Getting that letter had been the worst thing that had ever happened to Sylas in the last five years. No. Ever. For a man of little emotional expression, he had felt completely and utterly devastated by its contents. It had taken him 50 years to find someone who he connected with on this level, or even anything close to it. Sure, there had been a crush when he'd been a peacekeeper and he'd been very saddened when the man had been murdered died. But with Kezia...it was incomparable to something like a crush.

Please don't come after me.

It had been his first instinct, to rush after her, but she had asked him not to and he respected her enough to...hesitate for maybe five minutes at the most before he had rushed to the border. Via portal of course, it was faster and more efficient. But even then it had not been quick enough. He had no idea how long it had been since the note had been left. He had last seen her hours before. He waited by the border for the entire day, hyper alert and looking for any sign of her curls or the genet wrapped around her neck.

But there was nothing.

He was too late.

He debated wandering into Dresmond but his logical side kept him from moving forward into that unknown. So as the day turned to night and night turned to the early pink of sunrise, he finally went home. Devastated in a way that was entirely unfamiliar to the Arynnite Prince.

I understand if you are upset, if you hate me. I would hate me too for this.

Hate her? Did he hate her? How could he? He loved her and he respected her. She had long ago earned that from him. She might be small and unassuming but she had a fire in her that was unmatched. She loved her people deeply, of course she would go and do what she needed to do to help them. If only she had waited then he could have offered her something to help, some enchantments that might be useful. Logically, he knew that it would only delay her, and for how long? He would want the time to create something perfect for her. There were times when he felt that it had probably been her best option, to leave without telling him, but it didn't make it hurt any less.

You will always be my all.

That was the problem. Kezia had become his all too. Or nearly his all. She and Raiden were the only ones he cared to spend any time with. It seemed all of his time was spent between his work and Kezia. Without them here...half of him felt like it was missing. Though he had never been particularly social he really turned in on himself now, a true recluse. He spent all of his time in his work and his studies, determined to discover something about the origins of the magic in Terra Nova. He worked on enchantments and did everything he could think of to keep his mind busy because as soon as it slowed down the ache of her absence would start to creep back into his psyche. He had never wanted the feeling of a hug more in his whole life.

And then the worst had happened. It was a possibility he had tried to avoid thinking about, but it tended to creep up into his dreams as he slept, unavoidable. Kezia's brother, Zache, had returned. Kezia was not with him.

She didn't make it, your highness.

With the news, Sylas had completely frozen. He couldn't move. He simply stared ahead, unseeing. It went on for so long that Zache had finally had little choice but to leave him. He sat that way for hours. It wasn't until his brother, Akagi Llewellyn, entered the room to speak to him that the familiar voice finally brought Sylas back to the present. The normally rather emotionless prince yelled at his brother in the most angry tone he'd ever spoken in. "GET OUT!!! GET THE HELL OUT!" Sylas screamed furiously as he stood and nearly chased his brother out of the room and slamming the door before he started to destroy his room. Pictures were thrown off the walls, bedding was ripped apart, side tables knocked over and their contents scattered around the room, and pages were ripped out his precious books. By the time Sylas ran out of energy to continue it looked as if a wild animal had been in there.

He sat on his knees in the middle of mess, his fingers buried in his hair tugging painfully on the black strands as he rocked back and forth, his cheeks stained with tears. He should have done more. He should have chased after her. Now she was gone and she wasn't coming back. Not ever.

From that point on Sylas had been a mess. He rarely talked, never joined his family for meals, and had started to lose weight with how little he was eating. No one dared to try to talk to him because every time someone tried they were met with hostility to the point of danger. That danger was proven to be true when a couple of days ago someone had come to tell him that they thought they saw Kezia in the dresmondi camp.

It was an impossibility and Sylas took the greatest offense to such a cruel joke. With the help of his enchantments, the messenger had been carried away unconscious with deep gashes on their arms and legs and their eyes milky white with blindness. Given the nature of using souls for enchantments, Sylas had rarely held much value in human life but it had never taken quite this turn for him before.

Yet the information had haunted him. What if it were possible? What if Zache had been wrong? He had never got any details out of him. Perhaps she had just been lost and death was assumed? He didn't dare hope for the possibility yet he found himself wandering towards the Dresmondi camps to just...observe. Just checking in, like he used to do. He kept his distance, watching from afar and not speaking to anyone. He knew she wasn't there. He told himself he wasn't looking.

