Welcome to Gaia! ::

Syrikk Bhardvaris, at twenty-seven, stood but an inch under six feet in height, long in the face but with squared edges, laugh lines accenting his expression, and a perpetual look of amusement dancing in the corners of his eyes. Or, a great majority of the time it did. On this day, he had more reason than most for uncharacteristic seriousness. Months after the fact, word had only recently come to him of a rift between his youngest brother and his parents, resulting in a fact previously unbeknownst to him: Lithian had been disowned.

It shocked his senses.

Lithian. His littlest, most well-behaved younger brother, now the ‘outcast’ and for what? Immediately upon hearing the news, he had arranged for transport to Eowyn, weedling Lithian’s newest address out of his parents and setting sail. He arrived in Taliuma some unknown stretch of time after the actual event, but tardiness notwithstanding, he knew his brother needed a visit.

And, there would be no justice either, unless he met with the man Lithian had purportedly given up his family name for.

He travelled over the rocks of the shoreline unsure of what to expect — unsure of anything, truly, other than that he could not leave his youngest brother unspoken to after such an egregiously strict sentence imposed by their parents. As he approached the house, however, his eyebrows rose, silently impressed. Though he hadn’t known what precisely he expected, this was certainly better, so far, than his imaginings.

He tapped his knuckles at the door.



Inside, Lithian held his tongue as he worked over Detraeus’ remaining few injuries. The man was remarkably resilient — stupidly healthy, overall, despite what one might expect — and Lithian kept his private broodings to himself. The events in the pit had not fostered a more positive relationship between the two. If anything, despite the fact that Detraeus survived, Lithian felt all the more justified in his previous judgments for the man.

Even knowing what the orderite had done to Casseth, there was no excuse for the degree of brutality Detraeus put him through. Just as he finished and glanced to Ara, about to say that he could give her a quick check-up also, while she was here, someone knocked at the door. He looked to Casseth.

“Could you…?”

Syrikk blinked, and then grinned. “Morning,” he greeted, not phased but for a fraction of a second. He held out a hand. “I’m Syrikk Bhardvaris, and I’ve come looking for a certain someone you might have had the pleasure of knowing…I hear he lives here? Shock blue hair, too tall for his own good, clumsy as an uruu on stilts and talks like—”

“Syrikk!”

Syrikk glanced up, and felt a seizing swell of pride. He hadn’t seen Lithian in far, far too long. After darting towards him at first, though, Lithian hesitated, suddenly uncertain, and something knotted in Syrikk’s chest.

“I—are you…? That is…”

Mentally cursing their parents, Syrikk stepped past the hybrid in the doorframe and moved for his little brother, drawing him into a tight hug. Immediately, the stiff uncertainty in Lithian’s posture crumpled away, and he hugged back, all but clinging, laughing — and sounding all but on the verge of tears.

“Hey there, Lili…” Syrikk said, voice uncharacteristically soft, and serious. “I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. I only just heard recently…”

The sound Lithian made then was distinctly closer to a sob, and Syrikk held as long as Lithian did, carding his fingers through his brother’s hair and letting him wait it out. When Lith pulled back, his eyes were gleaming, but dry overall, and he was smiling.

“I just…I didn’t expect…”

Syrikk grinned back, and belatedly glanced around, noting that not only were they not alone, but they had more company than the hybrid who’d answered the door, including…

“Ara?”

And an oblivionite. And…

“You’re pregnant,” Syrikk observed, and when the oblivionite’s sockets narrowed, his posture moving closer like a protective shadow and hand moving over her belly, Syrikk’s eyebrows shot up. “Well. It seems I’m more out of date than I uh…realized…” He sent a sheepish smile her way regardless. “It’s nice to see you, though.”

Detraeus’ eyes narrowed when the man’s eyes landed on Ara, and his posture stiffened further when she moved to stand. His tail flicked, and he bit back comment when they hugged. Immediately after, he filled in beside her, tail coiling possessively around her legs and arm slipping to her waist.

‘Mine.’

“‘Friend?’” he repeated with a grunt and a glower.

“Oh, she was a real eye-catcher back when,” Syrikk said with a laugh. “Turn every head in a crowd. Not that she isn’t absolutely breathtaking now.”

Detraeus’ fingers at Ara’s waist bunched, and he tugged her back a fraction, wanting to put as much space between her and the dovaa as possible. He didn’t like him looking at her. Why did he keep talking?

“But as it was at the time, I’m fairly sure she had a thing for me,” Syrikk continued, effectively oblivious to Detraeus’ non-verbal cues, and when he winked, Detraeus’ lips curled back — like a wild animal baring its teeth. “Don’t worry though, I—”

Detraeus opened his mouth.

“Detraeus,” Lithian interrupted both with a meaningful Look for Detraeus in particular, “…would you and Ara mind going to take a look in the back storeroom for more sissifri leaves? They should be along one of the middle shelves. They’re what I gave you that first night after Detraeus’ fight, Ara, relaxants for the tea. You’re both doing well, though I would recommend you keep a supply of them on hand and he continue to drink at least daily.”

Detraeus’ eyes narrowed, well aware that he was being ‘subtly’ asked to leave.

“My brother is a guest here, and tired, I’m sure—”

“Oh, no, I’m feeling great,” Syrikk cut in, and Lithian cleared his throat.

“I would like to introduce him to Casseth…”

‘In private’ hung in the air unspoken, and Detraeus pursed his lips.

