When her mother and father had left for the north, to the same statue she had unwittingly offered her own unknown child to, she had waited only until they were out of sight to set out on her own journey. She had no reason to stay here being social with people she didn't particularly care about while the mother she loved traveled off to go suicide. No, Aris wanted to go home. The home she loved for most was gone, but the Armada waited in the north. Heartsick and angry, and guilty for being angry, she set out for the pack.

Now she trudged through the entrance to the warren underthe mountain and dropped her packs with a wretched sigh. She wanted to go curl up in her bed, or better yet hide in her lab, but Azure was alpha now, and her brother, and there were things she needed to report to him. So she lifted her head and called out, letting her tired voice echo through the cavern. "Azure?" She hoped she had timed it right to catch him before a patrol. If not she would need to go track him down, and she wasn't sure she had the emotional energy to not get this over with right away.

Azure was still thankfully deaf to the ongoings in Auster, focused solely upon the pirates to his south and the ever present risk they posed to him and to his pack. After losing the Armada's very first raid against them of all wolves, he was also consistently stewing in his own anger. The Armada was the largest pack in the world and one of the strongest, how had they lost? It was time for more training - much more training.

Aris' return had broke him from his distracted planning, bringing with her the promise of.. ugh, the pups coming home, probably. It had been nice wandering the mountain without the seven tiny shits around his paws and without his parents looking over his shoulder to remind him that 'they're just kids!'

"Ah, Aris. Welcome home." He greeted, disappointment clear in his voice. "How long do I have before Kite comes for a round three?" He peered around her small form, as if the spitfire of a pup might be behind her waiting in line even now.

"Speech"

Aris blinked at his first words. "Kite?" she said in disinterested distraction. Oh. One of the new litter. Right. "I don't know. I guess... I don't know." Last time their mother had "died", Sirius had gone mad and ended up staying down in the Hallows the majority of his time. He'd probably do the same now that she was dead for real, leaving them to cope on their own. Again. "Azure..." she clamped her teeth shut for a moment in uncertainty. Even though she'd thought about it the whole journey, she still wasn't sure how someone went about telling their brother 'oh yeah btw our mom committed suicide with our dad's help and now we're on our own'. "Mom's dead."

The words slipped out with a bluntness that she hadn't really expected, with a raw edge of grief and anger under the tiredness. She swallowed... hard. "She didn't think she could beat the illness. She sacrificed herself at some altar instead. I talked to her before she and dad went to do it... I thought maybe she'd want to be here more than she'd want to leave. I was wrong." Sorry I wasn't good enough at healing to save her, she wanted to say. Sorry I wasn't good enough to convince her. But she knew her brother well enough to think he wasn't going to ever be a shoulder to cry on, even if she'd been the type to cry on someone's shoulder. All she'd get would be don't be a whiner or angry discomfort or... something. So she kept her mouth shut, her head down, and shrugged. "And I'm pregnant, so... that's also news, I guess. For your situational awareness and all. Sorry." Bitter to know that her mother wouldn't be there for her when she gave birth, or to ask advice from, or to see the pups grow up. Even Briar's pups would have some memories of Zee. Hers would have nothing.