In a rare moment, @Kozrain was speechless. Kvare eyed his twin for that brief moment, that lingering shock from @Morrigan's announcement shattering all that which remained hung between them, uncertainty resolved to a brutal finality. A reality both the boys knew existed but hoped they wouldn't stumble upon quite so soon. Perhaps this is why Arsynia was here; but judging by Morrigan's age and experience, she were not some surprise result from a passing whim. No, if anything, Morrigan had been there first. Kvare's lips pressed into a firm, grim line, his boyishness surrendering now to a steeled heaviness.

And then, a breath.

“Genetic indeed, nîth.” Kvare finally says, his eyes returning to meet her own. And she, too, had that same cruel desire instilled in her by their mother lineage. A quest for power, an appetite for destruction, one paw in heaven and the other in hell. “Is she with you?” They had come here, after all, on the back of her scent that had been most fresh at this country's borders. They had lost it from there, and had spent the coming days searching and sprawling across the peninsula's expanse. So far, their searches had turned up empty.

Judging by the reaction she received, Morrigan felt she'd made her guess correctly. @Kozrain had been so quick to quip back at her before, but now it seemed he needed a moment of silence to let the web fall into place. She had noticed, too, that they were younger than herself, but not by much. Young enough to account for a span of time in her first year of life when her mother had been absent. If not for this, both her daughters might have become closer mirrors of Arsynia's flame. But it had given Dresden time to temper his own children into sharpened steel instead of molten flame.

There was only so much he could have done to dampen it entirely, though. Not against the sheer force he stood against. The same reason there had been no question on her return of her past, nor any assumption that she would remain only his. You could not cage such a fire. Nîth, @Kvare had said when he spoke again, and the word settled into the night cloaked warrior with a sort of excitement. Early, considering there might be bad blood in this situation somewhere. "Hoen" she would affirm before asking about the wolf mother herself.

"I didn't even know she had returned until you told me. She keeps her distance when she is on the isle, but I've been a bit preoccupied trying to survive another apocalypse," she told them without much emotion on the matter. Morrigan had always fought to forge her own path, restraining against any sort of leash offered. It was only fair Arsynia now relinquished that freedom completely. Still, it made the Greyflood wonder where the Tollaire warrior had ended up. "Our sister is with me in the north, though. One of them." Whatever their origin, they obviously were not in possession of all the facts. Morrigan didn't mind to help piece it together.

If Arsynia had abandoned them intentionally... well, Morrigan couldn't fault them for sour feelings if they existed. She wanted to say her mother would never have done that, but it wasn't something the Greyflood would have bet her life on.

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Brother, she called them. Kozrain lifted his brow in an arch once more, though he did not comment on this. In his five years of life, Kvare had been the only sibling he ever held to truly – Taj's other children kept back with a yardstick. They had been tempered things, all grown up amongst one another and feeding off of the glory their father provided them by birthright.

"Perhaps an upgraded model," he remarked, the words devoid of any clear intent – perhaps a joke, if there was any humor to be found in it.

"Did she take you away from your father, too?" Kozrain asked with startling suddenness. "Only to ditch you as soon as she could. Maybe that, too, is genetic." He remained sitting, though his features had become more like a coiled spring by the moment as he watched for a reaction from their sister. If he had not seen it before, he could see the likeness now – that plush pelt, lined with accented tones running up her cheeks. That mismatched gaze. He wondered if he were to strike her if it would feel quite as good.

"Or, we are not so alike," Kozrain concluded, finally reclining, his temper sizzling out as he waited for her answer.

---

@Kvare @Morrigan

The existence of something greater than them was undeniable. It was a strange time to appear in Amaryllis, indeed, and the twins had been quite content to ignore the majority of the goings-on when it was not staring them down the throat. Kvare had seen the unrelenting heat of the desert and the ceaseless downpour of the fields in the north, and a bitter wind had often blown in, perhaps from the direction @Morrigan was referring to. Their family was, at the very least, built for those bitter wintry conditions. As it were, their sisters were far too preoccupied with their own lives to even notice Arsynia's return; such an event typically didn't go unnoticed, unless it was by design.

Before he could speak again, @Kozrain finally found his words, the heat and heaviness from their past with the wolfmother having left a bitter wound. And so far, it seemed Morrigan may have experienced a similar fate. The distance with which she held herself from their mother seemed to lead Kvare into believing that she, perhaps, had been tethered to the same reality forced onto the twins, to forge a life of their own in the wake of a traditional family. Always were they the interlopers, the outsiders, the never-quite-belonging. Even Taj's side of the family hadn't quite understood the wild, wily ways of the twins.

He wants to match Kozrain's anger, to feel his temper flare, to match the ferocity that lit aflame now between the three of them. But he finds himself steadied, tempered perhaps by the hurt they'd long endured. His fire was deeper, far harder to reach. “Ah—we caught her scent at the Passage,” he said matter-of-factly, but anyone looking hard enough could see the crack in his façade, the way his voice wavered. “We have a score to settle, as you can see,” he spared a quick glance toward Kozrain, before returning to Morrigan. Perhaps she did, too? Or perhaps, at the very least, she wouldn't try to stop them.

Only then would things get messy.

Judging by the downward turn the atmosphere between the three of them had taken, Morrigan found herself slightly on edge once more, especially when @Kozrain's feelings bubbled over, seemingly directed at her instead of the mother who had wronged him. She met his gaze and his anger evenly, only raising a brow at the younger man's ire. "I don't coddle my children, but I would never abandon them," she said coolly, not liking that particular comparison at all. There were many similarities between herself and her mother, but she had at least always remained within reach of her children. "And no. I was fortunate that Vater at least was a constant."