Syrikk raised his eyebrows, confused by the seeming ‘unspoken’ tension of some sort in the air. He recognized Ara’s relationship and was thoroughly happily for her — even if choosing an oblivionite of all things struck him as counter to the nature of the girl he’d once known — but it wasn’t his business to decide, and he didn’t consider it so. Thus, the man’s immediate, callous, and even combative nature struck him as strange, since he hadn’t meant to come off as attempting to invade any territory…

Regardless, he shook the thoughts off and turned his focus back to his brother. Interesting of a surprise as Araceli’s presence had been, she wasn’t the original reason for his appearance, after all. Syrikk cleared his throat.

“Yes, so,” he said by way of segue, “have I…already had the pleasure of meeting your, ah…?”

Lithian nodded his head towards Casseth. “Syrikk, this is Casseth, my intended. Cas…this is Syrikk, one of my three older brothers.”

Syrikk flashed a quick hint of a grin again, though some seriousness had seeped into his expression once the room became theirs, and he held out his hand again. “Sorry, I sort of breezed in past you there at the beginning. I haven’t seen this squirt of a brother for several years…I trust you’re taking good care of him for me?”

Syrikk watched the path of the other man’s tail and shifted his weight, mentally critiquing himself for the subtle uneasiness in his gut. In all honesty, he had long suspected that Lithian’s interests strayed outside of the realm of ‘normal’ or expected. Never once as a growing teen, even at the height of when such desires normally flowed, had Lithian ever shown interest in girls — dovaa, or otherwise, so far as Syrikk knew — and while, at first, he passed such things off as Lithian’s shyness, he began to wonder in his later years. Over time, too, Syrikk had witnessed a number of unconventional couples in his own life, and found that, the world around, there seemed to be nothing fundamentally wrong with even the oddest of pairings, so long as it made the parties involved mutually happy.

But that didn’t mean he found it immediately perfectly comfortable to watch it happen before his eyes with his youngest brother. Nor did it help, of course, that he knew nothing of the man Casseth was, or even how the two had come to meet. Thus, after only a brief amount more of small talk, Syrikk shifted his attention fully to Casseth.

“I did come here to see to it that Lithian was alright, and — with both of your permissions, of course — I would love to stay a bit more to make the most of that. But before I place too much of a burden on either of your time…could I trifle you with a walk? Just you. I feel I have a brother’s obligation to run a few inquiries past you…down the beach, if you don’t mind?”

“Syrikk…”

“I’d do the same if you brought home a girl, Lili,” Syrikk assured. “I promise I won’t steal him for long.”

Syrikk smiled, giving Lithian a wink behind Casseth’s back — and earning raised eyebrows in return — before he followed after the hybrid. He waited until the door had been shut and they had put at least a good twelve paces between themselves and the house before he broke the silence.

“It must be odd for you,” Syrikk said, “to suddenly have a random man at your doorstep asking you questions…so I do apologize for not giving more warning, or introducing myself sooner. Much as Lithian used to speak of acquaintances he made down on Eowyn, he was always evasively vague when it came to pressuring him for specifics — I suppose I understand why, now, but for the moment that’s beside the point…” He tilted his head as he spared Casseth a look, eyeing him in earnest. “You know at least a bit about me, so I hope you don’t mind me making this about you instead…do you think you could humor me by telling me about yourself? Your family, parents, how you came to Eowyn…how you happened to meet Lithian…? I’m insatiably curious.”

“I remember that…” Syrikk murmured, half to himself, though it came out aloud. After a moment, he shook his head and cleared his throat. “That is, him speaking of it, in the aftermath. And he gave you our sigil…Mother asked him what happened to that. I suppose it explains some things.” On glancing back to Casseth, he tilted his head. “Your parents…a dovaa and an oblivionite? Or both hybrids?”

Syrikk glanced to the wings, and considered his next words carefully before starting in. “I suppose…it is time I tell you the reason, at least in part, that I wanted your company to myself. You seem a decent man, and Lithian has given multiple years of his life to you already…sacrificed his name for you. Clearly, you are worth it to him, and at core, that is what matters most. It would be ideal, of course, if it were not only what mattered most, but all that mattered, and unfortunately, that is not the world we live in…”

He eyed Casseth, serious and assessive. At length, he hooked his thumbs into his belt at either side of his hips and glanced out to the sea.

“I cannot tell you, or even ask you, to stay away from my brother. It is not my place, nor would I expect either of you to listen if I did…and were it my world to run, I would have to say that I have no problems with what the two of you have, personally. But you should know that I do recognize that you make my little brother’s life more dangerous. It’s by no fault of your own, and I cannot put the fault there artificially…but I will ask that because you do, and because it is something we both understand…that you will be careful for me, and keep a more vigilant eye on him than you might, were you both dovaa, or one of you a woman.”

Syrikk paused, giving a space of breath to let the words sink in and to watch Casseth’s reaction before he continued.

“Lithian trusts too easily. Perhaps he has grown up some since I last interacted with him, but a fundamental part of him is that he wants to see the best in all people. I’m sure that has not changed, and I am just as sure — much as you and I would both wish for it to be different — you know first hand, better than he does, the kinds of things people would do to you two if provided the chance…he’s not a fool. Many might attest that he’s among the smartest of us. Cleverer than I, certainly, and I’m certain he understands these things to an extent, but…it would comfort me more to know that there is another set of eyes keeping watch for his best interests when I cannot be around.”