she'd learned of Rhyme's missing daughter. It had taken her longer than she meant to finally act on that worry however and when she'd finally set out to seek out her sister she'd expected to be gone a while, she couldn't exactly transverse distances quickly after all.

And of course with her luck, the damn mountain had exploded. So that had only delayed her longer than she'd wanted. Forced to seek shelter from the cataclysm that had been thrown upon them the woman had suddenly regretted her decision not to tell anyone where she'd gone. Not that she thought it would have been a good idea regardless. The less ties she had to Ashen in the minds of the Abaven wolves the better, especially if her worry proved true. Suspicion would be thrown on her and all the work she'd done would be undone. Still, she'd have rather not been left to weather the eruption all by herself. More than once she'd been certain she would die, alone and her body would never be recovered. In those times her thoughts had turned to Rhyme... how would he handle that? He'd lost so much already, but then he'd been distant to her as of late... She couldn't read if he was actually falling for her machinations or was resistant to them. That alone drove her to survive, proud as she was of her skills she couldn't stand the idea the man was rejecting her. Never mind that deep inside she also couldn't stand the idea of hurting him any further.

So as the season had slowly turned and the calamity started to retract its claws the woman had begun her mission anew, tracing her family to their hiding place. As she arrived at the borders she didn't waste a moment to tip her head back and call for her sister. She sent a silent plea to whatever forces existed that her sister's paws were clean in this case. She wanted nothing more than to return to her work, and if gods forbid Belle was part of the girl's disappearance she knew she'd need to summon all her cunning and resources to return the child to where she belonged. The Kleins were nothing if not possessive of their belongings after all.

Speech

The familiar voice was not one she expected to hear, and with haste Deathbelle made her way to the border. Lilac eyes were quick to fall on her sister, Samara. A face she hadn’t seen in a long time. She looked a little worse for wear, almost like she had survived on her own for a time. Belle couldn’t help her concerned features as she rushed to Samara’s side. ”Sister, you look dreadful. Come into my home, let me shelter you.” The volcano’s tantrum surely wouldn’t last much longer, she could keep Rara around long enough to keep her safe from the last bits of it. ”It would be good to have your presence around again.” As well as all of the useful tricks she knew.

Samara wouldn't be left waiting long, and she felt a bit of irritation at seeing her sister's concern so plainly on her face. Okay, so she knew she probably looked like shit but she was here and alive and frankly, she'd assumed her family knew she could take care of herself well enough. She allowed the briefest flicker of her irritation to show before she sighed and seemed to bite back her pride, dipping her head and closing her eyes for a moment before lifting it again and meeting her sister's gaze."Yeah well what can you expect when a volcano blows up on you?"Of course, she had no idea how much more true that was for her sister but she had been pretty close when it had gone off.

Deathbelle offered to take her in and Samara wavered for a moment, how much easier would it be to simply walk back into the fold now? But as she thought of how unlikely it would be to see Rhyme again she couldn't help but feel she'd regret that, she would miss him. Not that she'd admit it. Samara chuckled. "While I'm tempted to take a break, get my bearings..." Samara shook her head. "My work isn't done yet, and my absence has long been noted at this point. I have to return as soon as I can, provided there is a pack to return to."

She grinned cheekily up at her sister. "Though I won't say no to any help you'd offer."

Speech

She knew that her sister was fiercely independent despite her difficulties, that didn’t stop her sister from trying to shield her. Belle tried not to show her amusement at her sister’s irritation and she relinquished and reminded her about the volcano. Belle took in a deep breath, all hints of humor gone from her. The moment Archon slipped behind the lip of the crater.. the awful moments afterwards flashed in her mind's eye and she withdrew inwardly. ”Indeed.” She gave simply, glad to see that part of their conversation finished.

Deathbelle nodded, she was supposed to have been hard at work infiltrating what she could within her chosen pack and she wouldn’t ask her to stop while her job was as yet incomplete. ”Well, I will offer a good night’s rest before you must be off, supplies to keep you up until you return to the east. Whatever else you might ask of me.” Deathbelle would do much for her sibling, though she did wish Samara would return to the Empire sooner rather than later.

Samara nodded at her sister's more than generous offer. She swung her head in a gesture towards the lands they'd been hiding out in. "I'm sure I can spare one night of proper rest." She teased lightly. For a moment she walked, head held high and breathed in the scents of the empire her sister had raised, a kingdom of their kind. "I'm not just here for a friendly visit though." He said, feeling her stomach twisting as she spoke, glancing over her shoulder towards her sister. "I was hoping to talk with you."

She walked for a moment longer, waiting until there were less ears around, less eyes to spot her here, some place she wasn't supposed to be. "When I first arrived here I told a half truth, I told the man that would take me to his pack that I was looking for a sibling. I told him I was looking for my sister Deathbelle." She stopped, lifting her head to try and meet Deathbelle's gaze, her expression an impassive mask. "I figured you'd be the safest name to mention out of all our siblings. Knowing our family and our flare for the dramatics I always figured it'd be one of our brothers at the heart of any drama among the lay people. Or Cordelia." She laughed dryly. "I'd always figured it'd be Hannibal to raise our kingdom; and while obviously you'd have your fun you always struck me as the more sensible of our ilk, and every good lie has a smidgen of truth to it. Whatever silly antics our siblings got up to it'd be easy to distance myself from them... claim I'd always been closer to you than them."

