Tribute felt like a lifetime away. Eclipsed by the devastating events of the following days, the heartbreak of relinquishing Echo to the Eldouir, while still painful, had paled greatly to the loss of Ermir, the captivity of Xanthe, and Embric’s own near-death experience. He and his daughter, Kasni, hadn’t had much time to linger on the dog’s absence either, for they had suddenly found themselves - or rather, Embric had suddenly found himself, because he wasn’t about to push the burden of parenthood on his teenage daughter any more than he had to - the guardians of Ermir’s orphaned children, Mayda and Lolek. Like they had in the caravans of old, they worked with Elaxi and the others at the tavern to watch over the girl and boy, but Embric could not deny that he felt particularly responsible for their continued safety.

After all, it was his fault their father died in the first place.

As the days turned into weeks turned into seasons, they all adjusted to what had become their new normal. Echo had become one of many sacrifices demanded by Elderkeep, and Embric had, in all honesty, never expected to see the dog again. What mercy would the Eldouir have for a dog when they treated fellow humans with such brutality? He tried not to consider it.

”Take the next right, Embric. There’s a queen.”

Thank you, Aine.

As was custom when he walked the streets of Elderkeep, the gyrfalcon spent most of her time in the sky, scanning the roads ahead for danger, especially red hair. Years of practice had allowed them to learn and work out the flaws of the system, so Embric was surprised to sense some hesitation from Aine’s side of their bond as he kept an eye out for the side street she had indicated.

What is it? There was a silence, and his mind started racing. Aine? The children aren’t there, are they?

When it finally came, the admission felt like a punch to the gut: ”She has a dog with her.”

His steps faltered. Is it—

“It is.”

Without looking, he knew that she had swooped down to land atop one of the nearby stalls to peer critically at him. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.” A disapproving tone had entered her voice. “Don’t stop. Keep walking.”

Embric stepped to the side of the somewhat crowded street, checking that the hood of his cloak was pulled properly over his head.

“Embric. He’s with a queen.”

She won’t even know I’m here, He retorted, casting a glance up the street as he approached one of the bonfires that sprung up around Elderkeep during the colder months. Dresmondi loitered around them all the time; the redhead would have no reason to pay any mind to one extra person warming his hands by the fire. Come here, please. And if she did, she would have no reason to connect cloaked figure with a dyr on his shoulder to the ostensibly dyrless man who had given her the dog in the first place.

Then all he had left to do was wait and endure Aine’s concerned disapproval. He didn’t have to stand there for long. Positioned as he was with his back in the direction she was approaching from, Embric could glance surreptitiously to the side when the queen - Elena - walked by, and what he saw had a bittersweet hurt blossoming in his chest. Echo looked better than he ever had under Embric’s care. Strong and healthy, he had filled out in a way he never could with the meager pickings Elderkeep had to offer. His fur was well-cared for. And he looked happy, tail wagging as trotted along beside the queen like he had with Embric or Kasni so many times before.

Both Embric and Aine had heard the praise. She’d renamed him Victor.

Swallowing around a sudden knot in his throat, Embric let out a quiet breath and raised a hand to stroke the gyrfalcon’s feathers. He looks good. That’s all I wanted to see. Let’s go.

Elena was used to the way people avoided her as she walked through Elderkeep but today she was getting more looks than normal. People seemed…confused. That was good. She liked confused. Confused was better than fear or hatred.

She got a little distracted by looking around her that her grip loosened at the worst possible time. Echo, now Victor, had smelled something so intriguing that he suddenly bolted to run towards it. Or rather them. He had caught the familiar scent of the person who’d raised him as a puppy.

“Victor wait!” Elena called to the not listening dog. She didn’t have to run far because as soon as he had reached Embric he was yapping happily and jumping up into his leg.

Embric had intended to catch a glimpse of Echo and walk away as unremarkable as every other Dresmondi. Echo had other plans.

Before Embric could leave, the dog bounded over to him, and even the alarm that jolted through both man and dyr could not stop a small smile from reaching his face at the realization that his beloved canine still remembered him. It was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. Mostly. The happy yapping made his heart ache, as did the painfully familiar sight of Echo’s wagging tail, which was so enthusiastic that it travelled full the length of his body. One of the brightest spots in Elderkeep’s monochrome darkness, he clearly hadn’t changed despite his new owners.

After patting the top of the dog’s head, Embric lifted his knee slightly to gently encourage Echo off his leg and back to the ground. “Yes, yes, I’m happy to see you, too,” He told him quietly, fondness evident in his tone. “Can you sit for me though? Sit. Come on, I know you can— Echo, sit. Thank you. Good boy.” Bending slightly, he reached down to briefly reward the dog with some more attention, at which point he grabbed the lead that he saw trailing behind Echo. With the leash in hand, Embric turned to address the queen who was close on the canine’s heels. He offered a quick bow before silently steeling himself and holding out Echo’s lead to an Eldouir for a second time. “Hello, Your Majesty.” Then, deferential but a little sheepish all the same: “It appears he doesn’t know his own strength.”

She slowed to a stop a few steps away from the two as she watched the dog so happily greet this man. Her gaze now focused on the Dresmondi it didn't take her long to put two and two together. This was the man who had offered the dog as tribute. She watched with a small smile on her lips as the man got the dog to sit. Echo he called him. The affection between the two was easy to see and it truly was an endearing sight.

After a few moments the man offered the lead back to her but Elena didn't even glance at it. She waved away his comment with a little laugh. "Either that or I was too distracted to have been properly prepared for his excitement," she said, chuckling. "You clearly treated him very well before he was offered to us," she said to the man with a smile. "What was your name?" she asked, still not even glancing at the lead in his hand though she did crouch down below him to pet the dog gently. He was still sitting but seemed to be trying to hold in his excitement with how eagerly he was wagging his tail.