But he was.

He didn't see her.

Today he had gone to the market for supplies for his enchantments. With the new items in tow, tucked safely into a bag inside his jacket, he had left the market on foot. He had considered just portaling back home through any one of the doors in the street, but he felt like he could use the fresh air and the walk. Maybe it would help to clear his mind.

He had just rounded a corner when he heard a scurrying sound behind him. Furrowing his brow in confusion, he turned around to see what it was and almost instantly a flash of fur was suddenly diving at his chest. Instinctively he wrapped his arms around it. Experience in the last five years had taught him that such an action was to be embraced rather than feared. Once it was in his arms he looked down at the creature and couldn't believe what he was seeing. He must be seeing things, a hallucination brought on by grief. The genet was purring and rubbing his little face happily against Sylas' chest. "Raiden?" he whispered just before he heard his own name spoken from a few feet away.

As he looked up his gaze met Kezia's and Sylas just froze. This was a fever dream. Maybe someone had poisoned his food before he left for the market. Was he dying? Was this what death felt like? If it was then he was happy to die. He could let go of this life if it meant they could be together again. But it felt so real. Raiden's fur was warm against his hands, even though they were gloved like always. He cradled the dyr against him, his heart was feeling...something. His inexperience with this particular body part couldn't tell if it was swelling with joy or breaking into a million pieces. He parted his lips to speak but no sound came out. All he could do was stare.

He stared across at her and she couldn't breathe she decided. Not with the overwhelming emotions that were washing over her in waves. The pure happiness and love that was rolling from Raiden as he settled against the Arynnite's chest and pressed his head into the side of his neck. Geb was curious and confused, straining to get closer while keeping his tail firmly wrapped around her back and waist as he leaned out, nose twitching towards Sylas. 'I know him. I know him... because you know him. Raiden does... we like him.' Geb was observing, looking from Sylas and Raiden then back to Kezia's stunned face.

Then her own wave of emotions between relief and heart break, knowing she had left him to deal with just a note for a good bye. That she had been gone now for half a year. That... at one point... she thought she would die out in Dresmond before she'd ever see him. It had been a comfort in a way that she told him to not come after her or worry over her. To forget her, is what she meant. Even as she laid curled up in Ermir's bed, as she clung to the past with him and the strange, haunting future that was Dresmond. But she never truly forgot about Sylas.

She swallowed hard to try and clear the lump in her throat, taking a small step towards him and out of the main road she was in. "I didn't think..." about what she had done, that she'd ever see him again, that her heart would know such pain and love all at once at seeing him. All of it. "I just got back... from Nevermere." She said it, unsure of what else to say to him until she saw Geb again from the corner of her eye. "This... is Geb."

All Sylas could do was stare. It felt like it was a literal impossibility to take his eyes away from Kezia. The whole thing felt so surreal and for a man who valued the security of knowledge and wisdom, to experience such a fantasy was not only a new experience but felt a but unnerving. It felt like he was losing his grip on reality. Maybe he was. Was it possible that he was imagining this? After all...Kezia and Raiden were dead.

His logical brain was all over the place. She had come back from Nevermere? He thought she had gone to Dresmond. And who was Geb? From all he knew about dresmondi, they only had one dyr. So logically this must be someone else's dyr. Someone who must be close by physically. Someone who must be close to her emotionally if she was touching their dyr. None of it made sense.

He had a million questions but for maybe the first time in his life, his emotional self was taking precedence over the thoughtful, logical one. Tears welled up in his eyes and he held Raiden tighter, afraid to let go of the dream if that was what it was. His breathing started to become more shallow, his heart began to race, and his head was starting to spin. He took a half step towards her but the world felt like it was spinning and he had to reach a hand out to brace himself against the nearest wall to keep from falling. His legs felt shaky and weak and he moved to press his back against the wall, sliding down to the ground to avoid falling as the tears fell from his eyes onto his cheeks.

He buried his face into Raiden's fur. His usual discomfort with touching others was of no consequence in the moment. Where he usually avoided that physical sensation of touch, now he needed it more than ever. Looking back up at Kezia, his nose and mouth still pressed against Raiden as he looked at her over his fur, he finally spoke. His words were a bit mumbled against Raiden's body but he knew that the dyr would translate if Kezia wasn't close enough to hear herself.

