When Fel had returned from her personal quest of looking for her mother and sister, she had expected a little bit of blowback but not this much. Maybe she shouldn't have come back at all. It was certainly feeling that way. Aureus had been a spark of light in the dark. Her loving brother always had a smile for her. A kind word was never far from his lips. With him here, the awkwardness of interacting with the rest had been bearable., but now...

With a snort and a shake of the head, the silver streaked woman took a straight shot from Aerie to Abaven. She didn't give a good God damn if she crossed pack lands or not. A fight would have been welcome right about now. A little blood letting might have made her feel more alive, but alas, she had no such luck. The slender woman made it to the Abaven border unscathed. She called for Thalia and hoped that no one else would bother to answer her call. Fel wasn't in the mood.

She waited, reflecting as little as she could just to keep emotions at bay. She still hadn't mourned him. Maybe she never would. It wasn't like she had family that she could lean on in such a trying time. Pyrrhic was broken inside. She couldn't heap her troubles on him. Eligos was... Eligos. There was a wall between them. Sometimes the wall was a mountain. It seemed that only his emotions mattered to him. Only his needs were important. Here she was, brother dead, and she was sent away to fetch a cousin. Other paws could have made the journey. She would have preferred to stand vigil beside Aureus. She'd made a promise though. Aureus had given his word that she wouldn't leave and she had given her word that she would contribute. So here she was... contributing.

While just beginning to settle in to her life in Abaven - as temporary as it might be, Thalia had no idea yet - she didn't expect to hear from a family member so soon. Almost as soon as Fel called for her, Thalia felt her blood run cold. She hadn't been gone for long, and as far as she was concerned no news was good news. Nothing in Fel's voice, as it rang out clearly across Abaven's lands, was comforting to her. Something was wrong - very wrong - and she didn't hesitate to respond to her. A brisk walk quickly transformed into a full-blown sprint as she barrelled toward Fel, nearly slipping as she passed one particularly damp section of land by the rapids where the water curved and sprayed far into the land.

She quickly regained her upright position and eventually made it to Fel. By the time she reached her kin, her chest was heaving from the somewhat frantic run and her heart was pounding a loud echo inside her head. Something was wrong - she already knew that. She just didn't know what. "Fel," she started, making no effort to conceal how quickly she'd made her way here. Thalia was normally well-composed even in front of her family, but something about this moment and the circumstances surrounding it made it difficult to muster up the will to care. Her brows furrowed tightly as she studied her face, as if somehow she could find a sign of why she was here without having to outright ask.

Thalia arrived, huffing, puffing and out of breath. It broke the charcoal woman out of her thoughts. As her cousin spoke her name, Fel turned her empty ruby eyes to the earthen woman. Her mind was a whirlwind of angst and turmoil, but she was locked safely away from her emotions. In time she wouldn't have a choice but to deal with them, but for now they didn't have a hold on her.

There was no use in beating around the bush. "Aureus is dead." Fel wasn't entirely insensitive to the emotional needs of others, so she gave Thalia a moment for the words to sink in. She couldn't imagine anyone not liking the golden boy that had been her brother. No doubt this would be difficult for many to accept. She was finding it more than difficult to accept, herself. Fel felt old. This turn of events made her tired and lifeless. She just wanted to lay down, go to sleep, and not wake again for years.

"There will be a funeral. Eligos wants you to come home." The return would be temporary, but it was important to send off a family member. Speaking of which, Fel didn't have time to waste. Now that her cousin was informed, she needed to return. If Thalia had questions, she would answer them quickly. Otherwise, she would be on her way. The dark woman rose to her paws, ready to rush back to Aerie where she would hold her vigil.

Thalia barely had time to catch her breath before Fel told her the bad news, plain and simple. Aureus had died. She hadn't expected Fel to beat around the bush and truthfully she was glad she hadn't. When it came to speaking about facts, Thalia had little need for small-talk. For a long moment she was silent, digesting his words. She'd dealt with death before, in a way. She remembered when Malleus had died, and she remembered the white-hot flash of rage that had started to bubble up when her brother had so callously brushed off his death. His death had meant something to her - to them - even if she'd never cried over it or properly mourned him.

The death of an Abraxas, a true Abraxas, was devastating and deeply painful, at least in a spiritual way. On the surface, the feeling was much stranger and hard for her to really decipher. She didn't feel the stinging of tears at her eyes, nor did she anticipate a sob to catch in her throat. Instead she felt like her brain was suddenly empty, a vacuum consuming itself, threatening to turn her completely inside out. He was dead. Gone. Perhaps in his death he might achieve more than he could ever hope to on earth, but still the loss felt all-consuming. The fact that there was nothing they could do about it made her feel terribly small and weak, quite unlike the wolf she'd been when she'd first explained to Eligos why she needed to come here.

"Oh," was all she managed to say, her tongue suddenly as heavy as lead. "Alright." The fact that her voice sounded millions of miles away was enough proof that she was suffering too, albeit in her own way. Oh. Was she wrong to have come here, to Abaven, she wondered now? Regardless, she needed to go home and attend his funeral. Theory would understand when she finally returned. Numbly she nodded and headed after her, certain that Fel would decipher her silence as well as anyone else could.