Samara lowered to her haunches, watching the few wolves that wandered past for a moment. "You raising an empire complicated matters but I still trust you to be sensible. But now you have to answer for whatever it is our family does. You are directly tied to their actions." She chuckled, she was making it sound worse than it actually was, afterall she tended to enjoy her family's antics, it was all too boring otherwise. "Not that I begrude you your choice, clearly Hannibal was the wrong choice, and what's life without a little fun?"

Samara shifted. Allowing some nervousness to shine through, she wasn't going to hide behind a mask here, not in her own kingdom, even if she wasn't an offical member. "But that does mean I'm more on edge whenever something comes up that could be traced back to you, and by extension me..." She screwed her eyes shut for a moment and for the second time prayed she was wrong. "Recently," she began even though it wasn't really all that recent anymore, "A child went missing from the pack I'm staying in, the daughter of the current alpha." Not that she knew that wasn't true anymore. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about a girl called Motif would you? She was uh... black with some white I think, blue and purple eyes." She struggled to describe the girl based on her very limited memory of her. She'd hardly so much as spoken to the girl before she'd dissapeared.

Speech

Samara accepted her generous offer before taking it in with a few steps of her dainty paws. Deathbelle smirked and turned to join her on her way into Ashen’s temporary home. ”And I thought you just missed my pretty face.” She joked softly, ivory tail swaying at her hips as the two sisters conversed. Rara made a confession and spoke about her journey and plans. Deathbelle chuckled along beside her, knowing very well that she was one of the last siblings to be thought of when it came to trouble. Here she was though, taking up Hamiclar’s place as the ultimate Klein authority.

Deathbelle came to a halt beside her sister as she coiled her haunches and took her place. Mismatched ears perked as she listened to her sister’s explenation. She chuckled as Rara made note that her sister was still trusted, but the family’s actions would weigh upon her unlike Samara had expected. ”This is true, we can’t be on our best behavior all the time.” She offered her sister a wink, but her features fell sadly when Hannibal was mentioned. How much different would the Empire be today if he had taken up the throne as intended?

There was some trouble in paradise though, and Belle didn’t miss the nervousness in her sister she was allowed to see. The description of the girl was vaguely familiar, but there were many black and white children. Anyway the name was completely wrong as well. ”Sirius had a child somewhat similar to your description, however her name was Adelaide. I don’t believe he has possession of her anymore though.” There wouldn’t be a chance to check if they had been given the wrong name. The girl had been near useless anyway. She was young, naive, and didn’t even have the spirit to stand up to her young daughter.

Samara considered her sister's words for a moment, she nodded slowly. She knew her description was minimal at best, she'd hardly spent any time with the girl after all and for a moment she had some doubts about there being many other wolves that matched her description with those eyes but she remembered how many destructions she'd seen in Abaven alone and surely Rhyme could not be the only one in his family to have those looks, the name had been wrong and Deathbelle said her lacky didn't have her anymore anyway so it wasn't as if Samara could even do anything anyways. Her job was as good as done.

Samara shifted for a moment. "If I can make one more humble request, it would make my work much easier if the pack of Abaven was mostly left alone from our family's type of mischief." She knew it was asking a lot in reality. "I've managed to get in close with one of their higher-ranking members and am hoping to use that position to earn the friendship of his children who are slated to take over the pack. I don't ask for simply selfish reasons, if I can earn their trust enough it would benefit the empire as well." She paused for a moment and then added. "I'd also appreciate if you could tell your dog to leave them alone as well." Much as she trusted her sister her faith did not extend to the man that had been at her heels since they were young. She kept much of her personal feelings about Sirius to herself but she hadn't ever liked him, though she dared not mention it to Belle, her sister clearly had some amount of attachment to him.

"But enough about me, much as I might pretend otherwise I did miss your pretty face. I've been away for too long, how has the queen been?"

Speech

The girl was easy enough to forget, especially since she didn't take residence in Ashen any longer. Though Samara did ask her for another favor. She explained what she was doing in Abaven present and Deathbelle’s eyes lit up with interest. Another lag to the Empire perhaps? Of course they would be playing the long game. If Samara sidled up to him just right who was to say one of her offspring might not be chosen to ascend the throne?

”For you, dear sister, I will.” She said with a teasing smile. She was more than curious where her plans might go. Maybe they were playing a long game in this instance. She did raise a brow at her choice of terms when it came to Sirius, but it wasn’t a secret really that he wasn't Samara’s favorite wolf.

”You’ve been gone a long time.” Half a year at least. ”I gave birth not long after I saw you last, maybe I shouldn’t have been travelling all over Boreas at that point.” She chuckled softly. ”Five beautiful children. Four girls and a boy, Venom, Toxicity, Plague, Calamity, and Pestilence.” She offered up their names as well, just in case aunt Samara ran into them. ”I married their father, and we had a beautiful family. When the volcano erupted I lost him.” She ended softly, the sorrow for the loss of him still apparent.