"You're dead," he sobbed. "Your brother told me you were dead."

Kezia was frozen as she watched him processing everything in that moment with so very little to go on. Her words few, Raiden purring so loudly it echoed in her ears and his eyes… Sylas’ eyes were enough for her to drown in. The raw emotion she saw in them shattered what was in her chest, what made Raiden’s purring soften as he felt it. What made Geb nuzzle in a bit closer to her.

Raiden passed through what he said, and it was his words that had her moving closer. Sinking to her knees as she got to his side and her eyes fell to where those gloved hands wrapped around part of her soul. “We almost did.” More than once, but she wouldn’t say that. Her hands moved to brush against his arm. To show him she wasn’t just a figment of his imagination but she stopped before actually touching him. Suddenly nervous that while he accepted Raiden, maybe he could be more reluctant about her.

Brown eyes flickered up to him in question as she held herself above him. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what else to do.” Her words choked but she kept going. “You deserved better than what I left you with… I just… I knew if I saw you… I couldn’t go… I wouldn’t be able to leave you. And my brother… they would’ve left.” A tear escaped her eye. “I’m so sorry I hurt you.”

Her words were apologetic and Sylas, with a mind as intelligent as wise as his, could fully understand why she did it. Had it hurt? Yes. A lot? Absolutely. But wouldn't he have done the same? It was certainly a strong possibility. Sometimes a person just has to do what feels right in the moment in what seems like the best option.

He felt her hand hovering over his arm, not quite touching him and as soon as she was done speaking he reached out in a sudden motion and pulled her into him. His arms moved to wrap fully around her torso in such a unexpected flash of movement that it was likely that Raiden would be pressed between them. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't stop the tears. His face pressed into the crook of her neck as he sobbed into her hair, breathing in a scent that had become so familiar to him. His hands gripped at her in desperate movements as if trying to feel every bit at her all at once and afraid if he didn't hold tight enough that the dream would end and she'd disappear into nothingness.

He wanted to speak. He wanted to ask why she'd come back, what her experience had been, who Geb was, and if she'd be leaving again. But the words couldn't find their way out. Maybe he was afraid to hear the answers. It was a long time before he managed to squeeze out just three words. "You're really here."

Had it been anyone else who had reached out with that speed and pulled her into them, she would have flinched and possibly been thrown into flight or fight. But this was Sylas... a man she had spent years at his side, solely as his, and had adapted to a life with him that was so different from her own and yet... she had her parts of Dresmond that remained. He never forced her to be anyone else, never told her to stop when she had certain traditions she followed or things she did.

It took her a few moments to react, but a soft sound left her lips as she shifted into him. Raiden struggled to find a spot between them, Geb was cautious in touching him but after a few moments, was leaning out to sniff at the prince. 'He's familiar,' Geb said, and Kezia almost laughed. He was familiar because Sylas had been so engrained into Kezia and Raiden's life that Geb already felt like he knew the man.

Kezia wrapped herself around him, no shame as she crawled into his lap and pulled him close to her. She took every tear that fell onto her neck or into her hair without a second thought. But she didn't say anything, not yet as they all remained in a ball against the wall of an alley. If anyone had seen them, no one interrupted them where they were sitting. Nor did they let out any noise of recognition at the prince who should not be sitting as he was now. "I am," she whispered, pulling back just enough for her hands to take his face between her palms. Brown eyes running over his face as if she was memorizing him once again, though he was burned into her memory. "We are here." Her thumbs caught a few tears and wiped them away.

"I wasn't sure how to come see you. If you'd even want to see me after everything. It's the only reason I didn't seek you out yet." But judging by the way he was holding her now, she was wrong for not looking for him. "I didn't think I was going to make it back here. So... so much happened in Dresmond." She didn't even know where to start.

Holding her felt so healing to his soul, healing in a way he hadn't expected. He couldn't have known that a hug could be rewarding. He let the emotions and comfort sink into him as they held onto each other. They were here. It was all he needed to know, for this moment anyway.

She finally moved to take his face into her hands as she had done countless times before over the years. No one else had ever touched him this way but with Kezia it was so easy. It was easy in a way he never could have imagined when he was young. He searched her pretty eyes and scanned the familiar contours of her face.