As she ignored the lead, Embric let his hand fall back to his side, fingers tightening on the leather as if she might suddenly reach out and try to yank it from his grasp. It was, he realized, one of the last projects that Xanthe had worked on prior to Tribute - a connection that bound him to the daughter lost inside the estate as much as it tied him to the dog at his feet. He took a breath and shoved the thought aside. Now was not the time to think too deeply on that; instead, he would content himself with stealing as many moments with Echo by his side, where he belonged, as he could.

He could do little else.

To his surprise, the queen offered an alternative explanation that put her at fault - Embric hadn’t known that the Eldouir ever considered such a possibility - but her laughter and smiles made it clear that she was in a good mood. For the sake of everyone around, including himself, he endeavored to keep her that way.

“I certainly didn’t expect such a reunion today,” Embric offered with a small smile of his own as his gaze flicked from hers to Echo, who was practically wiggling where he sat. “My name is Embric, and this is Aine.” The gyrfalcon on his shoulder inclined her head slightly as he spoke, watching the queen crouch down beside Echo with dark eyes. Embric shoved aside the protective instinct that welled up within him at the sight of her petting his— her dog. “He seems very happy with you as well, Your Majesty. I hope you haven’t found him disappointing in any way.”

Elena remained crouched, looking up as the dresmondi introduced himself and his dyr, a beautiful gyrfalcon with a nearly equally beautiful name. She scratched Echo behind the ears with a smile before she stood once more. "Not in the slightest," she replied genially, looking down at the dog.

"Others liked the idea of making him into some kind of attack dog but-" she trailed off thoughtfully for a moment before meeting Embric's gaze, her blue eyes nearly mirroring the color of his own. "It seemed a shame to discourage the sweetness that was in him. I guess I got...attached." While her eyes remained on Embric's her gaze grew distant, as if focused on something far away. She thought of everything, or really everyone, that she had ever got particularly attached to. People she'd tried to protect. People she'd left behind.

There had always been a war raging inside of herself that battled between her nature versus the 'nurturing' she'd had growing up as an Eldouir. It left her feeling as though didn't fully belong anywhere. One foot in and one foot out of everything in her life.

She shook her head slightly as she refocused and gave Embric an apologetic look for her moment of distraction. "His affection for you is undeniable," she told Embric and her gaze moved to the dyr on his shoulder. "And I'm sure you have more of a part in that that I could realize, Aine," she addressed the gyrfalcon. "He'll be happier here with you than at the keep. I'm sure he'll be better off here, where he really belongs."

When she spoke of her opinion on Echo’s temperament and becoming attached, Embric nodded his agreement – what a bizarre experience, to have agreed with a redhead on any matter – and his smile grew fond as he looked down once more at the dog by his side. “It’s hard not to,” He admitted, for he, too, had obviously gotten attached. It was the only reason he stood here, speaking to the queen, after all.

During the brief lull in conversation, he considered the best way to make an easy escape without earning Elena’s ire. Safety in Elderkeep relied upon remaining unnoticed by either the Eldouir or their soldiers, but an extended conversation with a redhead, even one who presently seemed more willing to converse than to kill, would make him memorable. Nothing good ever came of being remembered by an Eldouir. Better to appear as just another face in the crowd. Forgettable.

Embric had just settled on a feasible excuse when the queen shook her head and spoke again, and refocusing his own thoughts, he listened – first politely, then absolutely stunned. Although the years in Elderkeep had taught Embric to expect many things from an Eldouir, kindness of compassion had never made the list, so the queen’s offer to return Echo to him caught him entirely off guard. Lips quirked upward in a disbelieving smile that, a moment later, he tried to school into something more suitable as he stared at the redhead. “Are you sure?” The question slipped out before he could bite it back, take Echo, and flee before she changed her mind.

And who was he to question an Eldouir, let alone a queen? Many had died for less. “My apologies,” He corrected himself, quickly. “You are clearly quite fond of him as well, and he of you. I wouldn’t expect you to relinquish your care of him when you also find enjoyment in his company.”

There. That smile on the dresmondi’s face. If she’d has any doubts, which she hasn’t, they would have been instantly expelled by that brief look. “He’ll be better off with you, Embric. I couldn’t be more sure.” She reached out to place a whisper of a touch against the man’s upper arm before she crouched again to pet Victor, or Echo once again, one last time. “Be a good boy, yes?” she said sweetly to the dog.

Standing again she smiled first at Aine and then at Embric. “If you need anything, anything at all, you need only ask. A note delivered by Aine even if that’s easier.”

For a moment, Embric considered pinching himself, for surely he had fallen asleep somewhere and woken up in a dream where the Eldouir bestowed gifts upon the Dresmondi instead of daily torments. Speechless, he barely registered the touch to his arm before watching her crouch to say farewell to Echo, whose tail thumped happily against the ground. Already, his mind worked to consider the angles of this new development. Kasni would be thrilled, of course, and though, as Elena had said, he was hardly an attack dog, Echo’s presence would still provide some protection for his dyrless daughter – and Ermir’s children as well.

With both genuine joy and disbelief at this pleasant surprise, he met the queen’s smile with one of his own, and he nodded his head as if he had any intention of taking her up on her offer. Despite this unexpected benevolence, he had no desire to rely on a redhead any more than necessary. Short of pleading for a loved one’s life as Xanthe had, he could think of nothing that would be worth the debt he would incur. Nor would he let Aine venture into the estate without him when her well-being was tantamount to his own. “Thank you, Your Majesty,” He said instead, not even having to fake the earnest gratitude. “Truly. This is very kind of you. All of it.”