@Kvare was calmer, though he was more blunt in his words, revealing they did indeed hold a grudge. Morrigan's reaction was to shrug, "She'd probably just be disappointed that I would presume she needed my help. Her actions, her consequences." Morrigan had bigger things to worry about and a crack of thunder rumbled over their heads as if to punctuate the thought, clouds overhead seeming to darken with the mood of the conversation at hand. "But if you're after more than just her, I can help you. I know the name Tolkien, too. At least one calls the Hollow home, though last I heard they were having earthquakes."

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"I don't coddle my children, but I would never abandon them," she insisted, and her denial of an accusation Kozrain had not intended to make only suggested to him that she may be guilty of such things. Still, her explanation of her father as a constant in her life implied that Arsynia had been no such thing for her. This knowledge tempered him in his seat – kept his flaming breath at bay, smoldering within his chest as she spoke. No, she was not Arsynia, and burning her at the stake for the crimes of another would only turn more of their world to ash.

Kozrain sat in silence as she spoke, shifting the conversation to the subject of the Tolkien half of their blood. His mind wandered to their brief encounters at the passage, and to the Tolkien lioness they had met there as he mentally checked off the boxes of Morrigan's description. The subject of earthquakes proved of more interest to him.

"Is this land always so... tumultuous?" Kozrain asked with a twitch of his wiry whiskers. "And, your home? Are there earthquakes?" If nothing else, he decided she could provide them with useful information. It was a start to whatever relationship would inevitably unfold.

---

@Kvare @Morrigan
+5 - BWP-related exp

Earthquakes, snowstorms, droughts; it was never-ending here, and Kvare wasn't sure if them coming here was the wisest of decisions. But the lions they'd met so far had seemed battered, and the weather had been the talk of most as of late, cluing Kvare in that perhaps these phenomena were indeed not the norm of these wild lands. He regards @Morrigan carefully, his gaze turning to @Kozrain only when he spoke. It is a fair question, one that Kvare might have asked himself if his brother had not beaten him to it.

The nature of their family was the one thing that could have lead them to believe this place remained just as chaotic as it appeared to now.

Eventually, Kvare got to his paws. He didn't quite want to leave just yet, but knew they'd need a far better meeting place to discuss things out further. He was infinitely curious in what knowledge Morrigan had to offer, but with the storms brewing in the far-off distance and the sky beginning to turn a darker and darker gray, he wanted to find shelter before the storm inevitably hit. {“I'm going on ahead,”} he stated, giving one glance between the two, wondering if Kozrain would be shortly after him or if his curiosity would drive him to brave through the rain. {“We'll seek you out again, Morrigan, I'm sure...”} he trailed off, hoping that the woman would at least give her location before he'd turn around and depart.

He would not quite go all the way home just yet. While their promised spar had been interrupted by sudden revelations, the adrenaline that course through his veins had not quite yet ceased. Thus, he eventually veered away from his path homeward and began to make his way somewhere else; his pace hastened once more, claws dragging along the ground in grating scree, scree, as they sharpened like knives. Every once in a while, his hind legs would kick outward once more, trying to hone the precision of his strikes.

{exit Kvare}

---

+5 Exercise to gain strength (excluding spars) (2/2)
+5 Learn a new fighting move (2/2)
+5 Maintain your weapons (sharpen claws or care for teeth) (2/2)

It was true that for a time Morrigan had in some ways held her own glory above the company of her wife and children, making excuses all the long months she did so. But she at least had never completely left them, a mere days journey away, visiting often. Still, there was no denying the reminder of that guilt and the days lost roiling in her stomach now. He asked about the land as a whole when she mentioned earthquakes, seemingly more interested in that. Which is was quite the feature of this land, she supposed. "Yes," she answered without hesitation. "Frequent wars aside, the Gods here seem to enjoy keeping the inhabitants on their toes. Like that storm will probably be much worse than it looks, just for fun I guess," she said, gesturing at the weather patterns forming overhead.

"Last time it was a wall of Mist that seemed to pick and choose its prisoners, my son one of them." It probably sounded insane to someone who hadn't seen it for themselves, but @Kozrain had asked, so she had answered. "No earthquakes. It's called Vermeda Brook. To the far north of here and a bit to the east. It froze over completely for a while, far too long into the spring, but otherwise we haven't suffered through the wildfires or otherwise I've heard of." As @Kvare turned to leave, seeming to take his cue from the ever darkening sky overhead, Morrigan would do the same, casting another look upward. "If you want to know more, you can find me there. I've been in these lands for three years now and my wife's family are natives." Waiting for Kozrain's reply if there was one to be had, she would finally leave him with an, "Until we meet again," before heading north. exit morrigan

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She spoke of gods delighting in tormenting mortals, and this was enough to draw another line between them. Kozrain had never believed in much – not even in the lions around him, save for Kvare. He sat thoughtfully as she spoke, the dark clouds forming an eerie blanket overhead. She named her home Vermeda Brook, explaining that they could find her and her wife there. Interesting, indeed.

"I'll take my leave," he nodded as the others did so, finally gathering himself to his paws with a lackadaisical stretch. "We will meet again, sister," Kozrain finally used the title, a glistening in his gaze as he looked to Morrigan one last time before slinking after Kvare.

---

-exit-
+5 - BWP-related exp