He could understand why she'd been so hesitant to reach out to him, even if it had hurt that she hadn't. It made him anxious to think about the struggle it had been for her to make it back to him. He had opened his lips to ask more about what happened but instead his gaze fell onto Geb again. "Who is Geb?" he asked, his hands starting to gently rub her back, savoring being able to hold her again. He was nervous though. The only logical thing to him was that this must be a dyr who belonged to another dresmondi, in which that meant she had bonded with someone else in a really strong way. He couldn't help the jealous feelings he had about that. He did not grow up as she had and sharing someone wasn't exactly in his nature. Would he have to learn? Or would he have to say goodbye?

Geb, he wanted to know about Geb. For her, it was possibly the easiest thing for her to talk about in one way. The dyr in question was doing his best to investigate Sylas without fully touching him as he started placing familiar feeling with him, the love Kezia and Raiden clearly felt for him, the sadness for having left him, the relief that they felt now being held by him. Even as they sat on the floor of the alleyway.

“When I went to Dresmond, along the way we ran into… some trouble.” She was about to leave things out, but her and Sylas, no she couldn’t do that to him. “Some Dresmondi have taken to hunting others, turning them in to the Eldouir’s. They split us up, and I didn’t realize where we were… the canyon edge was closer than I was prepared for. We slipped and fell… and I went back through my naming. Except it was different, because Raiden was there and I knew my name… but we found Geb.” She looked at the pangolin.

“When we dug our way out, I wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but Geb got us out. Earth.” She smiled and turned her eyes back to Sylas. “Our group was gone and with a badly injured ankle, I found my way into what they call Elderskeep. I found a group of rebels and old friends.” She thought on the group, her heart hoping for the best for all of them. Before she found herself focusing back on Sylas. “We were out training when we ran across the Nevermeran’s and then went there. And I came here to try and see who of the dresmondi would fight to get Dresmond back.”

Sylas listened intently, absorbing every word as if it held ten times the information than the word itself did. His stomach twisted at her story. She had been captured and had been about to be taken to the one group of people that he knew to be incredibly dangerous. The Eldouir. They had been a scourge on Lorendale and now it seemed they were the same, or worse, in Dresmond. In Kezia's home.

And she had fallen, buried in the ground, and had been hurt and would have died if it wasn't for this new dyr. Geb. It wasn't an animal he was familiar with but his near photographic memory searched all the animal research he did as a teenager. A pangolin. Geb was a pangolin. He had saved Kezia and Raiden. He was theirs. He didn't belong to another and Sylas, admittedly, felt relief to know that.

He, naturally, had so many curiosities and questioned about exactly how this magic had happened. Two dyrs was not common. He had never heard of it at least. He knew that the medallion was lost so what had happened? But he didn't have too long to ponder on it as Kezia continued her story.

So she was here to get help from the refugee Dresmondi. She was here to help her people. "So what happened in Nevermere?" It was then that he realized maybe they had been sitting for too long, though he wasn't eager to let go of her. "Shall we head back home while we talk?" As he said it he realized how much he had truly felt like her home was with him and the life they had begun to build there. Maybe she didn't feel like that any longer.

Kezia was sure that she could sit there for hours trying to fill him in on everything that happened. But when he mentions getting up and going back home, she feels all the words leave her as she stares at him. Her brows pinching together just a touch and she could only think of one thing to say in that moment: "You want me to come back?"

Because she had been prepared to wagon hop, her wagon long gone and forgotten. Her things had been with Sylas but part of her had expected that he had gotten rid of them. Why keep around items of someone who just up and left him behind? With only a note? "You want me to come home with you?" She whispered, a few salty tears escaping her eyes as they fell down her cheeks.

Sylas was surprised by her reaction. To him it had been obvious that he would want her to come back home. He had never been particularly good at reading or guessing emotions but he made a particular attempt now to put himself in her shoes and try to imagine why she might be feeling such surprise. It was even more of a challenge given their vastly different upbringing.

So after a moment of silence and an increased tenderness in his eyes, he removed one of his gloves and used his bare thumb to gently brush away her tears on her cheeks. "Of course I do. Kezia, I have never felt this way about anyone in all my years. Nothing that even came close. I will not give up on that so easily," he tried to explain. Then, in a very rare attempt to actually lighten the mood, he added. "It is not that simple to be rid of me."